Jack Maa’s Secrets to Entrepreneurship

Ma Yun ( born 10 September 1964), known professionally as Jack Ma, is a Chinese business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate. As of March 2018, he is one of China’s richest men with a net worth of US$42.7 billion, as well as one of the wealthiest people in the world.

Ma is seen as a global ambassador for Chinese business and as such is frequently listed as one of the world’s most powerful people by Forbes. In 2017, he was ranked 2nd in the annual “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” list by Fortune.

1. “No matter how tough the chase is, you should always have the dream you saw on the first day. It’ll keep you motivated and rescue you (from any weak thoughts).” – Jack Ma

2.“If you’ve never tried, how will you ever know if there’s any chance?” – Jack Ma

3. “I try to make myself happy because I know that if I’m not happy, my colleagues are not happy and my shareholders are not happy and my customers are not happy.” – Jack Ma

4.“Once in your life, try something, work hard at something. Try to change. Nothing bad can happen.” Jack Ma

5. “I’m not a tech guy. I’m looking at the technology with the eyes of my customers, normal people’s eyes.” – Jack Ma

6. “I want to change history, do something important in my life, and influence individuals like we have with millions of small businesses on Alibaba. Then they love and respect you because you made their life important.” – Jack Ma

7.“Instead of learning from other people’s success, learn from their mistakes. Most of the people who fail share common reasons (to fail) whereas success can be attributed to various different kinds of reasons.” Jack Ma

8. “Never give up today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.” Jack Ma

9. “We should never finish a 20 year program in two years.” – Jack Ma

10.“If you’ve never tried, how will you ever know if there’s any chance?” Jack Ma

12. “If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure.” – Jack Ma

13. “Life is so short, so beautiful. Don’t be so serious about work. Enjoy the lives.” – Jack Ma

14. “Opportunity lies in the place where the complaints are.” – Jack Ma

15. “When you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.” – Jack Ma

16.“Today, making money is very simple. But making sustainable money while being responsible to the society and improving the world is very difficult.” – Jack Ma

17. “I don’t care about revenues. – Jack Ma

18. “You never know that the things you’re doing are that meaningful to society.” – Jack Ma

19. “If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat ten of them.” – Jack Ma

20. “A leader should have higher grit and tenacity, and be able to endure what the employees can’t.” – Jack Ma

21. “A peace talk is always difficult, always complicated.” – Jack Ma

22. “I don’t want people (in China) to have deep pockets but shallow minds.” – Jack Ma

23. “I don’t want to be liked. I want to be respected.” – Jack Ma

24. “You never know how much can you do in your life.” – Jack Ma

25. “You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.” – Jack Ma

26. “It doesn’t matter if I failed. At least I passed the concept on to others. Even if I don’t succeed, someone will succeed.” – Jack Ma

27. “You’ve to make consumers smart. An e-commerce portal doesn’t sell a product at cheaper rates, instead an offline shop sells it at a costlier prices.” – Jack Ma

28. “I call myself a blind man riding on a blind tiger.” – Jack Ma

29. “We’re never in lack of money. We lack people with dreams, (people) who can die for those dreams.” – Jack Ma

30. “The very important thing you should have is patience.” – Jack Ma

31. “Never ever compete on prices, instead compete on services and innovation.” – Jack Ma

32.“Instead of learning from other people’s success, learn from their mistakes. Most of the people who fail share common reasons(to fail) whereas success can be attributed to various different kinds of reasons.” – Jack Ma

33. “Intelligent people need a fool to lead them. When the team’s all a bunch of scientists, it is best to have a peasant lead the way. His way of thinking is different. It’s easier to win if you have people seeing things from different perspectives.” – Jack Ma

34. “If the customer loves you, the government will have to love you.” – Jack Ma

35.“If you are poor a 35 you deserve it.” Jack Ma

36. “It’s very difficult to know the outside world, but you know yourself. You know your need and what you want. If I know myself better, I can change myself to meet the outside world.” – Jack Ma

37. “You need the right people with you, not the best people.” – Jack Ma

38. “You’ve got to make your team have value, innovation, and vision.” – Jack Ma

39. “We appreciate yesterday, but we’re looking for a better tomorrow.” – Jack Ma

40. “When we have money, we start making mistakes.” – Jack Ma

41. “Help young people. Help small guys. Because small guys will be big. Young people will have the seeds you bury in their minds, and when they grow up, they will change the world.” – Jack Ma

43. “Without internet, there would have been no Jack Ma, and no Alibaba or Taobao.” – Jack Ma

44.“If we want to change the world, we change ourselves.” Jack Ma

45.“Before you’re 30, work for a small company, learn passion, learn to dream.” Jack Ma

46.“If there are nine rabbits on the ground, if you want to catch one, just focus on one.” Jack Ma

47.“I think in 10 years we’ll be bigger than Walmart.” Jack Ma

48.“If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure.” Jack Ma

49.“The world will not remember what you say, but it will not forget what you have done.” Jack Ma

50.“A leader should be a visionary and have more foresight than an employee.” Jack Ma

51.“Grow your mind, grow your culture, grow your values, grow your wisdom. I think China is going in this direction.” Jack Ma

52.“Remember that your past success may lead to your future failure. However, if you learn a lesson from every failure, then you may ultimately succeed.” Jack Ma

53.“I never thought the money I have belongs to me. It belongs to society.” Jack Ma

54.“If you want to win in the 21st century, you have to empower others, making sure other people are better than you. Then you will be successful.” Jack Ma

55.“They called me crazy Jack. I think crazy is good. we’re crazy but we’re not stupid.” Jack Ma