Jack Ma is a politician, investor, philanthropist and a businessman from China. He was born in the city of Hangzhou on China’s Zhejiang province. Jack Ma was born on the 10th of September in the year of 1964. He is currently 54 years old now. Due to being born in a poor family, he struggled to get into college. The Chinese students go through a rigorous entrance exam for universities, where Jack Ma failed three times before passing on his fourth attempt. He graduated from the Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute, which is currently known as the Hangzhou Normal University in the year of 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.
His business career started on a very rough patch. When he a fresh university graduate, he applied to 30 jobs and was rejected in all of them. He faced a lot of rejection in his early adult life, but it did not set him back from pursuing his dreams. He first heard about the internet in 1994, but at that time China was still a developing nation and did not embrace the technology of the internet wholeheartedly. He then created a company which helped Chinese entrepreneurs open websites on the internet. And then he founded Alibaba Group which owns the biggest e-commerce site in China. Jack Ma’s current net worth is estimated to be around $40 billion.
- “Trust the young people; trust this generation’s innovation. They’re making things, changing innovation every day. And all the consumers are the same: they want new things, they want cheap things, they want good things, they want unique things. If we can create these kind of things for consumers, they will come.” – Jack Ma
- “We should keep on going along the path of globalization. Globalization is good… when trade stops, war comes.” – Jack Ma
- “Help young people. Help small guys. Because small guys will be big. Young people will have the seeds you bury in their minds, and when they grow up, they will change the world.” – Jack Ma
- “The world needs new leadership, but the new leadership is about working together.” – Jack Ma
- “Spending money is much more difficult than making money.” – Jack Ma
- “There’s an examination for young people to go to university. I failed it three times. I failed a lot. So I applied to 30 different jobs and got rejected. I went for a job with the police; they said, ‘You’re no good.’ I even went to KFC when it came to my city. Twenty-four people went for the job. Twenty-three were accepted.” – Jack Ma
- “The very important thing you should have is patience.” – Jack Ma
- “Our philosophy is that we want to be an ecosystem. Our philosophy is to empower others to sell, empower others to service, making sure the other people are more powerful than us. With our technology, our innovation, our partners – 10 million small business sellers – they can compete with Microsoft and IBM.” – Jack Ma
- “Hong Kong people say Hong Kong needs to preserve its uniqueness. I say Hong Kong’s uniqueness is in its diversity, its tolerance of difference cultures… China does not want to see Hong Kong in decline. I have full confidence in its future.” – Jack Ma
- “There are big problems that change the world. If we are working together, that will make us understand each other, appreciate each other, help each other.” – Jack Ma
- “I don’t think I’m a workaholic. Every weekend, I invite my colleagues and friends to my home to play cards. And people, my neighbors, are always surprised because I live on the second floor apartment, and there are usually 40 pairs of shoes in front of my gate, and people play cards inside and play chess. We have a lot of fun.” – Jack Ma
- “I’m coming to this world not to work. I want to come to this world to enjoy my life. I don’t want to die in my office. I want to die on the beaches.” – Jack Ma
- “My vision is to build an e-commerce ecosystem that allows consumers and businesses to do all aspects of business online.” – Jack Ma
- “My dream was to set up my own e-commerce company. In 1999, I gathered 18 people in my apartment and spoke to them for two hours about my vision. Everyone put their money on the table, and that got us $60,000 to start Alibaba. I wanted to have a global company, so I chose a global name.” – Jack Ma
- “The more I come to know about the outside world’s perception of China, the more I feel there are all sorts of misunderstandings, and to a certain extent, people do not get the full picture from the media. A lot of foreigners have few opportunities to visit China, and a lot of Chinese people do not have the chance to go to Europe or to the West.” – Jack Ma
- “No matter how tough the chase is, you should always have the dream you saw on the first day. It’ll keep you motivated and rescue you (from any weak thoughts).” – Jack Ma
- “I try to make myself happy because I know that if I’m not happy, my colleagues are not happy and my shareholders are not happy and my customers are not happy.” – Jack Ma
- “I’m not a tech guy. I’m looking at the technology with the eyes of my customers, normal people’s eyes.” – Jack Ma
- “My job is to help more people have jobs.” – Jack Ma
- “We should never finish a 20 year program in two years.” – Jack Ma
- “If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure.” – Jack Ma
- “Opportunity lies in the place where the complaints are.” – Jack Ma
- “When you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.” – Jack Ma
- “You never know that the things you’re doing are that meaningful to society.” – Jack Ma
- “A leader should have higher grit and tenacity, and be able to endure what the employees can’t.” – Jack Ma
- “I don’t want people (in China) to have deep pockets but shallow minds.” – Jack Ma
- “You never know how much can you do in your life.” – Jack Ma
- “It doesn’t matter if I failed. At least I passed the concept on to others. Even if I don’t succeed, someone will succeed.” – Jack Ma
- “I call myself a blind man riding on a blind tiger.” – Jack Ma
- “Intelligent people need a fool to lead them. When the team’s all a bunch of scientists, it is best to have a peasant lead the way. His way of thinking is different. It’s easier to win if you have people seeing things from different perspectives.” – Jack Ma
