Posted on 09/23/2014 7:33:32 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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 dont 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 doesnt 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:
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 ones ambition determines the potential of one’ future.
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.
No matter how poor your family is, do not doubt your own abilities and lose sight of your ambition.
Go big, or go home. Otherwise, you’re wasting your youth.
The article is originally published in Chinese, and is translated into English. If you think this was helpful, feel free to share it with your friends.
Amazing that a man from a “Communist” country is thinking like a capitalist and so many in a “Capitalist” country,( on a “Conservative” site!), think like commies!
That’s not likely to happen when the Communist Party is throwing open its doors to the rich.
China is no longer the egalitarian utopia under Mao, who preferred China remain poor and blank than become rich and powerful.
Maoism is not the answer.
Most of he rich in China get that way through Cronyism. They know someone or are related to someone in high positions of authority.
Heck half of the companies in China are owned or partially owned by the People’s Liberation Army
I guess this depends on the reference frames and the individuals priorities.
I've had money, lots of it. Now I don't. I'm not poor, but at the same time, this makes me believe the author is missing some of the finer aspects of life. In the end, money means nothing, only family and friends. sure, it makes life more comfortable, but unless you inherited it, it's generally not worth the sacrifices of family and self.
So in other words, it's all in what it's worth to you. I'd personally rather be a home throwing the football with my boys than be away from them earning 500 bucks an hour... and I actually feel fortunate that I came to that realization long before I met my death bed... churning through my regrets. Life can end tonight, I'm not wasting one minute of it trying to stockpile money the Almighty doesn't let you bring through the gate.
Spoken as a born again loser. Just whom do you blame for your lack of success?
“Ive said it for a long time, the biggest gap is the ambition gap.
Some people want to build companies, and get rich, or simply work hard to be the best they can be.
Others just want to sit around and get high all day.”
And still others bust their assess everyday only to see their paychecks go to sustain an ever increasing government leviathan that destroys opportunity for millions every day through it’s counter-productive actions.
You needed scare quotes on “capitalist” not “communist”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_government-owned_companies_of_China
You are assuming that I’m a loser. LOL! Speaks volumes.
Hillary was broke at 50+ and we know how ambitious she is.
Every country has government-owned companies.
Its not like China is a great exception.
You think a government-owned economy is awesome or something?
Almost everything sold on Alibaba comes from a government-owned corporation.
With all due respect you just intimated that everyone that is poor is stupid, which is certainly a step down from lazy. Not only that but I’ve known plenty of highly compensated executives that are as dumb as stumps.
Alibaba is the product of the China International Electronic Commerce Center. All they did was to give it a legitimate "corporate" front, Alibaba.
"From 1998 to 1999, Ma headed an information technology company established by the China International Electronic Commerce Center, a department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. "
It is hard to believe that any FReeper would think China is actually a capitalist country when most of its large corporations and stuff are government-owned. This is just a modern version of Russia exporting government Vodka for "hard currency" to buy grain.
It is nothing a conservative should support.
First of all define “poor”. Are we talking in an absolute sense, or a relative sense?
People in Haiti are “poor”, really poor. People in this country may be “poor” relative to others, but for the most part they have the basic necessities of life.
At this point in time, few people really know whether he is happy.
Jack's mantra is "Customer #1, employee #2, shareholder #3". Common sense: if the customers are happy, all are happy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUwmakdaye4&t=4m22s (2011)
Reiterated last Friday. "The hero I had was Forrest Gump ... I watched the movie 10 times ... last time before today".
If you would please read it again, I’m sure you’ll see that I did not say or imply that “everyone” that is poor is “stupid”.
I’m simply saying not everyone is capable of being a software developer.
Note that this does not mean they’re “stupid”. They may have a PhD in medicine, but still not have the capability to write a computer program. And, of course, there are programmers that are very good at programming, but do not have the aptitude to be a successful surgeon, lawyer, etc.
I’ve also personally known people - strange as this may seem - only graduated 8th grade, and they did not have much interest in school, and would hardly consider themselves highly intelligent. But I’ve seen at least one have their own business for many years with a very reasonable amount of success, and others have steady jobs their whole lives and be fairly well financially secure. None of them could do much of anything on a computer, and none are/were multi-millionaires. My point was that there is nothing wrong with them not becoming multi-millionaires - and they had FAR more ambition, working LONG days at “real” jobs where they had to actually think and work, than MANY folks I see running around today.
Most of us, undoubtedly, have also seen folks that were actually lazy and did not make good use of the capabilities they had and thus did not do well financially - although some of these folks actually do well financially, as in, the case of the person who, as they say, falls ass-backwards into money.
Sometimes very intelligent, hard-working people fall prey to temptations, or make mistakes indicative of human frailty - they aren’t lazy or stupid, just human. Sometimes these mistakes can take decades to recover from; sometimes the person never recovers.
I was simply trying to point out what should be obvious, that to simply paint with a broad brush and label everyone that is not a millionaire as lazy is a gross oversimplification and flat out wrong.
The new world order financial elites of society love to put this sort of lie into the public’s mind so a) it will motivate the intelligent, ambitious folks to unwittingly work hard for new world order as its “minions” (just drop by linkedin and you’ll find them by the thousand) and b) so those who are hard-working but not rich will not bother looking at the corruption and criminality of the elites thus not understand how the various programs and criminal agendas of the elites have them living as unwitting economic slaves.
Quoth Jack, this is how he decided on the company name:
One day I was in San Francisco in a coffee shop, and I was thinking Alibaba is a good name. And then a waitress came, and I said, "Do you know about Alibaba?" And she said yes. I said, "What do you know about Alibaba?", and she said, "Alibaba and 40 thieves". And I said, "Yes, this is the name!" Then I went onto the street and found 30 people and asked them, "Do you know Alibaba?" People from India, people from Germany, people from Tokyo and China they all knew about Alibaba. Alibaba open sesame. Alibaba is a kind, smart business person, and he helped the village. So easy to spell, and globally known. Alibaba opens sesame for small- to medium-sized companies. We also registered the name "Alimama", in case someone wants to marry us!"
And Jerry Sanders...founder of Advanced Micro Devices....paid his way through college as a prize fighter.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.