I am the landlord, a local in Shenzhen, with a middle school education.

I own six buildings collecting rent, and I’m bored out of my mind. Last year, I started working on AI.
I asked him: What is a middle school graduate doing with AI?
He said: I put in the money, Huaqiangbei provides the brains. I hired three programmers, rented an office upstairs in Huaqiangbei, bought chips downstairs, and coded upstairs.
In three months, they developed an intelligent translation device, now sold to the Middle East.
I asked him: How much did you make?
He said: Not much, just enough to cover the property management fees for these buildings.
He added: Your PhDs in Beijing write a hundred papers, but I can get a call from a stall owner downstairs.
I asked: What call?
He said: A Saudi client wants ten thousand units, can they be shipped in three days?
The stall owner said: Yes.
Then he hung up and went to Seg to buy parts.
I asked: What do you need now?
He thought for a moment: I need someone who can make PowerPoint presentations. Help me hype up the product to get to Series A.
I said: That’s me.
He said: Then next month, rent is free, and you come to work.
Now I am his company’s CMO.
My monthly salary is still zero, but I save 8,000 yuan in rent.