Advice For Young People - Jack Ma's

 

    Young people are the solutions for tomorrow. Young people are the solutions to all the worries. Young people, if you stay with them, you will be full of energetic. But the advice I give to young people is also the advice I give to myself. That nothing is easy. Nothing is free. If you want to be successful, you have to pay the price. Alibaba 18 years to today's size, yeah we are lucky, but we work much harder! Then most of the people! We never sleep well and sound in the evening. I traveled last year 867 hours a year, on the plane. 

    I'm working hard, my team is working very hard. 18 years we work as a normal company for 70 years. Day and night. Nothing is free. Nothing is easy. You have to think differently, you have to do differently. Early days in my company, when some ideas come to my desk, "Jack this a great idea!" and I look at everybody, everybody says it is a good idea, I normally threw it into the rubbish. Because everybody says it is good. Then all the other people thinking, if everybody says this is gonna be very tough, I'm very interested in that tough question and I pick up and say, "How can we do it differently?" This is to be unique, to be different. 

    And the third, this is my advice and this is also, I'm telling myself every day. Today is very tough, tomorrow is tougher, the day after tomorrow is beautiful, but most people die tomorrow evening. You have to work very hard, every tough day, every tough situation, problems you meet, that is the training of yourself. When you graduate from your school, you just started your career in learning. When you got a Ph.D. diploma, a bachelor's diploma, this is just a certificate your parents paid the tuition. For 4 years. Your real challenge is when you leave the college, the real-life starts, the real exam starts, the real test starts. That's life! So, one thing you are lucky as I said, if students cannot survive, 99.9% of people in the world cannot survive. 

    Only you have this confidence, you will be able to face the challenge of the future. If you have 20-30 years, please find a good boss, not necessarily a good company, learn from the boss, learn how to do it. When you're 30-40 years old, try to do something yourself, if you really wanna try. When you're 40-50 years old, do things that you are good at, after 20 years of learning you should do something you're good at. When you're 50-60 years old, spend your time supporting young people. When you are over 60 years old, spend time with your grandchildren. 

    That is normally a lot of people like that. So when you are a graduate or when you're just in the university, don't think about, "I won't resign from the school and be another bill Gates, because Bill Gates left Harvard." There's only one Bill Gates in the world. When you graduate find a company, most important find a good boss, that can train you, discipline you. Tell you what is good and right. It's more important than a good company. Of course, a good company, a good boss even better. And then, continue your life. It's all about a partner. 

Speaker: Jack Ma