The Billionaire Mindset Jack Ma ENG Motivational Video

Thank you very much, it's my great honor. I never thought that I would be standing here talking to you like this because last year Alibaba had an IPO. It was a great IPO and people said you are so smart, how could you make a company like that? But before the IPO, a lot of people said Alibaba is a terrible model with a problem here and there, the founder is terrible. Yes, that's right. I'm 100% made in China. I learned my English by myself and I tried to teach myself how to program on computer. I still don't know how it works, but that is not important. Like all of you here, we all have expectations for the future. We all worry about the future. I did not have a rich father, not from, you know, well-educated. I said I tried three times for university, all failed. For the last time, I went to the teacher's college, which was considered the third or fourth class of my city, but I think that is the best university I've ever had, better than Harvard and Wharton. I applied for Harvard for 10 times, all failed. They don't even want to see me, you know, terrible. And I think that is a normal life, right? And I believe that it was so difficult at that time. I was so frustrated because I taught in the university. My pay was ten dollars a month. It was not easy, but I believe that something is waiting for me there and I have to work hard to prove myself. So that was the tough experience and I never thought I was smart. Nobody believed that I could be successful because everybody said, well, this guy thinks differently, thinks crazily, you know, they think about something that never works. In 1994, discussed that I'm going to do something called internet and 23 of them were against it. They said, this is a stupid idea, right? We have never heard about internet and you know nothing about computer. Why do you want to do the computer? So nobody agreed with, as I said, I believe it because I saw the computer in 1994 when I went to the USA. I think this thing could be big, but I never thought it would be that big like today. Honestly, people say you're smart, you have a big vision. 1994, since you saw the internet, that was not true. I just want to find a job because I could not find a good job, so I do it myself. So that is the history, that's the thing. And now, after 16 years, we have a lot of, we have an Alibaba group, we have a Tmall group, we have a Taobao group, we have Alipay and people say, how you make it? Why this make it? Why people cannot find opportunities, you can find opportunities? And I think people same here today, Jeff, where's the opportunity? I don't have a job, I don't have this, I don't have that. I remember 20 years ago, I hated Bill Gates, I said he took all the jobs, you know, he's such a great, and Larry Page, Bill Gates, and every success people, they did good, and why I didn't have this chance? The same question like you, and later I calmed down myself, and luckily I win. I tell you, I'm lucky to know a lot of famous people, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jack Welch, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, I know all of them. I would like to share with you that those people, 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. And I think, where is the opportunity? The opportunity always lies in the place where people complain. Some people sit there, complain, you think, if I can solve that complaint, that's the opportunity. That's what I did. And I think 1994, 1995, so many people in China want to sell things abroad, but there's no place because the big business can't go to the trade fair, Las Vegas Fair, and Germany Fair. Small business, they don't have opportunity. So they complain, we want to go to trade shows, but they cannot get visa, they don't have money, they don't have relationship. So I think if internet can help this small business, it will be great. But nobody would believe it. Why internet can't help? I said, if something, everybody believes it, everybody loves it, forget about it, that's not your opportunity. Because when everybody agrees, why this opportunity should be yours? Because a lot of people don't agree with it. And you think, this is good, think carefully and find a group of people working together. And making sure the people working with you together believe the dreams. 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. That's how the things happen. Right. My investor did not, after 10 years they invested us, they still don't know what I'm doing. Honestly, people say, why are you Jack, you have such so many great investors. Yeah, they are great because they believe Jack Ma can do something. But what exactly he's doing, they probably don't understand. But we have to know. We know the only thing I tell you guys, for the first three years, we did not have even one dollar revenue from our business. But why it keeps going ahead, going forward, because I received lots of email of thanks from the customers. They say, this is such a great thing. If you can keep on doing that, 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. And I want people here to let you know that we are at the best time of this century. The first technology revolution, the steam, the water right in the UK, very successful after 50 years. The second technology revolution is called energy revolution, electricity. After 50 years, electricity was founded, business booming. Internet has only for 20 years. The next 30 years is the best time for us, for our young people. We are all lucky. We are only like 20, 30 years old. The next 30 years, the best time. The last 20 years is the time I call information technology. That's the IT. IT is to make the big company getting bigger and stronger. And IT is to make yourself stronger. IT is trying to get something for you. But now we are entering into the new period, which I call the data technology. The data technology is totally opposite to IT. IT is I have, you don't have. DT is you have it, I don't have it. I don't have to have it. DT is about sharing. DT is about taking responsibility. DT is about a passion for the future. So we are coming into the next 30 years of data technology period, which your parents may not like it, which your friends may not like it. But if you believe the next 30 years is the wonderful period for us. And by the way, at the DT period, everybody is the same because we are stuck from the same line. Nobody is the expert of DT. There are a lot of experts of IT. They may be in trouble. So what I would say, the best assets you have is that you are young. Don't complain. Let the other people complain. Those people complain, those people who fail. And do not always say, well, I don't have. Think about how you can make things different. Use your own brain to think. Lastly, I want to show you I learned my English. I learned how to think using my own brain. When I was young, I went to Hangzhou West Lake. You know, we have a West 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 to think about. Is that true? Is that an opportunity inside? Is there anything I can do that make the difference? Think about this. 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. Make the move. Make the action to everybody, to any person. Tomorrow is new. And believe one thing. This is also another last advice I want to give you. You have to work very hard, right? Either work for the others or work for yourself. And I choose the work for myself. But working for myself, that means working for the society. If you really want to work for yourself, think about the others. The DT time, making sure you help others. Because only when the other people are successful, when the other people are happy, you'll be successful, you will be happy. I really want to help the young people to build up the ecosystem. But one thing I want to say that a lot of people say internet is killing jobs. The technology is killing jobs. But I believe internet and technology, every time the technology created new jobs, the first revolution of technology created more jobs. Second revolution created a lot of jobs. So this time, we are going to this century for the new technology is going to create more jobs. But these jobs need more knowledge, more skills. And Korean people, I think they are so creative. When I see the cinema, the movie, and the mobile time, especially you're so good at making online gaming. These are the things that people need all kinds of entertainment. In Korea, you have such a wonderful infrastructure of the mobile. The next 10, 20 years will be the time, the mobile, the data, and innovation. So these things put together will be a fantastic opportunity. And for what Alibaba is doing is that we are bringing great consumption from China. For our site, every day we have 120 million consumers shopping on our site every day. Everything that is good online always sold out. You will never imagine this. I don't understand why so many people buying on shop every day, but just to come in. And I think next 20 years will be at least 2 billion, at least 2 billion to 2.5 billion people will be online shopping. And that will be the best opportunity for everybody. And I think Korea, since you are the nation that has the best infrastructure of mobile and the creativity. So let's create something for the world, for the best consumers. So that is why I'm coming here not to sell things. Honestly, I think sell Chinese products to Korea, we've been sold that for 20 years. I'm trying to come in here and say, young people, Korea, create something, sell to the world, sell to China. That's the opportunity there. I'm going to ask you, Chairman Ma, you have allowed your chip so much with your business. Do you still have something to do for more? Are you still hungry for business? Yeah. The money people give me, the money I have is not my money. This is the money people trust on me. That's the trust people on me. So I should take the most responsibility for all the money I invest. And I still have a big passion for future because it's not about how much money you will make, how much life you can change, how many things you can do that improve. Because our mission of doing Alibaba is helping small business doing business easier. And we only help the Chinese small business. There are so many Korean small business. There are so many Afghanistan business, small business, Philippines. So I think there are a lot of things, but I cannot do myself. We want to make the internet can help this small business. So I'm thinking in my way, how can using internet to open Sesame for small business online? I just wonder what made you set that goal? Well, when I started my business in 1992, it was so difficult. I tried to borrow $3,000 from the banks. It took me three months, but I still cannot get it. And when I started in 1994, I tried to register an internet company. I could not do it because it was so difficult. All the processing, you cannot get the money, cannot rent an office. And then when I started Alibaba, it was still very difficult. And I think big companies, the government help. Foreign companies, the American market, the stock market help. Small business, nobody help. If we can create something that using internet help the small business, empower the small business, and make help the small business grow strong, that will be the unique value that the internet can help. So that was big. I think since nobody helped me, if we can help the others, it will be a huge opportunity. That is the dream, and that become our mission. So everybody join our company. We will ask him. Our job, our mission is to help others doing business easier. If you agree with that, working together with us, welcome. If you don't agree with it, there are a lot of good opportunities there, and just to join them. Because we think this is our mission. And we've been doing that for 16 years, and I think we will do make another 86 years working on that. I did not know where I got the confidence. These days when I see the documentary, I was surprised why this guy has that. That is true, because funny thing, the day when I started Alibaba, I asked my colleague to record and tape everything, everything we talk, all the meetings. We've been putting a whole house of tapes in the past 16 years. We want to record it. I told my friends and myself, if Jack Ma can be successful, 80% of the people in China can be successful. To now, we do not borrow even one dollar from the bank. We do not have even one dollar from the government. We do everything ourselves. So honestly, the 18 founders in my apartment, 40% of them are my students, another 40% of my friends. So they have no choice. And when we have 100 people, well, when we start to do something, all the companies came to us and grabbed my people. It was funny that those great people have a vision of themselves. They always have some new ideas. They were taken away from the other companies. Those people stay in the companies. They're not very smart, like me. We believe what we're doing. So nobody come to headhunting us. So we have no choice. We stay there after 10 years, we're successful. The very important is that you believe it. We believe this thing. And we see why we be, it's not about revenue. The emails of thanks from customers are the best revenue. And also the employees knows, wow, this is something else. We did not have revenue. I told you one story. I went to a restaurant. When I finished my eating, there's somebody came in with a piece of paper say, hi, Jack, I'm a user of Alibaba. I know you did not make money, so I pay your bill. For these things happen a lot. I went to a bar. Some people give me a cigar. Say thank you for your website. I know you did not make money. I just a small gift. So these things tell us this thing is good if we keep on working. And after 10 years, it really become good. That was the true story. And that keep us working on. Okay. First, I think nobody can conquer the world. And we only can serve the world. Serve how many people in the other side. Because I believe if you have a vision of your village, you can do a good business in your village. If a vision for whole career, you do the business in the whole career. If a vision in America, you have a vision there. So first, you have to think about how big you think and do things in a detail. Silicon Valley has been there for so many years and such a good infrastructure, good ecosystem environment, which is good. But we should not never always put Silicon Valley as the example. There's only one Silicon Valley there. When I started, I put the Bill Gates as my role model. I put the Warren Buffett role model. I got more disappointed. Oh, my God. When can I be at this Bill Gates? When you put the role model is that big, it's very frustrating. Then I think about the Uncle Wong, my next door, and Anthony, my next door. They work pretty well. So I started to think, let me serve this. And one day I can serve more people. That was the beginning. Guys, I tell you the day, the first week when I launched Taobao.com, nobody come to sell. Nobody come to buy because there's nothing to sell. So in my office, we have seven people. We buy, we sell ourselves. And the first 10 days, some people start to try to sell something, we buy everything. So we buy a whole house of things for no use. Just people come to sell. So little by little, we build up our business. Little by little, we build up our ecosystem of the infrastructure. So if career tried to have a Silicon Valley like infrastructure, you will never have it. Because Silicon Valley has been there for, I don't know, 15 years or 60 years. Let's build up something all for ourselves. When the infrastructure is very good, you have no chance, guys. Why you are entrepreneur? Why you want to be the entrepreneur? Because being 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. So I think, I don't see, and I will tell you what, people in Silicon Valley admire career a lot. Wow, you have such a wonderful infrastructure of mobile. Wow, you have so many creative young people, and you are in Asia. This is what I think. When you're optimistic, it's always opportunity. So I don't want China to have a Silicon Valley infrastructure. First, it's impossible. Second, if there is one, I should have made it. We should have made an infrastructure, not waiting for government. Government, it's so difficult for them. They sometimes think kindly, but they are government officers. We business, we have to create for ourselves and getting support from them, but don't rely on them. That's what I believe, because they have a more important, the whole country, how to balance. For business, we have to build up our own ecosystem. That's what I think. Okay, what would you do if you were a 25-year-old man? Well, first, I would love to go back to 25 years. I would do anything to be back to 25 years. I think I would go to China, and seeing the market there, and go to America, and think about it, and go back, and come back to Korea. I think opportunity is everywhere. Honestly, when people think about internet is the future, 10 years ago, internet was so good. When nobody believed internet, it was so good. Now, internet is so tough, because all the smart people go to internet. So, you should go to the off-ground. There are so many opportunities. If you run a restaurant, if you're really interested in running a restaurant in Korea, using IT technology to making sure the restaurant is perfectly unique. If you want to open a barbershop, making sure you use the IT technology and data technology, be different. It's not only the high-tech that works. There are a lot of business. If you're using IT better, that'd be fantastic. So, Prime Minister said I'm a genius. I don't think I'm a genius, and I would love to be a genius, but when I sit next to Bill Gates, I think I'm a genius. When I speak Chinese, he cannot speak. When I speak English, well, it's not bad. We all have to think opposite. When everybody agree, wait one minute, think about it. Is that right? Is there an opportunity where everybody against it, just wait for one minute, think about it. So, 25 years old, don't worry. Any mistake is an income. It's a wonderful revenue for you. So, I tell myself and told my young people, before 20 years old, be a good student. When you do entrepreneur, just learn some experience. Before 30 years old, follow somebody. Go to a small company. Normally, in a big company, it is good to learn processing. You are a part of a big machine, but when you go to small company, you learn the passion. You learn the dreams. You learn how to do a lot of things at one time. So, before 30 years old, it's not which company you go, it's which boss you follow. It's very important. A good boss teaches you differently, and from 30 to 40 years old, you have to think very clearly when you're working for yourself, if you really want to be an entrepreneur. When you're 40 to 50 years old, you have to do all the things that you are good at. Don't try to drop into the new area. It's too late. You may be successful, but the rate of dying is too big. So, 40 to 50, think about how can you focus on things that you are good at, but when you are 50 to 60 years old, work for the young people, because young people can do better than you. So, rely on them, invest on them, making sure they're good. So, when you are over 60 years old, spend time for yourself on the beach, sunshine. It's too late for you to change normally, but this is my advice to the young people. 25 years old, make enough mistakes. Don't worry. You fall, you stand up. You fall, you stand up. Enjoy it. I mean, 25 years old, enjoy the show, enjoy the show. Okay. First, it's not easy to attract investment for any startups. My CFO, Joseph Tsai, and I went to Silicon Valley for the first time, 1999 to the year 2000. We talked to over 30 or 40 venture capitalists. Everybody said, no, forget it. So, we gather 50,000 US dollars from 18 founders. We started. And the very important thing is that you always have to prepare for at least one year money before you go on the road. I agree that it's so difficult to convince your wife, your parents, and your girlfriend to do that. But if you can convince somebody for the first round money, no matter how big the vision is, you have to start from the small things. Easy, secure, start to move. The first move has to be a little bit secure. Always pick up some easy things and try to convince those people who trust you to raise the money first. Remember one thing. That's the secret sauce. Always raise money when you have money. All right. When you don't have money, you're in trouble. Don't go out to raise money. So, when you have the money, start to think about how can I raise because the winter is coming. Always think about preparing for the winter. So, my philosophy is repair the roof while it is sunshine. When it rains, don't move. Keep it. All right. So, that is the first round of money the bank will not give you. But it's okay. Raise a little bit money. Prove it a little more. Prove it a little more. Everybody goes like that. Okay. My name is Liu Yixuan. I'm from China. I have a question for you. Do you think Alibaba could still become as successful as it has now without the huge e-commerce market base? Well, nobody can guarantee. Nobody can guarantee will be successful. All right. So, I think the only thing that can guarantee our success is keep the passion, keep believing in the future, keep on investing in the young people, and keep on the mission that helping others to be successful. If we keep on that, we have the chance to be successful. If we think, well, we are rich enough, let's enjoy the life and that will never work. Right. And now, we're getting more competitors. All the guys, entrepreneurs, if you do business, you will always have a competition. Don't worry about the competition because your competitors also worry about you. Right. So, don't worry. Competition is a very important and fun part of the game in the business. So, the competitors will never kill you. You will kill yourself by not serving your customer better. So, if you ask me, what can make Alibaba go longer? I want to make you guys, young people, join a company like Alibaba. Open shops on Alibaba, on Taobao. Okay. Thank you. And then, that will keep and we help you, you help us. It's about helping each other and then you will be successful. That's what I believe. First, I respect your question about you graduate from MBA and join a startup, which is good. A lot of MBAs only want to join big companies, big, big managers. Startup, MBA is good. I sent, but unfortunately, a lot of MBAs do not train entrepreneurships. I sent a lot of young, wonderful young people to go to MBA. They were very smart before they go to MBA, but they came back. They suddenly, they think like a, you know, structure guide. This is no good. So, I told my people, forget about what you learned in the MBA. Use instinct and making sure that everything you do is to the need of the customer. And I think it is good for MBA to be in the startup and to raise money. Most of the times, the venture capitalists give you the money, not only because of the business plan, because of the team you have. Who working together with you and who are these people? What's your experience? What's your record? I think raising money is not that difficult today. Trust me. It's much, there's too much money here because people got crazy. The money, the muscle, everybody, everywhere is the money. But the thing is that you have a good team, good dream, relaxed plan and good record. When you have that, I bet you will get the money. Don't worry about the money. Money follow the people. People should follow the dreams and the dream should follow the execution capability. When that thing happens, the money will come. And the day when I'm going to write a book, which I don't know whether I can write it, but the book I want to write about is Alibaba 1001 Mistakes. So many mistakes we have and this is the best assets we have. So don't worry about it. We'll make a mistake. Don't worry about that. Just go ahead if you have a dream. Okay, thank you for joining us again. Have a