Founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group (BABA  ), a Chinese e-commerce company based in Hangzhou, Zhejang, China, Jack Ma is no stranger to a strong work ethic and determination. Currently with a net worth of $34.1 billion, Jack Ma has built his wealth and empire through Alibaba's focus on growing smaller companies and making them known. 

Born on September 10, 1964, Jack Ma studied English and gained a degree from Hangzhou Normal University in 1988. Although he gained his B.A in English, Ma initially struggled to pass the Chinese entrance exams, given once a year. Ma took four years to pass the exam. Following his undergraduate career, Ma, like most college graduates today, found it difficult to find employment opportunities. Upon gaining an introduction to the Internet during his job as a translator in America, Ma researched beer and to his own dismay, learned there was no beer from China. Ma wanted to help smaller Chinese businesses gain an impactful presence in the global market. When he created "Chinapage", a site that featured Chinese businesses and their products, he began to partner up with businesses around the world. It is to these early connections that have contributed to Alibaba's success as a holding company today, as well as a current leader in business-consumer sales service across the web.  

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With Alibaba, Ma has expanded on the public's view of the holding company, stating "Today, people write about the successful stories of Alibaba. And I really don't think we were so smart, we made so many mistakes and we were so stupid at times. So, someday, the book I personally really will want to write about is Alibaba's 1001 mistakes." Indeed, Alibaba was initially grown out of Ma's eventual failed venture of "Chinapage". A second attempt at using the internet to intermediate small Chinese businesses with the rest of the world, Alibaba was founded a few years later in 1999. 

Like most start-ups in Silicon Valley, Alibaba was first confronted with a discouraging lack of interest by other investors. Seen as unprofitable, Ma led the business to one of its first major investments of $5 million and $20 million by Goldman Sachs (GS  ) and the Japanese telecommunications corporation Softbank, respectively. 

It seems that Alibaba was a good investment after all, given their subsequent public offering. Currently the largest public offering to date, Alibaba reached a market value of $231 billion by their first year as an IPO under the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). After forcing out e-Bay (EBAY  ) out of China with their created auction site "Tobao" in 2003 Alibaba began to focus their attention to Chinese markets. Today, Ma admits that Alibaba's original focus on international markets caused challenges in the early 2000s, his management of Alibaba's specific impact on the Chinese market led to Alibaba's subsequent expansion into the world. 

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Today, Alibaba is involved with a multitude of successful businesses and ventures, with holdings in prominent businesses such as Yahoo! China and a healthcare unit called Ali Health. Recently, Alibaba has even partnered up with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners, a film company formed out of the American film production label Dreamworks Studios. In doing so, Ma hopes to create success in the struggling film industry as well. 

As for investments, Alibaba has aligned itself with American companies such as the ride-sharing company Lyft, with a $250 million investment. In addition, it has had influence with Jet.com in 2015 with a financing of $140 million, and the social app Snapchat, with $200 million the same year, which led to the start-ups decision to become an IPO in 2017. 

On his success, Ma has realized his calling to help others before helping himself. "In this world, if you want to win in the 21st century," he started, " you have to be making sure other people become powerful, empower others; making sure the other people are better than you are, then you will be successful."