when I started my business in 1995
it was very difficult I had an idea
I invited 24 of my friends my
apartment
because that year I went to Seattle
the first time my first trip to the USA
I never touched a computer in my life
before because the computer was so expensive
to me
and so complicated after two hours
of explaining what I'm gonna do internet
and 23 of them say forget it
he said this thing never worked because
there's no such thing called
internet in the world you know nothing
about a computer
so why do you want to do this and um
only one people he said jack
if you want to try it just to try it but
if it's something wrong just come back
and after whole night thinking, I say i
still want to do it
because most of the people have a
fancy ideas in the evening but in the
day
when they wake up in the evening or in
the morning they go back to do the same
job
we have to do something different so
from there
I started my business borrowing 2 000 us
dollars from my relatives and friends
but that was my trip I called myself
like a blind man riding on the back of
blind tigers
and those people who are experts of
riding horses they all fall down
and I'm still surviving since 1995 i
started business
I almost fulfilled every project never
survived
none of us has money but if somebody
say I give you 1 million u.s dollars
and I give you trust which one I would
choose
I choose those people who give me the
trust
because it's the trust that makes make
us be united when I go to the china
red company registration office
I said I want to register a company called
Hanzo
hope internet company
the guy looked at me say this is the
English dictionary tells me there's no
there's no word called the internet
why you want a registered company called
the internet so I cannot register to name a
company name
to prove I was not a lie
I invited my friend who is a tv man
take the tv camera they all stay in my
home
and we they just try to take the picture
i
I die from Hangzhou to shanghai shanghai
to America to connect the internet
it took us three hours and a half to
download the first
from the page so ever I have to make
like a hundred stars to keep my
journalists friends to stay
and wait because to prove that I'm not
telling a lie
for the first three years of Alibaba
we had no revenue no business model
from 1999 we have 18 founders
to now we have close to 60 000 people
our sales called gmv last year is over
550
billion us dollars and it's just the
beginning we will probably go across
one trillion us dollars in three years
we do not think we are a company
we think we are economy and we hope
in 20 years by the year 2036
we will be the fifth-largest economy of
the world
I've been saying this to my team since
when we were in the apartment
when we're in an apartment I say guys in
next 10 years or in
in the future, Alibaba will be the top 10
websites
of the world and my founders looking at
I say
what does 10 number 10 mean today we are
a ranking like a 500 million something at
the back
but you have to believe it I think
as an entrepreneur, if everything is
ready that does not need
you because nothing is ready that needs
entrepreneurship when Netscape was so
good
we never thought it would disappear
yahoo was good we never thought like
today
so don't believe you'll be good all the
time
be paranoid just to finish
the first 100 meters yet do another
thing the people
beside you is a competitor running for
another 3000 meters
then you know who is the competitor so i
thought
when I'm 40 I can go back to teach but
when I'm 40
oh my god life was so tough so tough
my company almost in big trouble
so I say I should not leave and then i
say when I'm 45
I should retire when I'm 45 I cannot
stop it
and then I start to prepare to say
people say jack you are the next bill
gates I said I cannot compete with
bill gates but I can compete with the
bill gates who can retire earlier
the thing is I don't want to die in my
the office I want to die
on the beaches, I was trained to be a
teacher
and I benefit because I do not know
anything about technology
computing I still puzzle about what is
soft how soft they could work
and I I do not know about con you know
accounting
marketing I know very little about that
but the thing I learned from
being a teacher that you a teacher
always want his students to be more
successful
and better than you are so this is i
learned to be a good CEO
look at the young man if you think he
will be your boss he will be my boss in
five years
hi him as an entrepreneur
is very difficult and tomorrow is even
more difficult
but the day of tomorrow is very
beautiful
most people die tomorrow evening
you have to work hard you have to learn
you have to rely on your team
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