A CROCODILE IN YANGTZE RIVER PART-I

A person can handle up to 3 to 4 rejection in life after that he gets demotivated and then he will be trying for another one or two times. Even at that time if he gets rejected he will be changing his dream or choice according to his comfortness….

Now we are going to see the story about a man who got rejected so many times and by which he founded a company which made him a billionaire and second richest man of china…

He is none other than JACK MA who founded a e-commerce company called Alibaba.

Let’s get way back to Hangzhou where Jack Ma a.k.a MA YUN  who was born on 10 September 1964 which was during china’s cultural revolution was increasing and capitalist and intellectuals were punished and sent to the country side. Families and friends were divided along class lines. His family was also not having money when he was young.

JACK MA CHILDHOOD DAYS  

In 1978, DENG XIAOPING emerges as new leader and opened china’s doors to the world and Deng went to the United States and for the first time in years Chinese and foreigners began to mix again

Hangzhou become a tourist spot for foreigners and it was on the banks of lake were Jack’s life would change. A teacher told him that she saw foreign tourist near the lake. Jack headed down to see for himself. Every morning for the next nine years, Jack rode his bicycle to the Hangzhou hotel where he would be a guide for the foreigners in exchange they would be teaching him English. Jack love for English turned to be much more than a hobby. Then he went on to become a English teacher in a local university for which he got $12 a month. As Jack was teaching English, Deng Xiaoping reforms were having dramatic effect, factories were opened, fuel and exports goods were boomed as international trade was increased.

JACK MA FIRST COMPANY

Jack saw the business opportunity and started his first company a translation company with several of his friends. He went to U.S with high hopes for the company work. He stayed with a family where he was first introduced to internet. The first thing he searched in internet was beer, where he found American beer, German beer but there was no Chinese beer. So again he searched for china and the there was no data. So after discussing with his friend they made a website for the translation company and it was launched at 9.30 and by 12’o clock he received 5 e-mails which was three from USA, one from Japan, one from Germany. This made him excited which he wanted to introduce to China and help Chinese people and this led him to start a new company in china

JACK MA SECOND COMPANY

After returning to china, Jack started the China’s first internet company called China Pages which is a kind of yellow pages for Chinese companies which offered online English language directory of Chinese companies and information. When the website was running jack was finding companies to advertise on his website. But this wasn’t enough he realized he needs corporation of the government. So he thought of partnering with government which is responsible for controlling information in country but china’s media and information was strictly controlled. It was not that easy for a government to partner with a outsider. After the meeting with the government bureaucrats, jack discovered that they had little interest in partnering with him still jack continued to see the government partner continuously visiting National Sports Committee. Jack thought for which he could he create a website which could support china’s Olympic bid but the members denied it. So jack found out that 1995 was too early for internet business in china that the customers weren’t ready, government weren’t ready and even may be jack wasn’t ready. So he also gave up on china pages and his dream has to wait….

JACK MA REJECTION

So after leaving china pages he thought of working, so he applied for jobs 30 times which got rejected. Especially when KFC came to china 24 people went for job 23 were accepted he was the guy who got rejected. Then he applied to police in that 5 people went for the job 4 people were accepted he was the only guy got rejected. So then he got job in a e-commerce division of government ministry.

JACK MA’S ALIBABA

During 1999, Internet was introduced to all over the world and there were lots of companies on the internet. Each day a new company gone public on NASDAQ making thousands of millionaires. Among the companies most of them were e-commerce companies like eBay, amazon and many more B2B business. At IPO’s these companies were worth billions of dollars and inspiring hundreds of entrepreneurs. At that time small business were using internet so jack thought this is the time. He gathered 17 of his friends in his apartment to lay out a plan to compete with the U.S giants. Then they made their own website called ALIBABA which would connect Chinese small business owners and merchants to global market. Their team was encouraged because the website began to take off attracting customers all over the world. But the company didn’t make any revenues. For the first time Jack’s internet career was going in the right direction and team has nothing to lose. By October 1999, Alibaba raised $5 million led by global investors and another $20 million investment led by Softbank. So Jack decided to end the seclusion and gathered his team for official launch in HongKong. But the launch wasn’t so impressive. At the same time Chinese were connecting to internet and was opening a new world to them. After some years there was yahoo of china, WebTV of china and eBay of china. 
Then Alibaba faced many challenges which is in next part...
A Crocodile in Yangtze River Part-I

What can we learn from this story?

1. Be the First person.

2. We have to overcome rejection.