Jack Ma is currently worth $35.6 billion. Yet Ma once made $12 per month as an English teacher (though he was still happy).
现如今，马云身价高达356亿美元，但回首昔日，马云在担任英语老师时每个月薪水只有12美元（合80元人民币）。然而，纵使在穷困潦倒之际，马云却仍旧乐观。
His achievements are practically unbelievable considering his meager, humble beginnings. Along the way, he failed more times than most of us could stomach in a lifetime.
回想起马云毫无背景，白手起家的开始，愈发显得他现如今的成就是多么令人不可置信。在通往成功的路上，马云承受的失败和磨难远比我们这一生要多得多。
Here are seven ways Ma experienced soul-crushing failure, but managed to keep his optimism, just like his hero, Forrest Gump.
接下来，小编为大家盘点马云到目前为止遇到的七次近乎痛及灵魂的失败，以及他是如何像他心目中的英雄阿甘一样保持乐观心态而一一克服的。
1.Didn’t give up after failing many exams at school.
1. 即使在学校里多次考试不及格 也不要放弃自己
Ma was not a good student. In fact, he almost didn’t get into middle school.
事实上，马云并不是个好学生。他甚至差点都没能上得了初中。
"I failed a key primary school test two times, I failed the middle school test three times, I failed the college entrance exam two times…” Ma said. These are things most of us are lucky enough to have never said to our parents.
马云说道：“小学升初中时我考了两次，初升高的时候考了三次，高考的时候又失败了两次。”幸运的是，我们当中大多数都没有这种惨痛的经历。
But surprisingly, Ma’s not alone. There’s a tradition of other great minds, including Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Abraham Lincoln struggled early in life with academics but going on to do great things.
令人惊奇的是，马云并不是那个“孤独的怪才”。诸如阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦、温斯顿·丘吉尔和亚伯拉罕·林肯等伟人在年少时期都曾在学业方面遭遇过滑铁卢，但这之后并未影响他们成就伟业。
2.Scored 1 out of 120 points on the math portion of his college entrance exam.
2. 120分满分的高考数学只考了1分
Failing is one thing. Getting a score of less than 1 percent on your college entrance exam is something else completely. And it wasn’t because he didn’t have time to prepare. To this day, Ma struggles with mathematics, despite the fact that Alibaba is a tech company.
不及格是一回事，但高考在并非裸考的情况下数学一科连百分之一的分数都没考到就是另外一回事了。虽然现如今的阿里巴巴集团作为一家技术型公司屹立于世界之林，但其老板在那些年却被数学折磨地痛不欲生。
To quote Ma: “I am not good at math, have never studied management, and still cannot read accounting reports."
引用马云的话来说：“我数学一点儿也不好，也从来没有学过什么管理学，甚至连财务报告都看不懂。”
But as it turns out, he never needed to be good at math to become a billionaire. Perhaps even more impressive is that he never heard the word “computer” in his childhood.
但照目前看来，马云根本也不是靠数学来成为亿万富翁的。最令人意想不到的是，他的童年字典里从来没有“计算机”这个词。
3.Wasn’t deterred after being rejected from Harvard 10 times.
3. 被哈佛拒绝十次也并未却步
It’s not so much that being rejected from Harvard 10 times is surprising, it’s that he bothered applying that many times in the first place. What this shows us is that Ma is the paradigm of persistence. “The very important thing you should have is patience.”
被哈佛拒绝了十次没什么值得惊讶的，令人意外的是纵使被拒绝这么多次他还是一直坚持申请，没有放弃。从这一点来说，马云的确是坚持和耐力的典范人物。他曾经说过：“最重要的品质之一就是要有足够的耐心。”
He also went to Hangzhou Normal University, where he went on to become an English major.
后来，马云进入了杭州师范大学，主修英语专业。
4.Stayed optimistic after being turned down for 30 jobs.
4. 纵使被工作拒绝30次也要选择保持微笑
After graduating from college, he applied to 30 different jobs and was subsequently rejected by all of them.
大学毕业之后，马云先后申请了三十份不同的工作，但随之都被应聘单位拒绝了。
He even applied to be a police officer. But they didn’t even give him the time of day, rejecting him with three simple words: “You’re no good.”
马云甚至想过当警察，可对方甚至连让他开口交流的机会都不给，直截了当地甩出了一句话：“你不符合要求”。
Fortunately, just like his favorite movie hero, Forrest Gump, Ma kept on running.
幸运的是，马云并没有因此一蹶不振，而是像他崇拜的英雄阿甘一样，坚持不懈地在人生的跑道上继续前进着。
"Today is cruel. Tomorrow is crueler. And the day after tomorrow is beautiful."
正如他曾经所说：“今天很残酷，明天更残酷，后天很美好。”
5.Was the only interviewee (out of 24) rejected by KFC.
5. 24人应聘肯德基，只有他是未被录取的那一个
Out of 24 KFC applicants in his pool, 23 were hired. Ma was the only one to be rejected. He attributes this largely to his lack of good looks and short stature.
在24名应聘肯德基岗位的求职者中，有23位都被录取了，只有马云是被拒的那一个。当时，他将失败的原因归结于自己并不出众的外貌和矮小的身材。
His wife, Zhang Ying (who married him before he became wealthy), doesn’t mind his appearance. “Ma Yun is not a handsome man, but I fell for him because he can do a lot of things handsome men cannot do.”
马云的妻子张瑛在其发家致富之前就已经与其结婚，她表示并没有嫌弃过丈夫的外貌。“马云确实长得不帅，但我之所以选择他，是因为他干出许多帅男人干不了的事情。”
6.Couldn’t convince Silicon Valley to fund Alibaba.
6. 昔年请求硅谷为阿里巴巴融资被拒
Even after he started Alibaba, he suffered multiple failures. It wasn’t profitable the first three years. In the beginning, they expanded too fast and almost imploded when the dot-com bubble burst. At one point, Alibaba was just 18 months away from bankruptcy.
即使在马云创建阿里巴巴之后，他也遇到了各种各样的困难。成立前三年，公司基本没有任何盈利。最开始，他们扩展速度太快，以至于当年互联网泡沫破裂之际，公司差点也就此完蛋。那时候，阿里巴巴一度离破产只有18个月。
As Ma humbly notes: “I call Alibaba ‘1,001 mistakes.’”
后来，马云曾谦虚地提到：“有朝一日，我要写一本书，名字就叫做《阿里巴巴的1001个错误》”。
7.Told his 18 Alibaba partners that none of them could be execs.
7. 告诉阿里巴巴最初18位合伙人谁都不能做管理者
In one of the worst decisions a CEO can make, Ma told the 18 partners (contributing capital for a total of $60,000 USD), that none could rise higher than the rank of manager. His plan was to instead hire outside managers.
这位CEO做过的最失败的一次决定，即马云曾经告诉共为公司投入六万美元资金的十八位合伙人，谁都不能比管理者的职位高。马云计划要从外部引进管理人才。
This, he notes, was his biggest mistake ever. “The lessons I learned from the dark days at Alibaba are that you’ve got to make your team have value, innovation, and vision.”
马云表示这是自己犯过的最大的错误。“在阿里巴巴最低沉的那段日子里，我得到的最大教训就是要努力让自己的团队有相应的价值观、创新能力和远见卓识。”
Jack Ma is a classic rags-to-riches story, but even more impressive than his fabulous wealth is his uncanny level of persistence. He is proof that no series of failures can keep someone from achieving their dreams.
马云可谓是白手起家最后成功的典范人物，但相对他的身价来说，最让人敬佩的还是他多年如一日的坚持和耐力。他用自身经历告诉我们，不管失败多少次，都不能阻止一个人实现自己的梦想。
As Ma says: “If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure.”
正如马云所讲：“如果你不放弃，你就还有机会，放弃就是最大的失败。”
来源:IGN
爱语吧作者:Jessica
