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Jack Ma: If You're Poor At 35, You Deserve It
Submitted by Zach Ho via VulcanPost.com,
You are poor because you have no ambition.
Jack Ma: Before I founded Alibaba, I invited 24 friends to my house to discuss the business opportunity. After discussing for a full two hours, they were still confused — I have to say that I may not have put myself across in a clear manner manner then. The verdict: 23 out of the 24 people in the room told me to drop the idea, for a multitude of reasons, such as: ‘you do not know anything about the internet, and more prominently, you do not have the start-up capital for this’ etc etc.
There was only one friend (who was working in a bank then) who told me, “If you want to do it, just try it. If things don’t work out the way you expected it to, you can always revert back to what you were doing before.” I pondered upon this for one night, and by the next morning, I decided I would do it anyway, even if all of the 24 people opposed the idea.
When I first started Alibaba, I was immediately met with strong opposition from family and friends. Looking back, I realised that the biggest driving force for me then was not my confidence in the Internet and the potential it held, but more of this: “No matter what one does, regardless of failure or success, the experience is a form of success in itself.” You have got to keep trying, and if it doesn’t work, you always can revert back to what you were doing before.
As with this quote by T.E. Lawrence – “All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream in the dark recesses of the night awake in the day to find all was vanity. But the dreamers of day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, and make it possible.”
Jack Ma: People lose out in life because of these 4 reasons:
- Being myopic to opportunity
- Looking down on opportunities
- Lacking understanding
- Failing to act quickly enough
You are poor, because you have no ambition.
Ambition is living a life of great ideals; a magnificent goal in life that must be realised.
In this world, there are things that are deemed unfathomable, but there is nothing in this world that cannot be done. The depth of one’s ambition determines the potential of one’ future.
By way of example:
The Story of Juliet Wu Shihong – one of China’s first-generation professional managers, who gained success by working her way up the ranks from a cleaner, a nurse, a marketing executive, through self-education and learning on the job.
She had been the general manager for the world’s most famous multinational IT groups’ Chinese branches (Microsoft 1985-1998; IBM 1998-1999). She is also China’s first successful international corporate executive to join the executive team of a domestic private firm. Wu was seen as a symbol of the new generation of business executives that China has produced in its economic reform and opening-up.
When Wu started off in a big company working from the lowest ranks, her daily job was to pour tea and sweep floors. Once, because she forgot her staff pass, the company’s guard stopped her at the door and denied her entry. She explained to the guard that she was indeed one of the company’s employees, and that she had merely left the building for a short while to purchase office supplies.
Despite her pleas, the guard still did not allow to enter. As she stood at the gate, she watched as those of similar age to her, but smartly dressed in business attire walking through without having to show their passes.
She asked the guard, “Why are these people allowed through without producing a pass?” The guard dismissed her coldly nonetheless.
That was the turning point for Wu – she felt great shame, her self-esteem trampled on.
She looked at herself, dressed in shabby clothes and pushing a dirty push cart. Looking back at those dressed in smart attire, her heart felt a deep ache from the sudden realization of the sorrow and grief from being discriminated. From that moment, she vowed never to allow herself to be shamed like this again, and to become world-famous.
Since then, she used every opportunity to enrich herself. Every day, she was the first to arrive at work, and the last one to leave. She made every second count, spending her time learning the ropes. Her efforts soon paid off; she was made a sales representative, and quickly progressed to being the regional general manager of this multinational company in China. Wu did not possess strong academic qualifications, and was revered as the ‘Queen of Part-timers’. Subsequently, she assumed the position of GM of IBM China. This is the Wu Shihong, the heroine in China’s business circle.
If not for the incident, Wu Shihong would not have had the ambition to become rich, and her life would have taken a very different path then.
Lessons...
- You are poor because you do not have the desire to become successful.
- You are poor because you lack foresight.
- You are poor because you cannot overcome your cowardice.
- You are poor because you lack the courage and determination.
- With ambition you can overcome all inferiority and maximise your potential!
- With ambition you can persevere, continuously learn new things and strive for perfection.
- With ambition you can defy all odds, and create miracles when others daren’t.
No matter how poor your family is, do not doubt your own abilities and lose sight of your ambition.
- When your family deems you worthless, no one will pity you.
- When your parents do not have money to pay the medical bills, no one will pity you.
- When you are beaten by your competitors, no one will pity you.
- When your loved ones abandon you, no one will pity you.
- When you have not accomplished anything by the time you are 35, no one will pity you.
Go big, or go home. Otherwise, you’re wasting your youth.
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Just a sign of the times. A exclaimation point on a sad state of humanity.
Paul Hogan said that the best thing about being newly rich was the ability to say 'no' to the people he'd had to suck up to before. If Jack Ma is happy then he's successful. I bet sometimes he still looks in the mirror and says "Fuck this shit."
Well, the guy's an asshole, but he's probably right, at least for those on the right hand side of the intelligence distribution curve. I've been poor many times, but none of them were actually necessary, if money had been the most important thing to me. It hasn't been, and it still isn't.
Now I'm rich, in the sense that I don't have to work right now, but my money will run out, and then I will work again, probably at some low-paying job. I don't need a lot.
tvdog
This guy is a dork....typical snobbish chink. His company was broke for a long time & still lacks transparency in so many areas.
If it were not for Yahoo Japan & Softbank, he'd be broke long ago.....clearly giving himself too much credit when there were others who rescued him.
There's only one thing worse than a poor loser and that's a poor winner.
Let's do a real accounting audit of Alibaba, and see how real of his ambition really is. Is it ambition or just "Chinese" accounting get him where he is now.
I don't know about anyone else here, but I would feel retarded buying from a site named "Alibaba"..
Shittyas site, too. Fire your UI guys.. they blew it. And next time, don't rip the Amz color pallete. I guess they are living up to the poor theif theme..lol. Use free shit (jQuery) and steal colors..
Oh, and Jack Ma.. you look like fucking Kuato, bro..
u wrong, for some product they are very great and cheap cost.
why buying bsa scope when chenese version is just like real bsa for 1/4 pricing.
only clothing is bad, they use chinese dwarves model so even XXL chinese = L for EU/US
it is cool only for small ppl & youth. fat ( meaning usa, lol ) no cloth for you :)
If you're plinking and don't care about quality, maybe, but if you're serious about your gear, then you're NOT going to buy cheap ass, chinese shit. I give them kudo's though.. they can sure copy stuff pretty well.
Ha ha ......Another perpetuation of the false value systems that support the illusion of materiality that we are all trapped in.
Work hard and spend that money to impress the other lemmings !!!.....they will all be sooooooooooooooo impressed.
Bla ha ha ha ha ha !!!
Fella with Tongue of Fork
This guy built a successful website that is not worth billions. It has some value but not what they give it.I thought the same of facebook, twitter and a lot of other crap. This new business model of not having profits doesnt work in the real world. Ive got a small business thats barely afloat that I would love to sell for 40 or 50 times earnings. This guy is a douche who caught the eye of the bankers as the next shit company they could capitalize on. When the next crash comes it will be huge. All these shit companies will go under. I know it and you know it. Thats why these people take the company public so they can cash out ,get rich and leave someone else holding the bag. I have learned to look at the long game. In the end a lot of these people will be looking for sympathy from the same people they looked down on. Enjoy your riches Ma, until you have to flee the country or your communist government throws you in prison for not playing nice. Plenty of people do things right and get wealthy, nothing wrong with that. Lots of people dont. All I can say is thet KARMA is a bitch!
Good luck to him, however he might find all of his trite wisdom will be of no use to him if he gets on the wrong side of some Government official in the future and ends up in a jail cell or hard labor for 30 years for tax avoidance, Fate has a far stronger hand in the future than how ambitious you are.
Read the Start-up Nation for more inspiration.
From en.wikipedia.org
START-UP NATION addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel – a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources—produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful,and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? How is it that Israel has, per person, attracted over twice as much venture capital investment as the US and thirty times more than Europe?
And an example of the loser mentality...and how to turn disadvantage to advantage by being creative.
… a Fly in Coffee….. The Italian – throws away the whole cup and leaves in a rage The Frenchman – throws away the fly and drinks the coffee The Chinaman – eats the fly and throws away the coffee The Russian – drinks the coffee with the fly… in silence The Israel – sells the coffee to the Frenchman, the fly to the Chinaman, buys a fresh cup of coffee for himself, and with the money left over designs an apparatus that prevents flies from getting into the coffee The Palestinian – accuses the Israeli of throwing the fly into his coffee, and protests Israeli aggression at the UN, is given a forgivable loan from the European Union to buy a fresh cup of coffee, he then buys explosives with the loan, and then gets blown up in his coffee shop……. [then] The Italian, Frenchman, Chinaman and Russian try to explain to the Israeli that he’s obliged to give his coffee to that poor Palestinian….”You were going good there till you went off on the Palestinians you are genociding.
And how many US stocks were listed on the Israeli exchanges? Except for those sponsoring oil companies and lobbyists (Jew "J" Street)?
what a jerk.
succes on opportunity do not makes you better, just richer. fortunatly wealth has nothing to do with happiness.
The secret of most success stories these days is to be born rich or sell out. E.g Bill Gates.
Poor Jack, doesn't know the meaning of life. Thinks it's about wealth and power.
Better click bait than the latest leak of starlet booty. But it aint honey because it's attracting the flies.
To Jack, "rich" seems to mean lots of money or just a very successful business venture. To others it may mean a wonderful family and the means to support it and everything in between. Point being that it's all relative.
Reading the comments in this thread is about what I expect these days from hedgers. Blame, envy and good ole' wishing for someone's down fall. It's the lowest of human emotions.
We talk ad nauseam about the gangsters that run a muck in the banking, corporate and government world. We have no control over that situation, well most of us don't. But we do have control over ourselves individually.
There is no such thing as equality. Someone actually wrote that inequality "drives" the system in this thread. Pure gobblty gook. So if you're using that as a crutch let me just knock that right out from under you. The idea that we can all be made "equal" or that the playing field can be made completely level is ridiculous. 'If the "system" was fair I could be ______'. Bullshit, many of you could have the road paved for you and you would still find a way to fail. Some of you could make a "gozillion dollars", as Forest would say, doing almost anything and others barely make enough to survive. But both can lead rich and deeply rewarding lives. If your goal is to become wealthy there are a plethora of ways to do it and starting while you're young is very good advice. Achievement of this goal is not guaranteed of course. And becoming "rich" is another matter entirely.
In all aspects of life, many have opportunities, some make opportunities but even rarer are those that act upon them.
"Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another". Milton Friedman
Green: Get Rich Everything Else is Nonsense
Fuck You! Jack.
Yet another slopehead asserting his superiority to those who have less than he does. But I did cick it.
Poor = a bad person.
Rich = a good person.
What is left out of this is the cost of being 'successful.' And what defines success isn't always money.
I'll pass on the "opportunity" to work 100 hour work weeks. What I value isn't money; I'd rather make things that last, forging things by hand.
Confucious say: "Yuk Foo, I have more cheese than you!"
This was a stupid arrogant article. There are many poor 35 year olds today who will become tomorrow’s leaders and the future rich. For many of us it takes countless failures before we succeed in life. Failure does not mean shame if you learn from failure. Here is an example:
While working in IT in the late 1980’s for a large Midwest bank as a newly minted Data Base Manager I was often confronted at lunch by a curious young man in his early 30’s. The young man was doing the “grunt” work we paid our lowest DB programmer’s. He dressed in the opposite of dress for success and loved to wear the long hair from his college days.
Each time at lunch the young man would ask me excitedly about the latest DB technology. And I would answer yes or no depending on how it fit our current configuration. I was impressed with how much knowledge the young man had accumulated. I ask him “…why are you doing… basic DB programming…you could be doing…high level DB programming…”. Well I got my answer a few weeks later. They fired him because he was reading too much on the job and not programming.
About a week later he called me and asked for reference. I thought “…there is something not right here. He is going for the same junk jobs…” I asked him to hold up on that while I made a call. The call was to a tech support manager in the bank “…hey I got a guy who got laid off. But he knows most of that technology you are going to be implementing next quarter. You want a guy like that…”
Well to make a long story short the young man was in the wrong job. Once in tech support he devoured material night and day. They then sent him to technology conferences where he unlike the rest of us read thousands of pages of DB installation. By the time I was ready to leave the bank he had moved on and up to GM where he was the DB tech guru for all future DB installations and help get me a manager’s job. He was way smarter than me. I have often thought what a waste of talent we would have had if I and the tech manger had not given this kid a second chance. Last I heard he is a CIO at an up and coming tech company…
Since this thread is still going, I thought I'd add another thought. I'm a late bloomer, wisdom-wise. I was way too stupid to see opportunities I had in the past. I'm just starting to figure out how this world works. How about I pretend I'm 20 and give it another go?
Yes! We can all have our very own AliBaba's and Google's!
Everyone who has tried has always succeeded.
This is the same point made twice, thanks "winner"!
Lmao, take your Self Help Seminar Schtick somewhere else. We deal in reality around here.
Jack - You left out the part about how to pay off the central planners and bribe local party chiefs when they come banging on your door. But ... I know Jack, sometimes the most important part of the story is that part which you leave out.
So... I must say... Fuk you Jack .... swimy weasel !
Jack Ma? You're a fuggin idiot.
So you think that if everyone has your sterling qualities and brains and courage and all those other mostly worthless things (in relation to how much money you can make) they too can be rich, and if they AREN'T rich, then it's that they somehow failed - ie it's their own fault?
Ummm... Jack(ass)? Have you condiered what kind of lifestyle you'd have if EVERYONE had the same amount of "wealth" that you have? If everyone were "rich"?
If everyone had billions of dollars, billions of dollars would be worthless. What makes YOU rich, dumbass, is that others are poor. It's the disparity of holdings that MAKES an arrogant jerk like you "special". And when (not IF, WHEN) you or your kids or your grandkids lose it all and are as poor as those you now think are flawed because they aren't rich now, why then you can hope that some other arrogant, ignorant jackass isn't saying that there's a lack in your descendents because they aren't rich too.
Wait for the crash... then you'll hear people on the street saying things like, "Isn't that Jackass Ma? The guy who thought he was so special because he was rich? He doesn't look so rich NOW that he's lost it all! Hey... let's buy an apple and give it to him. Make sure it has a worm or two in it."
Ma, you're making your bed... don't bitch when you have to lay in it.
"The idea where people are brainwashed into putting their own needs first, in the name of self- worth, has been implanted in the human psyche for a long time, but this philosophy has been reinforced by the powers of modern communication. When My children hear these messages, almost daily, through TV, the media, the cinema, music and the Internet, they accept these messages as being important."
http://www.thewarningsecondcoming.com/call-on-believers-to-convert-lost-...
The Alibaba koers hasn't done much lately. One day of firework and than nothing.