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Community question Business & self-employment From 🇪🇹 Ethiopia 21 Jun 2026

How did a man rejected by KFC and Harvard ten times go on to build Alibaba into one of the largest companies in the world?

Asked by adezo24

What is the real story behind Jack Ma's journey from repeated failure to founding Alibaba? How did a trip to the United States in 1995, where he used the internet for the first time, plant the idea that eventually became Alibaba? What happened in that legendary 1999 apartment meeting in Hangzhou where he pitched his vision to 17 friends, and how did the company grow from there? How did Masayoshi Son of SoftBank decide to invest 20 million dollars in Alibaba after just a six minute meeting, and what did that bet turn into? What business philosophy and leadership principles did Jack Ma build into Alibaba's culture that made it different from other major tech companies, including his famous view that customers come first, employees second, and shareholders third? And what can an ordinary person building something from nothing actually learn from Jack Ma's persistence through repeated rejection before finding the idea that changed his life?

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