By Kamlesh Tripathi
In the Chinese treatise, Mayun De Rensheng Zhexue: Chaungye Rensheng (The Life Philosophy of Jack Ma) and others, one finds Jack Ma’s prescription for a better life. Jack Ma Yun is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the co-founder of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate.
What should employers have more than their employees? Employers must never compare themselves with their employees in terms of skill. If employees don’t have better skills than employers, then employers have hired the wrong people. An employer should have a sense of perspective, capacity and strength. The employer’s perspective should be to look beyond the employees. Since an employer is a leader his capacity deepens through experience, at times being at a disadvantage and being able to tolerate the intolerable. He should possess greater strength to resist failure. A good failure has perspective, capacity and strength.
Jack Ma has four suggestions for the youth: 1. What is failure? Quitting is the biggest failure. 2. What is strength? You will find out once you experience challenges, injustice and resentment. 3. What is your responsibility? To be more diligent than others, to work harder than others, to be more ambitious than others. This is your responsibility. 4. Fools speak with their mouths, the intelligent with their heads, and the wise with their hearts.
Don’t let complaining become a habit. Human beings are the most degenerate species. Compared to beasts, humans are physically weak. Compared to dogs humans are olfactorily weak. Yet humans are extremely advanced when it comes to complaining. One should be grateful for this era of change and for the countless people who keep complaining, because the time they spend complaining becomes your opportunity. Only at the time of change do individuals become aware of what they should want and what they should give up. It is harmless to complain occasionally, but when it becomes a habit, it is like drinking seawater: the more you drink, the thirstier you get. In the end, you will realise that successful people are all “fools” who choose not to complain. The world will not remember what you said, but will remember what you did!
On starting a business (start-up) he says: It’s challenging to provide a coherent explanation of a good idea. But what can be clearly explained is usually not a good idea! To start a business, seek the right people, not necessarily the most successful ones. The most unreliable things in this world are connections. “Freebies” are the most expensive things in the world. Today was very cruel. Tomorrow is even more brutal, but the day after tomorrow will be beautiful. But most people die tomorrow night and only the true heroes see the sunrise the day after.