During his month and a half at Duplo, Chu began studying for the university exam, supporting himself from his sales income. Each evening he would begin at five and study until seven or eight the next morning. As a result, he did well on the exam and was admitted into Tong Hai University, a top private college that was considered a second-tier school. His first year he majored in physics which he picked more from social presssue than any interest in the subject. He was more interested in the social sciences, considered suitable only for women.
During his first year Chu scored 17 out of 100 on a math exam. At the end of the year he sought permission to transfer into the sociology department. Based on Chu's dismal grades, the department head refused. His true passion lay in the fields of psychology and and sociology, Chu convinced him. Chu would have preferred to try the business management department but knew his chances would be nil as it was a muchmore popular area than sociology. Chu took a few business courses.
He supported himself by working evenings selling Chinese-English dictionaries at adult night schools. During the five minute breaks, he went into a classroom with a box of dictionaries and stood in front of the class. Chu discovered that, thanks to the human herding instinct, it was easier to hold the attention of an entire classroom.
"One powerful person can control a whole society easily," Chu says, "do anything he wants. I passed out the books, my face not smiling. I watched everybody. They're surprised how someone can do something so strange. So everybody is quiet. Everybody pays attention. Everybody is watching. If somebody is still talking, I just stare and say nothing. Everybody else would suggest that person not talk any more. The first time in front of lots of people, it was very difficult. Later after more practice, you know when people will be laughing, when people will be asking questions."
What made the feat all the more remarkable, in Chu's mind, is that he had a stuttering problem that worsened when he was tired or nervous. The problem had become particularly acute during his first year of college. Chu noticed that he didn't stutter if he were reading aloud. By practicing with a book, he trained himself to speak for five minutes without stuttering.
Having secured their attention, Chu passed out dictionaries and a signup sheet and gave a brief, solemnly-delivered sales pitch. He finished by collecting the signup sheet and the money. At about $20 U.S. apiece, each dictionary earned him a handsome commission of $6 or $7. A full class might net him 35 sales, generating $200 in commissions--a huge sum in the Taiwan of the early 1970s. Chu made two presentations an evening.
Later, he scaled up his sales operation by hiring helpers to pass out the books and the signup sheets so that they could actually sell in two or more classrooms simultaneously. This lucrative operation lasted two months until another enterprising hawker began selling the same dictionaries outside the school for $6 apiece. Chu never set foot in that school again.
For a few months Chu sold houses, then encyclopedias. He then started a business selling English-language study tapes at a university in the southern Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung. By selling through university organizations, Chu attracted the attention of government agents who suspected him of being a political agitator. The school authorities asked Chu to stop selling his tapes. Fortunately, Chu was also selling the tapes by mail order and was enjoying some success at it. He enjoyed a brief period of success selling computers, outselling a pair of experienced full-time salespeople. "I worked for 2 nights, I can sell one complete computer," he recalls.
In his third year of college, Chu faced the decision he had been putting off. "I am not a good student, why not leave now?" By that time he was having trouble keeping up with the demands of his business and sales work. His attention was also diverted by Lily Huang Lee, a night school student working as the bookkeeper for Chu's tape sales company.
At the end of 1983 Chu left Lily to finish college in Kaohsiung and moved up to Taipei. In his first few months Chu went through several sales jobs. The following April he interviewed with a small Taipei company called Behavior Tech & Computer, BTC. Several days later he still had not gotten a response. Chu went to the company and waited two hours for the owner who was known as Steel Su. Su finally returned at 7 that evening.
"I said, 'I need to talk to you.'" Chu recalls with a wry smile. "He said 'Okay'. I said 'It doesn't matter if you give me an answer, I will follow you. No need to give me an answer. I'm starting work tomorrow.' He said, 'Okay'." That was the start of Chu's career in the computer industry.
At that time BTC was 3 1/2 years old. "The company was initially very poor," Chu recalls. "They have a lot of debts and the company attitude was negative. It was in a very, very difficult situation.
[CONTINUED BELOW]
"It was the only computer job I could find. The company was so small, so very shakey. I wanted it to grow strong so I could learn all sides of the business. This company gave me a lot of experience, a good picture of what can happen. I never want my business in that situation.
"The company was engineering driven. They always wanted to develop products. In reseach and developing products, it wanted to be second to none. They had a dream, continually dreaming. Their sales so small, their resources very limited against big companies but thinking they could find something and instantly become rich."
BTC had already been through one reorganization. Chu was its 12th employee, and its first salesperson. Its only revenues came from designing products for OEM manufacturers and had no product to sell. Chu was paid a small salary without commission.
"The company was so small, I shared the general manager's office," he recalls. "We had one desk. My side faced the window. I had nothing to do. One day, two days, three days. I thought, 'Nobody is teaching me.' I talked to the general manager and said, 'What should I do?' He said, 'Later, I'll talk to you'. So I started looking in the books, in the magazines and found information by myself. Pretty soon, my conclusion was we needed to sell a product."
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