ABSTRACT
At the 2015 World Economic Forum, Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, was asked how he handled rejection early on his career. His humble response included, “I think we have to get used to it. We’re not that good. Even today we still have a lot of people reject us.” 1 After graduating from Hangzhou Normal University in 1988, Ma faced several rejections from opportunities at 30 different employers, one of them being KFC, and chances to pursue higher education at Harvard Business School, from which he was rejected ten times. 2
