This success story covers the success of Jack Ma from his childhood,
Alibaba company is one of the biggest companies in the world which was founded by Jack Ma after a long struggle.
Jack Ma was born on 10 September 1964 in Hangzhou, China.
Hangzhou became a tourist spot where lots of tourists visit every day after the visit of US President Mr.Richard Nixon.
Jack Ma was very interested in learning English, so that time he used to work as a tour guide, not for money but to learn English. Jack Ma used to charge the tourist with a promise to teach him English on the tour.
Jack Ma got his name 'Jack' from a tourist friend who finds his name a little hard to pronounce. Jack Ma's real name is Ma Yun.
You can also read the story of Chris Gardner (Zero to Hero)
After passing out from school, Jack Ma appeared for the Gaokao Entrance Exam(Exam conducted for school passed students who opt to get admission in top & good colleges), on his 1st attempt he only scored 1 out of 120. So, after getting failure in the exam he started to deliver Magazines from a printing press to Hangzhou Railway Station.
After a while, he again appeared for Gaokao Entrance Exam, this time he scores 19 out of 120. So, he tried to get a job as a waiter in several Hotels, but he failed again.
Again he appeared for 3rd attempt of the Gaokao Entrance Exam, but this time he passed and secured admission to Hangzhou Teacher's Institute and completed his Bachelor's degree in English.
After graduating he applied for several jobs, but still got rejected.
After a while he got a job as an English Teacher, also he is very passionate about teaching and done teaching for several years.
Because he was an English Teacher with good English speaking and writing skills, he gains popularity in Hangzhou which later leads him to make Alibaba. The government of Hangzhou is dealing with an issue with American companies, so they need a person with fluent English and Jack Ma's Teacher's degree and popularity in Hangzhou made a road towards his dreams. Jack Ma accepted the offer of the government and visits the US to deal with the company, and there he got to know about the things that change his life.
There he got to know about the internet. When he searched Chinese businesses on the internet, he finds out only a few are mentioned and from there he realized business opportunities.
He created a website named ChinaPages.com for his new business in which he will list out local business in China on the internet, basically, it's a business directory but he failed again because of high internet costs and less knowledge of the internet to people.
Now, after 2 businesses he moved for a job again and got a job in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Corporation where he helped small businesses.
The things changed when the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Corporation launched its own government e-commerce website ChinaMarket.com where small and various business can list their products on the website. Jack Ma realized that the government can't handle e-commerce because of delays in decision making and financial problems.
So, taking it as an opportunity Jack Ma started his own e-commerce company named Alibaba.com in 1999 because at that time in China the internet is easily available and also affordable.
The idea of the name Alibaba came from Alibaba and 40 thieves, also he knew that whole Asia knew about this name and easily relatable.
For the investment of Alibaba he approached his apartment's 17 friends and shared his idea to them, they immediately agreed to the investment and started to work on Alibaba.
In the beginning, he faced difficulty with attracting businesses, so he approached the businesses individually and managed to list them on his website. In October 1999, he raised $5 Million from Goldman Sachs and in 2000 he raised $20 Million from SoftBank which leads to a successful investment to SoftBank because in 2014 the investment became $60 Billion.
In 2003, Alibaba was one of the loss-making company, so Jack Ma entered in B2C business named Taobao.com. Lots of investors suggested Jack Ma not to go that way, but Jack Ma stand strong on his decision.
Alibaba company is one of the biggest companies in the world which was founded by Jack Ma after a long struggle.
 |
Jack Ma was born on 10 September 1964 in Hangzhou, China.
Hangzhou became a tourist spot where lots of tourists visit every day after the visit of US President Mr.Richard Nixon.
Jack Ma was very interested in learning English, so that time he used to work as a tour guide, not for money but to learn English. Jack Ma used to charge the tourist with a promise to teach him English on the tour.
Jack Ma got his name 'Jack' from a tourist friend who finds his name a little hard to pronounce. Jack Ma's real name is Ma Yun.
You can also read the story of Chris Gardner (Zero to Hero)
His failures
His family's financial conditions are not well at that time, so his parents wanted him to do a job as soon as possible.After passing out from school, Jack Ma appeared for the Gaokao Entrance Exam(Exam conducted for school passed students who opt to get admission in top & good colleges), on his 1st attempt he only scored 1 out of 120. So, after getting failure in the exam he started to deliver Magazines from a printing press to Hangzhou Railway Station.
After a while, he again appeared for Gaokao Entrance Exam, this time he scores 19 out of 120. So, he tried to get a job as a waiter in several Hotels, but he failed again.
Again he appeared for 3rd attempt of the Gaokao Entrance Exam, but this time he passed and secured admission to Hangzhou Teacher's Institute and completed his Bachelor's degree in English.
After graduating he applied for several jobs, but still got rejected.
After a while he got a job as an English Teacher, also he is very passionate about teaching and done teaching for several years.
 |
| Source: Google / cnbc.com |
His business
In the 1990s, Jack Ma saw an opportunity in businesses when in Hangzhou the businesses struggling for import and export deals because of English. So, Jack Ma started his first business of Translation i.e. Haibo Translation Agency. He got a good output in the starting days, but after some time his business failed.Because he was an English Teacher with good English speaking and writing skills, he gains popularity in Hangzhou which later leads him to make Alibaba. The government of Hangzhou is dealing with an issue with American companies, so they need a person with fluent English and Jack Ma's Teacher's degree and popularity in Hangzhou made a road towards his dreams. Jack Ma accepted the offer of the government and visits the US to deal with the company, and there he got to know about the things that change his life.
There he got to know about the internet. When he searched Chinese businesses on the internet, he finds out only a few are mentioned and from there he realized business opportunities.
He created a website named ChinaPages.com for his new business in which he will list out local business in China on the internet, basically, it's a business directory but he failed again because of high internet costs and less knowledge of the internet to people.
 |
| Source: Google / childhoodbiography.com |
Now, after 2 businesses he moved for a job again and got a job in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Corporation where he helped small businesses.
The things changed when the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Corporation launched its own government e-commerce website ChinaMarket.com where small and various business can list their products on the website. Jack Ma realized that the government can't handle e-commerce because of delays in decision making and financial problems.
So, taking it as an opportunity Jack Ma started his own e-commerce company named Alibaba.com in 1999 because at that time in China the internet is easily available and also affordable.
The idea of the name Alibaba came from Alibaba and 40 thieves, also he knew that whole Asia knew about this name and easily relatable.
For the investment of Alibaba he approached his apartment's 17 friends and shared his idea to them, they immediately agreed to the investment and started to work on Alibaba.
In the beginning, he faced difficulty with attracting businesses, so he approached the businesses individually and managed to list them on his website. In October 1999, he raised $5 Million from Goldman Sachs and in 2000 he raised $20 Million from SoftBank which leads to a successful investment to SoftBank because in 2014 the investment became $60 Billion.
In 2003, Alibaba was one of the loss-making company, so Jack Ma entered in B2C business named Taobao.com. Lots of investors suggested Jack Ma not to go that way, but Jack Ma stand strong on his decision.
Patience and consistency is the key to success.In two years i.e 2005 Taobao holds 70% of the market share in the whole China. Taobao is progressing that much well that its competitor eBay left China in 2006 with no business opportunity.
 |
| Source: Google / licenseglobal.com |
He fails with -1% luck
- When KFC first introduced to China's Hangzhou, 24 people went for a job and 23 were selected but only Jack Ma rejected.
- When he and his cousins went for an interview for a hotel job, his cousins got selected and he rejected.
- He also went for an interview for Police and got rejected as there were 5 applicants and 4 got the job.
Lessons we can learn from his failure:-
- Never Stop Trying.
- Treat Every Opportunity as an open door.
- Make an attitude to face Everything thrown to you.
0 Comments