Jack Ma paints the vision for his team – 15 years ago
Two minutes and 10 seconds of leadership in action.
“Today, we are all here to discuss what we should do in the next five to ten years…”
Chinese with English language subtitles
NOTE: I’m posting this not to recommend a stock – I don’t! – but to draw attention to a very valuable lesson about the power of vision in business and creating success in life.
Listen up…
How did he do it?
Today Jack Ma is the richest man in China ($26.5 billion) and he just launched the biggest IPO in US – and world – history.
How did he get there?
Luck?
No way!
Readers of Napoleon Hill will remember the passage in “Think and Grow Rich” where Hill recommends that you meditate on the following idea:
“All achievement, all earned riches have their beginning as an idea!”
In the “Science of Personal Achievement” he takes this thought further:
“The greatest achievements of men were, at first, nothing but dreams of the minds of men who knew that dreams are the seedlings of all achievements. A burning desire, to be and to do, is the starting point, from which the dreamer must take off.”
Thanks to low cost video and the Internet, for the very first time in history we can actually see what the founders of big companies talked about, and how they talked about it, when their ideas were new and their pockets were empty.
Vision, Mission, Leadership
Jack Ma had a vision…
He wanted to take a Chinese company to the top of the Internet world.
Fifteen years ago, this would have sounded as plausible as you or I flying to the moon.
Yet, he did it.
How did he do it?
First, he had a VISION of what he wanted to accomplish.
Second, he developed a PLAN to accomplish it.
Third, he calculated the COST – hard work, focus and sacrifice – necessary to achieve his vision.
Fourth, he converted his vision and plan into a MISSION.
Fifth, he developed a way to COMMUNICATE the Mission in a clear and compelling way to his allies, vendors, co-workers, investors and customers.
It sounds simple – and it is – but it’s not easy
It takes time, researching and thinking to come up with a vision that’s meaningful and truly energizes you.
It takes further time and effort to develop a plan on how to achieve your vision and to prove to yourself that it can be achieved.
It takes realism and maturity to calculate the true cost of an enterprise (you will not be able to do it sitting at home in your underwear).
Finally, it takes thought and emotional stamina to covert your vision and plan into a clear mission that others can understand and follow.
How to use this formula to get “unstuck” in business and in life
If you’re “stuck”, I can guarantee that you’re stuck on one or more of these points.
What’s your vision for your life and for your business? Is is exciting or have you fallen into the rut of just “treading water”?
Do you have a plan? Do you know how you’re going to get from Point A to Point B? What resources are you going to need? Do you have them? If not, how will you get them?
Are you on board with the cost? This is important because everything has a cost.
The “easy, instant riches” BS that Internet gurus peddle is quite possibly the single most poisonous thing on earth when it comes to you truly accomplishing things in life.
If you’ve been poisoned by it, throw it out of your mind today and resolve yourself to join the world of successful men and women who know that success always comes with a price.
Finally, can you communicate what you want to accomplish in a clear, compelling way so that others can understand and follow you?
These are the ingredients of business success.
As Ma demonstrated this week, if you can do these simple – but not easy – things, there is no limit on what you can accomplish.
P.S. “Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope or a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” – Napoleon Hill
P.P.S. This is the kind of stuff pay attention to and talk about at the System Club. We always have room for serious-minded new members. Find out more about us here.
P.P.P.S. For the text of Ma’s comments, you can read the transcript here.
– Ken McCarthy
P.S. For over 25 years I’ve been sharing the simple but powerful things that matter in business with my clients.
If you’d like direction for your business that will work today, tomorrow and twenty years from now, visit us at the System Club.
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