What Chinese Billionaire Jack Ma Learned From Getting Rejected From 30 Jobs After College

With a $29 billion net worth, Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma is one of the richest people in the world and was once China's richest person too. But the path to success wasn't all gloomy for the billionaire.

When Jack Ma Was Rejected For 30 Jobs

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There was a time when Jack Ma couldn¡¯t even get a job at the fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). After college, Ma had applied for not one or two but thirty jobs in his home city of Hangzhou, China. He was rejected by each of them.

At KFC, 24 people applied for the job, says Ma, and while 23 were hired, he wasn¡¯t one of them. The same thing happened when he tried to be a cop. This time, four of five applicants were hired, all except Ma.

Another time Ma lost out on a job was to his own blood. ¡°My cousin and I waited for two hours [in a] long queue to be the waiters for the four-star hotel in my city on a very hot day,¡± he says. ¡°My cousin¡¯s score was much lower than mine, but he was accepted and I was rejected!¡±

Also Read: How A Lost iPhone Led To Warren Buffett Investing Billions In Apple

What Lesson Did He Learn?

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Jack Ma said that his early rejection taught him an important business lesson: ¡°You have to get used to failure,¡± he once recalled while speaking at the University of Nairobi, as per a CNBC report. Jack Ma was even turned down by Harvard 10 times, he tells Charlie Rose in 2015. ¡°I told myself someday I should go teach there, maybe,¡± he lauded.

Although he can joke about it now, Ma said the continued rejection was painful. But it prepared him for his entrepreneurial future.

¡°If you cannot get used to failure¡ªjust like a boxer¡ªif you can¡¯t get used to [being] hit, how can you win?¡± he says to the audience in Nairobi. When it comes to Alibaba, Ma says he now passes around case studies about failure to colleagues at Alibaba instead of reinforcing success.

¡°When you read too many successful stories, people go crazy,¡± he said during his talk in Nairobi. ¡°They think ¡®I can be successful.¡¯¡± But the truth is, says Ma, ¡°When you share a lot of failure stories, you learn.¡±

Also Read; Alibaba To Split Its $220 Billion Empire Into Six Businesses

How Did He Founded Alibaba?

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The courage came in handy when he founded the Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba in 1999. In the beginning, Ma heard ¡°no¡± a lot. ¡°I remember the year 2001, we went to raise some $5 million from venture capitalists in the USA and got rejected,¡± Ma said. Despite the setback, he didn¡¯t stop. ¡°I said we [will] come back raising a little bit more.¡±

Perhaps those VCs would be regretting their decisions now that Alibaba is a trillion-dollar company (in Hong Kong dollars).

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