Rejected by Burger King, Welcomed by The World: Alibaba's Jack Ma

Rejected by Burger King, Welcomed by The World: Alibaba's Jack Ma


I hate it when people always tell you that dreaming big is an illusion, a joke, something you tell yourself because you spent so much time reading about Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg. They will tell you it’s a myth, a bedtime story we like to tell ourselves, that the successes of our time where the result of the dot.com bubble, it’s all a coincidence, chance or worst yet, luck.

These people, the dream drainers, the pessimists, the big mouths and the critics seem to be blind to business miracles that are becoming quite popular these days. The latest, of course, being Alibaba, the giant soon-to-be $200 Billion beast that will make headlines for years to come.

Alibaba is great because of the visionary behind it, the humble, persevering and hard working Chinese Jack Ma. And yes, he had it bad and hustled all the way to the top.

Jack Ma didn’t even know how to speak English, he used to ride his bike for 45 min every morning to a hotel where he could meet tourists. He wanted to learn English, so he gave free tours in exchange for speaking with Anglophones. That informal education allowed him to be proficient enough to become an english teacher. Quite an accomplishment you might say, that is probably the end of his troubles?

Hell NO! Jack Ma, the soon-to-become richest Chinese billionaire, was even refused a job position at a Burger King joint because he was too short. (Jack Ma could probably buy all of Burger King’s restaurants and turn them into his ping pong room).

In 1999, Jack Ma borrowed money from family and friends, and bundled all his savings to start his first company. With an initial capital of $60.000, Jack went on to build the largest Technology venture in China, but it took years of blood, sweat and tears.

Never give up, never undermine yourself, because even if you get turned down from McDonalds, even if you can’t speak English, and even if you had it really bad, all what matters is where you will end, not where you started. Homeless today, billionaire tomorrow. The only defining character is how bad do you want it. Dare to be great, and never settle for average!