Leadership Psychology In Business: Jack Ma's Advice

Ma Yun, also known as Jack Ma, is a Chinese entrepreneur, founder, and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group. He was the first mainland Chinese businessman to appear on the cover of Forbes magazine. As of early 2023, his fortune was estimated at $41.5 billion.

Jack Ma is a man who achieved success through unwavering determination. Growing up during China’s Cultural Revolution — a challenging period in the country’s history — he would secretly visit a provincial hotel in Hangzhou as a teenager to befriend tourists and practice English, a language that had fascinated him since childhood.

After several unsuccessful attempts to gain admission to college, Ma became an English teacher at a local university, earning a monthly salary of just $12 for several years. The trade and export boom in China during the early 1990s inspired him to establish his own translation agency. In 1995, during a business trip to the United States, he discovered the internet.

This discovery became Ma’s second passion. Upon returning to China, he founded China Pages, an online equivalent of the Yellow Pages. However, China’s first internet company struggled to find traction with both users and the government, which Ma tried to convince of the internet’s potential. It soon closed its doors.

Ahead of his time, Ma returned to government service, working for the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation for the next four years. Shortly after, he created Alibaba, building the largest online trading platform in the region and gaining global recognition.

AdmiGram.com admires this remarkable individual, recognizing him as the greatest Chinese entrepreneur. Here is some of his most invaluable wisdom.

Leadership Psychology in Business: Jack Ma’s Advice

Motivation, Professionalism, and Dedication

“In 2001, I made a mistake. I told the employees who co-founded the company with me that their career ceiling would be at the manager level. I thought I needed to hire outside professionals for executive roles like vice president. Years later, none of those outside hires are still with the company, but the core team members I initially doubted are performing excellently as vice presidents and executives.

I have a guiding principle: your attitude toward work and the decisions you make are more important than your innate abilities. You cannot make everyone think the same way, but you can align everyone behind a common goal.

Don’t even try to force your employees to think alike; it’s impossible. A third of your workforce may not believe in you personally. Don’t let them work against your leadership. Instead, unite them around a common goal. It’s much easier to bring people together around an idea than around a single leader, no matter how incredible that leader may be.”

How a Leader Differs from an Employee

“A company leader should never compare their technical skills with those of their employees. Your employees’ technical skills should always be better than yours. Otherwise, you’ve hired the wrong people.

So, what distinguishes a leader from an employee?

Vision: A leader must see the company’s development years into the future.
Fortitude: A leader must possess the strength of character and perseverance to endure what ordinary employees cannot.
Resilience: They must have exceptional resilience to withstand setbacks and weather inevitable failures.

Therefore, a good leader is defined by vision, determination, and character.”

Business and Politics Don’t Mix

“Politics and money rarely mix well. If you enter politics, forget about business. Conversely, when money meets politics, it’s like a match meeting dynamite — expect an explosion.”

5 Key Lessons for Young People

What is true failure? True failure is giving up the fight.
What is flexibility? You’ll truly understand flexibility only after experiencing failure, tough life situations, and disappointments.
What are your responsibilities? Your responsibility is to be more diligent, work harder, and be more ambitious than everyone else.
Speak from the heart. The wise speak with their hearts, not just their heads. Fools use only their mouths to speak.
Live life to the fullest. I always tell myself that we are not born just to work, but to enjoy life. We are here to make other people’s lives better, not to spend all our time working. If you spend your entire life working, you will eventually regret it.

On Competitors and Competition

Only fools treat competitors with aggression. If you view everyone around you as an enemy, they will become your enemies.
When competing, avoid hatred; it will only destroy you from within.
Competition is like a game of chess. If you lose, you can always play another round. There’s no need to fight.
A true entrepreneur has no enemies. Once you realize that, no one can stop you.

On Complaints and Whining

“If you allow yourself to whine occasionally, there’s nothing wrong with that. However, falling into regular depression and constantly complaining about life is like alcoholism — the more you drink, the harder it is to stop. On your path to success, you’ll notice that truly successful people don’t complain. The world doesn’t care about what you say; it cares about what you do.”

Advice for Entrepreneurs

Real opportunities lie where others see nothing.
Strive to make your employees genuinely excited to come to work.
Customers come first. Employees come second. Shareholders come third.
Start adapting to new conditions before anyone else notices the shift.
Forget about the money and how you will earn it. Instead of relying on short-term tricks and gimmicks, focus on stability and long-term planning. Your attitude determines your altitude.

On Entrepreneurship

Great opportunities are often difficult to explain clearly. What can be explained simply and easily is usually not a rare opportunity.
Look for a partner who complements your skill set. You don’t necessarily need someone who is already highly successful; look for the right people, not just the best people.
The most unpredictable thing in this world is human relationships.
‘Free’ is often the most expensive word in business.
Today may be tough, and tomorrow may be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be beautiful.

What to Avoid

The worst qualities for an entrepreneur are arrogance, an inability to accurately assess a situation, setting a frantic pace you cannot sustain, and a lack of foresight.
If you don’t understand your competitors, underestimate them, or fail to see them as a threat, you will lose.
Even if a competitor is smaller or weaker than you, treat them as an equal. Likewise, if a competitor is much larger, do not fear them.

On Owning a Business

Starting your own business means giving up a stable income, paid sick leave, and annual bonuses.
On the other hand, it means your income potential is limitless, you will utilize your time more efficiently, and you won’t have to ask anyone else for permission.
If your decisions differ from those of your peers, your life will differ as well — for better or for worse.

image on top: LMA Vietnam / Flickr