Jack Ma

 In 2017, he was ranked second in the annual "World's 50 Greatest Leaders" list
by Fortune.
 He also serves as a role model for startup businesses.
 As of June 2019, he is one of China's richest men, with a net worth of $35.6 billion.
 He was ranked 21st in Forbes' World's Most Powerful People.
What is the cuurent news?
Daniel Zhang, currently Alibaba's chief executive, will replace him as executive chairman. The
company is now valued at $480bn (£389bn) and Mr Ma is China's richest man, with a net worth
of $38.6bn according to Forbes. The 55-year-old is expected to focus on philanthropy and
education after he steps down.
Mr Zhang's greatest challenge may be living up to the image of Mr Ma himself, a man who
enjoyed the respect and affection of his staff as well as the international community.
About Jack Ma’s Life
Jack Ma, or Ma Yun was born in10 September 1964, is a Chinese business magnate, investor,
politician and philanthropist. He is the co-founder Alibaba Group, a multinational technology
conglomerate. Ma is a strong proponent of an open and market-driven economy.
Ma was born on 10 September 1964 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. He and his siblings grew up
at a time when communist China was increasingly isolated from the West, and his family didn't
have much money when they were young.
After President Nixon visited Hangzhou in 1972, Ma's hometown became a tourist mecca. As a
teenager, Ma started waking up early to visit the city's main hotel, would ride 70 miles on his
bicycle, offering visitors tours of the city in exchange for English lessons. He became pen
pals with one of those foreigners, who nicknamed him "Jack" because he found it hard to
pronounce his Chinese name.
Later in his youth, Ma struggled attending college. The Chinese entrance exams are held only
once a year and Ma took four years to pass. Ma attended Hangzhou Teacher's Institute (currently
known as Hangzhou Normal University) and graduated in 1988 with a B.A. in English. After a
great deal of studying, he finally passed on the third try, going on to attend Hangzhou Teachers
Institute. After graduation and getting rejection from the countless jobs, he became an English
Teacher and was natural with his students and loved his job -- though he only made $12 a month
at a local university.
His Failures with Power pack Motivation
1. Failed in exams in the school, even in Primary and Middle School- He said, “If you don’t
give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure.”
2. He applied for Harvard 10 times. Turned down every time- Jack Ma is the paradigm of
persistence and determination. He said, “The world will not remember what you say, but
it will certainly not forget what you have done.”
 3. Scored 1 out of 120 marks in Mathematics portion in college exams- Scoring less than 1
percent of the total is powerful enough to demotivate and shatter anyone. He said, “I am
not a Tech Guy. I am looking at the technology with the eyes of my customers, normal
people’s eyes.”
4. Rejected by nearly 30 companies after graduation- He even applied for the post of a
police officer. Even after being rejected, Jack Ma took it sportingly giving a strong
message to the world, “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.”
5. One interviewee out of 24, who was rejected by KFC was Jack Ma- Being the only
person rejected by KFC among the shortlisted ones is depressing and disappointing as
well. People who have had similar situations in life can understand the strength and
courage it takes to rise from that situation. He said, “Never Give Up. Today is Hard,
Tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine” will make you
wonder the charisma and optimism behind this amazing personality.
6. Could not manage to get funding for Alibaba from Silicon Valley- After starting Alibaba,
Jack Ma went to Silicon Valley to get Venture Capital funding for his company, but got
rejected for running a business model that is unprofitable. Alibaba was not yielding
profits for the first three years. There were times when he tried to pay his bills, the
restaurant owner would say, “your bill was paid”, and he found a note saying, “Mr. Jack
Ma, I am your customer on the Alibaba platform. I made a lot of money, and I know you
don’t, so I paid the bill.” Jack Ma did not care about revenues.
7. Jack Ma told 18 Alibaba partners that none of them could be executives- Jack Ma accepts
it as one of the biggest mistake he made in Alibaba, “The lessons I learned from the dark
days at Alibaba are that you’ve got to make your team have value, innovation, and
vision.” Jack Ma wished to hire managers from outside. He told his 18 partners that none
of them can rise higher than the rank of a manager, and the executives will be hired from
outside. He learned a lesson for doing so and stresses on the importance of attitude,
perseverance and passion over theoretical knowledge.
Alibaba Overview
Ma had no experience with computers or coding, but he was captivated by the internet when he
used it for the first time during a trip to the US in 1995. He had recently started a translation
business and made the trip to help a Chinese firm recover a payment. Ma's first online search was
"beer," but he was surprised to find that no Chinese beers turned up in the results. It was then that
he decided to found an internet company for China. Though his first two ventures failed, four
years later he gathered 17 of his friends in his apartment and convinced them to invest in his
vision for an online marketplace he called "Alibaba." The site allowed exporters to post product
listings that customers could buy directly.
Company lore has it that Ma came up with the name "Alibaba" while sitting in a San Francisco
coffee shop. In "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," a secret password unlocks a trove filled with
unbelievable riches. "E-commerce is global so we needed a name that was globally recognized,"
the website states. "Alibaba brings to mind 'Khulja sesame,' representing that our platforms open
a doorway to fortune for small businesses."
Unlike Amazon, which buys goods from suppliers and sells them to customers, Alibaba has
always acted as a middleman, connecting buyers and sellers and facilitating transactions between
them.
Soon, the service started to attract members from all over the world. By October 1999, the
company had raised $5 million from Goldman Sachs and $20 million from SoftBank, a Japanese
telecom company that also invests in technology companies. The team remained close-knit and
scrappy. "We will make it because we are young and we never, never give up," Ma said to a
gathering of employees to motivate them and lit the fire of motivation on them.
He has always maintained a sense of fun at Alibaba. When the company first became profitable,
Ma gave each employee a can of Silly String to go wild with. In the early 2000s, when the
company decided to start Taobao, its eBay competitor, he had his team do handstands during
breaks to keep their energy levels up.- Can Connect it with VIP.
In 2005, Yahoo invested $1 billion in Alibaba in exchange for about a 40% stake in the
company. This was huge for Alibaba -- at the time it was trying to beat eBay in China-- and it
would eventually be an enormous win for Yahoo too, netting it $10 billion in Alibaba's IPO
alone.
Ma stepped down from his post as CEO in 2013, staying on as executive chairman. Alibaba went
public September 19 2014. "Today what we got is not money. What we got is the trust from the
people," Ma told CNBC. The company's $150-billion IPO was the largest offering for a US-
listed company in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. It also made Ma the richest man
in China, with an estimated worth of $25 billion. Alibaba’s unique shopping spree, “Singles’
Day”, has become widely recognized by the global world as well. In 2017, the day showed a
record-breaking sales revenue and reached over RMB 168.2 billion – on just one day.   
It cannot be denied that Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma has shown a charismatic leadership in his
management, which is one of the reasons why Alibaba has grown substantially. In addition to his
charisma, accurate analysis of customer needs has been another pivotal influence as well.
Alibaba surprised the world again by joining a group of companies with a market capitalization
of USD 500 billion in January this year – which is the first time for a Chinese company listed on
the New York Stock Exchange. Nearly 100 million users access Alibaba each day and make
purchase. Not only do nearly 70% of all packages across China belong to Alibaba’s affiliate
online shopping malls, but the deals made through Alibaba records close to 2% of China’s total
GDP. -2018, Sept.
His way of life
He is a very simple man and has made very few flashy purchases, and he still has some pretty
modest hobbies. He likes reading and writing kung fu fiction, playing poker, meditating, and
practicing tai chi. One of his greatest passions is the environment. Ma developed an interest in
environmentalism when a member of his wife's family became sick with an illness that Ma
suspected was caused by pollution. He sits on the global board of The Nature Conservancy and
spoke during a session of the Clinton Global Initiative in 2015. He's also been instrumental in
funding a 27,000-acre nature reserve in China.

“When you are 20 to 30 years old, you should follow a good boss [and] join a good company to
learn how to do things properly.” “When you are 30 to 40 years old, if you want to do something
yourself, just do it. You still can afford to lose, to fail,” he added. “When you’re 40 to 50 years
old, my suggestion is you should do things you are good at.”

He is known for not thinking about today or tomorrow, but thinking decades ahead.