Jack Ma Born: Alibaba's Future Architect Arrives
Jack Ma failed the national university entrance exam twice, failed the police academy entrance exam, applied to KFC along with 23 other people when it opened in Hangzhou — 23 got hired, he didn't — and was rejected from Harvard Business School ten times. He learned English by cycling to a hotel near his home for nine years to practice with foreign tourists. In 1999, he gathered 17 friends in his apartment and pitched them on an internet company. Alibaba processed more merchandise in one day — Singles Day, November 11 — than Amazon did in a typical month. He retired in 2019, then largely disappeared from public life after Chinese regulators blocked his financial company's IPO in 2020. The journey in both directions was instructive.
September 10, 1964
62 years ago
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