If We Wanna Change The World — We Change Ourselves.

Jack Ma: At First I think Many Years Ago, I Change The World…

Now, I think, If We Wanna Change The World — We Change Ourselves.

By now, you will have made the presumption that you’ll be reading about the humble visionary and entrepreneur, Jack Ma.

You are partially correct.

However, the main purpose of this article is to dissect his wise words.

It recently occurred to me, as I endeavor towards the entrepreneurial route, that I’ve been too obsessed with trying to change the views of people around me.

I’ve realized that forcing a conversational reaction out of my fiance or a family or friend with the way they think about topics that I bring up makes me a judgemental and self-righteous prick.

There have been many nights when Stephen (my fiance) and I would argue about certain mediums I’ve just read or listened to, because he doesn’t quite agree with the ideas these conveyed. Or because he just wasn’t that emotionally invested in the topics the same way I was. With this, he then would shrug me off.

However for visionaries like the late Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Richard Branson and for the purposes of this entry, Jack Ma, making people re-think how things are done seem to be such a simple feat to them.

I have always been at awe at how effortlessly they can inspire, motivate or even challenge people around them to question the ordinary and influence change. And they work tirelessly at it.

I mean, it took Jack Ma until the age of thirty-five before he was able to achieve his breakthrough with Alibaba.

Mr. Ma reiterates how he wasn’t and still isn’t always the smartest guy out there. He relives how even KFC, one of the biggest fast food companies out there, rejected him. All the rejections he encountered, then forced him to perfect the art of getting back up after many, many falls.

While these great men all have extraordinary stories about their journey to success, they pretty much started with the same ordinary process of trying and failing — then trying again. And this is something that I, along with everybody else out there, can strongly relate to.

I especially relate because at the moment, my life has come to a standstill as I try once again to reinvent myself.

I am beginning to understand that there has to be a balance of humility and pride in one’s vision in order to create that change within one’s self.

And then of course, there’s the unrelenting willingness to try things all over again for the umpteenth time — always with a confident heart.

However, the price of reinvention is steep. Undoing things like investments that have gone wrong has made me question my decisions and even my sanity at times.

After hearing Jack Ma’s words, I realized that I could surround myself with all the outer influences — such as podcasts, audiobooks and the like — but the only way to truly have that powerful impact towards others is if you start the change from within unapologetically. Easier said than done, but totally possible. Otherwise, these visionaries I look up to, wouldn’t be where they are right now.