But how much does anyone really know about his amazing story of starting a small business in his one-room apartment to becoming one of the richest men in China?
If you don’t know what Alibaba is, imagine an online company that is more valuable than Facebook, combines the services of Amazon and Ebay and handles more merchandise than both of them combined.
When he applied for admission to the Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute, Ma failed the college entrance exam twice. He eventually graduated in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
He even applied to a job at KFC in Hangzhou, only to be rejected. Ma also started a translation company and when he discovered the internet, inspiring him to start his first legit business, China Yellow Pages. While it is regarded as China’s first internet-based company, China Yellow Pages was also a failure.
Ma wanted to learn English so badly that when he was 13, he would wake up at 5 a.m. and would ride his bike 45 minutes from where he lived in Hangzhou to the then Hangzhou Hotel just to talk to foreigners and take tourists sightseeing for free.
Although Jack Ma is now well known for his bold statements and dressing like a rock star, he wasn’t always that confident technology tycoon. When he first started Alibaba, back in 1999, he was a shy amateur with a dream who felt he could only stay in his company for four years before handing it over to a pro.
But he is leading it much more better and a example of never giving up on your dreams.
No comments:
Post a Comment