Best Examples of Success in Life - the Story of Jack Ma Yun
The entrepreneur that I will talk about within the topic of examples of success in life is Jack Ma. Jack Ma Yun, is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate. Jack Ma is a strong advocate of an open and market-driven economy.
Jack Ma’s life is perhaps the greatest example of success through failure. He failed primary school twice and middle school three times. He also failed his university entrance exam three times. He was rejected by the police force and even KFC. He applied for Harvard ten times and was rejected each year.
From a humble beginning, he had made a great success and some of the keys to success from Jack Ma, self-made billionaire and CEO of Alibaba are do not fear failure. He wasn’t demotivated or embarrassed by the rejections. Although the failure was a part of his life in his early life, what makes him extraordinary is the persistence that he has in himself to keep trying and finding out new ways of doing things.
Other than that, Jack Ma is a person who truly believes in attitudes. He values it. He was not deterred in a difficult situation and continue to be an optimistic person and seeking opportunities. This can be seen in his interest in learning a second language and the efforts that he took to learn the language that he got captivated. As a young child, he would travel far to visit the hotels where US tourists were staying to learn English in exchange for giving them tours around the city.
Despite all these failures and rejections, Jack Ma persisted throughout. Relying on his English skills, he made use of the capabilities that he already owns and he started a translation service business and visited the US as a translator where he was introduced to the Internet. Without any technical knowledge of computers, email or coding, Ma became interested in this new experience at the time. To his astonishment he able to get some customers who were curious about his services.
Next, he was a person who had great foresight. Jack Ma believes that a good leader should have foresight. He tries to stay one step ahead of the competition and anticipate how decisions will play out ahead of other people. He believes that taking time to develop creative thinking skills and following informed intuition is a characteristic of any great business leader. This is when he started to introduce something unconventional to ease people’s life which is the Introduction of e-commerce to do business transaction such as pay and buy without seeing the seller and buyer concept.
Although again he faced so many rejections from the financial institution to get support for his business, he did not let go of his ideas, because people are very confident to do transactions face-to face and unacostomed to new methods of doing business. This is where he was very tenacious in term of standing firm on his fundamental believe which is to build trust to do a continuous business. He is aware in order to be a successful in business, he needs to build a trusted system this this is how he introduced Alipay which is a is an mobile and online payment platform.
On top of that, another key to his success is by hiring a talented workforce. He hires people with superior skills. Jack Ma has once quoted that “Your employee should have superior technical skills than you. If he doesn’t, it means you have hired the wrong person.” Focusing on the skills of employees and hiring people with the know-how to carry out your vision is an important pillar of any great company. This is one of the greatest reason for his business to flourish and became a global brand.
Another key factor is by creating a strong brand image and impression by selecting a catch name that is interesting and carries the meaning where it sparks curiosity. The idea behind the name is that consumers can find treasures on the site. Alibaba is a business-to-business site that allows companies within China to more easily to sell to each other.
The final key factor that made Jack Ma successful is failing in academics is not the real failure but giving up is the real failure. According to Jack Ma, a person is able learn the most from obstacles and that will be the greatest lesson for the next stepping stone. They key to success is perseverence and learning from the mistakes.
Based on his life story I have learned that treat every opportunity as an open door. One should look further in life because every no opportunity is small. We should grasp it and work it with passion and determination to make it fruitful. Other than that, one should act quickly which means bouncing back from failure instead of procrastination on it. Acting fact and running through the hurdles to make the best out of it. Next is do not have a confine mindset and dwell in one’s unfortunate living condition. No matter what is the current condition, where one grew up or lacking of training and education, one can be successful in their chosen endeavor. It is spirit, fortitude, and hardiness that matter more than where they start. Other than that to be courages is another lesson learnt. When Jack Ma started, he was not sure of the technology and the systems to do the business yet he was very bold enough to learn and although he wa not been supported by many parties he was in pursuit of his chosen ambition. He also mentioned that make of youth because this is the moment the spirit, enery and ambition is high.
