Jack Ma: The future has come

Chapter 15 Young people are the future (2)
If your eyes are always fixed on Li Ka-shing and Bill Gates, and you read Ma Yun’s quotations in WeChat every day, then you will not have a chance.I used to be the same. When I saw Zhang Zhongmou and Guo Taiming[13], I became very angry because they took away my opportunities.I once asked myself, when can I surpass Li Ka-shing?What these great people let us see is what they want us to see, but we have to see the bitterness behind them, the hard work behind them, and the price behind them!Later, I put down these things and looked at Lao Wang and Xiao Li beside me. They were also chasing their dreams bit by bit, and this is how I am today.

There are three levels of opportunity in life

I just turned 50, and some people say that my speech is becoming more and more philosophical.People who speak with philosophy are generally those who endure hardships.

There are three levels of opportunity in life.The first layer of opportunities is that young people feel that they have no opportunities. In fact, there are opportunities everywhere at this time, because your hands are empty and you can do whatever you want.

Tier [-] opportunities are when you've just had a little bit of success and you feel like opportunities are everywhere.At an Internet conference, someone told me, Jack Ma, there are opportunities everywhere now, and opening your eyes is an opportunity.Yes, you cheat others when you have no money, and others cheat you when you have money.When you feel that there are opportunities, it is because you haven't figured it out clearly. When you really understand what you want and what you should give up, there are not many real opportunities.

The third layer of opportunities is to give others opportunities, and this is the real opportunity. When you are 30, you have to do it with others, when you are 40, you have to do it yourself, and when you are 50, you must do it for others and give young people a chance.

When everyone is worried, opportunities come; when everyone is ecstatic, danger comes.At this time, if you can resolve the danger, this is your opportunity.For so many years, I have looked at problems backwards. I like to listen to other people's complaints and then use my own head to think.When you are surrounded by anger, complaints, and dissatisfaction, the opportunity is actually here.

I have a different opinion on MBA. MBA is to teach everyone how to succeed, but I think we should learn more about how others fail, why they fail, and how to overcome failure.If you think about it more, you will naturally reduce your failures and move towards success.But the most important thing is that we should not "think about a thousand ways at night, and walk the same way in the morning".Many young people want to do this or that at night, and go to work by bike in the morning.I think that change starts now, and action is the source of all change.

Some people say that I don't understand technology, but I really have a headache about technology.To be honest, I have never studied computers or software. All I can do now is to read news online or communicate with young people.But those of us have to think about: what problem do we have these technologies to solve?
Society is undergoing earth-shaking changes. In the past 20 years, the Internet has brought tremendous changes to the economy, politics and other aspects of society, but this is just the beginning. The gap in the DT era does not lie in technology, but in ideas.Today we talk about transformation and upgrading. I personally believe that the economy can only be transformed if everyone’s brains are upgraded.Only by giving our hope to young people can young people bring us a rich and transformative future world.

We see that society is changing from the IT era to the DT era.Everyone should know that the difference between the IT era and the DT era is not only a difference in technology, but also a difference in ideas.The difference lies in: IT is to make oneself stronger, while DT is to make others stronger.

When you start a business today, you have to think about what will happen in 10 years, and ask yourself what problems will be solved for the society in 10 years.If you want to start a business today and succeed tomorrow, then this opportunity will definitely not belong to you.Why do you succeed tomorrow if you do it today?If you want to do it today and succeed in 10 years, then you have to grasp and think more about such opportunities.

There are many outstanding young people in Taiwan, and my partner Tsai Chong-hsin is Taiwanese.How many people can be like him, who gave up a high salary of millions of yuan 15 years ago, ran to my home in Hangzhou, accepted a monthly salary of 500 yuan, and worked with me?This is courage, this is action, this is dreaming.

It is easy for everyone to start a business, but it is difficult to stick to entrepreneurial ideals and constantly improve ourselves.I am planning to set up a fund to help young people from Taiwan to study and start businesses in the mainland.The money is not my own anyway, and I have to donate it. Why not give young people more opportunities?

Editor's note:

On December 2014, 12, the "15 Cross-strait Entrepreneur Summit" was held in Taipei, and Ma Yun attended and delivered a speech.

4. Running a business is like fighting a war

The world is changing rapidly and becoming more and more diverse.Everyone will use their own heads to judge any point of view. We can have different points of view and show different futures.

When I started a business, I was criticized and scolded along the way.
When I was a company like Alibaba, I was criticized and scolded all the way. If there was no scolding, I would be very nervous.

Alibaba is very lucky, but the price and efforts we have paid are beyond everyone's imagination. There are too many tears, grievances and setbacks behind our success. When the company was founded in 1999, when we promoted e-commerce to Chinese companies, we hit a wall almost everywhere.At that time, we had ten customers, nine of them refused, and only one said to try it. We were very happy, very happy.

When I first started my business, I thought that when the company got bigger, there would be less pain and trouble, and I could go to the beach to enjoy life and smoke cigars like rich people.I didn't expect that it would be more tiring and more stressful if you grow bigger. One mistake can make you close the door tomorrow.

Don't listen to what others say, think for yourself, find some like-minded people, give yourself a resolution, stick to it for five or ten years, and make it happen.This is how Alibaba came to be today, and this is the path that all entrepreneurs have traveled.

My English ability was not taught by formal education at first, but by chatting.No one in our family understands English. When A, B, and C are separated, my dad doesn’t know which is A, which is B, and which is C, and my mother doesn’t even know.I started to learn English when I was eleven or twelve years old. Every morning, I rode a bicycle to the entrance of the Shangri-La Hotel in Hangzhou to practice English with foreigners who were traveling.

What's interesting is that all foreigners come to Hangzhou for tourism, so they don't have time to talk to me.I had no other choice, so I deliberately read English at the entrance of the hotel, pronouncing some words very strangely.The foreigner heard it, hey, it's so strange, he didn't know what he was talking about, so he came to chat with me.My reward is to be a tour guide for them for free, and I chatted like this for nine years.

Later, I went to Hangzhou Normal University and became the chairman of the student union and the student union. I learned how to understand others and how to organize activities.When I was assigned to teach at a university after graduation, the principal at the time said that you were the only person in the class who would be assigned to teach at a university, and you were not allowed to leave the school for five years, and I agreed.Life in school was quite difficult, because among all the teachers, the school I graduated from was the worst, everyone looked down on me, and the salary was not enough.Later, someone in Shenzhen promised to give me a salary of 1200 yuan a month, and someone in Hainan was willing to pay me a salary of 3600 yuan a month.But my promise to others is a promise. I said that I can't leave school without leaving school within five years.In this way, I taught for six years.

The experience of being a head teacher in the past six years has changed me and benefited me a lot.All teachers want students to be good and to surpass themselves, so when they observe something wrong with students, they will correct it immediately, and they don't want students to learn bad things.To this day, I am still like a teacher. Every day in the company, I hope that employees can surpass me and do better than me, and I hope that each of them can succeed.

Failure is normal, and the greatest wealth in life is all previous failure experiences.I've had a lot of bad luck.As you all know, I have applied for dozens of jobs and been rejected.I have never been successful in applying for a job in my life, and no one, including my parents, thought I would.I asked my wife, do you want me to be the richest man, or a respected person?She said, how could you become the richest man?Of course respected people.

Learning languages ​​has broadened my horizons, being a student cadre and a teacher has exercised my mentality and organizational skills, and constant failures have honed my ability to fight.Entrepreneurs' optimism is very important, without this spirit, you can't go on at all.Most people are optimistic.I didn't realize that I was very optimistic before. Anyway, I have been failing since I was a child, so I got used to it, so I feel okay after failing to apply for a job.Learn to warm your right hand with your left hand, and believe that tomorrow will be better than today.

The difference between dreams and ideals
Many people want to start a business. Please pay attention to one thing: learn more from the failure experience of others.Doing business is like fighting a war, and coming back alive is success.People who blindly say that others are wrong will never come back.So, take the time to see how others have failed and examine your own problems.There are thousands of factors for success, but most of the factors for failure are similar.You will find that there seem to be only a few mistakes, but you may also make them.I hope that everyone will spend more time studying how others fail, and carefully study the mistakes that lead to failure.If you encounter setbacks, be sure to check your own problems and don't blame others.

For more than 10 years, I often thought at night, quitting, it’s boring, but I still insisted on getting up in the morning.Success is actually just persisting for a while.Sometimes, what everyone opposes may be an opportunity; what everyone says is right, you have to be careful.Things that everyone thinks are easy can be copied quickly; only things that everyone thinks are unreliable are interesting to me.If you are afraid of competition, don’t start a business; if you are afraid of difficulties and being scolded, don’t start a business.

Where is the difference between dreams and ideals?Wanting to be a pilot, a boss, or a professor is a dream.What is ideal?There is a team, a group of people who understand and support each other to achieve something, ideals must become reality.

Now is the time when the world is changing the fastest, and it is also the best time, because we have never encountered such an opportunity.Each generation has its responsibilities and its opportunities. This is our time (this is our time).

The individualization of social needs is becoming more and more intense, and the large-scale, standardized, and assembly lines of the IT era can no longer keep up with the times.Many young people are unwilling to accept the factory model, so you can innovate.Some people say that supermarkets do not sell well because of Taobao.What he didn't understand was that without Taobao, supermarkets would still not sell well.Because the needs of consumers are becoming more and more personalized, and this is the development trend of society, and it is your opportunity to innovate and start a business.

A college student sells summer mosquito specimens on Taobao, and they sell well.He said that when he was reviewing his homework in the summer, mosquitoes bit him, so he caught the mosquitoes to make specimens and made earrings for girls. As a result, someone asked for two identical mosquitoes... It sold very well on Alibaba a few years ago. Someone bought a wig for African-Americans and went swimming in the water, but the glue on the wig melted.She was dissatisfied, so she complained to Taobao, and a few weeks later, the world's first wig that could be worn in the water was born...

You will not go anywhere easier than Guo Taiming and others on the road to entrepreneurship, and you have to find your own interests.When everyone is unhappy, opportunities will come; if you solve the problems that everyone is complaining about, that is an opportunity;

The knowledge structure of young people, young people's understanding of computers, mobile phones and the Internet must be better than our generation.Some friends said that the screens of current mobile phones are too small.I said it's not that the screen is too small, it's that your eyes are blurred, and young people think it's just right.I believe that this generation of young people has enough wisdom to solve problems about the future, and I always believe that.

I think the first responsibility of an enterprise is to produce healthy products, provide quality services, and take care of its employees.However, for enterprises, it is very important to embed corporate responsibility into the business model.I really hate that some companies make poisonous and deceptive products, but they still donate some money to charity every year, saying that they are contributing to society.The two cannot be separated.

Many people say that one generation is not as good as one generation, but I think one generation is worse than one generation.When raising funds for an earthquake, young people are at the forefront, which is where the hope of our society lies.

In our company, it is normal for 30% of people to object.In the process of starting a business, it is not necessarily a bad thing for someone to oppose you, and it is not necessarily a good thing for someone to listen to you.Be sure to use your own judgment.Alibaba has done one thing that is very meaningful: a few years ago, we banned the trading of shark fins on Ali and Taobao, and banned the trading of ivory products on Ali and Taobao.After the decision was announced, all Ali employees applauded happily.

My "self-interest" in coming to Taiwan

The entrepreneurial environment in Taiwan is very good, otherwise such excellent companies as TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.) and Foxconn would not have been born.But the world has undergone a lot of changes. In the face of changes, some young people will complain and feel confused, which is normal.Because your parents were also confused at this age: they felt that there were no opportunities everywhere.In fact, to change society and the world, the premise is to change yourself.

10 years from now, what will society need, what troubles and problems will there be?If Alibaba wants to become a global company, it must solve problems for small and medium-sized enterprises all over the world, and let more young people join the ranks of development.Ali will become a global company, a company that penetrates into poor rural areas, and a technology-oriented company.If you ask me what "self-interest" comes from coming to Taiwan, it is that we hope that more young people in Taiwan will join the wave of the big data Internet era and realize their own dreams and the dreams of others.Of course, I am also very happy that young people choose to work hard in Taiwan, because the world is already flat, and everyone should look at problems from the standpoint of looking at the whole world.

Editor's note:

On March 2015, 3, at the joint invitation of the Taiwan University Alliance, National Taiwan University, National Taiwan Normal University, and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology Student Union, Jack Ma went to Taiwan to give a special speech and share his entrepreneurial journey.

5. No one has seen me cry because I don't have time to cry
It's normal for you to be lost before you find your way and confirm what you want to do.I searched for more than 30 jobs and was not accepted.5 of our classmates were admitted to the police school, 4 of them were admitted, but I was not admitted; 24 of us applied for a fast food company, 23 of them were admitted, but I was not admitted.Later, I contacted the gentleman who was in charge of recruiting in China at that fast food company. He didn't recruit me back then, and I thanked him.Rejected - maybe this is God's arrangement for you to start your own business, and you shouldn't work for others!
I'm one of those people who don't seem to succeed
Some people say that Ma Yun thinks farther and runs faster, he is a very powerful person, very remarkable.In fact, we are all the same. I don't really believe that there are extraordinary people in this world. We are all very ordinary people.I just saw an opportunity, thought of something, and stuck with it.I can think farther because the near opportunities are not ours, we can only think far; if we run slowly, we have no chance, so we can only run fast.

(End of this chapter)