On August 8, local time, Ma Yun, Chairman of Alibaba's Board of Directors, delivered a speech at the University of Witwatersrand, a famous university in South Africa. More than 1000 young people from more than a dozen African countries came to participate.
Ma Yun encouraged them to say, "Some people think Africa is poor and has no wealth, but I think Africa has the best wealth in the world: animals, nature, air and blue sky. This is the most precious wealth envied by the whole world. I always believe that it will be too late when everything is ready. Entrepreneurs just want to do things when nothing is ready. If everything is ready, Ma Yun will not succeed. As you know, I have failed many times, the college entrance examination has failed three times, and there is no money at home. "
On the same day, Ma Yun announced the establishment of the "Ma Yun African Youth Entrepreneurship Fund", which is funded by Ma Yun Public Welfare Foundation and will support African 100 young entrepreneurs in the next10 year to create more employment and economic development and support African young people to realize their dreams. Ma Yun Public Welfare Foundation was personally initiated and donated by Ma Yun.
The audience was filled with elites from all walks of life in South Africa, listening to the wisdom from China.
Ma Yun said that last year was his first trip to Africa and he was worried a lot before coming. After experiencing it personally, he regretted not coming ten years ago. Ma Yun said that he would come to Africa every year, go to three African countries and eventually go to all 54 African countries.
Ma Yun reviewed the entrepreneurial process of Alibaba and encouraged young people to be innovative. "When I started my business in 1994, many people called me a liar and said that there was no such thing as the Internet. I tried to register a company, and the government registrar learned that I wanted to be an Internet company. They say that you can't register such a company without such a thing as the Internet. China has not joined the Internet. In order to prove that I am not a liar, we waited for three and a half hours before downloading the homepage. "
"At that time, no one believed in the Internet, and no one believed that there would be e-commerce in China. This is also the question that many people are asking you now: How can Africa develop e-commerce without credit cards, logistics, infrastructure, government support, funds and nothing? But this is the opportunity. " Ma Yun said.
Ma Yun said, "As entrepreneurs, we don't complain, we let others complain. Let our competitors complain. We never cry. Crying won't solve the problem. Let our competitors cry. Let those who don't believe in our dreams cry. "
Ma Yun also recalled that when Alibaba's B2B business went public in 2007, 300 employees became millionaires. "I asked my colleagues, did you become millionaires because you were smarter than others? They said no, we couldn't find a job. Is that because you work hard? Not exactly. There are many diligent people. Smart people have gone to IBM and Microsoft, and headhunters don't come to our company to rob people. " Ma Yun said that none of us want it, and we are used to being rejected. "Why should people help you? It is very rare to help you. It's normal not to help you. You should always try to get help. "
"Entrepreneurs are not easy. You are lonely, and your family, friends and wife may not support you. I am used to it, so you must get used to it, too. When you are lonely, warm your right hand with your left hand. " Ma Yun said, "I often think of one thing. Today is cruel, tomorrow is even more cruel, and the day after tomorrow will be beautiful, but most people will die tomorrow night. "
Ma Yun is giving a speech to thousands of African audiences under the stage.
The day before, on behalf of Alibaba Public Welfare Foundation and Taohuayuan Ecological Protection Foundation, Ma Yun presented the African Ranger Award to 50 first-line wildlife guardians from 17 countries in Cape Town. The "African Protected Area Patrol Award Fund" jointly established by the two foundations awards 50 front-line patrols every year, each with a reward of $3,000. The project will last for ten years, with a total amount of $6.5438+500,000.
In 20 17, Ma Yun and volunteers installed a satellite locator for an African adult female elephant and released it to nature. In the future, scientists will track and protect it through advanced technical means. Authorized by the Kenyan government, this elephant was named "Hangzhou" by Ma Yun.
The following is the full text of Ma Yun's speech entitled "Ma Yun's speech in South Africa: Grasping globalization and digitalization, Africa can have 100 Alibaba".
Last year was my first trip to Africa, and I was worried before I came. Worry about this, worry about that. No matter what you are worried about, you must come to Africa and feel it for yourself. I regret not coming ten years ago. Africa is a continent full of opportunities. From now on, I will come to Africa and go to three African countries every year.
This is my second visit to Africa. I hope I can visit all 54 African countries in the next ten years.
Many of my entrepreneurial friends asked me, why are you here?
I said I wouldn't do anything, so I just came to feel it. If you feel it for yourself, you will love it here.
When I came to Africa last year, I felt that I had something to do and a lot to do.
When Alibaba started its business, I said to my team: If not now, when? If it wasn't me, who was it?
I said, let's do something in Africa.
Many people say that Africa has many problems. Tell me, where in the world is there no problem?
Some people say: Africa is poor and has no wealth, but I think Africa has the best wealth in the world, animals, nature, air and blue sky. This is the most precious wealth envied by the whole world. China, in particular, wants blue sky.
I hope I can stay here for twenty or thirty days. I can go to Ethiopia and Botswana. I have begun to plan and look forward to my visit next year.
Everyone says that Africa is an ancient continent, but in fact it is full of young people.
When the students of eFounders Fellowship came to China, I told them that you are the seeds of Africa. They have dreams and passion, which is good.
This continent is full of opportunities and dreams. On the other hand, this land is also full of responsibilities.
I gave awards to 50 patrolmen in Cape Town yesterday. These people protect animals. We promise to award prizes to 50 patrolmen every year.
Patrol officers are job creators. 200 years ago, people who hunted animals were heroes. Now, we should make animal protectors heroes.
I always believe that it will be too late when everything is ready. Entrepreneurs just want to do things when nothing is ready. If everything is ready, Ma Yun will not succeed. You know, I have failed many times, failed the college entrance examination three times, and my family has no money. We have no chance.
The same is true in Africa today. Africa today is the same as when we founded Alibaba 19 years ago. At that time, the Internet speed in China was very slow.
When I started my business on 1994, many people called me a liar and said that there was no such thing as the Internet. I tried to register my company, and the government registrar asked me what company to register. I said I wanted to be an Internet company. They said that there is no such thing as the Internet. You can't register this company. China has not joined the Internet. To prove that I am not a liar, we waited for three and a half hours to download the homepage.
At that time, no one believed in the Internet and e-commerce, and no one believed that there would be e-commerce in China. No logistics, no credit cards. This is also the question that many people are asking you now: How can Africa develop e-commerce without credit cards, logistics, infrastructure, government support, funds and nothing? But this is an opportunity.
As entrepreneurs, we don't complain, we let others complain. Let our competitors complain. We never cry. Crying won't solve the problem. Let our competitors cry. Let those who don't believe in our dreams cry.
When I started my company in my apartment, there were 18 founders. We have a great dream: we hope to become the top 10 internet company in the world. But when we were there, we were only in the millions. Dreams can only be realized. Don't say that we will succeed tomorrow or next year. It will be ten or twenty years before we can succeed.
19 years have passed, and we are a top 10 internet company in the world. Alibaba now has a market value of $500 billion.
Tell me, before 19, who could believe that China could become the world's top 10 internet company? 10 years ago, did anyone believe that Asian companies could become the top 10 technology companies in the world?
People should begin to believe that there will be 100 Alibaba in Africa in the next decade.
If you don't think so, then you won't do it, and you have no chance. But if you start working hard now, you still have a chance. The market value of 500 billion won't work, and 50 billion dollars will do.
Africa has a population of 65.438+0.2 billion, mostly young people. Dr. Kituyi said that130,000 people start looking for jobs after graduation every year. This is the resource.
When Alibaba recruited people, we couldn't find anyone at all. No one wants to work in a strange place like Alibaba, and it's still in an apartment. No one believes in the Internet and e-commerce. Therefore, we hire anyone who can walk, regardless of whether you are a master or an undergraduate. Anyone who believes in us can join in. Let's start from scratch.
The first ten years were really hard. We can't find customers, we can't find good engineers, and we have no resources at all. We can't borrow money from the bank either.
It is said that African banks can't get loans, which is the same all over the world. Banks don't lend to small businesses. So at that time, we were very cautious about every expenditure.
When Alibaba's B2B business IPO (initial public offering) took place in 2007, 300 of us became millionaires. I asked my colleagues three questions. Do you become a millionaire because you are smarter than others? They said no, we couldn't find a job.
Is it because of hard work? Not exactly. There are many diligent people. Smart people have gone to IBM and Microsoft. Headhunters don't even come to our company to rob people.
We don't want anyone. We believe in dreams, and we work hard to become rich.
They say they become millionaires because no one wants them. 13 I'm the one who didn't want me in the company. We are used to being rejected. We are used to not having help from others.
Why should people help you? It is very rare to help you. It's normal not to help you. You should always try to get help.
I often encourage other founders of 17 and all those who join us. I said to them: Our competitor Yi Bei is very strong, and its employees come from famous universities such as Harvard. Many of us are nobody. None of us want to mention the name of their school.
If we can win, if we can succeed, then 80% of the young people in China can succeed. Many people work hard but have no dreams. Many people dream but don't work hard. Entrepreneurs are a group of people who dream and work hard. So we can win.
Many people complain that there is no loan, no logistics and no credit card system. Opportunities are always hidden where people complain. The louder people complain. If you solve the problem, the more you complain, the better your chances are.
This is also my view of Africa. There are many problems, so there are many opportunities.
Starting a business is not easy. You are lonely, and your family, friends and wife may not support you. I am used to it, so you must get used to it, too. When you are lonely, warm your right hand with your left hand.
I always remember one thing, today is cruel, tomorrow is even more cruel, and the day after tomorrow will be beautiful, but most people will die tomorrow night.
You are working hard for your dreams and beliefs. There are no future experts, only experts who study the past. In Africa, don't listen to those experts telling you not to do this or that. Africa needs a future, and there are no experts in the future. One day, we will become experts.
As an entrepreneur, you should get used to failure. Alibaba succeeded today, and we want to live 102. Why 102? Because every goal of our team must be very clear. Alibaba was founded in 1999, hoping to span three centuries. We never say that we have succeeded, because we have only been established 19 years, and there are still 83 years left. We haven't succeeded yet, we only survived 19 years. In the past 19, we made countless mistakes. As an entrepreneur, don't learn how others succeed, learn how others fail. Because, in many MBA programs, school teachers will teach them successful cases. You have read many success stories. Can you succeed? Of course not. There are many things you don't know.
Many business schools come to Alibaba to write business cases. After a week's investigation, they asked me to sign it and said it was Alibaba. I said this is not Alibaba. They said, Jack, you don't know yourself. I said ok, I'll sign it.
Tsinghua University does a case study every five years and invites me to discuss the case of Alibaba. Alibaba faces many competitors. In the analysis of competition results in each of the past five years, Alibaba died and the competitors won. But in fact, Alibaba's competitors all died in the end. So, how to learn from such a case?
We should learn from our mistakes, because most mistakes are the same, and most successes have different reasons. When you learn from mistakes, it doesn't mean that you should learn how to avoid them, but when you make mistakes, you can know how to face them. Entrepreneurs should have a strong heart to meet difficulties, mistakes and all kinds of troubles. But have a warm and soft heart, especially for colleagues and customers.
I want to share with you Alibaba's values-Six Pulse Excalibur. Two of these six values are very distinctive, which I think is worth considering. We believe that customers come first, employees come second and shareholders come third. Many people will put shareholders first, but I think customers are the most important. If you serve your customers well, they will pay. The second important thing is employees, and employees Qi Xin can work together to serve customers well. So customers are happy, employees are happy, and shareholders are naturally happy. Another value I want to share is "embracing change". In this rapidly changing world, keeping change is the best way to succeed. I remember in 2000, I wanted to raise money. I went to a venture capital fund and was asked to write a business plan. I said I had no business plan. They said, just write something. You see, everyone else has such a thick business plan. It took me a week to write a page. A business plan is a book that tells others how to successfully use the Internet and e-commerce. I think, how did you write this book? China is not even connected to the Internet.
We should not try to change the world, but change ourselves. Only by learning from mistakes, learning from others and changing ourselves can we succeed. I also want to encourage all entrepreneurs in Africa not to think only about their own countries, but to base themselves on Africa and look at the world. If you only think about your own country, it is no different from thinking about your own village.
The internet connects everything. This continent is simple. Some people say that Africa is very complicated, but I think it is particularly simple. If you go to Europe, you will know what is really complicated. They worry about many problems and set limits for themselves before they succeed in their careers. We have nothing to lose here. In this world, the hardest thing is to convince a successful person. Successful people tell you not to do this and that. We have such experience. We are all ordinary people, we want to succeed, we want to create the future, and we want to do something we believe in.
So I think it is very important for Africa to create employment opportunities. The best way to create jobs is to encourage the development of small and micro enterprises and trust young people. I also mentioned this when I talked to the president last night. In this century, all countries should give more support and encouragement to start-ups in terms of development environment and taxation. I'm glad he agreed. Because big companies don't need these anymore, we start-ups need them especially. If you take a little tax from these small and micro enterprises, it is like finding meat from the legs of mosquitoes, which is often difficult to survive. Now that the development environment of big companies is good, it's time to give some discounts to start-ups and young people.
At the same time, I also want to say to many entrepreneurs, don't think that you will succeed next month or next year, at least five years later. If you start a business next month, more people will succeed. If you have a rich father, you don't need to work hard to start a business. At the same time, don't be discouraged by low academic qualifications. If you graduated from MIT or Harvard, you may never become an entrepreneur because you may become a white-collar worker.
So, as entrepreneurs, what kind of strategy should we have? Have a good vision, see the changes in the world, the needs of customers and so on. Never wait for the government to provide you with everything. So I think entrepreneurs need to ask themselves three questions frequently, what do you have, what do you want and what are you willing to give up. What do you have? I have nothing, the only thing we have is dreams and beliefs. We have a team and we will work very hard. What do you want? What do customers want? Where are the social problems? What's wrong with your customers? What does our team want? If a person is unwilling to give up anything, then he will get nothing. Many businessmen have never learned to focus, so we should learn to focus on one thing. Because of studying hard, it's like there are nine rabbits in front of you. If you want to catch a rabbit, don't change your goal, but change yourself until you catch a rabbit.
Being an entrepreneur is a good experience. Life was hard, so we became entrepreneurs. I have never written a book for myself. I think books should be written when I am old. My life has just begun. If I want to write a book one day, I will write "Alibaba's 100 1 mistakes", and I will tell my children how many difficult days I have experienced and how many stupid mistakes I have made. These are the best experiences.
Besides, I think there are several good opportunities in Africa. The first is the development of "Digital Africa". You don't have a particularly complicated IT infrastructure, and the IT infrastructure in Europe and America is already perfect, so it is very difficult to develop. One of the reasons for the rapid development of e-commerce in China is that the development foundation of retail industry in China was too poor. Africa today, I think, is very similar to China before 19. You don't have online payment method. I encourage all government departments in Africa to upgrade their payment methods, which is not difficult. Mature technology is there, so don't worry too much about payment security. Tell everyone that Alipay has experienced a complicated development process in the past 15 years. Now there are more than 500 million transactions every day, which has exceeded the global transaction scale of payment platforms such as visa and master. Last year, we had more than $65,438+00 trillion in transactions. Technology is available, and the key lies in whether you are willing to make everyone rich and whether you are willing to let small and micro enterprises develop. Therefore, I urge policy makers in African countries to encourage and support finance. The technology is there, and Alibaba will make every effort to share it.
The second opportunity for Africa is the logistics network. All African countries must unite and upgrade the logistics network, which can bring a lot of employment opportunities to Africa. If it can be bought, sold and transported on a global scale, it will bring huge development opportunities, so Africa needs digital development.
But now many countries have poor infrastructure. I won't name a country. The scenery is beautiful, but there is no wifi, only a little wifi. They said there was no wifi to let you have a good rest. If there is no extensive wifi and mobile phone equipment in Africa, it will be more terrible than the lack of electricity 20 years ago. Internet infrastructure is so important that people can contact the Internet, get information, find buyers, find sellers and find partners, so that the sparks of thinking keep colliding. This is very, very important, and I encourage this development very much.
Another thing I want to say is that the government should encourage entrepreneurs to become heroes of this era. I hope to have more cooperation with Efounders. In the next few years, we will set up more entrepreneur forums in Africa. Entrepreneurs are an important engine to promote economic development in Africa. It is a dream, not technology or money to promote economic development, but relying on dreams and young people to promote economic development. It is small and micro enterprises that have created a large number of employment opportunities. I will work with you.
Some people will ask, why you? Why not me? I have failed too many times. I have no resources or money. I know that as an independent individual, it is really difficult when others don't help you. But once you seize the chance to survive, that's great. So, now I feel that everything I get is not because of our efforts, but because of our team and our opportunities. If we have one more Ma Yun, one more Ali, one more Tencent, one more Alipay and one more Facebook, the world will be more colorful. When I was a teacher, my monthly salary was $65,438+00. I was very happy. I'm not worried about my life and my children's life, but it would be a waste if I put my money in the bank. So, let's work together to make Africa more digital and give every young person a chance.
These are opportunities for Africa. I think there are many excellent women entrepreneurs in Africa.
So this is what I want to share with you. The "African Youth Venture Fund" is just a beginning and an attempt. 100000 dollars is not a lot, I mean the scale is not very large, especially compared with funds in other fields or government funds. Entrepreneurs, do we need money? Yes, we need money. But if someone says to me, "If I have money, I can do whatever I want", I will say goodbye to him directly. If money can solve the problem, then banks can do anything.
Real entrepreneurs must first have ideals, teams and customers. There's the money. The key is whether you can stick to your ideals, keep working hard and empower others. So I am very happy to be with the founder. Let's encourage young entrepreneurs in Africa, support them, respect them and make them heroes of the times. When there are more great entrepreneurs in Africa, this land will be more prosperous and become a continent that everyone wants to come to. What does Alibaba want in return? Alibaba's return is that entrepreneurs will succeed if they are happy, and Alibaba will succeed if our customers succeed.