We have all heard how failures are the stepping stones to success. But do we believe that enough? Today’s real life story of a man who believed it throughout his life will inspire you to get up ‘n’ number of times no matter how big the failure.
Jack Ma, a chinese businessman, is someone who inspires millions across the globe today. Born on 10th of September, 1964, this 56 years old had an extremely tough life. He wasn’t born to a rich dad or family providing good facilities. Yet, he never chose to compromise on the things he wanted to do.
As a young kid, Jack Ma had always been curious about english language. He wanted to learn it really well and fluently. So, what did he do? Everyday, he would meet tons of foreigners to learn english in return for being their tour guide. He would stick to this habit no matter what. Be it winters or chilly summers, he would cycle for 27 kms to get to the spot where he could meet tourists everyday.
Fun fact: Jack Ma’s original name is Ma Yun but some foreign friends of his named him Jack to make it easy. He became such good friends to some that they even invited him outside of China. And this is how he witnessed a different lifestyle with different possibilities.
Jack Ma always wanted to study in the great of all- Harvard Business School. But rejections were with him in every phase of life. He was rejected each time he applied for it which makes it in total of 10 times! Even in life, he went in for different jobs and got rejected in most of them due to some or other reason.
In times like these, all of us lose faith, hope and courage. But Jack stated in one of his interviews that he was always optimistic about his future. He has seen this quality in the greatest of greats and he wants everyone to believe in it. Optimism can take anyone to
places. Even after many people told him that he won’t be able to make it big, he believed he would. And soon, he did.
Jack Ma was rejected 30 times at various jobs. But he still chose to try something else each time. After all this hustle, he went on in 1994 to launch his own company named “Hangzhou Haibo Translation Agency”. He went on with this due to his fascination regarding the newly hyped internet world then. Jack never stopped after this.
He went on to launch a website called “ugly” after he became aware of the fact that China isn’t well known outside the country during his visit to the US. And soon in a few hours, he got several emails by investors who were ready to invest right there itself.
After this, he launched “China Pages” in the United States and just in a few years, the company had a worth of over 800000 US dollars. He launched several websites for chinese businesses. And soon in the year 1999, he launched “Alibaba” only to make it a historic business soon. Even during “Alibaba”, he was told it won’t go big. But Jack knew he had something in the store for him as stated by him in another interview.
By this time, failure had hit him multiple times and rejections had hit him hundreds of times. Hence, he knew he is not afraid to fail again and he kept on moving. Soon, “Alibaba” got a huge number of investments, including foreign investments and went ahead to becoming one of the biggest online trading sites. Even after this, Jack Ma knew no limits.
He went ahead to launch Alipay, Lynx, Taobao, Ali Mama and more. He is one of the richest men alive today and it's only because he chose to.
Takeaway:
Life has been hard on all of us. How and what we make out of it is all that separates us from an ordinary life. Jack Ma, a businessman rejected for more than the times anyone would have ever been, believed he could make it big. With a mindset of the greats, he reached numerous heights of success and today stands as a pioneer of it.
I have read about Jack Ma and consider him a great entrepreneur. I especially liked the fact that he founded a translation agency. Chinese is very difficult. Therefore, I turned to the site www.translate.com/english-chinese_simplified for help when I needed to translate documents before flying to Beijing. A dictionary would not help me in that situation. I received the correct translation of my documentation within the agreed time frame.