Winter Olympic champion and celebrated speed skater Wang Meng secretly started her own business in June 2014 in her hometown Qitaihe in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
Wang established her own company using her own name as a brand. With a capital of 80 million yuan ($12.9 million), Wang went into business. Her seemingly effortless transition from athlete to entrepreneur is an inspiration to all athletes, whether retired or not. Wang's dabble into entrepreneurship is simply remarkable as she never retired from her sport.
Wang said that the experience brought about by her recent business attempt had taught her a lot, as they are quite different from her past experiences in sport and training. Wang added that her new entrepreneurial career helped shape her character and way of thinking.
Wang admitted that she used to have just one goal in her life, and that is to be a champion in her chosen sport. The business, she said, had changed all that. Her situation now is very different because she said she realized that being an employer, a lot of people are depending on her. She has to support her employees. Wang said that if the company fails, then several people will lose their jobs.
Wang missed the opportunity to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics because of an injury. A blessing in disguise, for it gave her the time to enroll in an MBA course at Renmin University of China, a well-respected business school in Beijing.
Wang said: "It was a continuous headache when I started the project back in June. Numerous troubles beyond my expectations nearly pushed me to give up. What perhaps took the biggest toll on me was that whenever I would send sports materials to the upper branches in charge of sports affairs for further confirmation or would hold trade talks with other agents, I would suffer setbacks."
Wang admitted that being an entrepreneur humbled her. She said that all of the sports stuff and being a champion athlete went in her head and made her an awful person.
"In the past, I would always look down upon others just because I am a world champion," said Wang, "but now, I have been brought right back to being a normal person, like everyone else, and I find that there are many master hands in social circles, who I need to respect and admire. That's been my mental change, going from a top-level athlete to a normal woman."
Wang further admitted that she went into business because she was inspired by an advertising campaign in September last year. She said that the brand stamped her image in all of the campaigns and that made her realize how she, as a sports brand herself, could benefit sports events and organizations.