- He started his business with $20,000
that his wife and his friend helped him raise.
He's the first mainline China entrepreneur
to be featured on the cover of Forbes magazine.
He's the richest man in China,
and the 18th richest man in the world,
with an estimated fortune of $29.7 billion dollars.
He's Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba.com,
and here are his 10 rules for success.
(loud explosion)
(rooster crowing)
- When I graduated from universities,
and for three years I tried, failed in the universities.
So I applied jobs for 30 times, got rejected.
I went for police, they say, "No, you're not good."
I went, even the KFC, when KFC came to China,
come to our city.
- [Interviewer] You applied.
- 24 people went for the job, 23 people were accepted.
I was the only guy.
(audience laughing)
And we went for police, 5 people, 4 of them accepted.
I was the only guy they're not receiving.
So to me, being turned down, rejected.
Oh, by the way, I told you that I applied for Harvard
for 10 times, rejected.
(audience laughing)
I know I would be rejected, I just wanted to say that.
- [Interviewer] They're sorry now.
(laughing)
10 times you wrote them and said,
"I'd like to come to Harvard."
- Yeah.
And then I told myself, someday
I should go teach there, maybe.
(audience laughing)
We have a secret code for success.
Just like open sesame is the secret code for Alibaba,
the secret code for everybody is keep your dream alive
because it might come through some day.
This is what the secret code is.
- [Interviewer] What do you think you core competence is?
- It's culture.
It's not the technology, I think technology is a tool.
The core competence of our company
is we have grown from 18 people to now, 20,000 young people.
And we focus a lot on the value, the mission
and making sure the culture, everybody work
for helping others, instead of just making money.
People don't like it.
So many people I talk to at that time for Alipay,
this is the stupidest idea you have ever got,
but I say, "Whether stupid or clever,
"as long as people use it."
Now we have 800 million people using this Alipay.
I learn a lot of things from movies.
I learned how to make a speech
from the movie called Bodyguard, Whitney Houston.
When she sings the songs, I look at her, wow.
That's the way that you make a speech.
'Cause I never know how to make speech.
'Cause I'm not actor.
But when I saw the movie, I say wow.
If you sing from your heart, if you sing naturally,
if you are yourself, so I realize.
And I learn a lot from the movies.
I even learn from The Godfathers.
My favorite movie is Forrest Gump.
These are the things I learned so much.
Then I would discuss about the muse,
the inspirations we got from movies.
- What kinds of business ideas have you said no to?
- I'm saying no to a lot of ideas because as a CEO,
I have to say no to opportunities,
because if I say yes,
I probably get 5,000 opportunities everyday.
But whether yes or no, everything based on the mission,
helping doing business easier.
If it's on that, we'll consider.
If somebody come and say,
"Can you, we'll make a lot of money."
I'm not interested.
- [Interviewer] Why did you call it Alibaba?
- Alibaba?
Well, when I started, I think, Internet is global,
we should have a global name, and a name that interesting.
At that time, the best name was Yahoo.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- So I've been thinking for many days,
suddenly think Alibaba is a good name.
I happened to be in San Francisco that day,
Having lunch, and a waitress come.
I ask her, "Do you know about Alibaba?"
She say, "Yes."
I say, "What is Alibaba?"
She say, "Open sesame."
Good!
So I went on the street, ask about 10, 20 people.
They all know about Alibaba, 40 thieves and open sesame,
and I think this a good name, and start with A,
whatever you talk about, Alibaba's always top.
(audience laughing)
We believe the core company different from the Wall Street.
We believe customer, number one,
employee, number two, shareholder, number three.
- Customer one, employee two,
shareholder three. - Shareholder, number three.
Yeah, again, this is my religion.
It's the customer that pay us the money,
it's the employees that drive the innovation,
it's the shareholder always say.
I remember the day before the IPO,
and a lot of people say, "Jack, give us the shares,
"we were long term shareholders."
But when the crisis came, these guys run as soon as--
- [Interviewer] They ran away.
- My people stayed, customers stayed.
- Next I want to tell young people.
Most people complain, "Where's the opportunity?"
People started complaining, some people complain,
some people start to change themselves, changing others.
Where the opportunity is is where the complaints are.
Where the trouble, where's the opportunity.
And I always believed that.
- Thank you guys for watching.
The question of the day for you is
I want to know what kind of rejection
you've had to overcome in your life and in your business.
If you've had to overcome a lot of rejection
and you have a special story to share,
I'd love to hear from you
if you want to leave a comment below.
I made this video on Jack Ma
because Jeff Lee-Yang asked me to.
So if there's a famous entrepreneur
that you want me to profile, leave a comment,
let me know what you think and I'll see what I can do.
And of course, if you like this video
and you want to see more, don't forget to subscribe
to the newsletter and the channel.
Thank you for watching, continue to believe,
have an amazing day, and I hope you'll start
your day again with me tomorrow
with another inspirational video.
(loud explosion)