Shi Hai, founder of Snail Digital Technology Co Ltd and accomplished sailor. Courtesy of Snail Digital Technology Co Ltd

Entrepreneur Shi Hai is considered a jack-of-all-trades, having achieved success in the food, online gaming and animation industries, as well as becoming a championship sailor.

After graduating from Nanjing Normal University with an arts degree, he opened up a restaurant, with the goal of making beef, a new luxury cuisine at that time, into an affordable fast food for the public.

With the profits from this first business, he opened a digital company, hoping to capitalize on the arrival of the Internet, which was new to China as well as Shi.

He chose the name Snail to represent doing things one step at a time with a clear goal ahead. Today, the company he founded, Snail Digital Technology Co Ltd, based in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, is worth over 2 billion yuan ($320 million).

Shi is considered a pioneer of the Chinese animation industry. He is the director of the animation association of Suzhou Industrial Park, and a member of the All-China Youth Federation. Shi also loves sailing. He and his boat The Snail have placed highly or won in several sailing competitions in China.

Metropolitan set up an interview with Shi to talk about his life and spirit, which is representative of many of the young entrepreneurs born in the 1970s in China.

MB: How did you establish Snail?

Shi: It was in 1997, when the Internet was a fairly new thing. People said it was something that would change the world, but they did not know how. Since I wanted to be involved, I used my knowledge of arts as a starting point.

Everything about computers and digital technology was new at that time. But as the generation born in the 1970s, we held a sense of mission in our hearts, expecting our digital company to last a hundred years. Our mission was to simulate the real world with digital technology. Computer games are one way to realize that.

MB: When did you start sailing?

Shi: It was about five or six years ago. I was born in Xiamen, a city beside the sea. The first game we designed was called Voyage Century Online, a 3D online game by Snail in 2004. It was the first 3D online game entirely developed by a domestic company in China. The game was about the sea that I was born to be passionate about.

In terms of sailing, it is just an entertainment for me. People like to play golf, which is a game about hitting a ball into a hole. Yet it is too purposeful for me. I prefer sailing, which is all about process and experience.

MB: Do you play online games yourself?

Shi: Yes of course. I play games sometimes to experience them in order to see how to improve them, using my professional judgment, which is what makes me different from other players. I love playing games and like to think that life is a kind of game to me.

The good thing is that my career is about online games. So I can play them for a whole night and not feel guilty about indulging in them, since it is my work.

MB: You have been involved in various fields, from opening up a restaurant to establishing a digital company designing online games, and also sailing. You did them all well. What is your tactic for being a jack-of-all-trades?

Shi: Well, you must do what you love and do it with all your heart. Having done so, you may think less about success or failure but just enjoy the process of doing it.

MB: Who influenced you the most in your life?

Shi: This person should be my mom, who influenced me in many ways. I'll give you one example. When I was young, I intended to throw out the peels of an apple after I finished eating it. But my mom always came to me and asked me to put the peels into the bin first, before eating the apple. This is a very small thing but it tells me that you must have certain requirements for yourself.