The Founder and CEO of Alibaba, Jack Ma was in Kenya where he delivered a keynote speech to entrepreneurs in Kenya and Africa.
As the Chinese investor spoke, many lessons that both Kenyan investors and those in Africa can learn from.
“The next 30 years are very crucial especially for those under 30 years as they are the ones who are never scared to try out new things” ~ Jack Ma.
From Jack Ma’s presentation and appearance, several lessons came out clearly:
i) It is not what you have that matters but what you do with what you have.
ii) Business is not about having enough money and making profits all the time, it is about having great ideas that suits the needs and wants of your customers.
“Great ideas survive anywhere anytime”
iii) Your customers don’t buy products, they buy your trust. Always work on building and sustaining the trust of your customers.
“Trust is like a glass, once broken, mending it is hard.”
iv) No matter how great you are, if you have a lazy, weak, demotivated and defiant team, you will always fail.
v) It is not always how fast you reach the finishing line but how many people you help reach the finishing line.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.”
Dear entrepreneur, what kind of an idea do you have? What kind of people are you associating with? What kind of a team do you have?
