He was described by Forbes magazine as “tiny (5 feet, 3 inches), slight (he weighs just over 100 pounds) and full of coiled energy”. He is the man behind the giant Alibaba – Jack Ma (Ma Yun).
He is a Chinese business magnate and philanthropist. He is the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a family of successful Internet-based businesses. He is the first mainland Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes. As of November 2014, he is the richest man in China and 18th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $24.1 billion according to Forbes. If you don’t know much about Jack Ma, it’s time you learned!
Here are nine interesting things you probably didn’t know about Jack Ma:
1. How Jack Ma named his multibillion-dollar company
Alibaba was very small when it was first established, but Jack Ma positioned the future Alibaba as a global company. So the name of the company had to be loud and global. One day, Jack Ma went to a restaurant in the U.S. and asked the waitress if she had ever heard of Alibaba, she replied yes and told him the story of “open sesame”. Then Ma asked people in different places the same question and realized that the Alibaba story is globally known and the pronunciations of Alibaba in different languages all sound the same.
The domain name “Alibaba.com” was already registered, so Jack Ma spent $10,000 to purchase it from the original owner. Not a terrible investment! Jack Ma also believes the “open sesame” story parallels how Alibaba opens the door for small and medium companies.
Jack Ma also registered Alimama.com (mama in Chinese means mother and baba in Chinese means father), and Alibaby.com. He said Alibaba, Alimama and Alibaby are supposed to be a family. He planned the business for the long run.
2. He believes failures are more important than wins
Jack Ma learned English by giving tourists free tours and practicing English with them. He was confident in his English speaking abilities, but a teacher of his gave him a 59% on an English exam. He felt angry, depressed and resentful at the time…
Looking back he said he was grateful for failing that exam. “Sometimes scars are more precious than medals and what’s most important is your attitude towards the scars.” What a beautiful way to say that learning from your failures is even more important than all of the wins you achieve.
3. Jack Ma dealt with constant rejection in his education and career
Ma applied to study at Harvard ten times and was rejected each time!
He was interviewed by Charlie Rose, and revealed a unique insight into the story behind his success. Ma said he has had to deal with rejection many times in his life: He failed the entry exams for college in China three times and was turned down by the prestigious Harvard 10 times after applying.
He was also rejected for 30 jobs in China. There were five people applying police jobs and four of them passed.. but he failed. He then applied for a job at KFC where 27 people applied for the job and 26 of them got the job and Jack Ma failed again due to his appearance.
Even after being rejected so many times, he is one of the most successful people in the world. Think about that next time you don’t get that job you want!
4. Jack Ma isn’t afraid to joke about himself
5. He cares about the environment
6. Jack Ma’s plan is to make Alibaba bigger than Walmart
7. He doesn’t read business books but he’s crazy about martial arts novels
8. Jack Ma loves Tai Chi and compares it to business
9. He believes Alibaba is the apple tree to Amazon’s apple
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