Jack Ma is the founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a Chinese multinational technology conglomerate. As a young man, he was passionate about learning English and would visit hotels frequented by English speakers. After graduating from college with a degree in English, he registered the domain name "chinapages.com" and started an early business that made $8 million within three years. Now, Jack Ma is one of the richest and most influential businessmen in China, known for his leadership of Alibaba Group and quotes about empowering others and embracing failure.

1. MY FAVOURITE LEADER
1
JACK MA
YUN
NAME: JACK MA YUN
BORN: OCTOBER 15,1964
COUNTRY: CHINA
FOUNDER: ALIBABA GROUP
NET WORTH: 50.3 BILLION
POSITION: EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN
BIOGRAPHY

2. EARLY LIFE
• Since a very young age, Jack keen on gathering knowledge about English and
tried his best to communicate better in the language. His desire to speak English
encouraged him to visit a hotel frequented by English-speaking foreigners.
• The youngster even started guiding tourists in an attempt to spend more time
with native English speakers so that he could learn the language by conversing
with them. He became pen pals with one such foreigner who nicknamed him
'Jack' as he could not pronounce his Chinese name.
• Jack also aspired to enroll in a university and attended exams in order to gain
admission. Though he was initially unsuccessful, he cleared the exams after four
attempts. He then joined the ‘Hangzhou Teacher’s Training Institute’ to pursue a
Bachelor’s degree in English. Jack graduated from the institution in the year
1988.

3. INTERESTING FACTS
• Jack Ma registered the domain “chinapages.com”
in the United States” and started building a
website for Chinese companies with the help of
friends in the US. Within three years they mad
around $8000, 000.
• Jack Ma is a Tai Chi practitioner and he has been
doing it for many years. He often hires Tai Chi
masters to teach regular classes to employees in
Alibaba.

4. Famous Quotes
• We are never short of money. We lack people with dreams, who can die for those
dreams.
• Once in your life, try something. Work hard at something. Try to change. Nothing
bad can happen.
• If you want to win in the 21st century, you have to empower others, making sure
other people are better than you are. Then you will be successful.
• Don’t hire the most qualified, hire the craziest.
• Your attitude is more important than your capabilities. Similarly, your decision is
more important than your capabilities.
• “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.”

5. ACHIEVEMENTS
• China Central Television’ had mentioned Jack in its ‘Top 10 Economic Personalities of the Year’
list, compiled for the year 2004.
• In 2005, he was featured in the list of ‘25 Most Powerful Businesspeople in Asia.’ He was also
named ‘Businessperson of the Year’ by ‘Business Week’ magazine in 2007.
• 2009 was an eventful year in Jack’s life; he secured a spot in ‘Time’ magazine’s list of ‘World’s
100 Most Influential People.’ He also received the 2009 ‘CCTV Economic Person of the Year:
Business Leader of the Decade Award.
• He has received honorary doctorate degrees from various universities including the ‘University of
Hong Kong,’ ‘De La Salle University’ in Philippines, and ‘Tel Aviv University’ in Israel.
• He was ranked second in ‘Fortune’ magazine’s ‘World’s 50 Greatest Leaders’ list in 2017. In May
2019, he was appointed as a new advocate alongside 16 other influential global leaders by UN
Secretary General Guterres to promote sustainable development growth.

6. CONCLUSION
Jack Ma was and is always open to new ideas. “From day one,”
he explained in 2004, “all entrepreneurs know that their day is
about dealing with difficulty and failure rather than defined by
‘success.’ My most difficult time hasn’t come yet, but it surely
will. Nearly a decade of entrepreneurial experience tells me
these difficult times can’t be evaded or shouldered by others—
the entrepreneur must be able to face failure and never give up.”