THE INSPIRING STORY OF JACK MA
EARLIER this year, I wrote about Steve Jobs and his inspiring life lessons. I’m glad a lot of people were inspired by that story and today I am sharing about another business magnate and philanthropist by the name of Jack Ma. He is the founder of Alibaba, one of the largest internet companies which has already surpassed Wal-Mart as the world’s largest retailer in the world. Currently, Jack Ma is the richest man in China and the first mainland Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes. According to Forbes he has a net-worth of approximately US$41 billion, making him the 20th richest man in the world. Besides this, Jack Ma has been ranked the second World’s Greatest Leader. In 2015, he was honoured with the Entrepreneur of the Year award at The Asian Awards. Born on October 15, 1964 in Hangzhou, China, Jack Ma is married to Zhang Ying, whom he met after graduation in the late 1980s. Ying, who is a teacher by profession says, “(He) is not a handsome man, but I fell for him because he can do a lot of things handsome men cannot do.” The couple has a daughter and a son. What makes his story special was the rejections he had to go through before he finally became one of the most powerful men in the world. Starting early on in his life Jack Ma was not a good student. In fact he almost didn’t get into middle school. He says “I failed a key primary test two times; I failed the middle school three times. “Ma was also terrible at math and still is. According to Ma, he says “I am not good at math, I have never studied management, and still cannot read accounting reports.” After high school, he tried to apply to Harvard for a scholarship and was rejected 10 times. He applied to go to college but failed the entrance exam, not once but twice. After a great deal of studying, he finally passed on the third attempt. ³I flunNed my exam for university two times before I was accepted by what was considered my city's worst university, Hangzhou Teachers University.” After graduation, Ma applied for 30 different jobs and got rejected in every single one of them. He applied in the police academy and out of five applicants he was the only one cut from the group. He says “I applied for a lot of jobs, but nobody wanted me! 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 that was left.” Ma eventually landed a teaching job at a local university that paid him only $12 or rather (K118) per month. +e was first introduced to the internet in 1995 when he visited the United States to be an interpreter for a trade delegation. When he searched the internet and couldn’t find anything about China he The brand didn¶t maNe any profit for the first three years, one of the company’s main challenges was that it had no way to do payments and no banks would work with them. Ma decided to start his own payment program called Alipay. The program transfers payments of different currencies between international buyers and sellers. “So many people I talked to at that time about Alipay said, ‘this is the stupidest idea you’ve ever had,'” he said. “I didn’t care if it was stupid as long as people could use it.” Today, over 800 million people use Alipay. Eventually the service started attracting members from all over the world. By October 1999, the company had raised $5 million from Goldman Sachs and $20 million from SoftBank. From that point the company has always kept growing. In its initial stages Ma said to a gathering of his employees: “We will make it because we are young and we never, never give up.” The biggest lesson Ma learned in his company’s journey was to never give up. Despite the challenges he had to go through, the following are some of the other lessons we can learn from Jack Ma. 1: Plan Out Your Life Jack suggests the following life stages: Before 20 years old be a good student. In your 20s, join a company with a good boss, where you can learn about business. In your 30s, branch out and do your own thing(s). In your 40s, focus on doing something you’re very good at. In your 50s, teach the young ones everything you’ve learned. In your 60s, spend time for yourself like at the beach and having a good time. 2. Be Positive, Don’t Worry In one interview Jack Ma said “I have been with so many great people across the world and the two qualities they all have in common is; they never complain and they are always optimistic about the future.” So don’t spend too much time worrying about your life but instead use that same energy to plan your future. According to Bible scholars, “Fear not” is the most repeated command in the Bible, It’s been said that there are 365 “Fear nots” in the bible,” Meaning for every single day of the year God wants us not to fear or worry because when you worry so much, you are scared to move forward. Use Every Opportunity Possible Before Jack Ma started Alibaba, he did a lot of different menial works to make a living. He used every opportunity available and because of this he was able to build Alibaba from a small startup business to one of the biggest companies in the world. Enjoy Life Jack Ma may seem to be a busy man but one of the things he loves to do is finding time to relax and appreciate life. He indicates that “we are not born to work but to enjoy life. If you spend your entire life working, you are bound to regret it.” Never Giving Up JacN 0a failed his final exams three times before finally passing. When he applied for college, he was rejected twice before the Huangzhou Normal University accepted him. After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in English, Jack applied to 30 jobs and was rejected from each one. He applied in the police academy. 2ut of five applicants, he was the only one cut from the group. He tried to apply to Harvard for a scholarship and was rejected 10 times. He tried entrepreneurship and it worked after years of trying other things and failing. Jack Ma indicates that giving up is the biggest failure. Every time you go out, try your best. If you fail to accomplish your goal but see the process to the end, then you are a success. Hardship is the best teacher and the key to fortune is understanding its lessons. Ignore The Naysayers A naysayer is someone who expresses contrary opinions and always speaks against something. You might have friends or family members who think you can’t amount to anything. Whatever you do, you must ignore the naysayers who are trying to bring you down or telling you it is impossible. :hen JacN 0a first introduced Alipay, People told him it was a stupid idea. Today, Alipay has overtaken PayPal as the world’s largest mobile payment platform and China has quickly become a country with paperless money transaction. So don’t let them tarnish your work or your dream because they can’t see it through. Jack Ma may have had many failures in his life but his tale to success is one a lot of us aspire towards to. Everything is possible; Just like Steve Jobs, Jack Ma became one of the biggest tech icons in the world without a single line of code to his name. For comments and contributions or if you have a question or topic you would like us to cover in this column, email me on slickmedia6@gmail.com. Text or Whatsapp +260977258265.
By Stanley Mwiinga