Chinese lessons in entrepreneurship: Choose the right track and insist on doing the right thing

Julian Ma, founder and CEO of Inceptio Technology, the self-driving truck startup, and veteran of Tencent, Motorola and G7, advises would-be entrepreneurs to stick to their true passions and focus on people, not things.

Over the last three decades, Julian Ma’s career has taken him from China to the US and back again with spells in technology, consultancy and strategic management. Now, having just turned 50, he’s three years into his own startup – self-driving truck company Inceptio Technology, a business he helped found to transform the way goods are moved along China’s expressways.  

“The essence of entrepreneurship is to do what no one else has done in the past, whether it is technological innovation or business model innovation,” says Ma. After three decades in tech, he notes: “After you’ve accumulated a certain amount of experience in your favorite field, you start seeing new opportunities earlier than others.” 

Early years 

After graduating from…