The journey of the man who started his career as an English teacher and ended up becoming the richest man in China, Jack Ma, has been an inspiration for all. Also called Ma Yun, the man had never thought of being addressed with such an honorable title when he was a kid. He was born in a lower-middle-class family which was far from the influence of the western world. After picking up his job as a teacher in Hangzhou Dianzi University with a salary worth $12 per month, he had seen the darkest times of his life when the failure seemed to have become his friend. Withstanding all the challenges in his life, he is the owner of the E-commerce giant Alibaba, which counts for $25 billion. Alibaba has a bigger turnover than that of Facebook, eBay, and Amazon. His whole saga of becoming an unvanquishable person makes us admire him for all that he has earned.

Here is a list of 10 lessons that you can learn from the life of this living legend:

1. An army leads a company, not just one man

There is a saying that “One cannot please all” – Ma believes that bringing different talents under one roof and making them agree to one idea is not that easy. You have to convince the employees and make them pierce their skin towards the accomplishment of the goals at any cost. The Company does not succeed only by the efforts of the CEO, but it is actually the teamwork that fuels the growth.

2. Hire employees who are dexterous than you

When you hire people who possess better skills than you, then the efficiency of the work doubles. If you think that your employees’ caliber can overshadow your performance, and that is why you are rejecting the person, then you must realize that you are making a wrong choice.

3. Theoretical skills are important

Practicality is one thing, but Ma stresses more on the implication of conceptual skills. It is so because he firmly believes in the power of theories and their applications which help in running a Company with ease. Theory gets the work in action.

4. To be a visionary

A leader must always be ahead of the future. For a business person, it is important to evaluate the future consequences of his/her actions. You have to develop sharp foresightedness to see where and how your company will be after 10 years from now. A grand vision is the stepping stone to the glory of your business.

5. Be crazy for the goals you want to achieve

Your tenacity can make you hold your dream tightly till you die. You have to chase it insanely. You can’t get anything in life just like that. You have to break a leg to stand on the pedestal where you see yourself after few years.

6. No work is small or big

From school teacher to a billionaire, he has tasted every aspect of life. He never considers any job as petty because an achiever becomes a victor, only when he experiences the best and the worst conditions of life. You have to pay equal respect to your job and not let money be the one factor in instigating you to do better. Always choose the right way.

7. “Do good to your friend and to your enemies to make them your friends”

In business, you have to confront your competitors, but if you mistreat them, then you’ll not be able prove yourself to be an ideal business person. You have to erase antipathy for anybody. Keeping grudges with them will not help you in winning the race of life. He encourages people to learn from the competitors, not to imitate them.

8. Being workaholic is not the solution

He says that life is to be lived, if you spend your entire time working, then you’ll lose the pleasure of life. You should not do anything that makes you regret it in future. Live your life to the fullest.

9. Grow with your failures

He always says “Down, but not out”. He is one such man whose life was surrounded by failures during his struggling days. He mentioned once that when he applied for a job in KFC, then out of 24 candidates only one was rejected and that odd one out was none other than Jack Ma. So, failures don’t give the tag of a loser to you. They rather boost you to correct what went wrong previously. We are humans and failures are like parasites which feed on us. Don’t let the failures conquer you, instead, you beat them up.

10. “Go Big or Go Home”

These are the words that he said in an interview. Through these golden words, he is trying to instill motivation in the people to do the impossible. If you wish to make a real life for yourself, then you have to think out of the box and have the strength to execute it. If you think you can’t, then go home because you are not meant for this lavish life.

Jack Ma – An Inspiration for the World

The 10 points that I have mentioned are a few lessons that you can learn from this man of superiority. There are countless things that you can imbibe from him and inculcate in your behavior to become a man of remembrance. This man has achieved the unachievable and has proved that age, nationality, and social background are not the impeders of success. It is the brave man inside you that will make you forget everything else and push you forward towards your aim. The demeanor of this great man can be judged by his own words.

“We keep fighting. We keep changing ourselves. We don’t complain.”

– Jack Ma