In March 2017, our team completely rejected our previous topic selection direction. I thought that was the straw that broke the camel's back, and it was at that moment that I found the courage to leave my job. Luckily, I was invited to Italy by BIBF to attend the Bologna International Children's Book Fair. The day after I finished the paperwork, I flew to Bologna, Italy, with the official publishing delegation, to begin a new chapter of my life. What is the most important thing for an international illustration exhibition (competition)? It's about getting the best illustrators in the world to contribute. Many people are curious about how I managed to collect the works of those foreign illustrators. In fact, I don't have any advanced method, is to push on the ground. Every year I go to the Bologna Book Fair with a suitcase full of promotional materials. At the Bologna Book Fair, there are a lot of editors' meetings where illustrators line up to show editors their portfolios. I followed the line and shamelessly handed out leaflets to illustrators one by one and used my own "Beijinglish" [illustrations] to tell them, "There is a 300-square-meter illustration exhibition in China, which is the official event of the biggest book fair in Asia.

If you want to enter the Asian market, please come and submit your papers." As for foreign illustrators, they are willing to participate in the free submission and the chance to receive bonus. With the participation of more foreign institutions and illustrators, our illustration exhibition was recognized by more people in the industry and quickly gained a firm foothold in the publishing and illustration circles. Especially in the Bologna International Children's Book Fair in 2018, I planned and organized the first overseas visit group of Chinese illustrators, and held a cooperation promotion meeting of Chinese illustrators in Italy. As the representative of China's illustration industry, we also held two exchange activities for international young illustrators in the official activity area of the Book Fair, introducing the booming development of China's illustration industry to the professional audience present. I got an interview with China Daily and a big folio in Publisher's magazine about what we were doing, which put me on the international stage. I'd only been out a year, and it seemed like it was going well, but it wasn't. Doing things and being a company are two different things. If you ask me where I got the courage to start a business, I would say that I definitely thought it was easy. As a matter of fact, I lack career planning in my career process. Since I have always been a strong individual output, I have not been exposed to any management work, so when it comes to building an enterprise, my weaknesses will be exposed. Here I particularly recommend that the new career, must have a relatively clear plan for their career growth. Instead of focusing on what you can do and how much money you can make in your current job, be aware of how this industry and position can improve you and take a long-term view. The influence of illustration exhibitions did not bring strong enough momentum to my company. Although we had cooperation projects with Chow Tai Fook and Sunac Real Estate, in the first two years of the company's establishment, we mainly depended on receiving books from publishers to make a living. Frankly speaking, we were the intermediary and made the difference. There are many illustrator brokerage companies in the illustration industry abroad, which will represent many illustrators and recommend them to publishers and brands. There is no similar brokerage firm in China. We tried but failed. What impressed me most was that we accepted a book illustration project from a publishing house, and the illustrator was introduced to the editor by us. After the project was over, the illustrator directly connected with the editor, and we had nothing to do with future cooperation. As someone who has rented a house before, I can particularly relate to them. If I were you, I would skip the agent and sign directly with the landlord. At this time I was very sad, without me, they would not have known each other. I want to help them, but they don't feel like I'm helping them, or they feel like they shouldn't be taking their money if they're helping. Our work was stuck in a loop. At its worst, the company was down to one employee and only had enough money to pay a month's salary. "Only after dying can the real me be born." "Pu Shu sang in the song. The good news is there's always a way out. During that time, the online education industry was growing rapidly. The teacher from New Oriental contacted us and wanted to cooperate with us on a large number of illustrations. In this way, within two years, we became the illustration supplier for Tencent, ByteDance, New Oriental, Xueersi, Homework and other organizations. Meanwhile, with the annual exhibition of illustrations, the pineapple Circle is becoming more and more famous in the circle. I began to share things in the circle with you at various events, teaching you how to do publishing, receiving commercial articles, quotation, signing contracts and so on. Unexpectedly, the illustrators felt that I had helped them, and I gradually built up my authority in the community. Illustrators come to me when they're unpaid. I'll go straight to the person in charge and help them out.