Isn’t it an irony that the founder of a multi-billion dollar internet company had not even seen a computer until he was 33? Not only that, he also calls himself a technology challenged person and claims to be using the computer only to open and send e-mails. Jack Ma is a living proof of the fact that no series of challenges, failures or lack of exposure can prevent a person from achieving his dream. A self-made man who built an empire from nothing, Ma’s vision and hard work transformed the way China does business and Alibaba’s success made him the richest man in the country. There is little in his background to suggest that Ma was destined for greatness because from his early years until now, he has faced disappointment multiple times. A few of those are listed below:
- Since he was never good at academics, Ma consistently failed primary and middle school.
- He also claims to have passed his college entrance examination in fourth attempt.
- Once in college, he failed miserably in mathematics by scoring 1 mark (out of 120).
- In spite of repeated attempts, he was turned down by Harvard 10 times.
- After graduation, he applied for 30 jobs and all of them rejected him.
- One interviewee out of 24 got rejected by KFC and that one was him.
- The only person among 5 candidates to be rejected By China State Police.
- Could not manage to get funding for Alibaba from Silicon Valley.
Despite all these failures and rejections, Ma persisted throughout and picked up the falling pieces while making new learnings along the way. He relied on his English skills and started a translation service business during which he was introduced to the Internet. Without any technical knowledge of computers or coding, he became interested in this new phenomenon at that time and decided to take a shot at it.
Thereafter, Jack Ma went on to form Alibaba while challenging established online businesses who already had existing operations. Within five years, Ma and Alibaba managed to drive eBay out of China’s business and expanded business into the international market. In 2014, Alibaba made history through the world’s largest IPO till date. Since then, the company and Jack Ma both have continued to grow from strength to strength turning their online business into one of the world’s largest conglomerates of today.
Ma believes that giving up is the greatest failure, and rightfully so since continuing on the same path might still lead you to the desired results. We all fail and will continue to, however what matters most is what we do in the face of failure – how we fix our mistakes, and how we grow. Businesses fail, relationships fail and people fail to reach their goals, but all that is not always a bad thing. In fact, like Jack Ma, most people who fail will tell you it pushed them further only to get bigger and better things!