Successful People are Refined by failures, NOT Confined or Defined

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Met a techie friend two days ago (on the day this was written) at a conference and a brief chat with him further confirmed to me that success is simply a failure you learnt from, without giving up!

Suffice to put, one of my biggest inspiration, Jack Ma's story is also that of 'failing forward till you succeed'. Fresh off the biggest IPO in history, Alibaba founder and chairman, Jack Ma is now the richest person in China, with an estimated worth of $25 billion from his 7.8% stake in Alibaba and a nearly 50% stake in payment processing service, Alipay.

He grew up poor in communist China, but in 1972, after the then United States president, Richard Nixon, visited Ma's hometown, Hangzhou, it became a tourist 'mecca'; and as a teenager with a keen vision, Ma started waking up early to visit the city's main hotel, offering visitors tours of the city in exchange for English lessons which helped him in getting a High school education.

Without money or connections, Ma still applied to go to college but failed the entrance exam twice before finally passing on the third try, and went on to attend Hangzhou Teacher's Institute. He graduated in 1988 and started applying to as many jobs as he could but was rejected from dozens of jobs, including at KFC, before being hired as a local English teacher on a meagre salary.

Ma eventually started an English translation business and made a trip to USA in 1995 to help a Chinese firm recover a payment. With no experience with computers or coding, he got captivated by the internet when he used it for the first time during this trip. His first online search was "beer," but he was surprised to find that no Chinese beers turned up in the results. It was then that he decided to found an internet company to bridge this gap in China. He however failed on his first two but four years later he gathered 17 friends in his apartment and convinced them to invest in him and his vision for an online marketplace he called "Alibaba" which grew to become a global success that attracted investment from the likes of Goldman Sachs and Yahoo.

Behind every success are many failures that refined the involved people, instead of defining or confining them.

So, this new week, I dare you to revisit that 'failed' dream and idea or take on that 'risky' project, job, idea, or venture. Like failure, it is part of the Success journey.

Happy new week.
You are unstoppable!
@DrOsaz

By: Deji Osasona

Welcome to the Blog. I love Positivity. I love sharing Positivity. I encourage You to always be Positive. Positivity pays. It's what we all need to achieve both personal and cooperate Success and Fulfillment. Develop a Positive Mindset. Build Positive Relationships. Have an open mind to Learn and Improve. Always seek to grow and be the best available Version of Yourself. Always Believe that You CAN!

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