Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#21

Post by ant6n » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 3:02 PM UTC

Exuma wrote: post #7

larrys wrote: post #2

It's kind of funny how people who have made it as big as Jack Ma are still obsessed enough with Harvard to mention almost as a badge of honor that they were rejected from Harvard. As if to say "see Harvard was obviously wrong here". Harvard or any top school in no way can accept anywhere near all of the applicants that are qualified to attend those schools. As such there will be people that will be rejected and accep…

10 times is a lot worse than being wrong once, however.

The admissions may be random, but apaprently not independent

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#22

Post by stephencanon » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 3:02 PM UTC

ilamont wrote: post #13

Colleges such as Harvard that base admissions decisions on grades, standardized test scores, traditional social/leadership signals (club x, sports team y), alumni connections, geographic/ethnic background, and writing/storytelling skills (i.e., the “personal essay”) are going to miss a lot of brilliant, innovative people and future leaders. The 17-year-old Steve Jobs (free spirit), Barack Obama (slacker), and Jack Ma…

Yup. The thing is, they get so many applicants that they have no reason to care if they miss some good ones. The ones they end up taking are just as good. Any of the elite schools could throw out their entire admitted class, admit their next 2k choices, and no one would be able to tell the difference.

The schools have a huge incentive to admit students who will succeed. They have no incentive to admit all such students. This results in the admissions process that we have today.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#23

Post by roymurdock » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 3:02 PM UTC

deterselect wrote: post #5

He claims that out of 25 people, he was the only one rejected for a job at KFC. That to me is more inspirational. On the other hand, could he be lying about some of these hardships to make him seem more relatable?

"I applied for jobs 30 times - got rejected. I went for the police, they said 'No, you're not good.' I went to even the KFC, when KFC came to China, to my state - 24 people went for the job...23 people were accepted, I was the only guy. And when I went for the police, 5 people - 4 of them accepted, I was the only guy who did not receive it."

Much more motivational than being turned down by Harvard...I seriously doubt he's lying, given that he failed middle school/high school/college exams multiple times.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#24

Post by jcfrei » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 3:03 PM UTC

Great entrepreneurs don't necessarily make great academics and vice versa.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#25

Post by icebraining » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 3:03 PM UTC

seiji wrote: post #17

doczoidberg wrote: post #3

In my opinion elite universities are more for traditional career paths. They are nothing for entrepeneurs. You waste too much time with exams. There should be an opportunity to get credits for entrepeneurial work at university. Edit: I am engineering alumnus of a so called elite university in germany and struggled much with exams because I just wanted to do more practical work which one can sell.

Except you can't get a job doing "entrepenuering." You create companies by doing a lot of hard work yourself which requires — gasp! — traditional skills like working competently, rapidly and playing nicely in groups of other people. Only after you've started one or two companies yourself do you get elevated to the lofty heights of pure thought leadership where you don't have to work and people still want to employ yo…

Except you can't get a job doing "entrepenuering."

What about when you get acquihired?

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#26

Post by ChuckMcM » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 3:06 PM UTC

It is an interesting claim. I think Harvard would still reject him, he doesn't seem to fit in with what a "Harvard Man" is.

The mistake is thinking that Harvard wants all the successful people in the world to go there, as far as I can tell they don't. Every private University recruits from their "tribe" whether it is 'quirky' at Reed or 'cosmopolitan' at Harvard, while not discriminating on race, religion, Etc they do pick people who create a community "like them".

The weird conflict comes in when someone like Jack, who by many accounts would have not "fit in" with the community at Harvard (he would have been fine at MIT I suspect) but Jack gets focused on "Harvard is the 'best' so I really want to go there." which isn't focused on the question of whether it is the best for him.

I really encourage folks to find a college that fits them rather than picking a college by some score it has. If you are lucky the college will reject you if you don't fit and that will save you from a bad experience there, if you are unlucky you'll get in and hate the experience.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#27

Post by mrdrozdov » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 3:06 PM UTC

There is so much more to this video than Jack Ma's rejection from Harvard. His company, Alibaba, is second only to Walmart in e-commerce business. He talks about Alibaba's success internationally (places like Russia and Norway). He also talks about the company's relationship with government regarding technology projects and privacy.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#28

Post by arihant » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 3:07 PM UTC

doczoidberg wrote: post #3

In my opinion elite universities are more for traditional career paths. They are nothing for entrepeneurs. You waste too much time with exams. There should be an opportunity to get credits for entrepeneurial work at university. Edit: I am engineering alumnus of a so called elite university in germany and struggled much with exams because I just wanted to do more practical work which one can sell.

> They are nothing for entrepeneurs.

This is absolutely false. Great colleges are extremely hard, and in top programs kids are always fighting for life to not get kicked out.

To me, CMU taught invaluable lessons in hard work, getting kicked in the teeth over and over, surviving mostly on coffee and alcohol, and persisting till success comes along. All these lessons help while starting a startup.

A great college program will make graduate's problems feel small in comparison to what they put him through.

Besides, starting a company is not the only entrepreneurial work one can do. Is Sundar Pichai less or more entrepreneurial than Zuckerberg? There are far more ways to inhibit courage than starting a company.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#29

Post by alistairSH » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 3:07 PM UTC

cowsandmilk wrote: post #9

doczoidberg wrote: post #3

In my opinion elite universities are more for traditional career paths. They are nothing for entrepeneurs. You waste too much time with exams. There should be an opportunity to get credits for entrepeneurial work at university. Edit: I am engineering alumnus of a so called elite university in germany and struggled much with exams because I just wanted to do more practical work which one can sell.

Many universities do have opportunity to get credits for entrepreneurial work. I would venture to say most do, if you talk to the department chair. Often they'll be called "independent study", but it is there. The bigger question is whether you should be paying 3-4 figures per credit just to be recognized by the university for doing that independent study.

This was true at UVA. Independent study was allowed, but not advertised, at least when I was there (late-90s).

Paying per credit wasn't a problem, as tuition was fixed for full-time students.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#30

Post by seiji » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 3:07 PM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #25

seiji wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except you can't get a job doing "entrepenuering." You create companies by doing a lot of hard work yourself which requires — gasp! — traditional skills like working competently, rapidly and playing nicely in groups of other people. Only after you've started one or two companies yourself do you get elevated to the lofty heights of pure thought leadership where you don't have to work and people still want to employ yo…

Except you can't get a job doing "entrepenuering." What about when you get acquihired?

There's a good chance you had to do real, material work before that happens though (unless you have friends in high places that get you on-boarded to Google before you even release a product).

and, 'acquihire' without actually building a successful product is the ultimate entreper-poser move, isn't it? You didn't build something users want, you just showed you can be a worthwhile employee for a larger corporate entity.

Private success isn't always progress.