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00:00I think if you succeed, every mistake becomes legendary.
00:08If you fail, that's just garbage.
00:10You know what I'm saying?
00:14I think everybody has great stories.
00:21Everybody has a lot of mistakes.
00:24Everybody has a lot of problems.
00:27But very few people listen to you.
00:31One day when you become successful,
00:33people listen to you and say,
00:35Wow, you're great.
00:38I'm not that great.
00:41I was born in a normal family.
00:45And I'm not good at schooling.
00:48Of course I tried to study hard,
00:50but as a boy, you know,
00:51my school was not that good at that time.
00:54So I failed looking for jobs,
00:57looking for joining university,
01:00joining good schools.
01:03But I never give up.
01:06And I think there's one thing I learned
01:09is that why you should have a chance to be successful.
01:17Everybody should get used to fail,
01:23but not get used to be accepted by other people.
01:27Why other people should help you?
01:29You should earn the right to be helped.
01:33So the thing I learned is that don't give up.
01:39My opportunity has not come yet.
01:42When everybody complain,
01:45that is the opportunity.
01:48I always thought when I was young,
01:50when I was in high school or university,
01:53I thought Bill Gates took up my job.
01:55Bill Gates did all the successful things.
01:58Larry Erickson from Oracle,
02:00they took all the wonderful opportunities.
02:04IBM benefit.
02:06We people have no opportunity.
02:10And I think I aim too high.
02:13I should aim to support and help the people around me.
02:19Do tiny things.
02:22I never thought I could be today.
02:25After 18 years, Alibaba become today's size.
02:31Not because I'm smart.
02:33I don't think I'm a smart person.
02:36But I work with a lot of smart people.
02:41And most smart people,
02:43they always want to do successful things,
02:46quick, easy things.
02:48And I think it's not easy to be successful quickly.
02:54Every time, everything we do,
02:56we prepare for 10 years.
02:58I know I'm not smart.
03:00If we want to be successful,
03:02we have to win 10 years later.
03:05If we want to be successful,
03:07we have to work with smart people.
03:12If we want to be successful,
03:14we should make a lot of mistakes and never give up.
03:17Some people, they make mistakes.
03:19They have problems.
03:20They give up.
03:21We never give up.
03:22We learn from mistakes.
03:25And I think when we feel the message,
03:29the experience,
03:31the advice I want to give you,
03:35you will judge when this person will be successful or not
03:38by when he feel,
03:40he thinks it's his fault or the other's fault.
03:43If he thinks my fail because of the others,
03:46this guy has no chance.
03:48Those people who fail always think,
03:51hmm, it is my fault.
03:53I did not do it properly.
03:54I should change here or change there.
03:56These guys have opportunities.
03:58So I learn a lot from those people who fail.
04:04I learn a lot from those people who make mistakes.
04:07I learn a lot from my mistakes.
04:10So this is what I,
04:14when I, this is my life attitude.
04:17When I feel, I say, see, I will fail.
04:21When I succeed, I say, well, I never know.
04:23I could be successful.
04:26This make me very positive and optimistic.
04:31And because of so many mistakes,
04:35too much failure,
04:37that make me never complain
04:39and I get used to that.
04:41We are making mistake every day even to today.
04:45We made stupid decisions almost every day.
04:51Nobody knows.
04:52We thought it's smart,
04:54but finally prove it's stupid.
04:56But we learn, we do again.
04:59We learn, we do again.
05:00That's the way.
05:01That's the life attitude.
05:04Alibaba start from no money,
05:08no technology, no people.
05:11In my apartment, 18 people decide
05:15that we want to use internet technology
05:18to help small business.
05:21That was the idea.
05:24After 18 years,
05:27we grow from 18 people to today,
05:31close to 60,000 people.
05:34It is really not easy.
05:38But we survived.
05:41Today, we are one of the
05:45biggest internet companies in the world.
05:49I think we are lucky.
05:52We made so many mistakes,
05:55but we still survive.
05:58How can you be continue to be lucky?
06:02That is the question keep on asking me.
06:06I think if you want to continue to be lucky,
06:09you have to give your luck to the others.
06:14You give luck to the others,
06:17you help others,
06:18the others in the future will help you.
06:21That was our thinking in the past 10 years.
06:24Alibaba was born in China,
06:27but Alibaba should not be a Chinese company.
06:32The day when I chose the name Alibaba,
06:36Alibaba is not a Chinese name.
06:38It is an Arabic name.
06:41Iran said it is an Iranian name.
06:43Turkey said it is a Turkish name.
06:45I don't know where it is named.
06:47But it is the name from Alibaba 1001 Mistakes
06:50or Alibaba 1001 Nights, the story.
06:54We want to make this company
06:58a company that was born in China,
07:02enabled the world,
07:04helping the global young people.
07:08As I said,
07:10that every century,
07:12there is a company for the century.
07:15Microsoft was the company of the last century,
07:19of the great century.
07:21IBM was the company of the century.
07:24What is the company of this century,
07:2821st century?
07:30And I think we should not think about,
07:33Alibaba, we should always,
07:35we make money, serve Chinese.
07:37We should make the money, serve the world.
07:40Serve this century.
07:42This, only think in that way,
07:45we can do more.
07:48Our company today is big,
07:51but compared to yesterday, it was big.
07:54But compared to tomorrow,
07:56it is still a tiny company.
07:59The world changes so fast.
08:01So this is our thinking.
08:03We want to make Alibaba
08:06be the company of the century.
08:09We want to make Alibaba the company
08:12supporting global small, medium-sized companies.
08:16We want to make this company
08:18supporting global young people.
08:20And we want to make this company
08:22to making sure women can have more jobs online.
08:26Because people don't care if you're a woman or man online.
08:30This is what we want to do.
08:32And we are doing a lot.
08:34Outside China,
08:36Southeast Asia,
08:39we are also doing a lot in India.
08:42We just started to do more in America,
08:45and also Canada.
08:47In Russia,
08:49we have a small business
08:52that's called AliExpress.
08:54Maybe AliExpress here is very big,
08:57but in our company,
09:00probably less than 1% of our business is AliExpress.
09:06But AliExpress is not our main purpose
09:09of doing business in Russia.
09:12We do not want to be a Russian e-commerce company.
09:17We are not an e-commerce company.
09:20We help other companies become e-commerce.
09:24We hope what we want to do in Russia,
09:27we want to help Russia to build up the logistics system.
09:31Russia is so big.
09:33Delivering things is so difficult.
09:36I cannot imagine.
09:39I met some Russian girls
09:42two years ago.
09:44I said,
09:45do you use AliExpress?
09:46Yes.
09:47I said,
09:48how long?
09:49What about the speed of delivery?
09:51They said,
09:52it's great.
09:53I said,
09:54what do you mean by great?
09:55She said,
09:56only 45 days.
09:59I mean,
10:00greater is 45 minutes,
10:02not 45 days.
10:04Now we reduced from 45 days
10:07to 15 days.
10:09But that is not enough.
10:13Russia should have
10:15a modern logistics system
10:19that will be able to deliver
10:21within 48 hours
10:23or 72 hours,
10:25anywhere,
10:26any place in Russia.
10:27When you place an order online,
10:29you should get it within 72 hours.
10:32And this should be used in technology.
10:35This is your opportunity.
10:37Young people,
10:38because Russia's logistics is terrible,
10:41and you have the chance.
10:42If the logistics is good,
10:43we have no chance.
10:45We should build up the payment,
10:47online payment.
10:50Today in China,
10:51the mobile phone payment
10:54is so popular.
10:57I went to see,
10:59a few weeks ago,
11:00I saw some beggars
11:02on the street.
11:03When you beg money,
11:05they use a zip code mobile phone
11:07because people don't have pocket money.
11:10So in Russia,
11:12we should build up
11:14a good payment system.
11:16A modern payment system
11:17that every young people
11:19can receive money,
11:20pay money
11:21at the lowest cost.
11:23Every young people
11:24should be able to reach financial assistance.
11:29Don't worry about the future.
11:32Don't worry about technology.
11:34Let me tell you one thing.
11:36When you worry about the future,
11:38that is because
11:40you are lack of confidence.
11:43You lack of imagination.
11:46We don't have,
11:47I may not have the solution for future,
11:51but there is a solution for future.
11:56We don't have the solution for future,
11:58but our young people
11:59have a solution for future.
12:01I found in this world,
12:04I found in this world,
12:06young people don't worry about the future.
12:08Older people worry for the future.
12:12I found those,
12:14today's successful people,
12:16they worry about the future.
12:20Let me tell you,
12:22future is the opportunity
12:24for everybody.
12:27Especially the opportunity
12:29for young people
12:30because we have nothing to lose.
12:33Right, this is what I tell myself
12:3518 years ago.
12:3718 years ago,
12:38we did not have money.
12:39So we have no money to lose.
12:42We don't have technology.
12:43We have no technology to lose.
12:46And then we say,
12:48we believe 10, 20 years later,
12:50e-commerce, internet
12:52will be powerful.
12:54If we start to do now,
12:57when lot of successful people
13:00don't like technology,
13:02don't like internet,
13:03we start to do it.
13:0510, 20 years later,
13:07we will be the expert.
13:0910, 20 years later,
13:10we will be successful.
13:12So I think,
13:14don't worry about the future.
13:16Prepare for the future.
13:18Make your own future.
13:21Cloud computing,
13:22big data,
13:24artificial intelligence,
13:26they are new to anybody.
13:30You are successful,
13:32new to you.
13:33You are not successful,
13:35new to you.
13:36So what do you worry about?
13:38Second thing is,
13:39don't worry about the things
13:40the other people worry about.
13:42Especially,
13:43don't worry about the things
13:44president and prime minister worry about.
13:48Worry about things you worry about.
13:53We, everybody have too many things to worry about.
13:55If you do not worry about yourself,
13:58you worry too much about the world.
14:01Now, today,
14:02Alibaba should worry about the world.
14:04You should not worry about the world.
14:07President Putin worry about the world.
14:09You should not worry about the world.
14:11You should worry about
14:12when you graduate,
14:14how can you make a living?
14:16How can you do something
14:17that is different?
14:19How can you do something
14:20that is fun,
14:22interesting,
14:23and helping others?
14:26By the way,
14:27don't believe that technology
14:30is going to take away
14:32human beings' jobs.
14:34Technology is going to replace
14:36a lot of stupid jobs.
14:40When the first technology revolution come,
14:44the steam machine come,
14:46people worry,
14:47oh my god,
14:48steam machine is going to take away
14:49a lot of jobs.
14:50After 50 years,
14:53the steam machine
14:55created more jobs.
14:57When electricity comes,
15:00a lot of companies
15:02worry about losing jobs.
15:05But electricity created so many jobs.
15:09Artificial intelligence,
15:12they will create more jobs.
15:16The problem is next 20, 30 years
15:19may lose a lot of jobs,
15:22but this is short period.
15:24So we people have to learn
15:27how we can survive
15:29in the artificial intelligence period.
15:32By the way,
15:33why human beings
15:35can win machines?
15:38Machines,
15:41they might be stronger
15:42than human beings.
15:44They might be smarter
15:45than human beings.
15:47They might run faster
15:48than human beings.
15:49But they can never be
15:51as wise as human beings.
15:54Because human beings,
15:56we have belief,
15:57we have religion,
15:59we have a heart,
16:02which machine does not have.
16:05So,
16:06if you want to be ready for future,
16:09please
16:12do not
16:14follow yesterday's way
16:16of learning and teaching.
16:19Do not try to memory things
16:21hard and more.
16:23Because computer can remember things
16:26hard and more than you.
16:29Do not try to calculate faster,
16:32because computer can calculate
16:34much faster than you do.
16:36So try to be creative.
16:40Try to be innovative.
16:43Try to be constructive.
16:45These are the things,
16:47everything you learn,
16:48you think about,
16:49is this thing can make me more creative?
16:52Is this thing can make me more innovative?
16:55Is this thing can make me more constructive?
16:58Let's do it.
17:01And also,
17:04I think
17:06when other people worry,
17:08opportunity comes.
17:10Make them worry.
17:13You should know,
17:15nobody will
17:17and nobody can
17:19stop this technology revolution.
17:22You worry,
17:23it comes.
17:24You don't worry,
17:25it comes.
17:26So what's the point of worry?
17:29So I said,
17:30people say,
17:31Jack, have you ever cried
17:33in the past 18 years doing
17:35e-business,
17:36internet in China?
17:39I don't cry,
17:41because I know cry does not make any sense,
17:43does not help me.
17:44If cry can help me,
17:46I will cry every day.
17:49We should not cry,
17:50we should not cry,
17:51we should make competitors cry.
17:55So,
17:56think about,
17:57be positive,
17:59get ready for that.
18:02If you people
18:04from Moscow University
18:07cannot solve the problem,
18:09if you worry,
18:12the whole world,
18:1399.9% of people
18:16have no future.
18:18So,
18:19don't worry about it.
18:21Be positive,
18:22start to do it,
18:23and when people worry,
18:25open the door,
18:26see what are they worry about,
18:27and solve the problem.
18:29That's what I think.
18:30I love to be with young people.
18:33First,
18:34I'm still young.
18:37And,
18:38second is that,
18:39when you are among young people,
18:41you know,
18:42you are young all the time.
18:44And young people
18:45are the solutions for tomorrow.
18:48Young people
18:49are the solutions
18:50for all the worries.
18:53And young people,
18:54if you stay with them,
18:57you will be
18:58full of energetic.
19:00But the advice
19:02I give to the young people
19:04is that
19:05also the advice
19:06I give to myself,
19:08that
19:09nothing is easy,
19:11nothing is free.
19:15If you want to be successful,
19:17you have to pay the price.
19:21I live up by 18 years
19:24to today's size.
19:27Yeah, we are lucky.
19:29But we work much harder
19:31than most of the people.
19:34We never sleep well
19:35and sound in the evening.
19:38I travel,
19:39last year,
19:40867 hours a year
19:43in the plane.
19:45I'm working hard,
19:46my team
19:47working very hard.
19:4918 years,
19:50we work
19:51like a normal company,
19:5370 years.
19:56Day and night.
19:58Nothing
20:00is free.
20:02Nothing is easy.
20:05Easy means
20:06you have to think different.
20:09You have to do different.
20:11You have to do different.
20:15If you,
20:16everybody,
20:17if John said this is right,
20:19you fought John,
20:20why you?
20:21So, you have to think,
20:23for example,
20:25early days
20:27in my company,
20:30when some ideas come to my desk,
20:33Jack,
20:34this is a great idea,
20:35and I look at everybody,
20:37everybody say it is a good idea,
20:39I normally throw it into the rubbish.
20:41Because everybody say it is good,
20:43then all the other people think good.
20:45If everybody say,
20:46this is going to be very tough,
20:48I'm very interested in that tough question.
20:51And I pick up and say,
20:52how can we do in a different way?
20:56This is
20:57to be unique,
20:59to be different.
21:01And the third,
21:03this is my
21:05advice,
21:07and this is also I'm telling myself every day.
21:10Today is very tough.
21:12Tomorrow is more tougher.
21:15The day of tomorrow is beautiful.
21:17But most people die tomorrow evening.
21:21You have to work very hard.
21:23Every tough days,
21:25every tough situations,
21:27problems you meet,
21:29that is the training of yourself.
21:33When you graduate your school,
21:37graduate from this school,
21:38you just start your career of learning.
21:43When you got a PhD diploma,
21:46or bachelor diploma,
21:48this is just a certificate your parents pay the tuition
21:52for four years.
21:54Your real challenge is when you leave the college,
21:58the real life starts.
22:00The real life starts.
22:01The real exam starts.
22:04The real test starts.
22:07That's life.
22:09So,
22:11one thing you are lucky as I said,
22:13if students from Moscow University cannot survive,
22:1999.9% of people in the world cannot survive.
22:24Only you have this confidence,
22:26you will be able to face the challenge.
22:29The challenge of future.
22:32The question is,
22:34in the time the market is going to be more competitive,
22:37how can you keep the confidence for the future, right?
22:42Market is never easy.
22:46In the early days,
22:47just like doing business is never easy.
22:50People say, ah, doing business is more difficult.
22:52No.
22:53Never easy.
22:54Continuously more difficult.
22:56The confidence
22:58is not
23:01the best way to do it is that
23:03find a good team.
23:07Find the people
23:09that share the same vision,
23:12same dreams,
23:14work with them.
23:15The only thing you listen is,
23:18you listen to a group of people.
23:21If you're doing a company,
23:23listen to your customers.
23:25If they are happy,
23:28if they, your customers, are happy,
23:31don't worry too much.
23:33You still have competitiveness.
23:35If your company's, if your customer's happy,
23:39listen to your colleagues,
23:41your team.
23:42Are they confident?
23:44If they are confident,
23:46don't worry about it.
23:48Don't listen to advisors,
23:52lawyers, I'm sorry.
23:54Don't listen to those people,
23:56ah, you have no chance.
23:58Whether the market has a chance or not,
24:01customers tell you.
24:04Your colleagues tell you.
24:07So,
24:09nobody is the expert of future.
24:14Most of the experts are yesterday.
24:17So for the future,
24:19the best way you learn it
24:21is that, you know, the early days,
24:23Alibaba had no money, no revenue.
24:26Nobody pay us.
24:30The revenue we got
24:32are all the email of thanks from customers.
24:35The customers send us email,
24:37oh, Alibaba, you're so great.
24:38You're helping me a lot,
24:39but I don't have money to pay you.
24:42Fine.
24:43We know one day they will pay
24:45if we really help them.
24:48So the confidence is from the customers.
24:51Confidence is from your team.
24:55And your competitors
24:57always try to destroy your confidence.
25:00If your competitors spend a lot of time
25:03destroy your competence or confidence,
25:05that means you are good.
25:08Let me tell you
25:10that language is very important.
25:14But you speak good English
25:16does not mean you will do global business.
25:21Right?
25:24Mao Zedong, he made a speech here, right?
25:28Mao Zedong does not speak English.
25:32Nixon did not speak Chinese.
25:34But these older two guys made a global deal.
25:37China, US, you're working together.
25:40It's the vision.
25:42It's the belief that you have
25:45that changed the world.
25:47But let me tell you other thing.
25:49Language is so important.
25:52It helped me a lot.
25:55Because of artificial intelligence,
25:57in the future,
25:59people say,
26:00I don't need to learn English,
26:01or Russian, or Japanese.
26:03A chip here can translate it quickly.
26:07No.
26:08It's not about language.
26:10It's about the culture.
26:13When you learn the other language,
26:15you start to understand the other culture.
26:19You start to appreciate,
26:22respect the other culture.
26:25When you appreciate,
26:26respect the other culture,
26:28you will be respected
26:30and appreciated by the others.
26:32Then you can work together.
26:36I learned my English by myself
26:39when I was a child.
26:42I never got one day English training class
26:46outside China.
26:49But I think
26:50I understand Western culture
26:53much more better
26:55than those Chinese students study outside.
26:59Because I'm not learning language.
27:01I'm learning culture.
27:05When you respect the other culture,
27:09when you appreciate the other culture,
27:12it's easy to make friends.
27:15If you don't like the other culture,
27:17you will never make friends.
27:19If you don't have friends,
27:20how can you do business?
27:23So, I would say,
27:25language helped me a lot.
27:29But the most thing that helped me
27:32is my respect
27:34for the different cultures.
27:36For the different cultures.
27:38I wish I could speak Russian.
27:43The more I come here,
27:45the more I learn a lot.
27:47I asked one of the Russian guys,
27:51Why, you know,
27:54Russian too tough
27:57and Chinese too gentle?
27:59How can they mix together?
28:02And he said,
28:04Jack, this country is so cold,
28:06we have to be tough.
28:09My city, Hangzhou, is so good weather,
28:12so we don't have to be tough.
28:14Yeah.
28:15So,
28:18if you have to do everything with a translator,
28:23no good.
28:25Of course, sometimes you have to, right?
28:27But if you can understand a language
28:31that can communicate,
28:32it's easy for you to communicate,
28:34easy to understand and be understood.
28:38If you're good at marketing,
28:39normally you're not good at invention.
28:42So, people need to work together.
28:46If you have a great invention,
28:48and you are extremely sound
28:51and good at invention and creative technology,
28:54must find good business people to partner.
29:00And find it good.
29:01So, like me,
29:04I know little about technology.
29:08Today, I'm so happy we don't use PC.
29:14The only thing I can use my PC
29:16and send, receive email and browse.
29:20I don't know how to use.
29:21Today, I'm happy we all use a mobile phone.
29:25I'm not a technology guy.
29:26But I know if we, if I want to,
29:30if we want to realize our dream,
29:33we must have the technology.
29:35But if I don't know the technology,
29:37we should invite the best engineers and scientists.
29:41I work with them.
29:42I listen to them.
29:47Nobody can do anything.
29:51What you should do is always form a team.
29:57I think
30:00it is very difficult
30:02to make an exact company like Alibaba.
30:07Again,
30:09you can make a company better than Alibaba.
30:14But it will be difficult to make exact business model.
30:18Our model,
30:19I will not say be great,
30:22but it's very workable.
30:24Our model, because of 18 years,
30:27especially for the first 10 years,
30:29nobody believe it.
30:30Everybody say,
30:31Jack Ma is stupid, crazy,
30:33doing something that will never make money.
30:35So the smart people, rich people
30:37never be our competitors.
30:41That give us chance.
30:44So,
30:46finding good partner.
30:49Find good team.
30:54And always focus on the things
30:57that you are good at.
31:00Focus on the things
31:02that you love.
31:05And that is what we call partnership.
31:09By answering that,
31:10I give you
31:12advice for those young people.
31:16If you
31:1920 to 30 years old,
31:23please find a good boss.
31:25Not necessarily good company.
31:28Learn from the boss.
31:30Learn how to do it.
31:31When you are 30 to 40 years old,
31:34try to do something yourself.
31:37If you really want to try.
31:39When you are 40
31:42to 50 years old,
31:45do things that you are good at.
31:48After 20 years of learning,
31:50you should do something you are good at.
31:52When you are 50 to 60 years old,
31:57spend the time
31:58supporting young people.
32:01When you are over 60 years old,
32:04spend time with your grandchildren.
32:08Right?
32:09That is normally a lot of people like that.
32:13So,
32:14when you are graduate,
32:15when you just in the university,
32:17don't think about,
32:18I want resign from the school
32:21and be another Bill Gates.
32:22Because Bill Gates left Harvard.
32:25There is only one Bill Gates in the world.
32:30When you graduate,
32:32find a company.
32:34Most important,
32:35find a good boss
32:36that can train you,
32:38discipline you
32:40and tell you what is good and right.
32:41It is more important than a good company.
32:45Right?
32:46Of course, a good company,
32:47a good boss is even better.
32:50And then,
32:51continue your life.
32:53It is all about the partner.
32:56Sure.