Tag Archives: Jack Ma

The Value of Honour – Jack Ma


Mr Jack Ma, Founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, specially recorded this video for the Honour International Symposium, which was held from 19-20 May 2016 in Singapore

English Transcript | 中文副本

Greetings everyone!
It is a special honour to be invited to the symposium. However, due to work conflicts, I regret that I cannot attend and partake in the insightful discussions. However, I have a special interest in today’s topic and have many thoughts to share and discuss as well as to learn from you all. In this regard I would like to pay special thanks to the symposium organizers for allowing me the opportunity to show my video.
At first, I questioned both my English and Chinese language abilities as I could not precisely translate “Honour” to Chinese. In the end, I was relieved when I learned many of you also had trouble translating the meaning of this word into Chinese. In fact, when you carefully consider the meaning of “Honour” and the principles it embodies it has been ingrained in Chinese people for thousands of years and has also been deeply embedded in the “bones” of Chinese people around the world.
Chinese have long understood that in order to do things completely you must complete certain tasks first. As a first step, China took to thoroughly considering and understanding the meaning of compassion, justice, courtesy and wisdom before realizing the past two thousand years of glory, politics, culture, art, and economics. Each of these areas have been great achievements for China.
Over the past 800 years the rise in China’s GDP ranked first in the world. “The Analects of Confucius” is only 11,000 characters long, only taking the space of one page of a newspaper today, but this important literary work has influenced and guided China for 2,000 years. Similarly, today’s symposium represents a topic of equal importance because the next 2,000 years of human development also needs our influence and guidance.
I believe that Singapore has set an example for the Chinese-speaking world and I fully agree with the beliefs of the Singapore government, the level of development that it has achieved today and its international status but the most important factor is its steadfast commitment to “Honour” and everything that it includes: respect, righteousness, integrity, responsibility, etc.
When I first started doing business, I asked my wife if she would rather have a husband that is rich or one that has values and is well respected. She replied, of course have values and be respected. Because at that time, most people did not believe I could make money.
In the past, I did not look highly on businessmen. Furthermore, I believed the societal value created by businessmen was very limited. However, after I had my own business, I realized that if you want to last long and be successful your daily considerations and analyses should have nothing to do with money. Decisions that are made related to money are not strategic. Instead, the decisions that aren’t made based on profit and instead made based on values are actually the truly strategic ones. Hence, I have always believed that a good finance director would not make a good chairman because a good finance director is always thinking about money. People that have money fully occupying their mind have difficulties in doing good things and have difficulty in being good friends.
I realized that if you want to last long and be successful your daily considerations and analyses should have nothing to do with money.
When Alibaba was founded, we were in a very difficult situation. We had nothing. Nobody believed in what we did. Everyone said we were crazy people or cheaters but what actually allowed us to survive? Was it money? In fact, we had no money. Was it resources? We had no resources. Was it human talent? In fact, our human talent all ran away when they saw our situation. In fact, what we had were our values. Our values included: customers first, team spirit, and integrity. And when you look at these areas they appear empty and worthless. When Alibaba first started, we were really poor. But we believed in the future development of the internet. We had a dream of creating a future. We had our own values for doing business.
We started out by helping Chinese foreign trade companies with their overseas orders, charging them annual fees. But after a year had passed, these companies’ transaction value did not even exceed their annual fees to us. Our staff felt heart broken and felt like they let their clients down. During the end of year’s visit, our staff spoke to them with honesty: Ecommerce will have a great future but results may not be instant. Perhaps you can get a refund and not sign up next year.’ What resulted instead was that our clients encouraged our young employees. “It takes time and training for foreign clients to migrate online. Your considerations of our business have earned our belief and trust.” There have been many similar companies and even from over ten years ago until now they remain Alibaba’s clients.
After ten plus years of building businesses, my most profound thought is that, as a businessman, the most important decision to determine a company’s destiny has nothing to do with money. Many people have asked me, “Jack why are you so capable Jack?” I said, in fact I’m not very capable, it’s just that we are lucky. Other people have said, “Jack, you are so lucky and succeed every time.” I don’t feel like this is the case. In fact, our success was due to right choices we made. Alibaba has grown to this point today because we made a few critical choices.
The first case was in 2002 when the internet bubble burst, Alibaba had to survive. During that time the company was in a difficult situation but we set a goal of making $1 profit. At that time if we didn’t make any profit we would die and the most painful issue was in order to win website design business we had to offer bribes. So we held an all-day meeting in Hangzhou. We understood that if we offered bribes we could survive but if we didn’t our company would likely die. I remember that day we met until 4pm and finally decided we would never offer bribes. We would rather close down the company. We would not operate without integrity. We would rather together find new jobs and continue to maintain integrity.
In 2002, because we maintained our integrity, we started to make a profit. After we started to make profit we discovered during our end of year review that two employees accounted for over 60% of the entire group’s sales. And we discovered these two employees were giving kickbacks, commissions, and bribes. So what should we do? If we fire them immediately, the company will not have profit. If we do not kick these two employees out then what does this say about us? It would imply that our words are empty so in the end we decided to let these two employees go. “Do not bribe”, this rule is written into Alibaba’s employee code of conduct. Employees that violate this rule are immediately expelled.
After Alibaba became a large company, bribes started to flow the other way around. We set new rules that forbid employees to take bribes. We have billions worth of procurement contracts every year. In our contracts we include this sentence: “Thank you for doing business with us. We hope that in our future business interactions our employees cannot ask for bribes and you will not offer us bribes. If we discover any such related problems, our group will never do business with you.” This is written in our contracts.
Today, Alibaba employees are well respected in the community. This isn’t because our business has grown large but rather the result of the many codes of conduct our employees follow. In many places, our employees are warmly welcomed. But our employees are not allowed to accept free car rides or meals. Small gifts, even a piece of candy is sent back. Otherwise the employee’s value score will be very low, and even be subject to penalties.
There was one time when I sat in a salesperson training session. The training instructor was speaking about how to sell hair combs to monks. After listening for five minutes, I got extremely angry and expelled the instructor. I thought the instructor was a cheater because monks do not need combs in the first place. So to sell a product to a client that doesn’t need it is deceptive and not skill-based sales. This practice was a significant challenge to our values.
The second choice we made at Alibaba was Alipay. As soon as we launched Taobao it quickly became very popular. However, many users communicated online without transactions actually occurring due to the lack of trust between strangers.
People were not willing to provide payment in advance and no one was willing to ship merchandise first. Our biggest problem was to solve this transaction problem.
That year I participated in the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos with the intent to find a solution to this problem. Instead, I discovered that all the businessmen were discussing corporate social responsibility. During my time at Davos, I suddenly realized that if we wanted to develop e-commerce in China, we needed to do something that had true value, something that would promote societal development. Without it we will never succeed. To do something like this requires tremendous responsibility. Without it, we will not be able to get anything done.
The lack of development in China’s ecommerce was due to one missing piece—a mechanism that could facilitate trust between people.
I believe that Alipay is the mechanism that can fulfil this gap. That same night at Davos, I called my friends and colleagues. I said, “Immediately, right now. Let’s create this product, let’s launch Alipay.” I understand the regulatory risks associated with creating Alipay in China, and if someone needs to go to jail for this product, I will go.
China is a country that has valued credibility and integrity. Confucius has said, “Every day, I self-reflect on three issues.” During ancient times people self-reflected on three issues a day, two of these three issues are related to sincerity and honesty: did I try my best in helping others and did I keep my word when engaging with friends. Chinese value credibility but lacks a system of trust. If Alipay wants to have value in China it must establish a trust system.
Today, Alibaba has built a trust system in China: users provide reviews, Alipay facilities transactions, and all the actions taken on our platform is data which helps inform credibility and credit ratings.
Only with this system, would it be possible for users to send strangers money and merchandise solely based on a picture and a few sentences posted online.
Today, we have millions of daily visitors on our site. Sometimes an order can represent a diamond worth several hundred thousands or a car worth millions. A few days ago, we sold 100 Mercedes-Benz in only 25 seconds. As a result, without this trust system, these transactions would be nearly impossible. What makes us most proud today is not how many products we sold but rather the trust system Alibaba has built. We proved to everyone in a commercial manner how much trust is worth. We built a system of trust. We are also a beneficiary of the system. This system provides the foundation for Alibaba to achieve $500 billion in sales during our fiscal year. The power of honour is tremendous.
If the past 30 years of China’s development relied on its advantage in population size and the relatively low price of labour. Then in the coming years China should not look to rely on having cheaper products but instead rely on the trust or honour between people. If there is a significant human potential that has not been realized I believe mutual trust and credibility is the biggest undiscovered fortune. Only when we pay attention and care about “Honour” will we “Honour” ourselves. I believe it is only then that we can earn other people’s “Honour.”
Many thanks to the symposium organizers for inviting me, and I am very sorry that I was not able to be here personally for the meetings. Congratulations to everyone here. Thank you all!

中文副本 | English Transcript

大家好!
很荣幸得到大会的邀请。非常遗憾因为工作的原因,我不能来到现场,加入大家的讨论。不过我对今天的话题特别感兴趣。有很多话想说,想和大家交流,也向大家学习。所以也要得别感谢大会给我这个视频的机会。
一开始我对自己的英文和中文都产生了怀疑。因为我发现在汉语里很难准确的找到一个词,这个“Honour”这个词的汉文。后来我知道你们中间,原来也有很多人其实跟我一样,也不是很能够找到这个词的真真确确的含义,我就很放心了。
其实仔细想想“Honour”的内涵,它包涵的道理,已经陪伴中国人几千年了,也深入到了世界上各个角落华人的骨髓。?
中国人很早就明白,要做成事,什么东西才是第一位的?
中国是先把仁、义、礼、智、信这些道理都想明白了,想彻底了,才有了后面两千年的辉煌。
政治、文化、艺术、经济,每一样都非常了不起。
中国曾经有八百年的GDP是在全世界排第一的,论语才11000多字,也就只有今天报纸的一个版面,但是一下子就影响并治理了中国两千多年,所以我知道今天的大会非常的重要,因为我们要管好接下来人类发展的两千年的文明。
新加坡给华人世界做了一个表率,我非常赞同新加坡政府所相信的,新加坡能够有今天的发展、今天的国际地位,最重要的是坚守了“Honour”所包含的东西,就是:尊重、正义、诚信、责任、担当等等。
我刚开始做生意的时候,问我太太,你希望你的丈夫将来是很有钱,还是很受人尊重?她回答说,当然是受人尊重。
因为很多人那个时候认为我不会赚钱,我以前也看不起商人,我也认为无商不奸,而且商人创造的社会价值非常有限,等我自己做了企业以后,我才明白,其实一个企业家要做得久,做得好,他每天考虑的大部分事情都应该跟钱没有关系,跟钱有关的都不是战略性的,不以利益为出发点的战略决策才是真正的庙堂之策。
所以我一直相信一个好的财务总监很难做好董事长,因为好的财务总监脑子里全部都是钱。脑子里全是钱的人,是很难做好事情,很难做好朋友。
阿里巴巴一开始那么难,什么都没有,没有人相信我们要做的事情,人人都说我们是疯子、是骗子,但究竟是什么让我们这个企业活下来?是钱吗?其实我们根本没有钱;是资源吗?我们也没有资源。 是人才吗?其实人才跑到我们公司看到这个状况都跑了。
我们其实有的是价值观,我们有的是客户第一、团队精神、诚信,而这些东西看起来都很虚,很不值钱。
阿里巴巴一开始,其实我们真的非常穷,但是我们有对互联网发展的信念,我们有对创建未来的梦想,我们有自己做事的价值观。
刚开始的时候,我们帮助外贸企业在网上接出口订单,每年收外贸企业的年费,但是一年下来,交易额还不如他们交的年费多。我们的员工,心里觉得很过意不去,觉得很对不起人家,年底客户走访的时候,就老老实实跟对方说,电子商务这个东西将来会很好,但是没有那么立竿见影,要不你们就退钱,明年别再签了。
结果我们的客户反过来会鼓励我们的年轻人,说外贸客户要从传统渠道到网上来,那是需要时间、需要培养,您既然这么为我们着想,我们相信你们。
所以很多这样的公司十多年了,到现在还是阿里巴巴的客户。这十多年创业走过来,最深的一个感触,就是一个企业家做的最重要的选择,决定公司命运的选择,基本上都是跟钱无关的选择。有很多人说,马云你为什么那么厉害?其实我说不是我们厉害,也是我们运气好。但也有人说,马云你怎么运气这么好,每次都能成功?我觉得也不是那样,其实是我们做的选择比较正确一点而已。
阿里巴巴发展到今天,确实有几次关键性的选择:
第一次是阿里巴巴要活下来,2002年互联网泡沫破灭,那时候公司非常艰难,但我们提出了必须要盈利1块钱,那时候不盈利我们就死掉了,那时最痛苦的一件事情就是帮人家做互联网的网页,你必须要给贿赂,不给贿赂,人家就不和你做生意,所以我们在杭州开会讨论了一天,如果给别人贿赂我们就有可能活着;如果我们不给别人贿赂,我们就可能死掉了。直到下午4点多,我记得那天,我们决定,我们永远不给别人贿赂,永远不行贿,宁可公司关了,我们不做这家公司,我们一起再去找工作,也必须要坚持诚信的底线。
到了2002年我们居然那年因为坚持了自己的诚信底线,开始赚钱了,赚钱以后呢,我们看了下年终,我们发现有两个员工,他们两个人的业绩就超过了我们整个集团销售团队的60%,而这两个人我们发现是给人佣金了,给人贿赂了,你说怎么办?如果把这两个人当即开除,那么公司就不赚钱了;如果不开除这两个员工,那么意味着什么,意味着我们所讲的一切都是虚话,所以我们最后的决定还是开除了这两个员工,不贿赂,直到现在都写在阿里巴巴的员工守则里,谁要是触犯了,我们就会立刻开除。
阿里巴巴做大以后,行贿这个事情倒过来了,我们规定不准员工拿贿赂,我们一年内有几个亿几十亿的采购,我们在合同里写了这一句话:感谢您跟我们做生意,我们希望跟您未来在做生意的过程中,我们的员工不能向您索要贿赂,您也绝对不允许给我们一分钱的贿赂,如果我们发现有任何这样的问题,我们公司集团内将永不跟您做生意。这是我们在合同上写好的。
现在阿里巴巴员工走出去,是很受人尊敬的。这个不是因为我们生意做大了,而是我们的员工有很多的规矩,现在很多地方接待我们是很热情的,但是我们的员工,不能让别人的车来接,不能吃人家请的饭,拿一颗糖都要送回去,不然他的价值观打分就会很低,甚至会受到处罚。后来有一次,我们销售人员在培训,我去看了下,发现培训老师在讲怎么样把梳子卖给和尚,我听了5分钟,我非常生气,就把这个培训老师给开除了,因为我觉得是骗子,因为和尚本来就不需要梳子。
把产品卖给那些不需要这个产品的客户,我认为这就是骗术而不是销售之术,这对我们的价值观是巨大的挑战。
阿里巴巴做的第二个选择,是支付宝。淘宝建立起来的时候很快就非常热闹、非常火。但是网上咨询的很多,没有交易,因为没有人相信陌生人,谁也不愿意先把钱付出去,谁也不愿意把货先付出去。如何解决交易的问题,是我们最大的问题。
那一年我刚好去了达沃斯,我想去找到如何完成这样一个交易的目的和方法。但是后来我发现,所有的企业家都在那里谈论着企业的社会责任。我在达沃斯的时候突然想明白了,如果我们要在中国发展电子商务,我们必须去做一件真正有价值的事情,去真正推动社会的进步,真正的去创造独特的价值,不然我们永远发展不起来。而要做到这一点,需要有巨大的担当,没有担当,任何事情都不可能做成,中国电子商务发展不起来,就是缺少一个让人和人之间建立信任的东西,而这个东西,我觉得就应该由支付宝来解决。
当天晚上我在达沃斯打电话给我的朋友和同事,我说立刻现在马上去做这个产品,启动支付宝这个产品,如果说因为这个产品要去坐牢那就是我去。其实中国一直是一个讲诚信的国家,吾日三省吾身,古人每天反省自己的三件事,有两件事关乎诚信:为人办事有没有尽力;与朋友相交是否守信用。中国讲诚信但是中国缺乏诚信体系,支付宝在中国要有价值,就必须建立这么一个诚信的体系。
现在阿里巴巴在中国建立了一个诚信体系,用户给你评价,支付宝帮助你交易,最后你的一切痕迹都是数据,而数据留下来,产生了强大的信用。有了这套体系,你才有可能在网上只凭一张图片和几句介绍,就可以向陌生人付钱,向陌生人寄出商品。
我们现在每天有上亿人次的点击,有时候一单生意就是几十万的钻石,上百万的汽车。前几天我们用了25秒钟卖出了100辆奔驰,所以没有诚信体系,这一切几乎全不可能。
今天我们最骄傲的不是阿里巴巴卖出了多少商品,而是阿里巴巴建设了一个诚信的体系,用商业的方法向所有人证明了诚信值多少钱,我们建造了一套诚信的体系,我们自己也是这个体系的受益者,这是阿里巴巴一个财年为什么能够实现5000亿美元销售的基石,诚信的力量是巨大的,如果说中国过去三十年的发展,依靠的是人口红利,是廉价劳动力,那么接下来,中国可以依靠不是货品与货品之间的差价,而是人与人之间的互信。如果说人类还有什么红利没有被发掘的话,那我相信,信任、互信是最大的未开发财富,我们也只有自己关注,care这个“Honour”,只有自己“Honour”自己,我相信才能赢得别人对你的“Honour”。
所以感谢大会的邀请,很遗憾没有机会来参与这个大会,在这儿向大家表示祝贺,谢谢大家!
See Related:
Advice from Jack Ma on Life and Entrepreneurship
Jack Ma advice on how to be successful in Life
Jack Ma’s vision for Alibaba

Jack Ma's vision for Alibaba

Jack Ma’s Original Sales Pitch in 1999

English Transcript
Today, we are all here to discuss what we should do in the next five to ten years. So, what will Alibaba become in the future? Since we were working on China Pages, I’ve always said our competitors are not domestic websites, but overseas websites. Our competitors are not in China, but in America’s Silicon Valley.
So first, we should position Alibaba as a global website, not just a domestic website. Second, we need to learn the hard working spirit of Silicon Valley. If we go to work at 8am and go home at 5pm, this is not a high tech company, and Alibaba will never be successful. If we have that kind of 8am-to-5pm spirit, then we should just go and do something else.
Americans are strong at hardware and systems. But on information and software, Chinese brains are just as good as theirs. All of our brains are just as good as theirs. This is the reason we dare to compete with Americans. If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat ten of them. We can beat government agencies and big famous companies because of our innovative spirit. Otherwise, what is the difference between us and them?
Everybody knows the Internet is a bubble that keeps getting bigger and bigger. But when will it burst? Yahoo’s stock will fall and eBay’s stock will rise and maybe after eBay’s stock rises, Alibaba’s stock will rise. So don’t worry. The dream of the Internet won’t burst. We will have to pay painful price in the next 3 to 5 years. It is the only way we can succeed. So, the goal is Alibaba will IPO in 2002.
Chinese Transcript
而今天我想把大家请过来,跟大家共同探讨以后至少五年十年我们要做的事情。那么阿里巴巴我们将做成什么样? 我想从黄页的时候我就提过,黄页所要瞄准的对象不是国内站而是国际站,我们所有的竞争对手不在于中国,而在美国的硅谷。
如果说第一,我们把阿里巴巴定位就把它作为国际站点,我们不要把它定位国内站点。第二个呢我想就是我们要学会硅谷的那种拼劲,如果我们是早上八点钟上 班,五点钟下班,这个不是搞高科技,这个绝对不是我们阿里巴巴的精神,如果说我们以这种精神反正我上班八点钟上班,五点钟就下班了,赶紧去其他地方。
人家美国人强就强在硬件,强就强在他的系统就是这个这方面确实比我们高,但是玩信息玩软的,中国脑袋决不比别人差。我们在座的所有人的脑袋绝不比任 何人差。这就是我们敢跟美国人斗的机会,我们绝对敢斗,如果我们是好的Team好的团队,我们自己知道我们想做什么,我们想干点什么的时候,我相信我们是 可以一当十的。我们能够赢政府机构,我们能够赢其他很多的民营企业,大的企业的时候,凭的我们的精神,我们一手的创新概念,以及我们这种拼劲才能去斗,否则的话,跟他们什么区别呢?
谁都知道Internet是个泡沫,我刚才讲的危机感,就是Internet这个泡沫就越来越大,什么时候破,雅虎的股票掉了,eBay的股票会涨,有一天eBay的股票涨了后,阿里巴巴的胜出的股票涨,所以不要担心。我觉得Internet这个梦不会破,这个泡沫不会破,我们为后面的三五年所付出的代价是非常惨痛。只有这样惨痛的代价,才会赢得我们未来的取得成功,那么目标是2002年,阿里巴巴上市。
See Related:
Advice from Jack Ma on Life and Entrepreneurship
Jack Ma advice on how to be successful in Life
The Value of Honour – Jack Ma

Jack Ma advice on how to be successful in Life

Before 20 Years Old:

Be a good student. The way to entrepreneur, just learn some experience.

Before 30 Years Old:

Follow somebody. Go to a small company. Normally in a big company it’s good to learn processes. You’re a part of a big machine. But when you go to a small company, you learn the passion, you learn the dreams, and you learn how to do lots of things at any one time. So before 30 years old, it’s not which company you go, it’s which boss you follow. It’s very important. A good boss teaches you differently.

From 30 to 40 Years Old:

You have to think very clearly if you want to work for yourself. If you really want to be an entrepreneur.

From 40 to 50 Years Old:

You have to do all the things that you are good at. Don’t try to drop into the new area, it’s too late. You may be successful, but the rate of dying is too big. Think about how to focus on things that you’re good at.

From 50 to 60 Years Old:

Work for the young people. Because young people can do better than you. So rely on them, invest on them, making sure that they are good.

Over 60 Years Old:

Spend time on yourself, on the beach, sunshine, it’s normally too late for you to change. This is my advice to young people: At 25-years old, make enough mistakes. Don’t worry. You fall, you stand up. Enjoy it. Enjoy the show.

Jack Ma on Regrets:

I regret a lot of things. I regret that I meet the Media. I regret that I speak in the public. Because I could have my own privacy. I regret that I work so hard and spend so little time with my family. If I have another life, I would never do things like this. And my wife said: “You do not belong to me. You belong to Alibaba.” But, in all, Life is so short. It’s all about experience. People seek different views. Some people think you’re rich, you’re successful. But you’re not! Some people say this guy does not have money and he’s a terrible guy. Maybe not! So everybody choose his or her own life. We have a lot of problems that people never thought of. Because running a company for 34,000 young people, operating a company for more than 500 million people. If 1% of the 500 million people are bad guys, you got 5 million bad guys. So it’s a headache. But it’s too late to regret. Forget about regret. Think about I have another 10-20 years to go. So enjoy the show, enjoy the ride. You’re the same.
See Related:
Advice from Jack Ma on Life and Entrepreneurship
Jack Ma’s vision for Alibaba
The Value of Honour – Jack Ma

Advice from Jack Ma on Life and Entrepreneurship

Alibaba Jack Ma
Alibaba Jack Ma

Billionaire Jack Ma, the founder and ex-CEO of Alibaba Group, as well as one of the most successful Chinese Internet entrepreneurs, shares his wealth of experiences.
Jack Ma: The mistake I regretted the most
In 2001, I made a mistake. I told 18 of my fellow comrades whom embarked on the entrepreneurship journey with me that the highest positions they could go was a managerial role. To fill all our Vice President and Senior Executive positions, we would have to hire from external parties.
Years later, those I hired were gone, but those whom I doubted their abilities became Vice Presidents or Directors.
I believe in two principles: Your attitude is more important than your capabilities. Similarly, your decision is more important than your capabilities!
Jack Ma: You cannot unify everyone’s thoughts, but you can unify everyone through a common goal.
Don’t even trust that you are able to unify what everyone is thinking; it is impossible.
30% of all people will never believe you. Do not allow your colleagues and employees to work for you. Instead, let them work for a common goal.
It is a lot easier to unite the company under a common goal rather than uniting the company around a particular person.
I don't want to be liked. I want to be respected. - Jack Ma
I don’t want to be liked. I want to be respected. – Jack Ma

Jack Ma: What does a leader have that an employee doesn’t?
A leader should never compare his technical skills with his employee’s. Your employee should have superior technical skills than you. If he doesn’t, it means you have hired the wrong person.
What, then, makes the leader stands out?

  • A leader should be a visionary and have more foresight than an employee.
  • A leader should have higher grit and tenacity, and be able to endure what the employees can’t.
  • A leader should have higher endurance and ability to accept and embrace failure.

The quality of a good leader therefore is his vision, tenacity, and his capability.
Jack Ma: Don’t be involved in politics
One should always understand that money and political power can never go hand in hand. Once you are in politics, don’t ever think about money anymore. Once you are running a business, don’t ever think of being involved in politics.
When money meets political power, it is similar to a match meeting an explosive- waiting to go off.
Jack Ma: The 4 main questions the young generation must ponder on

  • What is failure: Giving up is the greatest failure.
  • What is resilience: Once you have been through hardships, grievances and disappointments, only then will you understand what is resilience.
  • What your duties are: To be more diligent, hardworking, and ambitious than others.
  • Only fools use their mouth to speak. A smart man uses his brain, and a wise man uses his heart.

Jack Ma: We are born to live and experience life.
I always tell myself that we are born here not to work, but to enjoy life. We are here to make things better for one another, and not to work. If you are spending your whole life working, you will certainly regret it.
No matter how successful you are in your career, you must always remember that we are here to live. If you keep yourself busy working, you will surely regret it.

I never thought the money I have belongs to me. It belongs to society. – Jack Ma
I never thought the money I have belongs to me. It belongs to society. – Jack Ma

Jack Ma on competing and competition
Those that compete aggressively with one another are the foolish ones.
If you view everyone as your enemies, everyone around you will be your enemies.
When you are competing with one another, don’t bring hatred along. Hatred will take you down.
Competition is similar to playing a board of chess. If you lose, we can always have another round. Both players should never fight.
A real businessman or entrepreneur has no enemies. Once he understands this, the sky’s the limit.
Jack Ma: Don’t make complaining and whining a habit
If you complain or whine once in a while, it is not a big deal.
However, if it becomes habitual, it will be similar to drinking: the more you drink, the stronger the thirst. On the path to success, you will notice that the successful ones are not whiners, nor do they complain often.
The world will not remember what you say, but it will certainly not forget what you have done.
Jack Ma’s advice to entrepreneurs
The opportunities that everyone cannot see are the real opportunities.
Always let your employees come to work with a smile.
Customers should be number 1, Employees number 2, and then only your Shareholders come at number 3.
Adopt and change before any major trends or changes.
Forget the money; Forget about earning money.
Rather than having small smart tricks to get by, focus on holding on and persevering.
Your attitude determines your altitude.
Jack Ma on entrepreneurship
A great opportunity is often hard to be explained clearly; things that can be explained clearly are often not the best opportunities.
You should find someone who has complementary skills to start a company with. You shouldn’t necessarily look for someone successful. Find the right people, not the best people.
The most unreliable thing in this world is human relationships.
“Free” is the most expensive word.
Today is cruel, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be beautiful.
Jack Ma: The 4 don’ts of entrepreneurship

  • The scariest things about starting up is the inability/refusal to see what your competitors are doing
  • Being snobbish, looking down on your competitor
  • Unable to understand what is going on in the business environment
  • Unable to keep up with the competition

If you do not know where your competitor is, or overconfident and snobbish about your competitor, or are unable to comprehend how your competitor became a real threat, you will surely fall behind him. Don’t be the “they” in this idiom: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Even if your competitor is still small in size or weak, you should take him seriously and treat him as a giant. Likewise, even if your competitor is massive in size, you shouldn’t regard yourself as a weakling.

I like to play cards. I’m not very good, because I don’t want to calculate, I just play by instinct. But I’ve learned a lot of business philosophy by playing poker. – Jack Ma
I like to play cards. I’m not very good, because I don’t want to calculate, I just play by instinct. But I’ve learned a lot of business philosophy by playing poker. – Jack Ma

Jack Ma on starting your own company
What starting your company means: you will lose your stable income, your right to apply for a leave of absence, and your right to get a bonus.
However, it also means your income will no longer be limited, you will use your time more effectively, and you will no longer need to beg for favours from people anymore.
If you have a different mindset, you will have a different outcome: if you make different choices from your peers, your life will then be different from your peers.
Jack Ma on opportunities
If there are over 90% of the crowd saying “Yes” to approving a proposal, I will surely dispose the proposal into the bin. The reason is simple: if there are so many people who think that the proposal is good, surely there will be many people who would have been working on it, and the opportunity no longer belongs to us.
About Jack Ma: Jack Ma is a Chinese Internet entrepreneur. He is the Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, a family of highly successful Internet-based businesses. He is also the first mainland Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes Magazine and ranks as one of the world’s billionaires. Ma was named the Financial Times’ 2013 Person of the Year because he personifies the Chinese internet, referring to him as the “godfather of China’s scrappy entrepreneurial spirit”.
See Related:
Jack Ma advice on how to be successful in Life
Jack Ma’s vision for Alibaba
The Value of Honour – Jack Ma