If you are looking for motivation to start from scratch and reach the highest peaks of success and modesty, Chinese business magnate Jack Ma is the person to look up to. Jack Ma was born on September 10, 1964, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. He is the founder of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology company mainly focusing on e-commerce, trade, the Internet, and technology. Jack Ma is well-known for voicing his support for an open and market-driven economy.
Jack Ma was ranked 21st on Forbes’ “World’s Most Powerful People” list. Being the role model for youth and people with startup businesses, Jack Ma was also among World’s 50 most outstanding leaders by Fortune. Jack Ma announced to quit Alibaba in 2018 to surf his energies for the cause of education, philanthropy, and the environment. Jack Ma made it to the Forbes list of “Asia’s 2019 Heroes of Philanthropy” for his philanthropic work for uplifting the underprivileged communities in China, Africa, Australia, and the Middle East.
15 Jack Ma Quotes about Leadership
To pay homage to the leader and role model of startup businesses, we have compiled 13 brilliant quotes by Jack Ma that will inspire you to be a leader and a better person.
-
“Leadership is your instinct, then it’s your training. Leaders are always positive, they never complain.”
-
“I know nothing about technology, I know nothing about marketing, I know nothing about (the legal) stuff. I only know about people.”
-
“A leader should incentivize, but not with money. You give trust, respect, appreciation, and correct, heartfelt advice.”
-
“A good boss is better than a good company.”
-
“I always find people smarter than I am. Then my job is to make sure smart people can work together. Stupid people can work together easily, smart people can’t.”
-
“Intelligent people need the 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.”
-
“My favorite movie is ‘Forrest Gump.’ He said nobody makes money catching whales, people make money catching shrimps. So we serve small business.”
-
“I do everything to make sure my customer is happy, my employee is happy, society is healthy. I would focus on customers, I would focus on not making money, I would focus on making values.”
-
“When you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.”
-
“If machines can do things better, we have to change the way we teach. The key things are value, believing, independent thinking, teamwork, care for others, making sure humans are different from machines.”
-
“It doesn’t matter if I failed. At least I passed the concept on to others. Even if I don’t succeed, someone will succeed.”
-
“I come to this world not to work, but to enjoy this life. I don’t want to die in my office, I want to die on the beaches.”
-
“I always tell myself that we are born here not to work, but to enjoy life. We are here to make things better for one another.”
-
“The very important thing you should have is patience.”
-
“You should learn from your competitor but never copy. Copy and you die.”
40 brilliant Jack Ma Quotes on Success
Do you aspire to be a successful entrepreneur standing at the start of your venture and looking for motivation? Here are 40 brilliant quotes by Jack Ma that sum up the mantra for success.
-
“If you don’t give up, you still have a chance.”
-
“On the path to success, you will notice that the successful ones are not whiners, nor do they complain often.”
-
“The opportunities that everyone cannot see are the real opportunities.”
-
“Never ever compete on prices, instead of competing on services and innovation.”
-
“We appreciate yesterday, but we’re looking for a better tomorrow.”
-
“If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat ten of them.”
-
“A good boss is better than a good company.”
-
“Forget about your competitors, just focus on your customers.”
-
“Today is cruel. Tomorrow is crueler and the day after tomorrow is beautiful.”
-
“If you view everyone as your enemies then everyone around you will be enemies.”
-
“Only fools use their mouth to speak. A smart man uses his brain, and a wise man uses his heart.”
-
“If you have never tried, how will you ever know if there’s any chance?”
-
“Without the internet, there would have been no Jack Ma, and no Alibaba or Taobao.”
-
“You should always have the dream you saw on the first day. It’ll keep you motivated and rescue you from any weak thoughts.”
-
“Once in your life, try something. Work hard at something. Try to change. Nothing bad can happen.”
-
“When people think too highly of you, you have the responsibility to calm down and be yourself.”
-
“A leader should never compare his technical skills with his employees.”
-
“If you want to win in the 21st century, you have to empower others, making sure other people are better than you. Then you will be successful.”
-
“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.”
-
“Opportunity lies in the place where the complaints are.”
-
“I don’t want to be liked. I want to be respected.”
-
“You need the right people with you, not the best people.”
-
“Stay hungry and follow your dreams.”
-
“A leader should be visionary and have more foresight than the employee.”
-
“Life is so short, so beautiful. Don’t be so serious about work. Enjoy life.”
-
“You have got to keep trying, and if it doesn’t work, you always can revert back to what you were doing before.”
-
“Your attitude is more important than your capabilities. Similarly, your decision is more important than your capabilities.”
-
“A real businessman or entrepreneur has no enemies. Once he understands this, the sky’s the limit.”
-
“If you are a wolf chasing rabbits, focus on one rabbit. Change yourself to catch the rabbit, but don’t change rabbits.”
-
“When KFC came to China, 24 people went for the job, 23 people were accepted, I was the only guy.”
-
“Instead of learning from other people’s success, learn from their mistakes.”
-
“Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.”
-
“If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat ten of them.”
-
“If you have a different mindset, you will have a different outcome.”
-
“Success and profitability are outcomes of focusing on customers and employees, not objectives.”
-
“We are never in lack of money. We lack people with dreams, who can die for those dreams.”
-
“Life is so short, so beautiful. Don’t be so serious about work. Enjoy life.”
-
“A peace talk is always difficult, always complicated.”
-
“We will make it because we are young and we will never give up.”
-
“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.”
12 Jack Ma quotes that will inspire you to “Never Give Up!”
Jack Ma didn’t achieve success overnight. He faced many rejections but never gave up and ended up reaching such a great mark in his life. Jack Ma’s patience and optimistic attitude and life lesson of “never give up!” is something to learn from. These five Jack Ma quotes will motivate you to stand up after facing rejections and excel in life.
-
“If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure.”
-
“Instead of learning from other people’s success, learn from their mistakes. Most of the people who fail share common reasons to fail whereas success can be attributed to various different kinds of reasons.”
-
“Life is so short, so beautiful. Don’t be so serious about work. Enjoy your lives.”
-
“If you’ve never tried how will you ever know if there’s any chance?”
-
“No matter how tough the chase is, you should always have the dream you saw on the first day. It’ll keep you motivated and rescue you from any weak thoughts.”
-
“Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine – The secret to success is to keep your dream alive. You must keep your dream alive because it might come true someday.”
-
“If you want to be a great company, think about what social problem you can solve. It’s about solving social problems.”
-
“A Leader Should Never Compare his technical skills with his employee’s.”
-
“The opportunity lies in the places where complaints are.”
-
“My job is to help more people have jobs.”
-
“Life is so short, so beautiful. Don’t be so serious about work. Enjoy your lives.”
-
“Before I left China, I was educated that China was the richest, happiest country in the world. So when I arrived in Australia, I thought, ‘Oh my God, everything is different from what I was told.’ Since then, I started to think differently- Have passion, right from day 1.”
In summary
One of the best lessons that we can learn from the life of Jack Ma is that no goal is achieved in a matter of days or weeks. We have to be patient with our struggle and wait for the fruit of our hard work. We have to stay motivated and keep working until we achieve our goal, and when we reach the goal, we should set a new goal to keep the spark going on in life. When you achieve great things in life, you should pass on the knowledge, opportunities, and motivation to people coming after you, so the cycle doesn’t break.
Which of the above Jack Ma quotes was your favorite, and what did you learn from them? Let us know in the comments below.