Inspiring Story of Alibaba- Jack Ma
This is a must to read story for an entrepreneur and also a worth to read story for everyone seeking inspiration. You may have heard about Alibaba.com, the biggest e-commerce website in China which has break down many records of selling products through e-commerce website. Here we will talk about the founder of the Alibaba.com, Jack Ma. The success story of Jack Ma is one of the best inspiring story. A story that will tell you that fails will come and come again in life, but one day you will defeat every reason of failure and will be successful. It is not fictional story of a hero, it is a story of a real life hero who won every reason of failure and tasted the huge success. This story can inspire you in your darkest day. So, let’s explore his journey.
Early days
Ma Yun a.k.a Jack Ma was born on October 15, 1964, in Hangzhou, which is located in the south-eastern part of China. He was born and raised during the rise of communist China which was going on isolation from the Western regions, countries. He has an elder brother and a younger sister. His parents were traditional Musicians – Storytellers. His family was poor and doesn’t earn enough that they can be considered as middle class family. He was a normal child, he liked collecting crickets (an insect) and making them fights.
After the visit of the US president Richard Nixon in 1972, his home-town changed and became a tourist place. As he wanted to learn English, he started giving English tours to foreigners for free. His name was difficult to spell therefore a foreign girl gave him the nickname ‘Jack’. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English and after that worked as
Too Many Rejections but still a Winner
In his early childhood, list of rejections started. Jack Ma failed in his Primary School examinations, not only once but he failed thrice in school. After passing his high school, when he applied to universities he failed entrance exams three times. And finally he joined Hangzhou Normal University. He also applied for Harvard University ten times and got rejected each time. Ok, this is still in his education and many of us will lose hope and leave education at this level. But as I said he is a winner.
During and after the graduation, Jack applied for job at multiple places and got rejected. He said that there are 30 times he got rejected and failed to get a job. A notable experience he shared in his interview was – “When KFC came to China, 24 people went for the job. Twenty-three people were accepted. I was the only guy who wasn’t.” He also applied for job in Police and among the 5 applicants, he is the only one rejected. In his start-ups also, two his initial ventures failed.
This number of rejections can broke many of us in life, but one who can overcome all of these is real winner and that was Jack Ma, a winner.
Starting Alibaba
When Jack Ma visited US in 1995, he came across the computers and internet. Computers were pretty rare in China at that time. When he searched for ‘Beer’ he got many results but not relating to China, he searched for China and he again didn’t get any results, and there he got idea and decided that he will put China on the internet.
First in 1995, Jack Ma with his some friends started their first company by investing US 20,000, named ‘China Yellow Pages”. The company was dedicated to creating websites for companies. Within three years, his company made up to US $800,000. After that, Jack Ma headed an information technology company. But in 1999, he quit his job and returned to his town Hangzhou for his new startup company, Alibaba.
Then after making a team with his 17 friends, he started his e-commerce startup – Alibaba. The company started from his apartment in 1999 with his own investments. Later company received an investment of $20 Million from Soft Bank and then the growth of Alibaba group was unstoppable. In 1999 they received an another $5 Million from Goldman Sachs. After that Alibaba established Taobao.com – a C2C market place. After that with a funding of $82 million they launched instant messaging tool – Aliwangwang and online payment platform – Alipay. The company became so much popular and benefited greatly from the strict internet – controlling polices of its home country, China.
Then the company continuously climbed the growth ladder, in 2005 Alibaba partnershipped with the Yahoo. In 2005, the World Economic Forum selected Ma as “Young Global Leader”. In 2009,Time magazine featured Jack Ma as one of the world’s 100 most powerful people. In 2014, Jack Ma was ranked as the 30th most powerful person in the world by Forbes. In 19 years, from 1999 the company has a worldwide popularity and has become biggest e-commerce company in China with a net worth of $527 billion in 2018. Jack Ma is the richest person in China. Alibaba is worth more than Faceboo, and processes goods more than eBay and Amazon combined.
So, this is the one of the most inspiring story of any businessman, Jack Ma who got too many rejections in life but he changed everything. For reading more inspiring startup stories, stay connected with us, just register with us. Have a good day!
Informative 🔥