Jack Ma In this success post, we are going to share the story of Jack Ma, a Chinese entrepreneur and founder of Alibaba Group, which owns a variety of online businesses. Before founding Alibaba, Ma was faced with one rejection after another and got used to being told he was not good enough.
Today, Jack Ma’s net worth is around $44 billion. And for a guy who was told he was never good enough, becoming one of the richest people in the world has proven them wrong.
Jack Ma Early Life
Jack Ma was born on the 10th of September 1964 in Hangzhou, China. At a young age, Jack was very interested in learning English and went to great lengths to improve his skills.
In fact, he would ride his bicycle 70 minutes a day and back to Hangzhou international hotel in order to converse with tourists. Ma also started offering free tours across the city in exchange for English lessons.
When it came to college, Ma struggled to pass the entrance exams. They are only held once a year in China, and it took him a grand total of 4 years to pass. Moreover, he graduated from Hangzhou Teacher Institute and became an English teacher, where he was only paid a very small wage.
Jack Ma Career
Jack Ma applied for many different jobs; moreover, he got rejected by all of them. When KFC first came to China, 24 people applied for manager positions, and 23 were accepted. Ma was the only person who applied that was not accepted for the job.
He also applied ten times to Harvard University and was rejected every single time.
In the year 1995, Ma head about the Internet introduction when he was in the United States. He started doing some searching and noticed that China’s web appearance was lacking in certain areas in comparison to the rest of the world.
This is when he created the first website with his friends and got various people to invest in the venture. Jack Ma founded Alibaba in 1999 and asked 17 of his friends to invest in the venture. Since then, it has become the biggest online marketplace in China and has turned Jack Ma into one of the richest people across the globe.
3 Success Lessons from Jack Ma
Now you know all about the Jack Ma net worth and how he achieved success, so here are three success lessons we can all learn from the Jack Ma.
1. Grow from Rejection
Anybody being the only person to be rejected from the KFC out of 24 applicants would likely be discouraged. Discouraged from even bothering to try again, demotivated to find success in life.
Jack Ma did not take it that way. Instead, he continued to try again and again. He knew that you have to fall many times to finally find your feet.
2. Don’t Let People Get You Down
When you are told you are not good enough, it is a horrible feeling; Ma was been phased by this. He kept on living his life and looking for new opportunities. Which eventually led him to find the internet and found Alibaba.
3. Go to Extreme Lengths to Improve Your Knowledge
Ma dedication to learning English when he was younger has become an irreplaceable skill later in life. The lengths he went to be in order to improve his knowledge had a big impact on his ability to carry out his Alibaba vision later on.
Not only that, but this work ethic ensured Alibaba would be a success. He brought the same effort to learn about the internet, as he did learning English.
Also Read: Ma Huateng Biography: Success Story of Tencent CEO
