The Richest man in China -- Jack Ma



In another post about the rich of this world my search has located a man of wealth in far away China. Whose story of success and determination should serve as motivation for those of us still believing of a financial miracle. And he is the richest man in China.

And my research led me to this one name Jack Ma!

He is the co-founder and executive chair of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate an is a strong proponent of an open and market-driven economy.

He is seen as a global ambassador for Chinese business and ranked second in the annual “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” list by Fortune.

Ma was born on 10 September 1964 in the Chinese calendar, 15 October Gregorian calendar, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. He began studying English at a young age by conversing with English-speakers at Hangzhou international hotel. He would ride 70 miles on his bicycle to give tourists tours of the area to practice his English for nine years.

The thing about Jack Ma is that he had to struggle with different stages of rejection, the kind that should have floored him and bury his financial dreams for good. But he would not be defeated and eventually his persistence saw him through.

It is reported that Jack Ma applied for 30 different jobs and got rejected by all. “I went for a job with the police; they said, ‘you’re no good'”, Ma told interviewer Charlie Rose. “I even went to KFC when it came to my city. Twenty-four people went for the job. Twenty-three were accepted. I was the only guy …”. In addition to this, he applied ten times to Harvard Business School (HBS) and got rejected.

For a typical human that amount of rejection could really mess up the mind. But rather than fall by the road side on his way to success, Jack ma would move on to become the richest man in China and one of the richest in the world.

Now thats a success story!

In fact the success story of Jack Ma is a revelation of the power of the internet to change lives. Because that same made him the man that he is today.

According to reports, he first heard about the internet in 1994 and in early 1995 would travel to the Us with his friends, a trip that would help him get access to the internet. He would try searching for general information about China but was surprised to find none.

A lack that would prompt him, along with his friend to build an “ugly” website related to China. The website was launched at 9:40 AM, and by 12:30 PM he had received emails from some Chinese investors wishing to know about him.

In April 1995, Ma, his wife Cathy and a friend was able to raise US$20,000 and started their first company. Within three years, the company had made 5,000,000 Chinese Yuan which at the time was equivalent to US$800,000.

Ma began building websites for Chinese companies with the help of friends in the US. He said that “The day we got connected to the Web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house”, and on a very slow dial-up connection, “we waited three and a half hours and got half a page”, he recalled. “We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved the Internet existed”.

In 1999 he would quit his position at the China International Electronic Commerce Center, then returned to Hangzhou with his team to start up Alibaba, a China-based business-to-business marketplace site in his apartment with a group of 18 friends.

In September 2014 it was reported Alibaba was raising over $25 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange. Alibaba became one of the most valuable technology companies in the world after raising the full $25 billion, the largest initial public offering in US financial history.

This same man who could not get employment to save his own life on the 9th January 2017, Ma met with United States President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower, to discuss a potential 1 million job openings in the following five years through Alibaba’s interest in the country.

According to Forbes Jack Ma is the richest man in China with a net worth of $35.2 billion.

Waoooo