He built his first ever startup in 1992 which was an English translating company.The revenue was not well, so they had to sell gifts and flowers for extra revenue.And it turned out gifts business were doing well until his colleagues were talking about changing into a gifts business .
He was thinking ,"was it to make money or was it to solve the problem of people and teachers".
His personal feeling was that they should solve the market problem and the teachers' problem.
Eventually they remained as translating business.
He says "remember, in process of doing startup, many companies will encounter this problem.When you run into a new opportunity, you must ask yourself "how should I choose?""
During those days, they hired a girl for cashier work.One day, on teacher day as well as on his birthday, he needed an amount of money.And found out that the money were lesser than what he needed.
When he looked into the matter detail, he discovered that the girl had taken money away every day,little by little.
It was a systemic flaw.A bad system can turn good employees into bad ones.
An easy mistake startups make is focusing on the big picture and ignoring details.They were thinking about how to develop the company, how to bring in products etc.
They did not realise that even just 4 or 5 people still need systems and management.
Not having good system is a disaster for the company.
Mr.Ma speech was encouraging.
