Back in 1995, Duan Yongping had just left Subor to start his own thing.

He ran a nationwide contest — name the new company, win 5000 yuan if yours gets picked. That was serious money back then.

Out of tens of thousands of entries, he chose "BBK" (步步高). Plot twist: 8 different people submitted the exact same name.

Most founders would've just paid the first guy, or split the prize 8 ways. Duan paid all 8 people the full 5000 yuan each.

Small move, but tells you everything about how someone thinks. This is the same guy who later let employees hold equity and even allowed competitors to buy into BBK.

If this happened today? Most companies would lawyer up about "first submission timestamp" or do some BS split. That's the difference between building for the long game vs optimizing every dollar.