In the chat with Jerry Yang, one of the co-founders of Yahoo, Jack Ma spoke about his vision for his business, his philosophy about life and dreams. I listened in admiration especially when I found out his mission when he started Alibaba and his subsequent struggles. His mission is to help small businesses do business better using the internet and for the first 3 years of Alibaba, they earned $0 in revenue but preserved because of all the thanks from his customers.
For this post, I’ll like to talk about Jack Ma’s view about his wealth. His idea about his own wealth is that he believes that what he earns, only a few millions belongs to him. He said that when one has more money, eg $20 million, there would be headaches, as you worry about inflation, how to invest your money, what stock to buy etc. Worth billions of dollars now, he said that the money doesn’t belong to him, but was given to him because people trust him. People gave him the money because they believe and trust that he would manage the money better than someone else. He added that it’s easier to earn money than to spend it, especially when you have huge amounts of money.
It reminds me of the line from Spiderman, by Peter Parker, “With great power comes great responsibility.” With huge amounts of wealth, there is tremendous potential to do good or evil.
There is a saying that what you own now don’t belong to you and it’s only for your safe-keeping for now. If you delve deeper into this idea, there is truth because when you think about it – money, material things, and people come into and out of your life every day. Yes, the money you have might be in your bank now, the house, the car might be yours now and your family members are with you now. But life changes every day, so you never know when something or someone will go out of your life. Thus, being grateful for what you have now is the most important. If you are in a more fortunate position than others, give gratitude and use what you have – be it wealth, influence or knowledge – wisely.
Here is the link Jack Ma – How to Become a Millionaire (although the title of the video is “How to Become a Millionaire”), what he shared are applicable for business and life.
If time is an issue, you can view other shorter videos. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, I would encourage you to view Jack Ma – Stay Hungry and Follow Your Dreams and Jack Ma – Stop Complaining And You Can Find Opportunities.
