He’s one of China’s richest man.
Although he’s one of the richest men in the world, apparently the old adage that money can’t buy you happiness rings true for Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of the company Alibaba.
Following his graduation in 1988, he worked as an English teacher at a local university in Hangzhou, China. Although he only made $12 a month, when he spoke with the Economics Club of New York last year, Ma said it was the “best life [he] had.”
He believed that when you short of dough, you know how to spend it. But once you become a billionaire, you have a lot of responsibility – which makes spending it more difficult.
“If you have less than $1 million, you know how to spend the money,” he said during Tuesday’s speech. ” [At] $1 billion, that’s not your money…The money I have today is a responsibility. It’s the trust of people on me.”
He now has a net worth of US$42.4 billion and is ranked as one of the wealthiest people in the world. However, says he feels a need to spend his money “on behalf of the society.”
“I spend it our way,” he said. “It’s a trust.”
Given his attitude, it’s little surprise that he was ranked 2nd on Fortune’s list of the world’s 50 greatest leaders.
