A Series of Motivational Life Lessons [6]

[6] SYNOPSIS: JACK MA (1964 till Date)

Jack Ma

FOREWORD

Jack Ma is the richest man in Asia (China inclusive), with a net worth of US$47.8 billion by November 2017. He is the Founder/Chairman of Alibaba Group, now the world largest e-commerce business. In September 2014, Alibaba became one of the most valuable tech companies in the world after raising $25 billion on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the largest initial public offering (IPO) in US financial history. Alibaba became the world’s largest retailer in 2016, with operations in over 190 countries. Its online sales and profits surpassed all of US retailers (including Walmart, Amazon and eBay) combined in 2015.

Remarkably, until 1994 Jack Ma had never heard about the Internet. Early in 1995, he travelled to Seattle, Washington, USA as an interpreter for a trade delegation. There, a friend showed him the Internet for the first time. He had never touched a computer keyboard before that. His friends helped him get familiar with computer and the Internet. He returned home to China and formed the Alibaba Group of companies. Even then, he was just a novice as far as the internet was concerned.

Ma was born in 1964 into a poor family in China. He started to learn speaking English at a young age of 12 years, and practiced daily by conversing with English-speaking tourists. Later in his youth, Ma struggled to gain admission to university; he was rejected three successive years before finally getting admission in his 4th year of trying. He graduated B.A. (English, 1988), and MBA (Buss. Admin., 2006). Jack Ma was confronted with multiple rejections while trying to find a Job. He applied for 30 different jobs and got rejected by all of them. They all said Ma wasn’t good!!

So how did these happen: how come that in 2017, Ma was named by Fortune magazine as ranking 2nd on its list of World’s 50 Greatest Leaders?[7] How come also that a 2017 KMG survey ranked Ma 3rd in global tech innovation visionaries.[26] And how come that Ma, who was famously rejected from nearly every job he applied for, has become China’s richest man and he is among the top 20 richest people in the world today. [20]

Follow here and see how Jack Ma’s curiosity and tenacity rapidly lead to the creation of the world biggest e-commerce business, and make Jack Ma a global business leader.

Jack Ma and the Alibaba Group

Jack Ma is a Chinese business magnate and philanthropist. He is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, a corporation of Internet-based businesses, and the world’s largest e-commerce business today. Jack Ma is the richest man in Asia including China, with a net worth of US$47.8 billion, as of November 2017.[14] He is a global icon in business and entrepreneurship, and one of the world’s most influential businessmen and innovation visionaries. [26,18,20]

Jack Ma is one of the world’s most powerful people; and he has become an inspiration and role model to many people across the world. He was Alibaba Group’s chief executive officer for its first 10 years, but stepped down as CEO in 2013, becoming the Executive Chairman.

Ma was born Ma Yun in Hangzhou, China in 1964, and known professionally as Jack Ma. He came from a very poor background but struggled to have good education and attain a life of great achievements. He graduated with a B.A. (English, 1988) from Hangzhou Normal University. After graduation in 1988, he became a lecturer of English and International Trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University. Jack Ma had an MBA (Buss. Admin. 2006) from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB).[19,21]

Alibaba Group of Companies

Alibaba Group is an e-commerce company that provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales services online. It also provides electronic payment services, a shopping search engine and data computing Cloud services. The group started in 1999 when Jack Ma founded the website Alibaba.com, a business-to-business portal to connect Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers.

The company operates primarily in China, but suppliers from and to other countries are permitted. At closing time on 19 September 2014, Alibaba’s market value rose to US$231 billion.[6] On 22 September 2014, Alibaba’s shares (BABA) began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at an IPO amounting to $25 billion, [25] making Alibaba the biggest US IPO ever.[5] Alibaba became the world largest retailer in April 2016, surpassing Walmart,[3,10] and with operations in over 190 countries.

Alibaba is currently the world most dominant retailer, generating more revenues than Amazon.com and eBay combined. Its online sales and profits surpassed all of US retailers (including Walmart, Amazon and eBay) combined in 2015.[29] Alibaba’s consumer-to-consumer portal Taobao, similar to eBay.com, features nearly a billion products and is one of the 20 most-visited websites globally. The Group’s websites accounted for over 60% of the parcels delivered in China by March 2013, and 80% of China’s online sales by September 2014.[10] Alipay, an online payment escrow service, accounts for over half of all online payment transactions within China.[10,16]

Early Life of Jack Ma

Ma was born into a poor family in Hangzhou, China at the peak of China’s Cultural Revolution. He started to study English at a young age and practiced English daily by conversing with English-speakers at Hangzhou international hotel, a 40 minutes bike ride from his home. As a teenager, he used to guide tourists by giving them tours around the city free of charge, just to improve his English. He did this for eight years.

Said Ma: “When I was 12 years old, I got interested in learning English. I rode my bike for 40 minutes every morning, rain or snow, for eight years to a hotel near the city of Hangzhou’s West Lake district, about 100 miles southwest of Shanghai. China was opening up, and a lot of foreign tourists went there. I showed them around as a free guide and practiced my English. Those eight years deeply changed me. I started to become more globalized than most Chinese. What I learned from my teachers and books was different from what the foreign visitors told us.” [11]

Ma became pen pal with one of those foreigners, who nicknamed him “Jack” because he found it hard to pronounce his Chinese name, Yun Ma.[8,11]

Rejections and failures in attempts to gain admission to university

Later, in his teens, Ma struggled to gain admission to a university. He knew that the only way he could get rid of poverty was through education. So he started applying to different universities but got rejected by all of them. China’s university entrance exams are held only once a year, and it took Ma four years to pass.

Said Ma: “There was an examination for young people to go to university. ….. I flunked my exam for university three times before I was accepted by what was considered my city’s worst university, Hangzhou Teachers University. ………. I applied for Harvard 10 times, got rejected and I told myself that ‘Someday I should go teach there’.” [8]

He studied to be a high school English teacher. Jack Ma graduated B.A. (English) in 1988. He became a lecturer of English and International Trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University, with a salary of about $12 to $15 per month. He later enrolled at Beijing-based Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) and graduated MBA in 2006.[19,23]

Ma met his wife, Zhang Ying, when they were studying at Hangzhou Normal University. They married shortly after graduating, and they both started working as teachers. They have a son and a daughter.[22]

Again, Multiple Rejections while Trying to Find a Job

After applying for 30 different jobs, all he ever faced was plain rejection in simple words: “You’re no good” But that only made him stronger.

Said Ma: “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. I was the only guy (rejected).”[19]

Alibaba Group — The Genesis

Jack Ma heard about the Internet for the first time in 1994. Early in 1995, he went to Seattle, USA as an interpreter for a trade delegation from China. There, a friend showed him the Internet for the first time. Ma knew nothing about personal computers or e-mails, and he had never touched a keyboard before that. Out of curiosity, Ma and his friends searched the word beer on the internet. Although he found information related to beer from many countries, he was shocked to find none from China. Further, they tried to search for general information about China and again was surprised to find none. That’s when Ma came up with the idea of an online activity for China.

So Ma and his friend created a not-so-perfect website related to China.[26] He launched the website at 9:40 am, and by 12:30 PM he had received emails from some Chinese wishing to know about him. And that is when Ma realized that the Internet had something great to offer.

Said Ma: “the day we got connected to the Web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house,” using a very slow dial-up connection, “we waited three and a half hours and got half a page…. We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved (to my house guests that) the Internet existed.”[8,23]

In April 1995, Ma, his wife and a friend raised USD $2,000 and started their first company. He named their company “China Yellow Pages”. Ma’s new company began building websites for Chinese companies with the help of friends in the US. Within three years, his company had made USD $800,000.

Between 1998 and 1999, Jack Ma was employed by government to head an information technology company established by the China International Electronic Commerce Center, a department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Ma quite this government job in 1999, returned home to Hangzhou and, with a group of 17 friends Ma founded Alibaba, a China-based business-to-business marketplace site, in his apartment.[11,24]

Said Jack Ma: “In 1999, I gathered 17 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. Alibaba is easy to spell, and people everywhere associate that with ‘Open, Sesame,’ the command that Ali Baba used to open doors to hidden treasures in ‘One Thousand and One Nights’.” [11]

This is how Jack Ma founded the Alibaba Group which has now become the largest e-commerce store in the world.

Moving On — Alibaba Grows and Grows

In October 1999 and January 2000, Alibaba twice won a total of a $25 million foreign venture capital investment. The program was expected to improve the domestic e-commerce market and perfect an e-commerce platform for Chinese enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in order to address World Trade Organization (WTO) challenges. Ma wanted to improve the global e-commerce system, and from 2003 he founded Taobao Marketplace, Alipay, Ali Mama and Lynx. After the rapid rise of Taobao, eBay offered to purchase the company. However, Ma rejected eBay’s offer. Instead he got support from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang with a $1 billion investment.

In September 2014, Alibaba became one of the most valuable tech companies in the world after raising $25 billion on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the largest initial public offering (IPO) in US financial history.[5] Jack Ma now serves as executive chairman of Alibaba Group, which is a holding company with nine major subsidiaries: Alibaba.com, Taobao Marketplace, Tmall, eTao, Alibaba Cloud Computing, Juhuasuan, 1688.com, AliExpress.com and Alipay.

The Difficult Early Days of Alibaba Group

Some of the many obstacles in the path of Alibaba Group, early in its existence, are better related in the words of the founder himself, Jack Ma:

Jack Ma: “For the first three years, we made zero revenue. I remember many times when I was trying to pay up, the restaurant owner would say, ‘Your bill was paid.’ And there would be a note saying, ‘Mr. Ma, I’m your customer on the Alibaba platform. I made a lot of money, and I know you don’t, so I paid the bill’.” [8]

Jack Ma: “The escrow service is about Alipay. It was a big decision, because for the first three years we didn’t do any business because there was no [way to do] payments. I talked to the banks. No banks wanted to do it. They said, ‘This thing will never work’. People didn’t like it. So many people I talked to at that time about Alipay, they said, ‘This is the stupidest idea you’ve ever had.’ I didn’t care if it was stupid as long as people could use it. Now we have 800 million people on Alipay.” [8]

Jack Ma: “I call Alibaba ‘1,001 mistakes.’ We expanded too fast, and then in the dot-com bubble, we had to have layoffs. By 2002, we had only enough cash to survive for 18 months. We had a lot of free members using our site, and we didn’t know how we’d make money. So we developed a product for China exporters to meet U.S. buyers online. This model saved us. By the end of 2002, we made $1 (one dollar) in profits. Each year we improved. Today, Alibaba is very profitable.” [11]

Jack Ma: “The lessons I learned from the dark days at Alibaba are that you’ve got to make your team have value, innovation, and vision. Also, if you don’t give up, you still have a chance. And, when you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.” [11]

Jack Ma: “There were three reasons why we survived. We had no money, we had no technology, and we had no plan. Every dollar, we used very carefully. The office opened in my apartment. We expanded when we raised money from Goldman Sachs in 1999 and then Softbank Corporation in 2000.” [11]

Honors and Recognitions.

Listed below are a few of the several honors and recognitions accorded Jack Ma over the years:

2005, World Economic Forum selected Ma as a “Young Global Leader”. Fortune Magazine also selected him as one of the “25 Most Powerful Businesspersons” in Asia.

2008, Barron’s chose him as one of the 30 “World’s Best CEOs” in 2008.

2009, Time magazine selected Ma as one of the world’s 100 most powerful people.

2013, Honorary doctoral degree of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

2013, Ma became chairman of the board for “The Nature Conservancy” China Program. Ma is the first Chinese citizen to serve on The Nature Conservancy’s board.

2014, Ma was ranked as the 30th most powerful person in the world in an annual ranking published by Forbes.

2017, Fortune ranked Ma second on its World’s 50 Greatest Leaders list.

2017, A KMG survey ranked Ma 3rd in global tech innovation visionary survey.

2017, Ma was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in Technopreneurship from De La Salle University. Manila, Philippines.

Jack Ma Acts!!

Jack Ma | Actor + Entrepreneur

Timeless Words That Inspire and Motivate

Jack Ma is very insightful and practical. His speeches are rich with quotable comments and useful advices that will inspire and motivate you in your endeavours. Some of his notable quotes are listed below.

On relationship with your business’ stakeholders:

1. “Put the customers first, the employees second, and the shareholders third.”
2. “We have walked so far and for so many years with so many aspirations for the future. I believe, it is trust that has made us walk this far.”

About action and risk:

1. “If you don’t do it, nothing is possible. If you do it, at least, you have the hope that there’s a chance.”

Value of empowering people:

1. “In this world, if you want to win in the 21st century, you have to be making sure that making other people become powerful, empower others; making sure the other people are better than you are, then you will be successful.”
2. “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.”

Taking personal responsibility:

1. “I find that when a person makes a mistake or fails, if he or she always complains or blames others, that person will never come back from the failure. But if the person checks inside, this person has hope.”

On Alibaba’s celebrated journey to success:

1. “Today, people write about the successful stories of Alibaba. And I really don’t think we were so smart, we made so many mistakes and we were so stupid at times. So, someday, the book I personally really will want to write about is Alibaba’s 1001 mistakes. These are the things people should remember and people should learn.”
2. “We’re in China today because I believe in one thing: global vision, local win. We designed the business model ourselves. Our focus is on helping small and medium-size companies make money. We never copied a model from the U.S., like a lot of Chinese Internet entrepreneurs did. We focused on product quality.

On Alipay being called “stupid” by banks and others:

1. “A stupid thing — if you improve it every day, it is going to be very smart.”

On Perseverance:

1. “Never give up! Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine. If you give up tomorrow, you will never see the sunshine.”
2. “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).”
3. “If you’ve never tried, how will you ever know if there’s any chance?”
4. “Opportunity lies in the place where the complaints are.”
5. “If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure.”

Leadership:

1. “A leader should have higher grit and tenacity, and be able to endure what the employees can’t ”
2. “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.”

Competition:

1. “You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.”
2. “Never ever compete on prices, instead compete on services and innovation.

Failures and Obstacles:

1. “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.”
2. “Instead of learning from other people’s success, learn from their mistakes. Most of the people who fail share common reasons (to fail) whereas success can be attributed to various different kinds of reasons.”
3. “The very important thing you should have is patience.”

On starting a business:

1. “If you want to grow, find a good opportunity. Today, if you want to be a great company, think about what social problem you could solve.”
2. “Going anywhere, doing business, takes time. No market welcomes gamblers — You go there, create value for local people, have time — it will have chance.”
3. “ ….. at a lot of business Schools they teach people a lot of skills on how to run business and make money. I want to tell people that if you want to run a business, you have to run the value first. Serve the others, help the others, that’s the key. This is the way to run business in the 21st Century.”
4. “If you want to run a business, you have to run the value first, to serve the others, to help the others — that’s the key.”

Information Sources

1. Alibaba Group Announces March Quarter 2016 and Full Fiscal Year 2016 Results. www.alibaba.neshq.businesswire.com/press-release/alibaba-group-announces-march-quarter-2016-and-full-fiscal-2016--results. Retrieved August 2017.
2. Alibaba: Profile, Internationalization, R&D, Patents. www.chinese-champion.com/alibaba-group/ Retrieved 20 September 2017.
3. Alibaba passes Walmart as world’s largest retailer. 8621-alibaba-overtakes-walmart-volume/. www.rt.com/business/33 RT. Retrieved 6 April, 2017.
4. Alibaba generates more revenue than Amazon and eBay combined. RT International. www.rt.com/business/365103-alibaba-revenues-profits-rise/ Retrieved Nov. 6, 2017.
5. Alibaba Sells Extra Shares; IPO Raises $25B, Breaks Global Record. www.au.ibtimes.com/articles/567168/201409 Retrieved 22 September 2014.
6. Alibaba founder Jack Ma. (2015). ‘Harvard rejected me 10 times’. www.businessinsider.com/jach-ma-havard-rejected-me-10-times-2015/ Retrieved May 29, 2017.
7. Alibaba job boom: Jack Ma chats with Trump about how to create 1 million US jobs over 5 years. anannews.com 2016.
8. Charlie Rose@charlierose (2015). More stories by Charlie Rose. January‎ ‎29‎, ‎2015‎. www.twitter.com/charlierose www.bloomberg.com/authors/abpn91dw_xm/charlie-rose
9. Chinese billionaire Jack Ma ‘extremely humbled’ by honorary degree from DLSU. www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/companies/630781/chinese-billionnaire--jack-ma-extremely-by-honorary-degree-from-disu
10. The Economist. (2013). E-commerce in China: The Alibaba phenomenon. The Economist. 23 March 2013.
11. Fannin, Rebecca (2008). “How I Did It: Jack Ma, Alibaba.com”. Inc. Magazine. www.inc.com/magazine20080101/how-i-did-it-jack-ma-alibaba.html Retrieved Dec. 12, 2017.
12. eyerys.com. Starting Small with Jack Ma. www.eyerys.com/articles/people/starting-small-jack-ma
13. Fahy, Warwick John (2017). Influence: The Jack Ma Way: Learn how China’s first global business leader wins hearts, changes minds, and inspires action. Unique Voices Publishing.
14. Fortune. (March 23, 2017). Retrieved 2017–04–04.
15. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/01/09/donald-trump-meet-alibabas-jack-ma/96345262/
16. http://www.internetretailer.com/commentary/2014/09/09/alibaba-tops-e-commerce-sites-russia-well-china
17. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/jack-ma-inspiration-all-entrepreneur-punit-prajapati
18. Jack Ma among 5 most powerful Chinese in world: Forbes — Business — www.Chinadaily.com.cn.
19. Jack Ma: Early Life and Education | Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/university/jack-ma-biography/#ixzz50dchpXjD
20. Jack Ma: The World’s 100 Most Influential People”. TIME.com. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
21. Kalyani Mookherji (2008). Brief biography of Jack Ma. Google Books. Prabhat Prakashan.
22. Lianna B. Baker; Jessica Toonkel; Ryan Vlastelica (2014). Alibaba surges 38 percent on massive demand in market debut. Reuters. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
23. Rose, Charlie (2015). Alibaba’s Jack Ma on Early Obstacles, His Ambitions. Bloomberg.com. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-29/alibaba-s-jack-ma-on-early-obstacles-his-ambitions.Retrieved Dec. 12, 2017.
24. Shiying, Liu; Avery, Martha (2009). Alibaba: The Inside Story Behind Jack Ma and the Creation of the World’s Biggest Online Marketplace. HarperCollins. ISBN 0–06–167219-.
25. Picker, Leslie; Chen, Lulu Yilun (2014). Alibaba’s Banks Boost IPO Size to Record of $25 Billion. Bloomberg. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
26. South China Morning Post. (2017). Alibaba’s Jack Ma ranked No 3 in leading tech innovation survey. www.scmp.com/tech/leaders-founders/article/2076412/alibaba-jack-ma-ranked-no-3-global-innovation-visionary
27. The Economist. (2013). Alibaba: The world’s greatest bazaar. 23 March 2013.
28. The Philosophy of Jack Ma. www.linkedin.com/pulse/philosophy-jack-ma-ben-witter.
29. Tong, Frank. (2016). Alibaba’s annual web sales easily surpass U.S. e-retail sales. www.internetretailer.com/2016/05/05/alibabas-annual-web-sales-easily-surpass-us-e-retail-sailes