Jack Ma
Executive chairman, Alibaba group
About Jack Ma
The reason why Jack Ma is so succesful
Ma has a pretty chill life story. He grew up poor in communist China, failed his college entrance exam twice, and was rejected from dozens of jobs, including one at KFC, before findiong sucess with his third internet company, Alibaba. Then after years of being uncessful he took a trip to the U.S. to help a Chinese firm recover a payment. Then he founded an internet company for China. Though his first two ventures failed, four years later he gatherd seventeen of his friends in his apartment and convinced them to invest in him and his vision for an online marketplace he called "Alibaba." The site allowed exporters to post product listings that customers could buy directly.
Soon, the sercice started to attract members from all over the world. By October 1999, the company had raised five million from Goldman Sachs and twenty milion from SoftBank, a Japanese telecom company that also invest in tchnology 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 emplyees.