Once rejected by Kentucky Fried Chicken and dozens of other employers, Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) founder Jack Ma has risen to become wealthier than the fast-food giant's parent company, Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM).
Early Failures That Shaped a Billionaire
Ma, born in 1964 in Hangzhou, China, faced repeated rejection early in life.
After college, he applied to roughly 30 jobs in his hometown—and was turned down for every single one.
During a 2017 speech at the University of Nairobi, Ma recalled that at KFC, there were 24 applicants, 23 were hired—only he was not.
A similar pattern followed when he tried to become a police officer, where four of five applicants were accepted except for him. Even a hotel job went to his cousin, whose score was lower. Harvard rejected him ten times.
These rejections were painful, but they taught him an essential lesson: "If you can not get used to failure — just like a boxer — if you can't get used to [being] hit, how can you win?"
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Jack Ma's Early Academic Struggles
Ma struggled academically from an early age, nearly failing to gain admission to middle school. He repeatedly failed key exams, including a primary school test twice, the middle school entrance exam three times and the college entrance exam twice.
His performance on the college entrance exam was particularly poor, scoring in the bottom 1%, despite having ample time to prepare. Even now, Ma finds mathematics challenging, a surprising hurdle for the co-founder of a major tech company.
“I flunked my exam for university two times before I was accepted by what was considered my city's worst university, Hangzhou Teachers University,” he previously said.
From Translator To Tech Pioneer
Ma's proficiency in English, self-taught through guided tours and Voice of America broadcasts, helped him land a part-time interpreter job in 1995.
During a visit to Seattle, he discovered the internet and created his first web page, receiving immediate responses from businesses.
Returning to China, he founded China Pages, helping small companies establish websites and later worked a government job where he met Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang.
Building Alibaba Against All Odds
In 1999, Ma launched Alibaba.com with $60,000 from 18 co-founders. Alibaba eventually expanded to Taobao for consumer retail and Alipay for online payments, dominating China's e-commerce market.
A key partnership with Yahoo involved selling a 40% stake for $1 billion, but regulatory hurdles led Ma to spin off Alipay. After negotiations, he paid Yahoo $7.1 billion for its 20% stake, solidifying Alibaba's independence.
However, even after founding Alibaba, Ma faced numerous setbacks. The company did not turn a profit during its first three years and early overexpansion nearly led to collapse when the dot-com bubble burst. At one point, Alibaba was just 18 months away from bankruptcy.
Ma later referred to the company as "1,001 mistakes."
A Billionaire Above Yum! Brands
Alibaba went public in 2014 in the largest IPO in history at the time and Ma stepped down as CEO in 2013 and chairman in 2019.
Today, Ma's net worth sits at $44.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, surpassing Yum! Brands' $42.28 billion market value, which proves that persistence and resilience can outweigh early setbacks.
He previously also spoke about never giving up.
“I never give up. I think there is one thing I learned. Why should you have a chance to be successful? Everybody should get used to failing, but not being accepted by other people. Why should other people help you? You should earn the right to be helped. So, the thing I learned is that you shouldn’t give up.”
Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings show that although Alibaba's short-term price trend has slowed, the company continues to demonstrate strong growth potential in the medium and long term. Click here to see how it stacks up against its peers.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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