Jack Ma Quotations

Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.

When I am myself, I am happy and have a good result.

You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.

I want to change history, do something important in my life, and influence individuals like we have with millions of small businesses on Alibaba. Then they love and respect you because you made their life important.

Today the financial market is no good, but the money is there.

EBay is a great company. There are a lot of good assets and good customers, and the U.S. people love it.

I like to play cards. I'm not very good, because I don't want to calculate, I just play by instinct. But I've learned a lot of business philosophy by playing poker.

My job is making money, helping other people make money. I am spending money, trying to make sure more people get rich, because you cannot spend a lot of money, right? So my job is spending money, helping others. This is a headache.

I don't want to be liked. I want to be respected.

The lessons I learned from the dark days at Alibaba are that you've got to make your team have value, innovation, and vision. Also, if you don't give up, you still have a chance. And, when you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.

Help young people. Help small guys. Because small guys will be big. Young people will have the seeds you bury in their minds, and when they grow up, they will change the world.

I'm not a tech guy. I'm looking at the technology with the eyes of my customers, normal people's eyes.

I try to make myself happy, no, because I know that if I'm not happy, my colleagues are not happy and my shareholders are not happy and my customers are not happy.

Before I left China, I was educated that China was the richest, happiest country in the world. So when I arrived Australia, I thought, 'Oh my God, everything is different from what I was told.' Since then, I started to think differently.

I got my story, my dream, from America. The hero I had is Forrest Gump... I like that guy. I've been watching that movie about 10 times. Every time I get frustrated, I watch the movie. I watched the movie before I came here again to New York. I watched the movie again telling me that no matter whatever changed, you are you.

Chinese people, young people, they don't go shopping a lot in department stores. All department store guys hate me. They say business is bad because of Jack.

If Alibaba cannot become a Microsoft or Wal-Mart, I will regret it for the rest of my life.

I don't want people in China to have deep pockets but shallow minds.

I want people to learn what democracy means.

The very important thing you should have is patience.

My dream was to set up my own e-commerce company. In 1999, I gathered 18 people in my apartment and spoke to them for two hours about my vision. Everyone put their money on the table, and that got us $60,000 to start Alibaba. I wanted to have a global company, so I chose a global name.

I flunked my exam for university two times before I was accepted by what was considered my city's worst university, Hangzhou Teachers University. I was studying to be a high school English teacher. In my university, I was elected student chairman and later became chairman of the city's Students Federation.

A peace talk is always difficult, always complicated.

Alibaba is an ecosystem that helps small business to grow.

My job is to help more people have jobs.

I am going to enjoy some other things apart from business.

I think Yahoo is a great company, with great assets.

What kind of business world are we living in?

When I was 12 years old, I got interested in learning English.

I don't shop online, but my wife buys everything at home. We buy sea crabs, fresh crabs, all kinds of things.

We used to take these great hikes on the Great Wall, ... From our hikes, we developed a friendship that ended up with us combining forces in forming this new Chinese company.

I would do the same thing. I would let the government take him.

Four years ago, we were naive; there was fierce fighting, ... Now all of us are survivors. We are more calm-minded.

From today onwards, in China Yahoo means a search engine and a search engine means Yahoo,

I absolutely don't have $20 billion. But I'd love to, right?

I think (in) search, we have a chance to win, When we took (over) Yahoo search, it was not good, and it is not good today either. We are here to make it better.

We call on eBay to do what's right for this phase of China's e-commerce development and make your services free for buyers and sellers in China,

We welcome her and the eBay team to China, and with this Yahoo! deal, we decided to give them a nice big welcome gift,

To many people, putting his company on the stock market is a matter of course; but I haven't thought about it because I'm not short of money.

What we are doing is to design an on-line search engine for ordinary people, not just the engineers. We are more focused and a totally search engine technology will come to the Chinese market within three to five years.

What we are doing is sending out a strong signal to China, to the Yahoo team: 'We are focused and we are coming,'

Cutting prices is not enough -- it's time to make your services free and affordable for all of China's entrepreneurs and consumers, ... Free is the right business model for China's current conditions.

Currently, it seems the second phase has been completed smoothly and even better than my expectations. Now we are entering the third phase of reshaping.

Internet users in China, comparatively speaking, are very young,

In terms of sensitive phrases, we will use laws and regulations to deal with this.

If the customer loves you, the government will have to love you.

I call myself a blind man riding on a blind tiger.

When we have money, we start making mistakes.

You never know that the things you're doing are that meaningful to society.

Never ever compete on prices, instead compete on services and innovation.

If you've never tried, how will you ever know if there's any chance?

The world will not remember what you say, but it will certainly not forget what you have done.

You've to make consumers smart. An e-commerce portal doesn't sell a product at cheaper rates, instead an offline shop sells it at a costlier prices.

Today, making money is very simple. But making sustainable money while being responsible to the society and improving the world is very difficult.

We appreciate yesterday, but we're looking for a better tomorrow.

We should never finish a 20 year program in two year.

People think, 'Jack, you do too much.

Don't even trust that you are able to unify what everyone is thinking; it is impossible

A leader should never compare his technical skills with his employee's.

Change the world is maybe Obama's job.

I absolutely don't have $20 billion. But I'd love to, right?

I don't care about revenues.

The customer is number one, the employee is number two and the shareholder is number three. If the customer is happy, the business is happy, and the shareholders are happy.

I would love to if someone would lend me the money.

Opportunity lies in the place where the complaints are.

Without internet, there would have been no Jack Ma, and no Alibaba or Taobao.

If you view everyone as your enemies, everyone around you will be your enemies.

Global vision, local win.

The most unreliable thing in this world is human relationships.

If there are nine rabbits on the ground and you want to catch one, just focus on one.

I wanted to have a global company, so I chose a global name. Alibaba is easy to spell, and people everywhere associate that with "Open, Sesame," the command that Ali Baba used to open doors to hidden treasures in One Thousand and One Nights.

A leader should have higher grit and tenacity, and be able to endure what the employees can't.

If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat ten of them.

The opportunities that everyone cannot see are the real opportunities.

Your employee should have superior technical skills than you. If he doesn't, it means you have hired the wrong person.

Never ever do business with the government. Be in love with them, never marry them.

A leader should be a visionary and have more foresight than an employee.

Yahoo today is not a portal. Yahoo today is a search engine.

I am very interested in bringing companies from everywhere to sell their products in China.

For ecommerce, the most important thing is trust.

No matter what your current condition, how or where you grew up, or what education or training you feel you lack, you can be successful in your chosen endeavor. It is spirit, fortitude, and hardiness that matter more than where you start.

Opportunities are where the complaints are.

Giving up is the greatest failure.

I try to make myself happy ... because I know that if I'm not happy, my colleagues are not happy, and my shareholders are not happy, and my customers are not happy.

Intelligent people need a fool to lead them. When the team's all a bunch of scientists, it is best to have a peasant lead the way. His way of thinking is different. It's easier to win if you have people seeing things from different perspectives.

If you don't give up, you still have a chance

Rather than having small smart tricks to get by, focus on holding on and persevering.

Always let your employees come to work with a smile.

I know nothing about technology.

30% of all people will never believe you. Do not allow your colleagues and employees to work for you. Instead, let them work for a common goal.

We will make it because we are young and we will never, never give up.

Customers should be number 1, Employees number 2, and then only your Shareholders come at number 3.

Life is so short, so beautiful. Don't be so serious about work. Enjoy the lives.

You never know how much can you do in your life.

When you have one million dollars, you're a lucky person. When you have 10 million dollars, you've got trouble, a lot of headaches.

Nobody wanted to believe Jack Ma.

No matter what one does, regardless of failure or success, the experience is a form of success in itself.

In carrying out e-commerce, the most important thing is to keep doing what you are doing right now with passion, to keep it up.

Don't hire the most qualified, hire the craziest

A leader should have higher endurance and ability to accept and embrace failure.