Getting into Hupan as a student is no easy task.

First of all, just to become an eligible applicant, one has to be the founder of a company that's at least 3 years old, has more than 30 employees and an annual revenue of over 30 million yuan. On top of them, applicants also need to provide proofs of the business's tax payment, and to get 3 accommodation letters of which at least one must be from the University's list of certified referees.

Students are required to put their phones away during classes at Hupan.

For those that are good and lucky enough to get to the interview round (in 2017, there were 79 candidates made it out of over 1,000 applicants), they'd be invited to the campus to share their answer to one same question: what differences do I make to this world?

Facing a crowd of judges consisting the university's trustees, teachers and candidates, entrepreneurs are given the opportunity to reflect upon their own business journey and to map out their vision into the future. "We are basically asking our candidates to begin thinking about three questions before they join the Hupan community as a student-

What do you have?

What do you want?

And most importantly,

What could you give up for what you want?"

Ma and his foreign friends at a young age.

Ma has always held a passion for teaching and sharing.

For Ma and his entrepreneur friends that founded Hupan, these are the questions that have guided them, and are guiding them into the future of building business that matters to the world.

Everyone knows creating a business is not easy, yet few really gets the opportunity to see and comprehend the ego-brusing, painful knowledge in making, growing, and sustaining a business. "We are where we are today ", said Ma, "because we woke up early, we got off late, we didn't sleep enough and had much shorter holidays. We struggled day and night and picked ourselves up from disappointments and frustrations again and again and again."

It is indeed this journey of constant reflection and adaptation that Ma wants to share the most with his entrepreneur students at Hupan. "My vision for this University is very simple: 20, or perhaps 30 years later, I hope at least 200 out of the top 500 businesses leaders in China would have studied in Hupan. By learning from each other's failures, we'd help the next generation of Chinese entrepreneurs not to grow bigger, but to thrive for a longer, happier, and healthier business."

Hupan University's school badges.