7 ways Jack Ma achieved game-changing success

7 ways Jack Ma achieved game-changing success

Alibaba CEO Jack Ma is one of our generation’s greatest iconoclasts, here are 7 quotes from his interview with Charlie Rose that explain how he got to the top

Jack Ma’s journey to the top is a Cinderella story through and through. While he excelled at learning languages, Ma did not fare well in math and it was those low marks on the Mathematics portion of China’s college exam that caused him to fail twice. The police force, Harvard University and Kentucky Fried Chicken were three other institutions that have also rejected Ma.

But it was specifically a background as peppered with failure that produced one of our generation’s greatest iconoclasts. Today, Ma’s startup turned e-commerce mega giant has raised the largest IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (US$25 billion) which values the company at approximately US$200 billion. According to Forbes, Ma is worth almost US$20 billion.

In an interview with Charlie Rose at the Davos World Economic Forum, Ma shared seven ways that he challenged the status quo, swam against the tide and did what others had deemed impossible.

1. He persevered after failing many times    

When I graduated from university — I applied to jobs 30 times, got rejected. I went to the police, they said you’re not good. Even when KFC came to China, 24 people went for the job, 23 got accepted — I was the only one not accepted. Applied to the police, 5 people went for the job, 4 people got accepted and I was the only one that got rejected….I also applied to Harvard 10 times and got rejected.

2. He learned skills in unconventional ways

When I was 12, I fell in love with the language. And there was no books to learn English at the time. I went to the Hangzhou Shangri-la, that was the hotel that can receive foreign visitors. Every morning for 9 years I showed them around as a free guide and they taught me English. I am 100% made in China. These western tourists opened my mind — everything they told me was so different from what I learned from school and from my parents.

3. He believed that trust is important above all

In the past 14 years, everything we do is building up the trust system. Today, people don’t trust each other — the government, the people, the media — everybody is like: ‘This guy is cheating.’ But because of e-commerce, today we finished 60 million transactions everyday. People don’t know each other but they send products to each other and wire money to each other… this is the trust. We have 60 million [examples of] trust everyday.

4. He took responsibility as a leader

I talked to the banks, no banks wanted to do it. If I launched a payment system, it’s against the financial legal laws because you have to have the license. But if I didn’t do it, ecommerce would go nowhere…. If the government isn’t happy about it and someone has to go to prison, Jack Ma will go to prison.’ Because it was so important for China and for the world to build up the trust system…. So many people I talked to about Alipay said: ‘This is the stupidest idea you’ve ever had.’ But I don’t care if it’s stupid or not, as long as people use it. Now 800 million people use Alipay.

5. He pushed on despite being called ‘crazy’

In 1999, 2000 in the Yahoo times — people said this Jack is crazy. He’s doing something we don’t understand. A lot of VCs gave you money because there is such an American model. But in Alibaba, we don’t see this kind of model. I remember my first time in TIME magazine, they called me ‘Crazy Jack’. I think crazy is good — we are crazy but we are not stupid. If everyone agreed with me and believed our idea is good, we have no chance.

6. He believed that balance is a virtue 

Taichi is a philosophy, a ying and a yang. It’s about how you balance. People say, you compete with eBay and I say – no I don’t compete with them … I use the Taichi philosophy in business: Calm down, there’s always a way out. Keep yourself balanced. Competition is fun — business is not like a battlefield. Even if you die, I might not win. Taichi gives me a lot of inspiration.

7. He hired a lot of women 

One of the secret source for Alibaba’s success, is that we have a lot of women… 47 per cent of our employees are women. 33 per cent of the senior management are women, and 24 per cent of the very top level management are women. I feel so comfortable working with them because women, in this world, if you want to win in the 21st century — you have to make sure to empower others. So I find that women think about others more than they think about themselves. And they’re also user friendly.