3 Life Lessons From Jack Ma

Here are the lessons we learned from Chinese billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma.

Let your vision be to impact the lives of people positively

From the beginning, Jack had a vision to trust his consumers and change their lives for the better. Many e-commerce entrepreneurs create a business model that focuses purely on revenue creation. For them, the vision is to create as much money as possible. It works for some of them but Jack took a different path. He created Alibaba and many other businesses to improve the lives of his employees and customers too. In his opinion, real wealth is a fruitful and rewarding relationship between his company and its customers. Money is simply a by-product and not his final goal. As such, begin your entrepreneurial endeavors with the objective of transforming the lives of the community for the better. This creates lasting, positive business relationships.

It doesn't matter where you start, it is where you finish that counts

Do not let your humble beginnings or unfortunate circumstances stop you from pursuing opportunities. Your level of education, method of upbringing or resources at hand do not matter at all. All that is important is how much you want to be successful and the amount of effort that you put in. Your spirit, hardiness, grit and fortitude will determine whether you win or fail. Like Jack Ma, dig in your heels and give every opportunity your best shot. This is how to become successful in life.

The greatest failure is giving up

If there is a man who knows the meaning of failure, it is Jack Ma. His courtship with failure began in his middle school days. He failed his final exams three times before finally passing. When he applied for college, he was rejected twice before the Huangzhou Normal University accepted him. After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in English, Jack applied to 30 jobs and was rejected from each one. Not one to give in, he applied in the police academy. Out of 5 applicants, he was the only one cut from the group. With his options quickly fading, he applied to Harvard for a scholarship and was rejected 10 times.

Entrepreneurship offered one last option. With money from menial jobs, he founded two successive companies. They both failed. A last attempt created Alibaba and the rest is glorious history. Jack Ma indicates that giving up is the biggest failure. Every time you go out, try your best. If you fail to accomplish your goal but see the process to the end, then you are a success. Hardship is the best teacher and the key to fortune is understanding its lessons.