As the world changes, nothing will happen if you don’t act. If you act, you may benefit from that action.
His exposure to Silicon Valley inspired him to do something when he goes back to China.
I believe money could not solve all problems. Money is just an important tactic in problem-solving. So, when people say, “I have money, so I can do this.” That is the start of their failure.
A company’s assets is like the government’s military. You cannot use it lightly, but if ever you need to mobilize it, you must win. Money can’t be spend recklessly. It is wrong to think money alone can solve problems.
He doesn’t understand technology but he respects it. He never argued over technology in the past 14 years of being a CEO at Alibaba. If he understands technology, he will be over the shoulders of his engineers and never get work done.
Outsiders can lead experts, the key is respecting these experts
Since I don’t understand technology, I became the only tester. I tested whether these things were useful or not. My experience with technology is similar to 80{5fcd3cbc9de14e1587c4b983f08e4837fa7ae8985dc66bae235a2c5aa0d68677} of our users. We are not afraid of technology but we respect it. We just need it to be useful. If you can’t use a technology — regardless of how good it is — it is useless.
Our life is a plan that is slowly unfolding
Embrace change. Change is the best plan. But you don’t want to lose your own sense of direction.
If you feel that you are having good luck. Feel free to share it with other people. Sow the seeds of good luck in other people’s yards. Eventually, the seeds will sprout. That will likely bring you more good luck.
Alibaba’s goal was to make it easy for people to do business anywhere. We are here to help entrepreneurs. Because it was very hard for me to start my own business.
We know that small businesses needs consumers. I knew that we didn’t have the right DNA to become a consumer company. The world is changing so fast it’s hard to gauge consumers’ needs. Small businesses know more about the needs of their customers. So we knew what we had to do. We had to empower our power sellers and our SMEs to support their customers. We should use technology to help our small businesses grow and become more adaptable to the future consumer market.
We hope that small businesses can use technology to challenge the large enterprises. The big companies have money, influence, and connections. We hope the every young person as long as he has good ideas won’t need a rich father or a powerful uncle.
You must have a good sense of direction and the right tools
Sometimes a country’s dream can be quite successful, but does it have anything to do with you? Not necessarily. When everyone’s dream come true, society will also prosper.
Make it happen. It doesn’t matter how big your dream is, the key is whether you can do it and do it well.
My proudest moments is when I dine out, someone tells me “Jack Ma, someone took care of your bill”. When I wanter for my car in front a hotel, a guy comes, opens the door and says “Thanks Jack, I work here. My daughter-in-law and my wife own a Taobao store, they make more money than me”
Alibaba is positioned to be the “enabler” of small businesses. They take care of the technology.
Nobody can guarantee success. But nobody can guarantee you’ll fail. Once in your life, try something.