Alibaba Success Story

Ambition, determination, hard work and longer hours, - these are just a few requirements to reach the top of the success ladder. A former English teacher in Hangzhou China, Jack Ma, created Alibaba from scratch. Now, Alibaba is considered to be the biggest internet commerce company in the world. With Alibaba's meteoric rise and its record-breaking IPO, everyone is keenly interested in the founders secret to success.

Bloomberg was able to get their hands on a 1999-speech of Jack Ma. In his speech, he discussed his actions plans for the next 5 to 10 years. Intent on seeing a massive and lucrative future for Alibaba, he laid down the specifics of what it would take to achieve that goal. Business Insider also points out some of the important things he said.

1. Alibaba should be positioned as a global website. It is not enough to think domestic. Alibaba should be international. Ma said, "Our competitors are not in China but in Silicon Valley.

2. Jack Ma believes in the essence of hardwork. He believes that longer working

working hours give companies an edge. He said, "If we go to work at 8 am and go home at 5 pm; this is not a high-tech company and Alibaba will never be successful. If we have that 8-5 spirit, then we should just go and do something else."

3. Ma believes that Chinese brains are as good a American brains. They key is to have good team effort to beat the American rivals. An innovative spirit is also important.

4. He also believes in great timing and patience. At first, he wanted Alibaba to go public in 2002, but he was afraid of the internet bubble. He felt that the bubble would like burst soon. So he told his team not to worry. Ma said, "The dream of the internet won't burst. We will have to pay a painful price in the next three to five years. It is the only way we an succeed."