How I Overcame Failure | Jack Ma | 馬雲/马云

I did not have a rich father. I tried three times for university. All failed. I applied for Harvard for 10 times. All failed. They don't even want to see me. For the last time, I went to the teacher's college, which was considered the third or fourth class of my city. So I applied jobs, but 30 times got rejected. It was so difficult at that time. I was so frustrated, because I taught in the university. My pay was $10 a month, because I could not find a good job. In 1994, discussed that I'm going to do something called internet. And 23 of them against it. They said, this is a stupid idea. We have never heard about internet. And you know nothing about computer. And I never thought I was smart. Nobody believed that I could be successful. Because everybody said, well, this guy think differently, think crazily. They think about something, never work. I tried to borrow $3,000 from the banks. Took me three months, but I still cannot get it. We talked to over 30 or 40 venture capitalists. Everybody said, no, forget it. A lot of people said Alibaba is a terrible model. As I said, I believe it. I think this thing could be big if we keep on working. I never thought it would be that big like today. I believe that something is waiting for me there. And I have to work hard to prove myself. That was the tough experience. So we gather $50,000 from 18 funders. We started. For the first three years, we did not have even $1 revenue from our business. It was not easy. You don't make any money. You've got extraordinary claims. And yet you make nothing. That's the internet. Yes, but what's the point? Are you a millionaire? No, no. Do you want to be? Well, I think, I hope. But why it keeps on going ahead, going forward? Because I received lots of email of thanks from the customer. They say, this is such a great thing. We cannot pay you, but this thing helped us. If you keep on helping us, one day you will be successful. And I believe this. Little by little, we build up our business. Little by little, we build up our ecosystem of the infrastructure. And now after 16 years, we have an Alibaba group. We have a Tmall group. We have a Taobao group. We have Alipay. And people said, you are so smart. How could you make a company like that? Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jack Welch, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, the difference between those people and other people, they are always optimistic for the future. They never complain. They always try to solve the problems of the others. When you're optimistic, it's always opportunity. People seem here today, Jack, where is the opportunity? I don't have a job. I don't have this, I don't have that. The best assets you have is that you are young. Don't complain. Let the other people complain. The opportunity always lies where people complain. Think about how you can make things different. And then when you think about this, start to do it. I saw a lot of people, young people, have fantastic ideas every evening. But in the morning, they go to the office again. Again, if you really want to be entrepreneur. You have to do the things before the other people do. You have to wake up before the other people wake up. You have to be more brave than the others. When I was young, I went to Hangzhou Western Lake. There's a hotel, many foreign visitors visit there. And I went there every morning, five o'clock, to practice my English. The foreign visitors come, I practice my English. I don't know why at that time. But I found everything the foreign visitors told me are so different from the things my parents told me, my teacher told me, and the newspaper I read. So since then, I think everything use my own brain. Use your own brain to think. To everybody, to any person, tomorrow is new. Make the move, make the action. Whether investors believe in this or not, whether your friends believe it or not, whether your parents believe it or not, that's not important. You believe it, your team believe it, and work day and night on this. Make enough mistakes. You fall, you stand up. If you really want to work for yourself, think about the others. Because only when the other people are successful, when the other people are happy, you'll be successful. You will be happy. Don't worry about the money. Money follow the people. People should follow the dreams. If you have a dream, just go ahead.