What do you do if the traditions in your country aren’t as entrepreneur-friendly as other countries? If you’re Jack Ma, you create a new tradition…

10 years ago, in the middle of the Global Financial Crisis, Jack Ma needed to prop up sales for his company, Alibaba. When he looked at the largest tech companies in the west, he saw companies like Amazon and Apple profiting from shopping holidays like Thanksgiving’s Cyber Monday and Christmas - Holidays that weren’t celebrated in China.

Saying “You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die”, in 2009, Jack decided to create his own shopping holiday around “Single’s Day” on 11/11 (a day in China for singles to treat themselves). But instead of copying the retail model, he would make his holiday fully online and fully global, with 50% discounts for a full 24 hours.

That year, he convinced 27 merchants to sell their products on the day for up to 50% off, generating $10 million in sales. Then, each year, he repeated the process while growing sales exponentially:

2009 - $10 million
2010 - $140 million
2011 - $820 million
2012 - $3.0 billion
2013 - $5.8 billion
2014 - $9.3 billion
2015 - $14.3 billion
2017 - $25.3 billion
2018 - $30.7 billion

Last year, Alibaba’s Single’s Day again set a Guinness World Record for the most sales made by a single company in 24 hours - $30.7 billion. This wasn’t just in China - but across 200 countries that bought Alibaba products for up to 50% off during 11/11.

That’s more than double all USA's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales from all US retailers put together (which was $14.1 billion) - and ALL for just one company: Jack’s Alibaba.

For one company to generate $30 billion in sales in one day is mind boggling - and that’s total sales of $89 billion over 10 years. But it started by one man seeing a challenge and turning it into an opportunity. It’s through this kind of thinking that Jack Ma has gone from a school teacher to become the richest man in China.

If you’re waiting for sales, what event could you create to bring the sales to you?

If you’ve got a challenge, how could you think differently to turn that challenge into an opportunity?

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” ~ Milton Berle

Jack is ranked No.7 in the Entrepreneur 2020 Top 10 Countdown, and one to watch in the decade ahead. He's following in the footsteps of Bill Gates and retiring by 2020 to dedicate himself to his charities - So look out for big changes in his No.1 focus of education.

Join us to follow the journey on Jack and all the Top 10 here: https://entrepreneur5.geniusu.com/launch/