IT biggest liders history

Super cool lieders in IT industry is many now. Most of them we even do not know. Part of them everybody in the world know. 

In todays topic a will look through the road to the history of two of them. One - has in the end become a legend, teacher to all of us. The man who made 21 century the way we now live. Yeah you all know him!! Offcource this is Steve Jobs.

Second is not everibody know him, but he is very entersting becouse of two main things. First - he made possible to bue Chineese in all over the world for very-very cheep price, and now everybody know his online market place, and everybody knows that that is China online market place. So because of him – everybody know that China can do!!! And second – he know nothing about IT technologies. And that makes him greatest lieder in IT industry in my opinion. This is Jack Ma.

Let us start then.

Steven Paul Jobs is an American engineer and entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Apple Inc. He is considered one of the key figures in the computer industry, a man who in many ways determined its development. 

Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955. It can not be said that he was a desired child. Just a week after birth, Steve's parents, American Joan Carol Shible and Syrian Abdulfattah John Jandali abandoned the child and gave him up for adoption. Foster parents were Paul and Clara Jobs from Mountain View, California. They called it Steven Paul Jobs. Clara worked in an accounting firm, and Paul was a mechanic in the company that manufactured laser machines.

As a child, Jobs was a big bully who had every chance of becoming a juvenile criminal. He was expelled from school after the third grade. The transition to another school was a moment in the life of Jobs, thanks to the wonderful teacher who found an approach to him. As a result, he took up his head and began to learn. The approach, of course, was simple: for each task performed, Steve received money from the teacher. A little, but for the fourth grade pupil it is quite enough. In general, Jobs's success was large enough that he even missed the fifth grade, moving immediately to high school.

When Steve Jobs was 12 years old, at a childish whim and not without an early manifestation of teenage impudence, he called William Hewlett, the then president of Hewlett-Packard, on his home phone number. Then Jobs collected an electric current frequency indicator for the school physics classroom, and he needed some details: "My name is Steve Jobs, and I would like to know if you have spare parts that I could use to build a frequency counter." Hewlett chatted with Jobs 20 minutes, agreed to send the necessary details and offered him a summer job in his company, in the walls of which the whole industry of Silicon Valley was born.

It was at work in Hewlett-Packard, Steve Jobs met with a man whose acquaintance in many ways determined his future fate - Stephen Wozniak. He took a job at Hewlett-Packard, leaving boring classes at the University of California, Berkeley. Work in the company was much more interesting to him because of his passion for radio engineering. As it turned out, even in 13 years Wozniak himself collected not the most simple calculator. And at the time of meeting Jobs he was already thinking about the concept of a personal computer, which at that time still did not exist. Despite the different characters, they quickly became friends.

When Steve Jobs was 16 years old, he and Woz met a famous at that time hacker named Captain Crunch. He told them how, with the help of special sounds, whistled from a set of flakes of "Captain Crunch" you can deceive the switching device and make calls all over the world for free. Soon, Wozniak made the first device, called the "Blue Box", which allowed ordinary people to mimic the sounds of the Crunch whistle and make free calls around the world. Jobs took up the sale of goods. Blue boxes were sold at a price of 150 dollars apiece and enjoyed great popularity among students. Interestingly, the cost of such a device was then $ 40. However, special success was not achieved. At first, problems with the police, and then with some hooligan who even threatened Jobs with a gun, brought to nothing the "business of blue boxes".

In 1972, Steve Jobs graduated from high school and entered Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but after the first semester, he dropped out. Steve Jobs explains his decision to drop out of school: "I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my parents' savings went to paying for college tuition. Six months later, I did not see the point. I absolutely did not know what I was going to do with my life, and did not understand how college would help me realize this. I was then terribly frightened, but looking back, I understand that this was one of my best decisions in life". 

After dropping his studies, Jobs concentrated on what was really interesting to him. However, it was now not easy to remain a free student at the university. "Not everything was so romantic," Jobs recalls. - I did not have a room in the hostel, so I had to sleep on the floor in the rooms of friends. I handed the bottles from Cola for five cents a piece to buy me some food and every Sunday night I walked seven miles across the city to eat a regular meal in the Hare Krishna temple once a week ... "

The adventures of Steve Jobs on the campus of the college after the dedication continued for another 18 months, after which in the autumn of 1974 he returned to California. There he met with an old friend and technical genius Stephen Wozniak. On the advice of his friend, Jobs got a job as a technician at Atari, which produced popular video games. Steve Jobs did not have any ambitious plans then. He just wanted to make money to travel to India. After all, his youth fell precisely on the heyday of the hippy movement - with all the consequences that flow from here. Jobs was addicted to light drugs such as marijuana and LSD (it's interesting that even now, leaving this predilection Steve does not regret having used LSD, moreover, he considers this one of the most significant events in his life, which turned his worldview) .

Atari paid for Jobs's trip, however, while he also had to visit Germany, where his tasks included settling problems in the workplace. He coped.

In India, Jobs went not alone, but with his friend Dan Kottke. Only when he arrived in India, Steve traded all his belongings on the battered clothes of a beggar. His goal was to make pilgrimages to India, hoping for the help of ordinary strangers. During the trip, Dan and Steve several times nearly died because of India's severe climate. Communication with the guru did not bring Jobs enlightenment. Nevertheless, the trip to India left an indelible mark in the soul of Jobs. He saw a real poverty, fundamentally different from the one that the hippies held in the silicone valley.

Back in Silicon Valley, Jobs continued to work in Atari. Soon he was assigned the development of the game BreakOut (Atari did at that time not only a game, but a full-fledged slot machine, and all the work fell on Jobs's shoulders). According to the founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell, the company offered Jobs to minimize the number of chips on the board and pay $ 100 for each chip, which he can remove from the scheme. Steve Jobs was not very well versed in the construction of electronic cards, so he suggested that Wozniak split the prize in half if he took up the job.

Atari was pretty surprised when Jobs introduced them a fee, with which 50 chips were removed. Wozniak created such a dense scheme that it was impossible to recreate it in mass production. Then Jobs told Wozniak that Atari paid only $ 700 (and not $ 5000, as it really was), and he got his share of $ 350.

In 1975, Wozniak demonstrated a ready-made PC model to the management of Hewlett-packard. However, the authorities did not show the slightest interest in the initiative of one of their engineers - everyone then imagined computers only as iron cabinets stuffed with electronic components and used in big business or military. About home PCs, no one thought. In Atari Wozniak also did not help - did not see the new business prospects. And then Steve Jobs took the most important decision in his life - he persuaded Steve Wozniak and his colleague from Atari, the draftsman Ronald Wayne, to create his own company and start developing and releasing personal computers. And on April 1, 1976 Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne founded the company Apple Computer Co. in the form of partnership. So the story of Apple began.

As with Hewlett-packard, Apple was established in the garage, which Jobs's father gave to his adopted son and his companions - he even drew a huge wooden machine that was the first "assembly line" in the history of the corporation. For the newly-formed company, starting capital was required, and Steve Jobs sold his minivan, and Wozniak his favorite Hewlett-Packard programmable calculator. In the end, they raised about $ 1,300.

At the request of Jobs, Wayne developed the company's first logo, which, however, was more like a drawing than a logo. It depicted Sir Isaac Newton, on whose head the apple falls. However, subsequently this original logo was greatly simplified.

Soon they received the first major order from a local electronics store - 50 pieces. However, the young company did not have the money to buy parts for assembling such a large number of computers. Then Steve Jobs convinced suppliers of components to provide materials on credit for 30 days.

Having received the details, Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne collected cars in the evenings, and in 10 days they delivered the whole lot to the store. The first computer of the company was called Apple I. Then these computers were just the fees that the buyer had to connect, the keyboard and the monitor. In the store that ordered these machines, it was sold at a price of $ 666.66, because Wozniak liked numbers from the same numbers. But despite this large order, Wayne lost faith in the success of the undertaking and left the company, selling his ten per cent stake to the companions in the starting capital for $ 800. Here's how Wayne himself commented afterwards: "Jobs is a hurricane of energy and purposefulness. I was already too disappointed in life to ride it on this hurricane. "

One way or another, the firm had to develop. And in the autumn of the same year, Wozniak completed work on the prototype Apple II, which became the first mass personal computer in the world. He had a plastic case, a floppy disk reader and support for color graphics.

To ensure successful sales of the computer, Jobs ordered the launch of an advertising campaign and the development of a beautiful and standard computer package, on which the new company logo was clearly visible - (Jobs' favorite fruit). He had to point out that Apple II works with color graphics. Subsequently, Jean-Louis Gace is the ex-president of several structural divisions and the founder of Be, Inc. - said: "About a more suitable logo could not be dreamed: it embodied desire, hope, knowledge, and anarchy ..."

But then no one produced anything like that, the very idea of such a computer was perceived by big businessmen with undisguised skepticism. As a result, it turned out to be very difficult to find financing for the release of the Apple II friends created. Both Hewlett-packard and Atari again refused to finance the unusual project, although they considered it "amusing".

But there were also those who picked up the idea of ​​a computer that was supposed to become accessible to the general public. Well-known financier Don Valentine brought Steve Jobs with the equally famous venture capitalist Armas Cliff "Mike" Markkula. The latter helped young entrepreneurs to draw up a business plan, invested $ 92,000 from their personal savings in the company and secured a $ 250,000 credit line to Bank of America. All this allowed the two Steve "get out of the garage, significantly increase production and expand staff, as well as launch a series of fundamentally new Apple II.

The success of the Apple II was truly grandiose: the novelty was bought up by hundreds and thousands of copies. Recall that this happened at a time when the entire world market of personal computers did not exceed ten thousand units. In 1980, Apple Computer was already a recognized manufacturer of computers. In her state there were several hundred people, the products were exported outside the US.

In 1980, the same week that John Lennon was killed, Apple Computer goes on an IPO. The company's shares were sold out within one hour! Steve Jobs by this time becomes one of the richest Americans. The popularity of Jobs grew with every passing day. A simple young guy without education suddenly became a millionaire. Is not it an American dream?

Personal computers quickly broke into everyday life of the inhabitants of developed countries. For two decades they have firmly taken their place among people, becoming indispensable assistants in production, organizational, educational, communication and other technological and social affairs. Prophesied were the words spoken by Steve Jobs in the early 1980s: "This decade saw the first meeting of the Society and the computer. And for some crazy reason, we were in the right place and at the right time to do everything for the prosperity of this novel." The computer revolution has begun.

In December 1979, Steve Jobs and several other Apple employees received access to the research center of Xerox (XRX) in Palo Alto. There, Jobs first saw the company's experienced development - the computer Alto, which used a graphical interface that allowed the user to set commands by hovering the cursor on a graphic object on the monitor.

As colleagues recall, this invention amazed Jobs, and he immediately began to confidently say that all future computers will use this innovation. And it is not surprising, because it contained three things, through which lies the way to the heart of the consumer. Steve Jobs already knew then that this is simplicity, ease of use and aesthetics. He immediately caught on with the idea of creating such a computer.

Then the company developed several months of a new Lisa computer, named after Jobs's daughter. Starting working on this project, Jobs set the task to make a computer at a price of $ 2000. However, the desire to realize the revolutionary innovation that he saw in Xerox laboratories, questioned the fact that the originally conceived price will remain unchanged. And soon the president of Apple, Michael Scott, removed Steve from the Lisa project and was appointed chairman of the board of directors. The project was headed by another person.

In the same year, Steve, suspended from the Lisa project, turned his attention to a small project, which dealt with a talented engineer Jeff Ruskin. (Before this, Jobs tried several times to cover this project) Raskin's main idea was to create an inexpensive computer, at a cost of about $ 1000. Ruskin called this Macintosh computer in honor of his favorite apple variety McIntosh. The computer had to be a complete device, combining the monitor, keyboard and system unit. Those. The buyer received immediately ready to work computer. (Here it is worth noting that Ruskin did not understand why a computer needs a mouse, and did not plan to use it in a Macintosh).

Jobs urged Michael Scott to appoint him head of the project. And immediately intervened in the development of the Macintosh computer, ordering Ruskin to use in it the Motorola 68000 processor, which was to be used in Lisa. This was done for a reason, Steve Jobs wanted to transfer the Lisa graphical interface to Macintosh. Next, Jobs decided to introduce a mouse into the Macintosh. No wrangling Ruskin had no effect. And realizing that Jobs completely selects his project, he wrote a letter to the company's president, Mike Scott, where he described Steve as an incompetent person who would ruin all his undertakings.

As a result, both Raskin and Jobs were invited to a conversation with the president of the company. After listening to both, Michael Scott still instructed Jobs to bring the Macintosh to mind, and Raskin went on vacation to smooth the situation. In the same year, Apple President Michael Scott himself was dismissed. For a while, Mike Markkula assumed the post of president.

Steve Jobs planned to finish working on a Macintosh computer for 12 months. But the work was delayed, and eventually he decided to instruct third-party firms to develop software for the computer. His choice quickly fell on the young company Microsoft, which was known at that time to create the Basic language for the Apple II computer (and several others).

Steve Jobs went to Redmond, Microsoft's main headquarters. Eventually, both sides came to the conclusion that they were ready to cooperate, and Steve invited Bill Gates and Paul Allen (two Microsoft founders) to come to Cupertino to see the experimental Macintosh model.

The main task of Microsoft was the creation of application software for Macintosh. The most famous program of the time was Microsoft Excel.

At the same time, the first marketing plan for the Macintosh computer appears. He was personally written by Steve Jobs, who had little meaning in this, so the plan was rather conditional. Jobs planned to launch a Macintosh computer in 1982 and sell 500,000 computers a year (the figure was taken from the ceiling). First of all, Steve convinced Mike Markcool that the Macintosh would not compete with Lisa (according to plans, computers had to be launched at about the same time). True, Markkula insisted that the Macintosh should be released a little later than Lisa, namely on October 1, 1982. There was only one problem - the timing was still unrealistic, but Steve Jobs, with his usual perseverance, did not want to hear anything.

At the end of the year, Steve Jobs appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Apple II was named the best computer of the year, but the article in the magazine, basically concerned Jobs. It claimed that Steve could become an excellent king of France. It claimed that Jobs got rich on the work of other people, and he does not understand anything: neither in engineering, nor in programming, design, nor, let alone business. The article cited the statements of many anonymous sources and even Steve Wozniak himself (who, after the accident, left Apple). Jobs was very annoyed with this article and even called Jeff Ruskin to express his indignation. (Jeff, this is the man who before Steve was at the helm of the Macintosh) Jobs began to understand that the success of the Mac will depend a lot for him personally.

Steve at the time bought an apartment in Manhattan, the view from which windows overlooking the Central Park of New York. It was there that Jobs first met with John Scully, president of Pepsi. Steve and John walked long enough in New York, discussing the prospects for Apple and talking about business in general. It was then that Jobs realized that John was the man he wanted to see as President of Apple. John was very good at business, but he did not know much about technology. So, according to Jobs, they could become an excellent tandem. There was only one problem - Scully at that time worked perfectly at Pepsi. In the end, Steve Jobs was able to entice Scully into Apple, and even the famous phrase addressed to Jobs John Scully entered the business history: "Are you going to sell the powdered water for the rest of your life, or are you going to change the world?"

It should be noted that by this time the group of software developers for Macintosh still did not have time, but Steve Jobs without screaming and hysterics could breathe new programmers into the programmers, and make them work the last week almost without sleep. The result was stunning. Everything was ready. Here the principle worked "if you have the right people in the team, then you will succeed." The Macintosh group had the right people.

The presentation of the Macintosh turned out to be phenomenal, the technical revolution, along with the oratorical skill of Steve Jobs forever went down in history.

Soon, John Scully joined the development team Lisa and Macintosh, led by Steve Jobs. The first 100 days of sales of the Macintosh were phenomenal, and then the first serious problems began. The main problem for all users was the lack of software. In addition to the standard programs from Apple at that time under the Macintosh was only an office package from Microsoft. All the other developers could not figure out how to create software with a graphical interface. This was the main reason that slows down computer sales.

Soon the problems with the hardware began. Jobs was opposed to the possibility of McA's expansion, and this was not liked by consumers. One day, an Apple employee, Michael Murray, said: "Steve was doing marketing research, considering himself in the mirror every morning." The situation in Apple was heated. At that time, conflicts began clearly between the Macintosh developer group and the rest of Apple. Jobs, in turn, always belittled the dignity of new models of the Apple II computer, which at that time was the cash cow of Apple.

As a result, a few months after his birthday, Steve Jobs was dismissed from the company, which he himself founded.

After his dismissal, Steve refused the honorary position of a company representative and sold all the shares of Apple that he had at that time. He left only one symbolic action.

Then was Next.

Next company was supposed to develop computers, which will be used primarily in education. Steve Jobs received an investment from Rosa Perot, who invested in Next $ 20 million. Perot received a fairly good share in the company - 16 percent. It should be noted that Jobs did not present Perot any business plans. The investor fully relied on Steve's devilish charm.

Next computers used the revolutionary NextStep operating system, which was built taking into account the principles of object-oriented programming, which will later become ubiquitous. Nevertheless, Jobs can not achieve success with Next, but, on the contrary, will squander a lot of money.

It should be noted that Next computers were used by a number of creative personalities in their work. For example, they created such game hits from ID Software, like Doom and Quake. In the late 80's, Steve Jobs tried to save Next by signing a contract with Diney, but nothing happened, Disney continued to work with Apple.

At that time, it seemed that luck had left Jobs and he would soon be bankrupt. But there was one "but". Steve was very good at organizing a small group of talented people to create something meaningful. This is what he managed with PIXAR, which gave the world computer animation.

In 1985, Jobs bought from George Lucas (director of "Star Wars") Pixar. It should be noted that the initial price of Pixar, which was installed by Lucas, was 30 million dollars. Jobs waited for the right time, when Lucas urgently needed money, but there were no buyers, and after long negotiations he received the company at a price of 10 million. However, with this, Steve promised that Lucas will be able to use for free all the achievements of Pixar in their films. At that time, Pixar had a Pixar Image Computer at its disposal, which cost a lot of money and was sold poorly enough. Jobs began to look for a market for him. At the same time, Pixar continued to develop software for animation, and to conduct some experiments in creating its own animation.

The key moment in the history of Pixar was the hire of Disney artist John Lasseter, who would later take the studio to new heights. Originally, John was hired to create short animations that would show the capabilities of Pixar software and hardware. Pixar's success began with short films "Andre and Wally B" and "Luxo, Jr.".

A turning point came when Jobs allocated money for the short film "Tin Toy", which will later receive an Oscar. Pixar's first animated film "Toy Story" came out at Christmas 1995 and its success was stunning.

The situation around Apple was becoming more complicated. It got to the point that at the end of 1996 Bill Gates constantly called the head of Apple Computer Gil Amelio, persuading him to install the Windows NT operating system on Macintosh computers.

In the end, after long negotiations, Apple acquires Next Steve Jobs for $ 377 million and 1.5 million shares. The main thing that Apple needed was the NextStep operating system and a group of people developing it (more than 300 people). Apple got it all, and Steve Jobs was appointed as an adviser to Gil Amelio.

However, no special changes occurred. The board of directors included all the same people, and Apple's losses increased.

Jobs quickly took control of himself. He closed the unprofitable Newton project, which for many years had been tearing at Apple (it was the first PDA in history, but a failure, as it was just ahead of time). At this point Apple's board of directors includes an old friend of Steve Jobs and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. This became a significant support for Steve.

At the same time, for the first time appears the famous Apple advertising "Think Different", which remains the credo of the company and to date.

After the success of the iMac computer (computer and monitor in one bottle), Apple introduced a new line of iBook laptops. At the same time, Apple received the rights to the program SoundJam MP from the company C & C. Subsequently, this program will become known as iTunes and will begin the popularity of iPods.

After the release of iTunes, Apple drew attention to the market of mp3 players. Steve Jobs found the company PortalPlayer and after a series of negotiations instructed her to develop a player for Apple (the hardware part, software made by Apple itself). So there was an iPod. During the development of Jobs presented a lot of complaints to the staff of Portal Player, which of course played only in the hands of consumers who received the best (at that time) mp3 player.

At the same time, a new operating system was introduced Mac OS X, which marked the beginning of the entire series of operating systems OS X, which gave a second life to Macintosh computers.

The further history is known. IPod has become the most popular player of our time. Macintosh computers are gaining popularity more and more, and then Apple even released its mobile phone called iPhone, which became a real bomb that absorbed all the best features of the products of the "fruit" company and changed the world once and for all.

New ideas have no limits. It all depends on your imagination. The world is constantly changing. It's time to start thinking in a new way. If you are connected with a growing industry, think about ways that give more result, more pleasant customers, easier work with them. If you are involved with a dying industry - quickly drop it and change it before you lose your job. And remember that procrastination is inappropriate here. Start innovating now!

Huge person – huge biography!!! Believe me, I cut a lot of staff when writing this article!!!

Well…. About Newton I was writing in the first blog! So now we have a continue part)))) And – really – never knew that Excel was first designed for Mac.

The main knowledge Jobs gave us – is not to be afraid of your dream. Just do it and someday – you will help the world become a little bit better place to live!

Ah! Let us go to the next business philosopher!!! Jack Ma.

For users from around the world, Alibaba Group services are no longer a novelty. Some do business on goods ordered from there, others say negative about them. Against the background of the phenomenal success of the conglomerate, the name of its founder and head Jack Ma constantly flashes in the news.

The entrepreneur himself recently called the Alibaba creation his main mistake, and later noted that in the next life he would definitely not start doing business. The reason for such words was the constant employment of the entrepreneur. However, let Ma and departed from the operational government, he continues to develop his company and is not going to stop there.

Ma Yun, later known as Jack Ma, was born in Hangzhou in 1964. His parents were modest musicians and, it would seem, the boy had no particular prospects. Sometimes there is information that parents were also political dissidents, but it is not officially confirmed. Besides Ma, there were two other children in the family: his older brother and younger sister.

Already at an early age, Yun was single-minded and unlike other children. At the age of 12, the future entrepreneur decided that he needed to learn English well, and chose for this not the easiest, but extraordinary and effective way. Every morning for eight years, Yun cycled to the hotel in 40 minutes drive from home to communicate with foreigners. The weather and other circumstances did not affect his plans. At the same time he listened to the radio broadcasts in English and did everything to quickly achieve his goal.

Having improved his English, Ma began to conduct free guided tours for tourist groups. By the way, it was one of the tourists who called the guide Jack, and this name entrenched the entrepreneur for life. Thanks to communication with foreigners, the young man got a broader idea of the world.

In 1979, 15-year-old Ma met with an Australian family who came to China. For several days he played with the children in frisbee, and after their departure they began to correspond. In 1985, the Australians invited Ma to visit, and this trip changed his views. According to the entrepreneur, he was taught that China is the richest and happiest country, but, being abroad, he realized that everything is not as he imagined, and this changed his thinking.

With study from the future entrepreneur, the business did not stick. Ma himself told me that he passed the basic test in junior school only from the third time. For examinations in high school, it took four attempts. In addition, Ma was not popular with classmates: they constantly mocked him, and it ended in fights. Despite the small growth and delicate physique, the teenager could stand up for himself and beat even seemingly superior rivals.

Upon admission to the university, Ma Yun passed the math exam for 1 out of 120 possible points, but this did not change his plans. The young man continued to make attempts and from the third time still went to study for an English teacher. He graduated from the Pedagogical University in Hangzhou in 1988. Sam Ma says that this institution was considered the worst in his city. After completing his studies, he went to this university to work, for which he received about $ 12 a month. He liked teaching, and he quickly became one of the best employees in the university.

Ma has long dreamed of creating her own business and even told classmates that someday she would have breakfast in one country and dinner in another. In addition, soon after graduation, Ma married, and the teaching salary would not be enough to support the family.

n 1992, the future entrepreneur began to look for a better job. Attempts ended in much the same way as school exams: Ma passed all sorts of interviews, but he was denied everywhere. He was not recruited even in KFC - and this despite the fact that the remaining 23 candidates were interviewed. In 2001, Jack Ma reported that he was not admitted to Harvard 10 times (at what stage of his life he tried to get there, it is unclear).

In general, looking at the young entrepreneur, hardly anyone would have believed that before him the future billionaire and one of the richest people in Asia. Ma was more like a loser without any special prospects.

To provide for the family, Ma decided to create a small business in which he used his main skill - knowledge of English. He organized a translation agency and began to earn a little.

The beginning of success was laid in 1995, and helped Jack all the same knowledge of English: he was included in the delegation of one of the Chinese companies that went to the US. According to another version, it was an official government delegation on trade issues.

In any case, in the US, Ma met the Internet and realized how far China is from him. According to the most popular version, he drove into the search engine the word "beer", but the Chinese brands in the search results did not find. The next attempt was the word "China", but it did not succeed either. So Ma realized that the Chinese Internet simply does not exist and his country is still separated from the rest of the world. It was a great opportunity to change something, but Ma did not understand anything on the Internet and programming.

According to the widespread version, Ma, having returned to his homeland, was so obsessed with a new idea that he gathered friends and set out to show them what the Internet is. The download of one page took about three hours, but the goal was achieved: what Yun told so much about was true.

Prove the existence of the Internet Ma was much easier than running an Internet business in your country. The first project, according to some sources, the creator of Alibaba Group conceived, while still in the US. Taking a loan astronomical then the amount of $ 2000, he created the site China Pages - a directory in which Chinese organizations were gathered.

There was no such thing in the Internet that was starting in China at that time, but the successes of the first undertaking of Ma are estimated in different ways. Some sources note the success, because the entrepreneur was able to repay the debt, and the proceeds reached $ 800,000. Others, on the contrary, tend to believe that the project developed slowly and did not bring much success.

It should be noted that in 1995 the first project of Elona Mask was launched - and these were the same "yellow pages". That's just Mask worked in the US, and therefore eventually sold the company for $ 307 million and earned about $ 20 million.

In the meantime, Jack Ma competed with China Telecom, a state-owned company and a monopolist in the provision of carrier services. Apparently, Jack successfully managed to resist her. After a while, the leadership of China Telecom went on negotiations, proposed the creation of a joint company and invested $ 185 thousand in the business. However, on the board of directors, China Telecom received five seats against the two remaining from Ma. He had to leave the company and think about a new business. There are also reports that the authorities nevertheless pressed the businessman, so he agreed to an investment and lost the company.

There is information that in the late 1990s, even before the launch of Alibaba, the entrepreneur, along with his programmers, worked for the government-mostly creating and running websites for them. After the development of the sites, from 1998 to 1999, Ma worked in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of the PRC. There is information that he headed the department of international electronic commerce.

In the same period, the future creator of Alibaba became acquainted with the founder of Yahoo Jerry Yang. This meeting will play an important role in the history of both companies. By the way, Young is extremely positive about Ma and praises his entrepreneurial abilities.

For a long time to stay out of business, Jack Ma could not: he knew that in China, a lot of goods are made much cheaper than analogues in other countries, and thought about creating an Internet site for small and medium merchants. The project promised to become profitable, but investment was needed.

Ma compiled a business plan and went to Silicon Valley, hoping that his ideas would be accepted sooner. Immediately investment was not possible: the business plan looked risky and did not impress potential investors. There is a suggestion that since then, Jack Ma has refused to create business plans at all.

Back in China, the entrepreneur went the other way: he collected friends (according to various sources, at the meeting there were about 17 people) and told them about his idea. Together they raised $ 60,000 (remmember this count!!!), which was enough to create the company. There is a version that the meeting participants were 23, but only 17 of them supported the entrepreneur. Each of these first employees received a stake in the company.

The name Alibaba was chosen because it is associated with a tale of treasures locked behind a door with the help of a magic word. Ma's biographers note that the entrepreneur has drawn a parallel with his business, which will open a door for small companies to a cave with treasures. In addition, Alibaba, according to Jack Ma, is a great guy and entrepreneur. There are stories that the name of the company Jack Ma invented in a coffee shop in San Francisco and simply asked passers-by before approving it definitively.

The main feature of the new site was the refusal to copy Western projects. The Chinese entrepreneur understood that investors needed a clear model and a corresponding business plan, but chose a different path and from the very beginning focused on customers.

The first time the site was created was not commercially successful and the company suffered losses. At the office there was no money, and the future multi-billion dollar conglomerate was located in the apartment of Jack Ma.

Some researchers argue that it is impossible to launch a company connected with online commerce in China without state intervention. Indirect participation of the authorities in the establishment of Alibaba is confirmed by the fact that Jack Ma previously headed the relevant department in the ministry.

In 1999, the company received investments from Goldman Sachs, which confirms that the case was worthwhile, even if it was based on connections. In 2000, Softbank also invested in the start-up. The total amount of the initial investment was $ 25 million. Most likely, if the government interfered in the business, it simply issued the company a proper permit. Sam Ma, by the way, not once pointed out that an entrepreneur should not get involved in politics.

Even after receiving investments, the company did not succeed. According to Ma, out of 18 people in the team, only three knew about programming, and the rest, including Jack himself, were afraid of technology. Jack Ma was at first not only the executive director of the company, but also a tester. Probably, this in many ways predetermined its success: Ma rejected developments in which he could not figure out, which meant that 80% of the population would not have coped with them either.

By the way, when discussing projects on the boards of directors of Alibaba, Ma acts quite differently. If 90% agree with the idea, then the entrepreneur refuses it. The logic is simple: if everything is clear to all, then the niche is likely to be occupied.

Already in the early 2000s, Ma, whose company still suffered losses, sharply became interesting to the press. In 2000, he was on the cover of Forbes, becoming the first Chinese entrepreneur to achieve this success.

Preparing for large-scale integration, the entrepreneur opened an office in Silicon Valley, where it was supposed to work on the English version of the site. With this decision, Ma hurried, because the company still did not earn. By 2001, the US office had been closed and staff members had been dismissed.

Ma rethought his approaches, hired an operations director, and also found a way to help out additional money. The entrepreneur realized that most of the merchants on his site are willing to pay extra to be higher in the list of offered goods. Things began to improve. The next step was the so-called road show, which was supposed to attract new merchants to the site from all over China.

In 2002, the company intensified its activity in the US market and finally became profitable. Ma himself talks about this success: in 2002, the company had money for a maximum of 18 months of existence. The company earned little, despite a more or less stable influx of users.

In an attempt to find a way out of the situation, Jack Ma again bet on the US, allowing his platform to connect sellers from China and customers from the States. The year ended with a net profit of $ 1 - this result may seem ridiculous, but for a losing company it meant an exit into self-sufficiency. There is a version that it became possible due to the introduction of the commission from the sellers.

To celebrate the success, the head of the company gave out balloonists with serpentine and organized a party. Speaking about Alibaba Group, it is necessary to note the unique situation in the company. For example, a talent show is held annually among employees, and in the process of creating Taobao employees have chosen nicknames for the fictional Chinese masters of kung fu from Jin Yong's books - and it seems that they did not refuse from them. During the fight against eBay, an American conglomerate was officially declared war, and for one day all employees changed into military uniform.

Jack Ma himself said that to promote the company you need to do crazy things and attract attention. He showed the rest of the example: at the celebration of the tenth anniversary, Alibaba dressed like a punk rocker, put on a wig and sang a song to the company's employees.

Among the enemies that Jack Ma managed to make himself, not only Yahoo !, but also entrepreneurs from the PRC. One of the most stubborn is Robin Lee, the founder and head of the Baidu search engine. Lee was annoyed with Ma's decision that users of his sites better use internal search, and the ensuing blocking of Baidu users from Taobao and T-Mall in 2009. Robin Lee tried to create his own platform for Internet commerce, but without much success.

In 2014, the IPO of Alibaba Group finally passed: the company raised $ 21.8 billion on an exchange valuation of $ 241 billion. Ma himself, who owned about 8.9% of the company's shares, earned $ 867 million. Of course, the IPO of the Chinese giant was recognized as the largest in the world stories.

A few months earlier, Ma established a charity fund with a registered capital of $ 4 billion plus 2% of Alibaba Group. The Foundation is engaged in supporting health, education and environmental protection.

In addition, since 2010, 0.3% of the annual revenue of Alibaba Group is sent to the fund for the protection of nature. In addition, Ma is the chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Nature of China and actively donates money for the preservation of the environment. The Chinese businessman is not limited to his country: in 2015 he purchased part of the Adirondack park in New York with the aim of creating a nature reserve there and, possibly, building a villa for himself.

Unlike many other billionaires, Jack Ma is practically devoid of pathos and egocentrism. From childhood, he was used to working hard to achieve success. He has been doing this ever since the day he went to study English at the Hangzhou Hotel. According to Ma, it is important to always be attentive, hardworking and ambitious. Ability to preserve these traits is an important element for achieving further success.

According to Ma, the company should focus not on money, but on a mission. Ma believes that there are two types of entrepreneurs: some want to earn faster, and others set themselves global goals and objectives. The latter often become much more successful and have the opportunity to truly influence the world.

As can be seen from the biography, Ma never gives up. He could not go to Harvard, but tried for ten times. At first he could not find an investor, but he ran to the whole Valley and, despite the failure, eventually achieved the goal.

Jack Ma does not seem to like the notion of "corporate culture" and negatively speaks about both Western and Eastern variations. According to the entrepreneur, it hurts rather than benefits, and forces employees to concentrate not on those things. For Ma, a startup is more preferable, when everyone in the team actively interacts with each other and is not constrained by any framework.

Gaps in the technical knowledge of Jack Ma entered the legends: a businessman does not have a clue about the features of the Internet, writing code, and practically does not understand the technologies his company uses, and does not even try to figure it out. The entrepreneur himself usually notes that for this he has a team of professionals. In Ma's opinion, if the head of the company understands technological nuances better than employees, then he simply typed the team incorrectly.

The main force of Jack Ma is in the ability to understand his clients. For each innovation, it fits like a regular user, and therefore knows whether users will accept it or if something needs to be changed.

The success of Ma was greatly influenced by his wife, who is called Zhang Ing. They met while still students and married after graduating from the Pedagogical University. Then both worked as teachers, and when Jack started his business, his wife supported him and worked for a while in the company.

One of Ing's functions was and still is to motivate her husband for great achievements: she tells that she appreciated the character of Ma and his potential achievements even at the beginning of the conversation. Until 2002, Ing worked in Alibaba, and later, at the request of the spouse, she began to deal exclusively with children.

There will be no conclusions if somebody is waiting for them! I do not really think that success formula is even exist. May be yes, may be no. All of the IT leaders .. a what the hell just leaders made their successful live because if many reasons. Sometimes they can be same between some leaders, sometimes not.

But, you can agree with me, is just interesting to know their history sometimes!