Never Give Up | Jack Ma | Motivational | Goal Quest

I would love to discuss something about the failures, mistakes we made. The thing I feel most thankful is all the mistakes, all the refuse that I got. Because without that, there will never be Alibaba. In the past 18 years, every day we make mistakes, every day we were rejected. I think being rejected, being refused by people, that is very natural. Why people should help you? You have to prove yourself, then people will help you. Alibaba was not made today. Alibaba was made 18 years ago in my apartment. The believing that using internet empower others, using internet to help young people, small business, and women will have bright future. So it's been 18 years hard working we came here. Today, there are a lot of books about us. I don't read these books because I think these books not about us. People love to see successful stories. But most of the success stories, they succeed because of the mistakes. I encourage all the young people, entrepreneurs to learn from the mistakes. Do not study successful stories. Successful stories in the Harvard Business School, normally, you know, there are a lot of things behind you don't know. But if you learn from the mistakes, if you learn, especially the failure case studies, it's going to help you. What I want to say, it's not about you. You learn from mistakes does not mean you will avoid mistakes. You will learn the attitude towards these mistakes and never give up fighting again. Of course, it's been very painful when you're rejected, when you're refused. I went all around looking for money. Nobody give us money. I all go around looking for partnerships. Nobody believe small business and e-commerce in China with the word. I was very painful that day. And when I saw one movie, Forrest Gump, I love that movie, especially the sentence that mom said, life like a box of chocolate. You never know what you're going to get. So stay full, stay foolish to a dream and continue to fight. So this is what we did as an entrepreneur. We never complain. When people complain, the opportunity comes. So if you can solve the complaints, that is your opportunity. So I love to, when I talk to the entrepreneurs, I feel excited. When I sit in there, listen to the entrepreneurs talk, I feel inspired. I feel we are the same animal. The difference between big company and small company is not about revenue. It's about the dream. The small companies have the dreams. Most of the big companies, when they get certain size, they only have KPI. As I said to myself early days, if there are nine rabbits on the ground, if you want to catch the rabbit, don't change the rabbit, change yourself. Stick to one rabbit. If you have the dream, stick to the dream. That is what I believe. Alibaba started 18 years ago. We never change our dream. We believe e-commerce. We believe internet. We believe by helping young people, helping small business and helping empowered women, we will have the future. This is what we believe. 18 years ago, 18 people in my apartment. When we had this dream, when we started, everybody say, you guys are crazy. How can you do e-commerce? No infrastructure, no credit system, no logistics, no this, no that. How could you do internet? We say, if there's no logistics, let's build it. If there's no credit system, let's build it. That is why they need entrepreneurs.