马云在新加坡APEC峰会上的精彩英语演讲

　　Thank you.after there days,you know, in house meetings and also fly all the way here, i can't feel quite well today.but when i see the entrepreneurs, when i came to the sms, I always feel excited, cause when I join the asemis conference, i see from the eyes the dream,the passion,the hope.when i jion the fortran 500 conference,i am not see those, i see the numbers,i see the revenues,i see the KPIs,i see the bloody competition.but among some issues, you see ,i have a dream,i want do something,and that happens all the time, and that make me excited all the time. and today, I think last year everybody say"woo, the economic in trouble and we are all dead and what we gonna do ".and today, everybody seems to be happy to say "economy is come back". is it a really economy comeback?I don't think so.the money go to big commpanies, the money go to infrastructure,the money goes back to stock market, seems nobody learn from that. how can the economic comeback, if the asms is not comeback? how can the economic comeback, if the dreams not comeback, the hopes not come back. i see one thing that two days ago at a dinner with my singapore friends,they said singapore government is encouraging to have more babies, it's because you know people are ageing and not enough kids. and i think we every economy every nation needs insant package to have more samll_mediumsize commpany to have more hopes. because every big company comes from small buisness. if without this hope, without this kind of insants to have more babies, we gonna die. why i always feel excited, I have eight babies. in the past fifth years, i build up eight companys. seven of them are well healthy, one of them i sold it. and i keep babies, when i am looking at babies, alibaba, taobao, taobaopay and the company would i have that ali cloud, we'd just have a new baby two month ago.i always feel excited because you see the hope you know this baby gonna to change me,this baby is gonna to change the whole world. that's the that i always feel excited.
　　And if you want to be happy, have more babies. if you are a government and want your economy to be good, have more asmis. these are dreams, these are the hopes, these are the future. so this is what we all want to say, but enough. we have been crying ,saying "please give us support". but all the asms ask ourself one question, we are not crying babys, we believe we are tomorrow's google. we beleive we are tomorrow's ebay,Yotube and UPS. if we beleive we are, we can be, if you do not beleive, you never be. we heard a lot of governments say "we give you , o, let me know what we gonna do, let me know how we can help the asmis". we heard a lot of banks say " we are giveing loan to asmis". i heard some banks ,you know one of the bank president "we give like two hundred billion dollars to asmis", i said "what's the size of the loan you give","twenty million dollar". hwo can you say twenty million dollars. the research i got from alibaba group, alibaba status,87% of the asmis what they need is the found is below sixty thousand us dollars. they are giveing loans two hundred million dollars to some big companys, they are not the asmis, they are not the hopes. but i think we all asmis see that nobody can help you. my eight companys, i would say "nobody help us", only we can help ourselves. don't rely on government, don't rely on banks, forget about that, rely on your friends, rely on relatives, relay on the small dreams and always keep that in your head, cause i have trying very hard to get loans from banks, always trouble. in the past ten years, i didn't even borrow one cent from banks, my kids grow up. I do not know why, and banks always say "well, because I do not have enough infomation from the asmis." tell me, any fortune 500 any big bank CEOs or presidents go to see as go to see asmis, No, they go to the CEO summit. how could you get information if you do not go there listen to them. talk to them, share experence with them, to see what they need is only fifty thousand dollars instead of twenty million dollars? so atend to our dicussion yesterday, we say, banks are banks, they have to control the risk. right, so government and banks, let's think about somethig new, new financial instructure that can really help those millions of hopes of small companys that need fifty thousand us dollars. what is the right instructure, what is the right organization to support them. that is the thing we should think about.
　　So the other thing I want to share here is always I beleive that small is beautiful. and this financial crisis , it give a lot of disaster, it's a disaster to big companies. this war is in 21 century, I think in last century, it is big is better. you have a big of, factory, big amount, you know, every thing is big, every thing is good. this century, in 21 century, I always beleive small is beautiful. because it is not how fast your machine is, it is not how many equipment you have, it is how quickly you can change yourself to meet the market. because the information time, Internet technologies make difference. so the word IT in last century is design for manufacture. in this century, IT is design for making to help the consumers. so I think this is a disater for big companies, century disaters for big companies. but it is a great opportunity for small business. for this financial crisis, we see a lot of big companies we never thought they would die, AIG, it is me it's like a empire, how can that happen. right, all the g ,you know big car company which we respect, we always want to be there, but today they all dead. and let's look at the asamis, we still feel painful, but we are happy in our heart because we are still survive. and we heared so many stories about big company is in trouble and i see the society government pay too much attention to these big trouble makers. they are the trouble makers, and we keep them enough surpport. let them die! It is the time for them to die because they make troubles. every big company they have a different disater, different problem. but all the asamis have the same problem, they need understanding and surpport. this world is not fair, and i know, so that is why I want to encourage everyone all asamis here, I am asami, I have eight kids, I am still asami, i still beleive i am small, because when i am small, I know I can be big. and I hate to be big, unfortunately, when i am a small company, only arrange 20 people(有误), i feel so excited, i can call every employee's name. and I know every time every thing I want to change, change in half minute. now, terrible. when i was 20 years old, my friends said "your company is not big enough, you are like a big boss, you are easy, right, you can control your time", now my time is not controlled by myself. my time is controlled by all the meetings, secretaries, kpis, share holders, all the things. It is much tough than when you are small, so I always beleive that first day love is very beautiful, beleive first day love, beleive when you are small, at least you have time to go out to go to cinema with your wife and kids, and enjoy one of the view. but when you are big, you always go to board meetings. and also i would like to say that I give you some, today i came to here, people say "jack, why don't you have a ppt". i never prepare ppt, you know, i am not good at technology, i am a, i was training to be a high school teacher, only thing i can know about computer, funny thing, i am running one of the biggest e-commerce company in china, and I beleive in the world, but I know nothing about computer, the only thing I can know about computer is sending and receiving e-mail and browse, that is it. cause I always beleive technology for people, people not work for technology. but today, I come here as an entrepreneur, i am prepared everyday. i am not prepare the ppt, because everytime when i use ppt, something wrong and I cann't use it. so I come here to tell you my all experience. I want to share with you as a eight kids' father, what I did when I have trouble. when I have trouble, I always remind me three things, focus your customer, serve your employees, and learn from the competitors. these are the key issues that I learn. focus on customer, today everybody talk about shareholder Num 1, I hate that, I think it is always customer Num 1. It is the customer give you money, it is the customer give you the innovations, it is the customer that make you happy, because. year 1991 and year 2001 when internet bubbles burst, we can not get any money, we can not have revenues, we have nothing, but everyday when I, encuraged me go on was letters of thanks and emails from my customers say "jack, alibaba keep on" because you helped us, one day, we will help you, that is the dream I have. So today, we beleive shareholder Num 1, you only think make numbers, you only think about revenues, you only think how can make your stock market go up. I let you know, no shareholder can be trusted. I tell you the truth. well, our shares stock price of two years ago we listed is 13.50 hongkong dollars, before that listed, a lot of shareholders come to say "jack, we are long_term shareholders, please give us more shares, we will keep it". when financial crisis time came, you know, the day I pill 13.50, we went up to 40 dollars without doing anything good with in 24 hours, and then financial crisis came, 40 dollars to 3 dollars without doing anything bad, they all gone. most of the shareholders the share traders, how can you trust them. so rely your customers, because customers stay with you, customer grow with you, customers give money, give you the hope, give you the surpport. so focus on customer. and second is rely and serve your employees. It is your employees, it is your team, that make the difference, It is the employees that make your dream realized. if we say we have so many problems in our big companys have a problem in getting a innovation, hwo to make things happen, well, because you do not listen to the employees, you focus too much on the shareholders, the shareholders give you this idea, that idea, when you really do those ideas, they gone. they change all the time. but your employees always stay with you. I remember the tough days was so difficult in years 2000 and 2001, there is only one group of people that stay with me, that is my colleagues. and people say "jack, you don't have to pay me for 2 years, i will stay in the company, because you respect us, because customers love us." and i will tell you one funny thing, the only way you beleive your employees are talents, they are talented people, if you don't beleive them, they would never be. my mistake I made when I was, year 2000, we raised 5 million dollars, and that 5 million dollars, when we have money we start to make mistakes, I try to hire as many talents as possible, those talents are MBAs, those talents are vice presidents of multinational corperation. because I beleive if you have a MBA, you must be good. but what I hire these guys, Oh, My gods, it is terrible. these guys keep telling about strategy, I only have 5 million dollars, i remember one of my vice president of marketing said "jack, this is the budget for next year marketing". i see, what is that, 12 million us dollars, i only have 5 million. he say "I have never done a plan below 10 million". when somthing wrong, it is always your fault, because you never know, try to find the right people not the best people or the employees. so if you try to hire greate people in your own company, which your company is not good enough at that time, just like pull mordent 747 into a poor tractor, when that goes, your tractor never fly, into pieces. so my suggestion is that look at your employees, develope them, only when they are developed, your company will be developed. the day when we appeared, we create more than a thousand millionares at least in the company, all the guys sitting in the room, we had a chat, I say "ask me, now tell me one thing, why you are so successful, why we are so successful when we 20s, we become a millionare? what happened, are we very hard-working people?", I think there are more hard-working people outside. do you think that we are smart enough? at leat I am not smart, i took three times to go to university, I failed all the times, and I dont think I am smart, and I dont think you are smart. at that time in 2000, it was so difficult for alibaba to hire people, if it is not very much disabled, we hired them, if they can walk, we hired them. because nobody beleive internet, nobody beleive e-commerce work in china, nobody beleive that you know internet can happen.
　　But these guys you know have no job, so they think, well let's come here. they joined company, and those MBAs, thoes people with great background, a lot of hunting company, they moved out, they start out business. now they all failed. those guys nobody hunting them, those guys never thought of have the dream to build there own company, stay in the company. After 5 years, we all successed. Why? We keep our dreams, we beleive it. No matter how big your dream is, make tiny small step ahead and grow with them, grow with the company. So my mistake in year 2001 I took, I told my 18 founders, I said "you guys, can only be team manager, all the VPs we hired from outside". Now ten years passed, one of the people I hired outside 100% gone, and those which I think how could you be successful, they all become VPs and directors. They are all powerful, because they beleive they can. So I want to tell everybody here, we are small but care your employees, these are the people, they have their families, they have dream. They come here not only for the jobs, they come here with a dream together and share with you. The third thing is learn from your competitors. Don't hate your competitors, the company hate their competitors, but I love my competitors. Without competitors, we would not grow that much fast. Year 2003, when we start, you know, taobao is a C2C option model. Ebay my competitor at that time, is a 8 billion market cap. We, you know, small tiny. But we start compete, it's lot of fun competing with big guys, you know if I start to have a box with tyson, I am honored. If you have a chance to compete with somebody, it's a great competitor you learned. We learn from our competitors, we respected them, everything they move, you grow and another thing I want to share with you is that competitor is the best laboratory for you. Because competitors study you, any innovative ideas they come, you learn that. Don't copy them, learn from them. So I love my competitors, every time when I look at them, I always admired. But in China, people say "jack, you are so crazy", because four years ago, I sain when I use my telscope I never see my competitors. People say "how could you be that kuangwang(狂妄)", and I say "I am looking for examples, models", why should I looking for competitors, competitors are everywhere. When you compete, having fun, the most interesting part of business is competition. To make your competitors angry, To make your competitors jumping around, that's the skill you should have, not make yourself jumping around and angry, right? Business is such a great fun, when I compete, if I got angry, if I jumping around, I know something wrong, because this is a wrong strategy to compete. When you compete, you konw, not purpose to make your competitors unhappy, if they are unhappy, if they jumping around, if they try to use money to care of thing, you step to win, because they start to lose money. When competitors start to use money to compete with you, they start to lose. Business is about wisdom, business is about hope, business is about courage, these are all the skills, and I, nobody comfort us. I learned to use my right hand to comfort my left hand when I am in trouble. You always tell yourself, OK, I am still survive, I am still growing, everything is good. At least I am still surviving, right? So, when you are big, you start to worried about losing something. When you are small, you start to grow. So I always beleive, small keeps the hope. So these are the things I want to share with you. and the last and most important thing that I want to say is "Never ever give up your dreams". I almost, I think, you can not eat food for seven days that you would die, right, four to seven days, you do not drink for three days you would die, if you do not breathe for three minutes you die, but if you lose hope dream for one minute you die. So I want to tell you that I have problems in past ten years, these day when I walk around China, when I look at the airport, a lot of books about me, about alibaba, I feel very nervous, because these are not books interviewed me, these are the books, well, we are not that good, we are not that bad. But when something you know successful, they start to write good things about it. We made so many mistakes, the only book I dreamed to write about is "alibaba one thousand one mistakes". Every mistake I think you count it, I made it, and I know you would make it too. Because when I was doing business, everybody say "wa oh, this is a mistake, this guy is going to make, that guy is going to make, I am not going to make it, I tell you, you would not make it." And you would make it again,again and again. And when you make it again and again, don't lose confidence, make it again, you will win. That all we did, I mean nobody is perfect, right? So I almost lose my confidence in year 2002, I had big trouble with my team in US, I learned from a great consultant join company say "jack, alibaba do international trade, international trade needs English, which country has the best English you beleive." "USA","right, now , internet needs greatest technology, which country has the best technology?", "hen, USA", "right","Where", "the silicon valley", so we move our alibaba.com to silicon valley. And when I arrive in silicon valley, we suddenly realize something wrong, we hired people from Miami, from NewYork, frow all the world, all came to our silicon valley. After three months, I realize, the problem is that nobody in silicon valley know the trade, so what's the point, have good technology, and English, we are not English site, right? All the small-midien size companies are across the board, they know exactly what are you talking about, no matter how terrible your English is. So I made a mistake, and I told the people say "sorry, it is a mistake, Let's move back." So, after two months, we move back to China again. Funny thing is that, every people was happy at that time because internet is boosting. They got a lot of option shares, they got a lot of cash pay, and find another job is easy. and nobody want the shares, we give them one cent per share. "NO, NO, NO", they said, "we want cash." Now you know, they don't beleive your dreams. If they beleive the dreams, give them the shares one cent. If they don't beleive, "I want cash." Let them go! And we are so disappointed that a lot of people we hired they do not want, they want cash. No matter how wonderful, at that time it's easy to raise money, people still want cash. So Ok, let's forget it. I walked for about one and a half hour in beijing street, my colleges with me. And then, I told myself, go to bed to sleep, tomorrow again. We started, today, things changed, So I tell you "Never ever give up your dreams". Today I encourage myself and our team and reminds us one thing that always I want to share with you, finish the speech that "Today is very difficult, tomorrow is much more difficult, but the day after tomorrow is very beautiful, most people die tomorrow evening", you will never be able to see the day after tomorrow sunshine. if you give up the hope that you will not see it, if you give up your employees you will never see it, if you give up your customers you are dead, but if you give up shareholders, you will get a better one. Thank you!