9 Years of Struggle: The Cost of Winning for Entrepreneur Sun Yuchen

（Justin Sun wins multiple international awards in 2023）

Recently, Justin Sun, the most dynamic figure in the blockchain industry, has been quite active.

Justin Sun and his founded TRON have won several industry awards, including the 2023 Dubai Blockchain Ecosystem Conference and Wiki Finance EXPO. Justin Sun was also awarded the "2023 Cryptocurrency Game Changer Award" by the well-known American business magazine Benzinga.

While awards certainly have subjective elements, there is little controversy regarding Justin Sun and TRON's position in the industry.

（Justin Sun invited to speak at the 2023 Dubai Blockchain Ecosystem Conference）

TRC20 is the most popular token protocol, and TRON has become the largest circulation area for USDT (a stablecoin issued by Tether that is pegged to the US dollar, which can be understood as the universal currency in the blockchain world).

To use a metaphor that is easier for outsiders to understand, TRON can be seen as the Alipay and WeChat Pay of the blockchain industry, being one of the most important infrastructures in the sector.

Over the past 7-8 years, a large number of post-90s entrepreneurs have emerged under the wave of mass innovation and entrepreneurship, many of whom have become favorites of VC and PE institutions. However, today, 99% of them have failed in their ventures.

In contrast, Justin Sun, born in 1990, has become an exception. On one hand, he is surrounded by controversy; on the other hand, he is one of the very few "survivors" among post-90s entrepreneurs, still holding world-class influence in the industry.

Many people criticize Justin Sun, yet they have made him an exception. The reason behind this is whether the era is being tolerant of Justin Sun or whether it is shaping him.

The Pinnacle of Post-90s Entrepreneurs

In 2015, Justin Sun was interviewed by GQ magazine, where he revealed that his positioning is "the post-90s entrepreneurial leader." He was born in July 1990, started his business at 24, and secured angel round financing from the well-known institution IDG in the same year.

Objectively speaking, Justin Sun fits the characteristics of post-90s entrepreneurs very well, even to the extreme: he enjoys dancing on the edge of a knife. His advantage is that he can attract more resources and attention, but the downside is also obvious—he is easily "squeezed out."

His IP image aligns with this: after each act of individuality, many people criticize Justin Sun, but aside from that, his business achievements have still gained recognition in the industry.

For example, at the recent "2023 TOKEN 2049" conference held in Singapore, which is Asia's top crypto event, Justin Sun was a special guest. In his keynote speech, he shared that TRON has captured 52% of the USDT market share, with a total account number of approximately 196 million, transaction volume of about 6.7 billion, and a digital asset circulation scale of approximately $9.6 trillion.

(Justin Sun invited to attend the "2023 TOKEN 2049" conference)

At last year's Milken Institute Asia Summit, Justin Sun was also a special guest.

Afterwards, the International Business Times commented: "Deep down, he is a staunch advocate of blockchain technology and a firm supporter of the new global finance."

Despite the numerous controversial labels attached to Justin Sun's name in the Chinese internet world, the overall evaluation from the outside world, including the industry, media, and global users, is much more tolerant.

Justin Sun's English X account has 3.475 million followers, second only to Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in the industry, while his follower count on Chinese social media platforms is significantly lower than the former.

In December 2022, the Portuguese edition of Forbes published a list of "40 Outstanding Entrepreneurs in Blockchain," where Justin Sun was ranked second.

Thus, the image Justin Sun leaves in the industry is also contradictory.

It is believed that Justin Sun's inner thoughts are also conflicted.

He may not fully enjoy the process of being "squeezed out," but he knows that to achieve his entrepreneurial goals, this is a necessary path.

Along the way, he has also faced challenges and pride.

For instance, in the first year of founding TRON, on November 24, 2014, China Entrepreneur Magazine organized the "Maker 987" column, and he was invited to have a dialogue with Sogou founder Wang Xiaochuan, which left him quite hurt.

This incident stayed buried in his heart for five years. In June 2019, he finally spoke out.

"On New Year's, I flipped through a photo with a friend, dated November 24, 2014, when I recorded a program with Wang Xiaochuan. I will never forget the look in his eyes that judged me as a fraud; he said I was a fraud, would definitely fail, and that recording the program with me was a disgrace, and in the end, we couldn't even finish recording. Less than three years later, my company surpassed Sogou's market value. In life, those who look down on you can spur you more deeply."

After posting, he added in the comments: "Entrepreneurship is ultimately about changing the world, not about proving who is right or wrong, but these deeply ingrained humiliations and motivations are also a source of drive for struggle."

From this, it can be seen that Justin Sun is also contradictory: on one hand, he pursues individuality; on the other hand, he cannot completely let go of external perceptions and comments. Ultimately, he can only transform pressure into motivation, which can be seen as a form of self-reconciliation.

All Individuality Serves the Goal

A star entrepreneur close to Justin Sun revealed: "Don't be misled by the superficial public opinion; to my knowledge, he is a very action-oriented young man."

Justin Sun rose to fame at a young age, becoming the cover figure of Asia Weekly at 21, being named a "Global Young Leader" at the Davos Forum at 24, and being recognized as one of "Forbes Asia's 30 Under 30 Entrepreneurs" twice at 25 and 27.

It seems that he is using his individuality to gain fame and then using that fame to fuel his entrepreneurship; perhaps this is his version of "overtaking on a curve."

The spread of the internet is like ripples on water; it either has many points or creates big waves. Justin Sun has both.

Whenever a hot event occurs, it becomes a moment for his "crazy PR."

Helping Dai Wei solve the OFO deposit crisis, offering to pay 1 million yuan to hire Lao Luo as the spokesperson for TRON's entrepreneurial spirit, and funding support for laid-off employees at NetEase who are ill… all these events have Justin Sun behind them.

Using limited funds to leverage traffic is something he was very willing to do in his early startup phase.

The TRON he founded is a public chain, and to achieve the goal of millions of users, it needs significant visibility (brand), and the conventional path to gaining visibility is to burn tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of funds annually for five years.

Clearly, in the early startup phase, Justin Sun could not afford to wait in terms of time, nor could he afford to burn through funds. Hence, he stated on Lu Yu Has a Date: "For a startup, the boss can only come out and do crazy PR to attract investors' attention; otherwise, how can we compete with big companies?"

The Peak of PR was the "Buffett Lunch Incident."

In June 2019, Justin Sun bid $4,567,888, the highest price at the time, for a charity lunch with Warren Buffett. In the following two months, Justin Sun's team continuously marketed on social media, with observers joking that the impact of the three reports on the Buffett lunch far exceeded the value of $4,567,888.

However, afterwards, like the "Wang Xiaochuan incident," Justin Sun bore the significant cost of his individuality and was widely criticized by netizens worldwide.

After this incident, from the perspective of external perception, Justin Sun's personality seemed less flamboyant.

Perhaps as he originally stated, "For a startup, the boss can only come out and do crazy PR to attract investors' attention; otherwise, how can we compete with big companies?" After 2019, TRON, in some ways, has become a large organization that no longer needs the boss to come out and do crazy PR to attract investors' attention.

At this point, Justin Sun began a series of external collaborations, acquisitions, and investment journeys.

In March 2018, Tether began issuing the stablecoin USDT on the TRON blockchain, specifically the TRC-20 version of USDT. While Ethereum transfer times can take several minutes or even hours, TRON offers instant transfers, with transfer fees significantly lower than Ethereum. This cooperation was decisive and allowed TRON to quickly rank among the top three public chains globally.

In June 2022, Justin Sun and other institutions completed the acquisition of Poloniex, a US digital currency exchange.

In October 2022, Justin Sun became a member of the Global Advisory Committee of Huobi HTX.

In October of this year, Justin Sun announced the establishment of an artificial intelligence development fund aimed at promoting the integration and innovation of blockchain and AI. The fund is approximately $1 billion in size, primarily investing in AI payments, AI-driven oracles, AI investment management, AIGC, and more.

According to data from the blockchain explorer TRONSCAN, as of December 2023, the total number of accounts on the TRON chain has exceeded 200 million, with transaction numbers exceeding 6.8 billion, making it the most popular L1 public chain globally.

The Era Tolerates and Shapes Justin Sun

In summary, over the past 7-8 years, most post-90s entrepreneurs have failed, but Justin Sun has become an exception—this business case is worth studying.

In the book The Mind Map of Investors, the relationship between entrepreneurship and personality is discussed.

The book mentions that the most important factor for entrepreneurial success is the founder's perseverance. Exploring in the completely unknown field of technological innovation is like "chewing glass while facing the abyss," a form of continuous pressure.

This also determines that technological innovation is an extreme game, suitable only for a few participants. We cannot determine whether Justin Sun is a good person or a bad person, but he is certainly one of the few.

His uniqueness is reflected in his "extreme individuality": the boss comes out, does crazy PR, to win attention and resources to compete with big companies.

（Justin Sun appears at the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival series of events）

He indeed treats entrepreneurship as an extreme game: starting a business right after graduation, choosing the blockchain direction; during the entrepreneurial process, he made various extreme attempts, including promoting with the world idol Warren Buffett.

It must be said that the era is tolerant, and Justin Sun is lucky. Despite his individuality and challenges in various extreme games, the era has only given him criticism and blame, but it has not deprived him of the international stage for entrepreneurship.

This is the charm of the era of innovation: tolerance for individuality, tolerance for Justin Sun, and the shaping of Justin Sun. The standards for success are consistent, but the paths can be diverse.

Perhaps this is what Justin Sun, as an entrepreneur of this generation, should be most grateful for.