But isn't that how all great empires are built? No one starts out knowing how one plus one equals two.

One thing highly successful people do is dream big, start small no matter the lack of resources, and then keep improving over time.

Jack Ma's experience growing up had a tremendous impact on his life and career.

He grew up as a poor Chinese boy who had a hard time understanding maths. Because of this, he had to write the pre–college examination severally, but his persistence later won. It's not a surprise that Jack Ma d...

When you venture into a business that is not common, you will have difficulty making progress. This is because people can seldom tell the value of your product or service. The bottom line is, people will never do business with you when they can't see how it will positively affect their lives.

We learn from Jack Ma about dreams is:

1. You can never go beyond them. If you dream small, you will indefinitely put in small effort and that will lead to small achievements. But big dreams will inspire you to break limits.
2. Start where you are, with the e...

1. The e–commerce edge: Alibaba have several websites, but the most popular ones used for e–commerce are Taobao (marketplace) and Tmall (curated market).
2. The logistics edge: Nothing makes e–commerce more reliable than a quick and efficient delivery syst...

In the beginning, Alibaba was B2B platform, but after a while, the business stopped bringing much profit. On the basis of that and a few other reasons, Jack Ma decided it was time to branch into consumer e-commerce.

Jack Ma's strategies:

1. The element of surprise a...