Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairperson of China's Alibaba Group, visited NTU on March 3 in order to share with the young people of Taiwan the story of how he turned his dreams into a successful business. Ma, who rose from humble beginnings to become an Internet mogul and the wealthiest person in China, spoke at NTU at the joint invitation of the NTU Triangle Alliance and the member universities' student associations. Besides NTU, the Alliance includes National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.

Here we share a sampling of the highlights from Jack Ma's speech.

Language is culture

First, I believe that my English has helped me profoundly. The greatest benefit has not been the language itself, but the ability to understand Western thought. In the process of learning English, we are learning not just a language, but the culture as well as the understanding of another country and part of the world.

Education as a form of transcendence

Second, having served as a teacher has been of great help to me. All teachers hope that their students will transcend them. I have incorporated this ideology in running my business, providing an environment where my personnel are able to surpass and outperform me for the betterment of the corporation.

Wealth and failure

My third experience is that the supreme wealth of your life is the accumulation of all of your experiences of failure. I have experienced many unfortunate events and have come to the realization that only by repeated failure can one achieve great success. Most importantly, one should have the ability to endure failure.

The spirit of optimism

Having enjoyed the fortune of knowing and interacting with businesspeople from around the world, I have discovered that successful people share one characteristic in common―the attitude of optimism.

Understanding oneself

At the same time, I have also found that among those who have failed, chances are most of them believe their failure was due to someone else's mistake. Rather than just studying past success stories, people who wish to start a business should focus on learning from others' experiences of failure. This is because success is difficult to reproduce, but examples of failure are all quite similar. As a businessperson, one must know which dead ends not to pursue.

The future is now!

Now more than ever before, the world is experiencing far-reaching and constant change. Change can be seen not only in technology, but also in thought and ideas. While many people feel intimidated by change, I encourage everyone to take on the challenge as an opportunity for success, and to ride the tide of change starting now!