00:00:00 I was born a normal family I would not say very poor but it’s a poor family um I I did not study very well I failed exams again again in the primary school middle school and everybody thought you know you are hopeless for um and then when I graduated from high school I tried to join you know to study in the University first year I failed second year of field and then I started looking for jobs I applied a lot of jobs did not a workout and I tried a third time joining the past examination and went to the
00:00:42 teachers college and after four years I hate to be a teacher because no man wants to be a teacher in China they think teachers you know so I said no I really I would have loved looking for jobs in the other field well in all my early days I applied jobs for at least more than 30 times all rejected none of them even got one chance I applied jobs one day for KFC Kentucky Fried Chicken 24 people went 23 people accepted I was the only guy and five people together classmates we went for a job in as a policeman four people
The Story of Jack Ma: From Rejections to Alibaba Empire
00:01:20 accepted I was the only one rejected and I applied for a job together with my cousin to work in a hotel as a as a guy in a serving Hotel my cousin was accepted I was rejected so I came back and my mother looked at me say oh so and I told myself my lucky has not arrived someday something is waiting for me but not today and then when I started Alibaba 1994 the end of the year I got opportunity to went to us went to USA I discovered internet I think this is something very interesting because if it’s a network around the world and this
00:02:02 will be something might change the world so I came back to China and I started my company and it was so difficult because China was not even connected to the internet yet 1994. it was terrible experience I work myself I had a giant adventure with the other people and then do not work out for three four years and then nine year 1999 I studied Alibaba I invited the 18 friends most of my students came to my home I made a speech for two hours I believe this thing is going to be big in the future e-commerce
00:02:39 and everybody said e-commerce in China were hopeless because no payment no logistic China internet speed is so slow at that time there’s no mobile phones no payment no crack our system there is nothing and I believe it in the future internet is going to change China if we started and continue to work hard we have the chance so 18 people in my apartment we decided that one day we will make a company that will be the top 10 companies in the world We Gather the money it was so difficult but 90 years we never give up our dream we
00:03:24 believe that we should use the internet to help small business while at that time most of the business e-commerce company in America helping big companies we think we should help a small business they think Jack you’re crazy small business don’t have money how could you help people who don’t have money and I say Let’s help them to make money when they make money we will make money and America at that time they say e-commerce should helping people to save the cost I say we should not help a small
00:04:00 business to save the cost because small businesses know how to save the cost they want to know how to make the money so we do the opposite most of the American e-commerce go big company sit cost we say help the small business help them to make the money how to help them make money will help them to sell online a lot of small business they don’t have money to go to trade shows they don’t have the money to attend all the negotiations or all the big business forums so we say we help them to promote
00:04:39 on the internet that is the way so for 19 years it was so difficult there was no crap no payment would build at the payment there’s no Logistics that’s a built at the logistics there’s no credit rating system as a building Logistics system and after 90 years we came in today there’s some lots of lessons that can be learned today about a lot of us never give up if you have a dream if you have a dream don’t give up a lot of people only talk dreams but they don’t make dreams in reality a lot of young people
00:05:12 have a great ideas in the evening but in the when they wake up they do the same thing only dreamy but making sure make the dreams realistic and don’t fight don’t think anything you do you will succeed tomorrow or next year for people like us we don’t have money we don’t have a rich uncle or powerful father the only thing we compete with the others is our vision We Believe 10 years later this will happen and we get the team started doing I just want to focus on artificial intelligence and the fourth Industrial Revolution and how you
00:05:57 think that people in South Africa and the African continent need to start preparing for that and making sure they don’t get left far behind well first I think there are a lot of things talking about artificial intelligence and robots and iot and people Scott start to worry let me tell you don’t worry about it young people don’t worry when you start to worry you’re getting old don’t worry people say ah artificial intelligence is going to replace people trust me human beings are always smarter and wiser than the machines
00:06:35 the First Technology Revolution when the train comes people say ah this is going to replace jobs a lot of people hate it but train create more jobs people got disappointed because machine is stronger machine is always going to be stronger than you are that’s why we design machines people believe that machine one day will be smarter than human beings I tell you don’t worry about it machine will be smarter than you are computers they never forget they calculate the faster and they never get angry and upset
00:07:14 they don’t need to sleep so don’t worry they’re smarter but human beings were wiser machine only have chips human beings have a heart so you should have confidence but how people should do it I think very important for any countries let’s think about one thing for a country if you want to develop there are three basic things very important the first is education it’s always good invest in education and investing education investing people is the best investment in the whole world and second to think is
00:07:58 Trust and built a support entrepreneurs make entrepreneurs the heroes not making those game player the heroes we have to assure that it’s entrepreneurs that they were using technology education go and the top is a transparent efficient government so efficient government entrepreneurs and education for catching the opportunity of iot artificial intelligence very important is education system the thing I worry about not only China USA the whole world the third the fourth technology Revolution coming
00:08:41 is very scary the First Technology Revolution release the power of human beings the machine the second technology Revolution released the distance the cars the trains now this technology Revolution release the human brain so it’s going to be it’s a mentally fundamentally changed the human lives but the thing the education system the things we teach our kids the way we teach our kids in the past 200 years for the Industrial Revolution when the digital time came the thing we teach our kids will be replaced by machine machine will
00:09:25 do better we have to change the education system have to change the things we teach the kids that they can do better than machines they can be more creative more Innovative more constructive that machine can never have a chance to replace them that is something it’s opportunity for every country and please any country please pay attention to the following pay attention to those people who below 30 years old they are the internet generation please pay attention to those company have less than 3 or 30 employees
00:10:10 because these are small companies this technology Revolution is a big challenge for big companies it’s great opportunity for small companies small is going to be beautiful and small is going to be powerful and please pay special attention to next 30 Years next the 30 years is going to be the biggest challenge is also going to be the best biggest opportunity most people will complain but those people who solve the problems of complaint these people will be successful let those people complain you
00:10:54 should solve the problem
