Jack Ma’s Top Tips For African Entrepreneurs

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Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

“I still don’t know how a computer works.” Jack Ma may not have taken a computer training course, but this did not stop him from creating China’s largest e-commerce company — Alibaba.com. He is currently on his maiden trip to Africa, and his first stop is Kenya where he held a public lecture at the University of Nairobi. He would like Africans to know that we have nothing to lose because we have passion and ideas, and his lecture was packed with a whole lot of important messages and life tips, that you must read below:

1. Always keep learning

In life, you must strive to be the best learner, find people who are smarter than you and learn to work with them. As an entrepreneur, it’s is always important to keep learning, especially from people. Jack Ma hires people smarter than him in his company and people who can do better than expected. This is what helps businesses grow. He also advises entrepreneurs to be like teachers in your company, and pass on to your employees the knowledge you have. It is important to train, discipline and support your employees, which is why he also calls himself the “Chief Education Officer” of Alibaba.

Photo: Steven Maina

2. The 3 important Q’s — to be successful, not fail and be respected

If you want to be successful, you must have a high EQ — or high emotional intelligence. A person with high EQ knows how to work with people, understand and support people. “Hire women too,” Jack Ma insists, “Women have a higher EQ than men and they take care of people.” This is also why Alibaba has at least 34% of women in leadership roles. It is important to note that even successful people fail, so if you do not want to fail, you must have a high IQ. With a high IQ, you have the knowledge, and you know to keep pursuing more knowledge so that you can protect your business and your people. If you want respect, you must have a high LQ — you know how to care and love for others.

3. Get used to failure

Failure is a part of life, but the key is how to overcome failure or rejection. When you read too many successful stories, you may go crazy thinking that you too can become successful. Maybe, you could, but for a short while. Read more stories about failure and you’ll learn how to survive failure. Jack Ma shares his failure stories with his employees so that they can discuss and it that way he can avoid repeating the same thing over-and-over.

4. Recognize problems and seek opportunities there

“Opportunity exists in a place where people complain,” Jack Ma explained to entrepreneurs that you must solve a problem for your business to survive. “I am constantly looking into the future to see what problems my people might have, and if I start to fix it now, my business can be successful in a few years.”

In case you might not remember the above tips, or if you just scrolled to the end of this article, at least remember this: Your customer comes first, your employees second and your shareholders third.

Photo: Steven Maina

Originally published at onmogul.com.

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