8 Jack Ma quotes that’ll make you a better entrepreneur

There are tons of successful entrepreneurs in Asia, but few of them are quite as successful or as quotable as Alibaba’s Jack Ma. But since Jack has been too busy making huge investments recently (like Lazada and Ele.me) to churn out interesting quotes, we thought we’d blast through the past to find some of his greatest hits – specifically, the things he’s said that are good lessons for startup founders and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Let’s do this.

1. Getting opinions

I asked 24 friends over to discuss it, all my night school students, and 23 of them said don’t do it, we can’t even understand what you’re talking about. Only one person said to give it a shot. The next morning, I decided they could say whatever they wanted, but I was still going to try.

This is how Alibaba got started: Jack Ma invited 24 friends over to discuss the idea, and 23 of them thought he was nuts. The obvious lesson here is follow your dreams despite what everybody else says, but that’s missing a crucial part of what Jack Ma is saying here: you have to know what everyone else is saying before you can dismiss it.

There’s a reason Jack Ma didn’t just blindly dive into his startup idea, and instead invited a couple dozen friends over to talk it through first. He may have ignored their ultimate advice, but hearing their concerns and perspectives gave him a better idea of what he was getting into. He ultimately chose to dive in anyway, but because he sought advice from people he trusted first, that was an informed risk, not a blind risk.

Jack Ma knew how deep the water was before he jumped in, and if you want to do a startup, you’d better know too. You don’t have to listen when people tell you to abandon your idea because it’s unrealistic, but you’d better listen to why they think its unrealistic so that you can develop a plan to overcome those obstacles if their concerns are legitimate.

Photo credit: Pixabay.

2. Having faith

Every entrepreneur must have faith, because only with faith will you not be tempted into doing this and that [instead of focusing].

Jack Ma said this recently at the opening address of his entrepreneur school. Running a successful startup requires laser-like focus. To have that, Ma says, you need to have real faith in your vision for your company. If you don’t have that faith, it’ll be too easy for you to be distracted by promising-looking side projects and ventures that aren’t directly related to achieving your company’s mission. Then, at the end of the day, you’ll find yourself a third of the way towards three different goals instead of having fully accomplished the goal you originally set out for.

This, too, is a warning to would-be entrepreneurs: do not start a company if you don’t have full faith that your vision can and will be realized. If you don’t believe it, it won’t happen.

3. Understanding investors

4. Ignoring trends

5. Managing money

6. Respecting competitors

7. Working hard

8. Loving work