How Jack Ma overcame his 7 failures

China’s richest man was turned down from 30 jobs, but as his hero Forrest Gump, he kept “running.” Jack Ma today is 51 years old and has more than 23 billion dollars. However, in the past this entrepreneur only earned $ 12 a month as an English teacher (although he was just as happy).

His achievements are almost inconceivable because of his humble origins. On his way, he made more mistakes (and in more spectacular ways) than most of us could bear. Here are 7 failures in which Jack Ma, China’s richest man, had to keep his spirits up, just like his hero, Forrest Gump.

1. He did not give up after failing his exams.

Jack Ma was not a good student. In fact, he was barely able to enter high school. He said he had failed primary key exams twice, and he did not pass high school exams three times, and he was not accepted to the university on two different occasions. These are some of the things most of us have never had to tell their parents.

But surprisingly, Jack is not alone. In the tradition of other great minds such as Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln had great difficulties with school before transforming the world.

2. He got 1 out of 120 points in the math section of his college admission examination.

Failure is one thing, but getting less than 1% on a test is another thing. And it was not because Jack had not prepared himself. To this day, China’s richest man has many difficulties with mathematics even though his company, Alibaba, is a technology firm.

It turns out he never had to be skilled with mathematics to be a billionaire. Perhaps it is more impressive that in his childhood he never heard the word “computer”.

3. He did not stop despite being rejected 10 times from Harvard.

What is surprising is not that he has been rejected from Harvard 10 times, but has made the attempt so many times. This shows us that Jack Ma is the paradigm of persistence. “The most important thing you must have is persistence.”

4. He remained optimistic despite being denied 30 jobs.

After graduating from school, Ma tried to find a job in 30 different places and each one of them rejected him. He even tried to be a police officer, but at the academy he was simply told “You’re no good.”

5. Was the only respondent of 24 to be rejected from KFC.

From a base of 24 candidates for the fast food restaurant, 23 were hired. Jack Ma was the only one who was not accepted. He attributes it to his short height, and lack of “physical appeal.”

His wife, Zhang Ying (who married him long before he was rich), loves how he looks. “Ma Yun will not be typically attractive, but I married him because he does many things that handsome men cannot do.”

6. He did not obtain investment in Silicon Valley to found Alibaba.

Even after founding the popular website, Ma suffered many setbacks. The company did not generate profits in the first three years of its life. At first it grew too fast and almost imploded when the dot-com bubble burst. At one point, Alibaba was 18 months from bankruptcy.

7. He told his 18 partners at Alibaba that none could be an executive.

In one of the worst mistakes any CEO can make, Jack Ma told his 18 partners (who injected a total capital of $ 60,000) that none could be more than a manager because his plan was to hire specialists for the board.

This, he asserts, was the worst mistake of his life. “What I learned from the dark days of Alibaba is that you have to make your team have value, innovation and vision.”