Quotes from Jack Ma

You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.

No matter how successful you are in your career, you must always remember that we are here to live. If you keep yourself busy working, you will surely regret it.

China is still the fastest growing economy in the world, but we need to learn how to use money in a better way, and it's about quality, not quantity.

I call Alibaba '1,001 mistakes.' We expanded too fast, and then in the dot-com bubble, we had to have layoffs. By 2002, we had only enough cash to survive for 18 months. We had a lot of free members using our site, and we didn't know how we'd make money. So we developed a product for China exporters to meet U.S. buyers online. This model saved us.

Our philosophy is, using internet technology, we can make every company become Amazon.

Alibaba spends money on improving the products and services, not on kickbacks. That's a good thing. It's called a value system, and because of that, we get more and more small- to medium-sized companies to support us in China.

Trade is a communication of cultures and values.

I believe in two principles: Your attitude is more important than your capabilities. Similarly, your decision is more important than your capabilities!

The customer is number one, the employee is number two and the shareholder is number three. If the customer is happy, the business is happy, and the shareholders are happy.

The most unreliable thing in this world is human relationships.

As a company, we have to be very transparent. We are in a business very related to finance, and I want this company to last long, and I want this company to be audited by everyone.

If you've never tried, how will you ever know if there's any chance?

The very important thing you should have is patience.

I want to stress the importance of being fair to our readers. You should not impose your own view and prejudice on the readers and try to lead them to a conclusion. As a reader, I understand what a fair report is.

If you don't give up, you still have a chance.

The lessons I learned from the dark days at Alibaba are that you've got to make your team have value, innovation, and vision. Also, if you don't give up, you still have a chance. And, when you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.

My vision is to build an e-commerce ecosystem that allows consumers and businesses to do all aspects of business online.

Global vision, local win.

Success and profitability are outcomes of focusing on customers and employees, not objectives.

Forget about your competitors, just focus on your customers.

The very important thing you should have is patience.

I know nothing about technology.

Giving up is the greatest failure.