Trust young people: Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s advice for entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs navigating the business world may be prone to being overwhelmed with concerns, but Alibaba founder Jack Ma says the answer to these concerns is to encourage and trust young people.

In a video posted at Tech in Asia, the billionaire founder also emphasised the importance of being confident, and of following one’s dreams.

Addressing concerns such as privacy and security, Ma simply said “human beings have ways to solve these problems”.

He believes people should not worry about the potential for artificial intelligence to eliminate jobs, as while there may not be a solution readily available today, there will be one in the future.

“We don’t have a solution, but there is a solution,” he said, drawing a parallel to similar fears that the invention of electricity would lead to job losses.

“We don’t have a solution, young people have solutions.”

Ma also spoke about the importance of having and sticking to dreams, and believing in the future.

“So, be confident as [an] entrepreneur and a small business,” he advises.

“And hire as many young people as possible, because they are never scared.”

Rather, Ma observes, with the world full of scary things, young people are apprehensive about the actions of older generations.

“We make wrong decisions, we make the wrong policies, we kill their future,” he says.

“So trust the young people. Trust the small business. Build [an] environment, build the ecosystem for them. This is our future.”

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