This article is an answer to the question, what are some of the most inspiring failure stories? published on the Quora portal by Daniel L Jacobs, CEO of Avanoo and tells the story of Jack Ma.
Jack Ma’s Story
On February 21, 1999, Jack Ma gave a presentation to 17 of his closest friends at his apartment located in Hangzhou, China.
He asked them to believe him and invest in his new business. Unfortunately, Jack Ma’s past was preceded by a string of unfortunate failures.
When he was young, Jack Ma failed the school exams and dropped out. He applied to his favorite colleges numerous times and was never accepted. Later he applied to 30 different jobs, of which he was always rejected.
In some cases, Jack Ma was the only person rejected among dozens of applicants. He also tried to create two different companies and failed in both.
Jack Ma’s Story: An Example of Resilience.
Although most people might have been deterred by so many rejections; Jack Ma was a determined individual. In 1995 he decided that he was going to create China’s first e-commerce company.
Despite his previous failures, here he was standing in his apartment in front of his friends asking them to invest in his idea.
Jack Ma spent hours trying to describe his vision to his friends; who despite being well aware of his failures, also perceived his level of determination.
In the end, each and every one of his 17 friends invested a total sum of $60,000 in Jack Ma’s new venture… all for one simple reason: Jack Ma was confident that he could turn this idea into something immensely great.
Jack and his friends got it right. Over the next decade, Jack Ma built the world’s largest ecommerce company.
Alibaba is currently valued at over $180 billion. But it would never have existed if Jack Ma had allowed his failures to undermine his self-confidence. Instead, he focused on finding a way to define himself.
Do you want to know more about Jack Ma? Look at this video.
https://www.facebook.com/ModoEmprende/videos/1243685655677262/
And remember that if you are really interested in creating your own business, you can purchase our book “How to create a company while working: Discover how to manage your time, manage your money and motivate yourself while creating a company and working for another” , where you will find all the information you need to found your own company, without having to leave your job.
