“Success in life depends on who your parents were and what circumstances you grew up in” - Ernest and Julio Gallo.

Few people have had more of an impact on the US wine market than the Gallo brothers, Ernest and Julio. It is said that they were the first to introduce mainstream advertising and merchandising to the industry and the family company has done much to develop the taste buds of American consumers over the decades. Whereas Europe was once seen as the bastion of winemaking, the Gallos certainly put Napa Valley and America firmly in the picture.

The Gallo brothers were born into the grape industry, as the sons of Italian immigrants in the beautiful foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Their parents already had a grape growing business, which passed over to the sons when the parents were involved in a gruesome murder/suicide during Prohibition. Ernest Gallo was the driving force behind the business, a workaholic who frequently put in 16 hour days and undertook lengthy cross-country trips to promote the business. He was known as a stickler, with “a constant striving for perfection in every aspect of our business.” Brother Julio (“you make the wine and I’ll sell it”) handled production.

Ernest and Julio’s goal was to educate American habits and get them to drink non vintage and inexpensive wines, or according to Ernest, to produce the “Campbell Soup company of the wine industry.” Very quickly they cornered a significant portion of the American market with brands such as Thunderbird and Boone’s Farm wines. Even though by any standards these were downmarket brands, made with up to 20% alcohol content, they appealed to the mass-market. As the company grew to dominate the wine world, Gallo struggled with this image and it took a concerted, but ultimately effective marketing plan to transition away from this downmarket tag.

The Gallo brothers, and more specifically Ernest, were very shrewd and politically aware. Wine and liquor are both heavily regulated and the brothers understood that their fortune and future often lay in the hands of politicians. They were quite adept at making significant campaign contributions across either side of the political aisle, according to how it would best suit them.

By the 80s, the company had branched out and was now producing premium quality Chardonnays as well as medium market products and wine coolers; annual revenues had grown to exceed $1 billion. It was during this period that a younger brother Joseph, who had initially worked in the wine business during childhood, decided that he wanted his piece of the family fame and fortune as well. He established a cheese making business using the family’s last name, but was sued by the older brothers accordingly. When Joseph counter-sued, claiming that he should receive part of the wine fortune, this resulted in a bitter court battle that Joe ultimately lost, ensuring that he was estranged from the family thereafter.

Presently, the E. & J. Gallo business is the largest family owned winery in the country and is still directed and managed by second and third generations. A very broad range of brands and labels is now produced as part of a process that is very eco-friendly, sustainable and socially acceptable. The Gallo winery was the recipient of the prestigious ISO 14001 certification in recognition of these efforts.

Julio was to die in 1993 in an unfortunate car crash, while the reticent Ernest lived to the ripe old age of 97, leaving behind a wealth of over $1.2 billion and a considerable legacy.

Adam Toren

“The man who dies rich, dies in disgrace.” – Sir Tom Hunter.

In 2007, considerable publicity was given to the announcement that Sir Tom Hunter would be donating £1b to charity during his lifetime. It was said that this was one of Britain’s largest ever charitable donations and the largest ever by an individual. This announcement follows a lifetime dedicated to philanthropy, a habit that Sir Tom attributes to his father. Jack McConnell, former first Minister of Scotland, is full of admiration and praise for the businessman. “His philanthropic work and the creative way that he has thrown himself into that has been one of the most significant drivers for change in Scotland in the last decade.” McConnell goes on to define his work as a “genuine approach to change the way things are done” and as a catalyst for change, not just a simple giveaway. In this way, Sir Tom is teaching people to fish, not just providing them with a fish to eat.

Born in the spring of 1961 in Ayrshire, Scotland, the young Hunter soon got a taste of economic hardship when the dominant coal industry went into decline in the area. As the family business closed he went off to study business in Strathclyde and came up with the idea of selling sneakers, known as trainers, in Britain. From that humble beginning emerged the famous Sports Division brand, one of Britain’s largest retailers, which at its peak featured some 250 stores. After 14 years of operation he sold the business for just under £300m.

While he had been known for his generosity up to that point, the sale of Sports Division proved the catalyst and initiated a specific venture to aid his philanthropy. The Hunter Foundation was established by Sir Tom and his wife Marion and initially focused on nurturing primary education within Scotland. His efforts were recognized by the government, which led to a general change across the Scottish educational system.

In 2001 he founded investment firm West Coast Capital, which allowed him to take up a major share in a number of prominent retailers. He continued to give and coined a term “venture philanthropy,” which further underlined his policy of making pledge investments to leverage the efforts of other investors and to help ensure that the initiatives were effectively delivered. It is rumored that he refused to move to an offshore tax haven as, in his view, money was “only half of the equation.” Thus he has remained in his native Scotland despite what many have viewed as adverse tax consequences.

Sir Tom has close ties to former president Bill Clinton and has donated to his foundation as well as to a jointly-titled African development initiative. He continues to attract recognition for his philanthropy and received a knighthood from HM the Queen for his services, in 2005.

While the current recession has put on hold his plans to donate £1b, he still sees the pledge as part of the bigger picture and fully intends to make good on his life promise in the future.

Matthew Toren

“I think if you look at people, whether in business or government, who haven’t had any moral compass, who’ve just changed to say whatever they thought the popular thing was, in the end they’re losers.” – Michael Bloomberg.

As a politician, Michael Bloomberg breaks the mold. He does not appear to attract the traditional mudslinging barrage and when he does find himself to be the target he appears to be able to just brush off the dirt and continue. Befitting the great city that often seems to defy generalization and champions the unusual, New York’s mayor treads a fine line of political astuteness along an enviable path of success through economic, social and cultural minefields.

Michael Rubens Bloomberg was born in the dead of winter 1942 to middle-class parents in Massachusetts. A solid work ethic and an inquiring mind were evident from an early age and he progressed through Johns Hopkins University to Harvard where he received his MBA. He was intrigued by the process and distribution of information and zeroed in on technology’s role in distribution during his time with the investment banker, Salomon Brothers.

Now an enthusiastic New Yorker, Bloomberg applied his theory to practice by founding Bloomburg LP in 1981. This financial news and information service is today a household name and is a trusted source of information for over a quarter million subscribers worldwide.

With his thriving company on course, Bloomberg devoted a lot of his spare time to philanthropic causes. He used his not inconsiderable presence and Rolodex lists to help charities and institutions make an impact in the name of a variety of causes. He was becoming increasingly better known in New York political circles and civic affairs.

The terrorist attacks of 2001 shook the city to its very core and while many people initially turned to “America’s Mayor,” the then leader Rudolph Giuliani, Bloomberg was waiting in the wings for his chance to bring his style and vision to bear. When Giuliani came to the end of his term, Bloomberg mounted a considerable campaign based on a reconstruction of the spirit of the city.

Perhaps surprisingly, Bloomberg was a lifelong registered Democrat before he decided to run for mayor, yet switched his allegiance to the Republican Party and was successful, a feat he repeated in 2005. In 2007 he decided that he would leave the Republican Party and became an independent. He had successfully switched allegiance twice, a move that has rarely been successful for politicians at any level before.

Bloomberg’s self-effacing attitude and willingness to “get in the trenches” has endeared him to many New Yorkers to this day. He’s been very successful in combating crime and particularly illegal gun possession and use. He continues to incorporate philanthropy and has been able to reach across party aisles successfully throughout his terms in office. Indeed, he has so much presence that he was able to successfully campaign to amend New York City’s long-running term limits law, allowing him to run for an unprecedented third term in 2009.

In addition to being the mayor of New York City, he is estimated to be the richest resident and the eighth richest person in the world, with a fortune of $16 billion. He is still a majority owner of Bloomberg LP.

While he did not run for election during the recent presidential campaign despite persistent rumors to that effect, Michael is in the running for the mayoral nominations of both Republican and Independent parties in his beloved New York. He has considerable political power within one of the most diverse, demanding and critical political environments and retains a list of admirers across the spectrum and from billionaire to pauper.

His business ethics are unquestionable and his political success may be attributable to the fact that he is able to get within the psyche of what makes New York the place it is – “and because no matter who you are, if you believe in yourself and your dream, New York will always be the place for you. This is the city of dreamers and time and again it’s the place where the greatest dream of all, the American dream, has been tested and has triumphed.”

Adam Toren

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you’re running, you must be able to adapt as you go. Nobody has taken this philosophy to a higher level than Judi Sheppard Missett, who combined a love for dance with a need to achieve fitness, back in the day when it was not so trendy to look after yourself. 40 years later her invention “Jazzercise” now oversees more than 7500 instructors and has a burgeoning support staff at corporate HQ in Carlsbad, CA.

Sheppard Missett always had a love for the bright lights and toured on Broadway during her adolescence, starring in productions of “West Side Story,” “Funny Girl,” “Coco” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” She loved to dance and was enrolled in dance class back at home in Iowa. “I was pigeon-toed and my mom thought it would be good for me to be in a dance class to help with my inward rotation. I loved it, and everything came naturally to me.” Even at that young age she felt a natural enthusiasm for her passion and taught dance classes to her local friends in the neighborhood.

Following a bachelor’s degree in theater and radio back at Northwestern University in 1966, she found that while teaching traditional dance she felt motivated to introduce her students to a special class, “just for fun” as she put it. She realized that most of the students were there to get in shape and have fun and did not have any particular aspirations to be in front of the footlights. Soon her new methods were gaining critical acclaim and she found that her classroom attendance was packed.

Shortly after moving to California her concept really started to take off and word spread far and wide. So popular were her classes that the city department responsible for overseeing class attendance in Carlsbad restricted participants to those who lived locally. Enterprising women signed up for PO boxes at the local post office, just so they could attend the classes. One of her students suggested that she was combining jazz music with exercise and should call the concept “Jazzercise” and this stuck.

As additional instructors were recruited the new technology of the time, the VCR, was used to train them. Further embracing this technology, a production company was commissioned to produce tapes and distribute to clients nationwide. From there it seemed natural to sell franchise opportunities and these were snapped up both across the nation and in a variety of countries overseas.

Judi has ensured that she moved with the times and, as people’s taste for music evolved, she and her company evolved as well. She puts down her longevity to consistency. “They know they’ll do a little yoga and Pilates, burn some calories and get out of the door in an hour. Sometimes in a health club, they don’t know what to expect and they can feel lost. That’s when class attendance can take a big hit.” By adapting to the market, Jazzercise has resisted the decline felt by some other health clubs. Combine this with the creativity of the franchise, where new routines are established every 10 weeks or so and there is a recipe for the success that has been enjoyed for four decades.

Judi Sheppard Missett has managed to affect millions of people by introducing them to fitness in a fun way. She has been honored by numerous lifetime achievement awards and induction into halls of fame. Her persistent philosophy of giving back to the community has resulted in donations of more than $26 million to a wide range of charities over the years.

Matthew Toren

Steve Case is at the same time a very personal man and one whose ambitions have carried him into a very public spotlight, some times more often than he would like. The softly spoken 51-year-old will probably be best remembered for his role in the catastrophic failure of AOL Time Warner, the company which he chaired during the much maligned “dot com” era. Indeed, to this day, ramifications of what was intended to be a media conglomerate megadeal, but which turned into an unmitigated disaster, reverberate.

To remember Steve Case for the AOL Time Warner fiasco would be very unfair. He was one of the most enlightened entrepreneurs of his generation, when the Internet boom was only just beginning and played a major role in the development of America Online, a portal that provided millions of consumers with their first taste of the World Wide Web. As we look at the importance of the Internet today we have Steve Case to thank in no small proportion.

Case was born in 1958 and grew up in Hawaii before moving to the mainland to pursue an education in political science. “I enjoyed high school and college, and I think I learned a lot, but that was not really my focus. My focus was on trying to figure out what businesses to start.” He immediately moved into marketing upon graduation and in early 1983 got his first taste of the communications revolution that was ahead. Centered around the ubiquitous Atari videogame console, his startup company, Control Video Corporation, tried to develop a concept whereby games could be downloaded via your phone line and an associated modem. Quantum Computer Services rose from the ashes of that failed company when, in 1985, Case and an influential friend Jim Kimsey oversaw what was ultimately to become America Online. The name change did not take place until 1991 as technology and applications started to catch up with the theory of online communications.

AOL really took off and became the platform for many individual online revolutions. “I think it took us nine years to get one million subscribers to AOL, and then in the next nine years we went from one million to 35 million.” As an example of innovation, the first truly automated multiplayer online role-playing game emerged as part of a decade of unbelievable growth. “Most of the people who had PCs did not have modems and could not use those PCs as communicating devices. They really were using them for spreadsheets or word processing or storing recipes or playing games or what have you.”

2001 will be remembered for a number of bad reasons, including what we now know as the dot com recession. A number of ill thought out conclusions and a number of managerial and accounting faux pas ruined a spectacular $160 billion merger between the then dominant AOL and media giant Time Warner. Much has been written of the AOL Time Warner disaster as something that had, in theory, so much potential started to unravel. Within two years Case had resigned as chairman but stayed on the board of directors for some additional time. By early 2005 he admitted that the merger should be unraveled, allowing AOL to set off on its own path.

AOL never recovered from its once heady heights. It surely did not help that the very business model itself was forced to change; AOL was unable to charge for access through its service, as access to the World Wide Web was becoming much more mainstream and widely available.

By 2005, it appeared as if Steve Case had picked himself up and dusted himself off when he launched Revolution. The company’s mission is to partner with entrepreneurs to build businesses seeking to give people more control over their lives. This venture reflects a lot of the philanthropic backbone that Steve is perhaps less well known for. Revolution seeks to help develop programs in the health and wellness fields, an area particularly close to his heart following the death of his elder brother Dan in 2001 from brain cancer.

In his spare time, Steve is the chairman of two nonprofit organizations and is often involved with strategies to help businesses succeed within America. He has been honored with the National Mentor in Partnership Leadership Award. Back in his native Hawaii, he is also an investor in companies that seek to develop new operating models within the agriculture industry.

“If you’re doing something new you’ve got to have a vision. You’ve got to have a perspective. You’ve got to have some north star you’re aiming for, and you just believe somehow you’ll get there, which kind of gets to the passion point.” Many people may still be bitter and refer to the estimated $135 billion in stock losses that occurred following the disintegration of AOL Time Warner, but Steve Case continues to believe that he can contribute greatly to the lives and well-being of Americans off-line as well as online.

Adam Toren

Howard Hughes was probably the first truly famous, controversial, wealthy extrovert. When you think of an archetypal billionaire his name probably comes to mind. He lived his life his own way and was by any definition, completely unorthodox. In later life he became a recluse which only served to accentuate the mystique surrounding him.

Hughes was born on Christmas Eve 1905 in the lone star state of Texas, which seemed a fitting location for someone who was to go on to be larger than life. The entrepreneurial spirit existed in the family as his father was at the helm of the Hughes Tool Company. Howard did not apply himself and despite the fact that he was enrolled in private school, seemed to want to concentrate more on golf than anything else. Education was abandoned altogether when father Howard Sr. died when his son was just 18. Howard dropped out and inherited the family estate.

As he matured into adulthood, Hughes’ interest became very diverse and his ambition and ego plain to see: “I intend to be the greatest golfer in the world, the finest film producer in Hollywood, the greatest pilot in the world, and the richest man in the world.” Family quarrels ultimately led to him turning over operation of the family business and beginning his successful focus on the movie industry. With assistance from his uncle Rupert, who worked for Samuel Goldwyn, Howard and his first wife moved to Hollywood to start making movies. Academy Awards and controversy followed, as he was never shy about pushing the boundaries. Even in those early days there were rumors about his involvement in espionage and “behind the scenes” activity.

As his burgeoning movie industry career unfolded, he also founded an aircraft company which, like his movie business, was also a subsidiary of the family tool business. Hughes again broke boundaries and never shied away from being controversial. Despite several clashes with authority he was an aviation pioneer, setting speed and endurance records. In July of 1938 he piloted a special Lockheed plane around the world and cut the previous New York to Paris record, set by Lindbergh, in half. This industry was his true pride and joy, as “I want to be remembered for only one thing – my contribution to aviation.”

As the second world war approached, Howard become embroiled in one of his most famous controversies. He was contracted by the government to build three “flying boats” in short order and only produced one, which itself flew only once. He was ridiculed by the public, who labeled the plane “the Spruce Goose.” The goose remains to this day one of Howard’s lasting legacies.

Socially, he never seemed to want to settle down, often dating Hollywood actresses, especially Katherine Hepburn. He seemed to be ever on the move and his empire peaked, postwar. Through all this expansion the boundaries between right and wrong became increasingly unclear and his huge empire was often linked with organized crime and the Central Intelligence Agency. Members of the Hughes staff were implicated in plots to assassinate Cuban leader Castro, a controversy that trailed all the way up to the White House.

Hughes became more and more embroiled in the seedy side of politics and scandal. “Every man has his price, or a guy like me couldn’t exist,” he once said, unveiling his modus operandi for all to see. By the time of the infamous Watergate break-in of 1972 he was right in the middle of the forces that linked the conspiracies leading to the ultimate downfall of both the Kennedy brothers and the Richard Nixon administration.

Major deals and controversy continued to follow. Hughes became a primary stockholder in Trans World Airways but sold his stock in the company when it faced numerous lawsuits in the ‘60s. Later he was to take over Air West and placed himself in the midst of another row.

Towards the end of his life he moved to Las Vegas and became more reclusive. As news began leaking about the CIA assassination plots he could not be contacted, yet the Hughes Tool Company was still front and center in clandestine operations and was indeed contacted by the CIA to help in a Soviet spy mission.

In 1972 Hughes sold his remaining stock and ended his business dealings. His health was deteriorating markedly and he traveled to various different cities, including London, seeking treatment. Howard Hughes died April 5, 1976 and there followed a nasty battle for his estimated $2 billion estate, a controversy which seemed fitting in death for a man who was truly larger than life itself.

Adam Toren

Fortune magazine probably summed him up appropriately. They called Harvey Mackay “Mr. Make Things Happen,” and this accurately describes this powerhouse of a man. Mackay has been at the helm of a highly successful self-made corporation for some 50 years now and he relates to his experience within many of the media engagements and products that have made him famous.

Harvey Mackay was born in his beloved state of Minnesota in 1932, to newspaper correspondent and schoolteacher parents. He enjoyed a public education and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1954. Right out of college, Harvey went to work in the shipping department of an envelope company, gradually rising to the role of salesman. His entrepreneurial spirit came to the fore and he left to develop his own envelope manufacturing company, the Mackay Envelope Company, which thrives to this day.

Mackay is most famous as a columnist, motivational speaker and best-selling author. His unique style has endeared him to many and has inspired countless numbers of people to succeed. He has the ability to tone every subject with a human touch, as witnessed by the titles of his New York Times number one bestsellers – Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition (Collins Business Essentials), Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt: Do What You Love, Love What You Do, and Deliver More Than You Promiseand Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty : The Only Networking Book You’ll Ever Need. Each title reflects a vital business anecdote and gives you an idea how colorful and inspirational he can be.

Mackay’s bestsellers have been translated into 35 languages and distributed to 80 countries through more than 10 million copies. His philanthropy extends to over 20 nonprofit boards dedicated to the assistance of others and his motivational speaking talents are in great demand.

Harvey dedicates a lot of his success to his experiences with the envelope company. Today the business employs over 600 people and is worth over $100 million. His philosophy is ingrained – “do what you love, love what you do and deliver more than you promise.”

The master of networking, Harvey Mackay believes in a regular interactive relationship with his network and is convinced that it should be a lifelong practice. He believes in gathering as much information as he can about anyone that he comes into contact with for social networking reasons. He reasons that the more he knows about you, the better able he will be to treat you as you would want to be treated. “If you wish others to believe in you, you must first convince them that you believe in them.”

Harvey has managed to stay competitive in the cutthroat world of business whilst maintaining a high degree of personal integrity. His skill at relationship building has served him well, as has his ability to relate to the aspiring business person & entrepreneur.

Adam Toren

The story of the French fashion designer Coco Chanel is quite remarkable. She can be credited with making a significant impression on female fashions and is treated as an icon in the industry. She continued to innovate and contribute all the way up to her death at the age of 88.

Born on August 19, 1883 in Saumur, France, Chanel – whose given name was Gabrielle – endured a troubled childhood. She was placed in an orphanage by her deadbeat father and was raised by nuns. However, as the nuns taught her how to sew, this paved the way for significant achievements ahead. Trying to find her way in life she briefly became a club singer and this is where she assumed the name “Coco.” This name was a “shortened version of Cocotte, the French word for “kept woman”” according to Chanel.

As she passed from her teen years, Chanel became involved with a couple of wealthy society figures in Paris. This association allowed her to start a millinery business and achieve reasonable success, expanding to other cities. She soon started making clothes and her offbeat style became an instant hit.

It was in 1922 that Coco Chanel introduced one of her iconic products – the perfume, Chanel Number 5. This was indeed the first product to ever feature a designer’s name and it is popular even to this day. Perfume “is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion… that heralds the arrival and prolongs your departure,” she explained. It was around this time that she met her business partner, Pierre Wertheimer, whose family still has an element of control in the perfume company today.

Revolutionary designs continued through the 1920s, including the legendary Chanel suit, which borrowed elements from men’s wear and helped liberate women from the restriction of corsets. “Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury,” she once said. The black dress, once reserved for mourning, was developed for evening wear and became very chic within society. Chanel had a natural eye and an entrepreneurial touch. “Fashion is not simply a matter of clothes. Fashion is in the air, born upon the wind. One intuits it. It is in the sky and on the road.”

The devastation of World War II had a significant impact and Chanel closed her business. A controversial affair with a Nazi officer heralded a very negative period during her life. Indeed, after the war ended, Chanel was interrogated about her affair and it is rumored that only the intervention of her friend Winston Churchill saved her from serious repercussions.

After living a relative life of exile in the postwar period, Coco Chanel emerged back into the public eye at the age of 70. Once again, her natural and casual clothing became a hit with women and she’s credited with introducing bell bottom pants and pea jackets into common culture.

Whilst she passed away in 1971, her legacy lives on to this day. Chanel never married, saying that “I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.”

The accomplished designer Karl Lagerfeld took the reins of the company in the ’80s and the organization honoring her name continues to thrive today. Numerous biographies have been written about her life. Katherine Hepburn starred in a 1969 Broadway musical “Coco” and in more recent times the acclaimed actress Shirley MacLaine starred in a television production focusing on Chanel’s career resurrection.

Adam Toren

Lorenzo Borghese may have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he was soon to spit this out and relinquish his noble Italian ancestry by moving to the United States when he was just five years old. Apart from a few years studying in central Florida, the “Prince” has lived in the Northeast, and in his beloved Manhattan since 1997.

37-year-old Borghese can trace his ancestry all the way back to Pope Paul V and his family name is steeped in Italian history and folklore. He spends little time focusing on his background and is largely Americanized with a poor command of his native tongue.

One thing that he did pick up from his family however is the entrepreneurial bug. Grandmother Marcella Borghese founded her own cosmetics company which was to became part of the giant Revlon in the ‘eighties. Lorenzo applied a twist to this idea and founded a line of luxury pet care products using all natural ingredients. In 2003, after he had received his MBA from Fordham University in New York, he founded Royal Treatment which has since grown to offer almost 100 products for your pampered pets. “People spend so much time and money dressing their dogs in outfits, but I realized that the multi billion dollar pet industry was void of bath and body pet products. The way I see it, any problem creates opportunities. If you see a problem, fix it”.

Borghese believes in a hands on approach and is heavily involved in the day-to-day operation of the company. “I’m working 7 days a week. Even if I’m on vacation, it can be difficult to relax because I can never let go of my company. Whether I’m approving art work or ingredients, I’m involved with everything”. He firmly believes that you have to stand out to succeed and believes that he has filled a much needed niche in the marketplace. Major expansion plans include the creation of private label products for various pet stores and an expansion into the far east. “Tough situations happen every day. There’s always something new that happens that’s a problem.”

Whilst Borghese is involved in several successful ventures, including GTE Partners (a private label Italian cosmetics concern, headquartered in New Jersey) and Multimedia Exposure Inc. (television direct marketing and distribution) he has achieved some notoriety from his appearance on the television show The Bachelor. This ABC TV production is a popular reality show and pitted him against 25 women through a search to find true love.

Despite his TV fame Borghese has his nose firmly to the entrepreneurial grindstone and has recently expanded his love for pets through the foundation of a social networking site, nuzzleplanet.com. When not working he can often be found helping numerous animal shelters throughout the country.

He firmly believes in doing “what you love to do” and being passionate about your work. Much of his business endeavors surround pet care as this is clearly one of the loves of his life. “People who complain all day and hate their jobs are not usually doing something that they love. Do what you’re good at doing. I have a friend who recently decided to open a car wash and now he can enjoy it and grow his business because he likes what he is doing.”

Matthew Toren

The lumbering, sleeping giant awakes. What will soon become the world’s largest economy is very much on the radar screen as it emerges from centuries of sleep. China’s potential for growth and its likely impact upon the economies of the Western world cannot be underestimated. Several homegrown entrepreneurs are riding that wave and one of their most notable nationals is Jack Ma, who founded the business-to-business website alibaba.com. After a meteoric rise, Ma’s company went public and now has a valuation of more than $30 billion.

Ma is certainly a child of China’s Cultural Revolution. He learned English when he was 12 and was able to interact with a number of foreign tourists. In his own words his eyes were opened. “China was opening up and a lot of foreign tourists went there. I showed them around as a free guide and practiced my English. Those eight years deeply changed me. I started to become more globalized than most Chinese. What I learned from my teachers and books was different from what the foreign visitors told us.” A visit to Australia in the early ‘eighties reinforced his vision.

Ma was not a model student and flunked university several times. Upon graduating with a degree in English he took a mundane teaching job at a university, but his passion had been fueled and when the business environment started to open up in the mid-nineties he started searching in earnest for ways to get into the corporate world.

During a visit to the United States in 1995, Ma discovered the Internet. Showing significant entrepreneurial skills he decided to set up a search engine centered on his own country. “I borrowed $2000 to set up the company. I knew nothing about personal computers or e-mails. I’d never touched a keyboard before that. That’s why I call myself “the blind man riding on the back of the blind Tiger.””

During the next few years his skills improved considerably and his business venture attracted a lot of interest from other emerging enterprises within China. But it was in 1999 that things really started to take off. “My dream was to set up my own e-commerce company. I gathered 18 people in my apartment and spoke to them for two hours about my vision. Everyone put their money on the table and that got us $60,000 to start Alibaba. I wanted to have a global company.” In fiction, the words Ali Baba conjure up visions of the command that the character of the same name gave in order to open doors to hidden treasures. The choice of name is an inspired one.

Ma contends that the company survived in the initial years only because they were very prudent, but they were able to expand considerably when they received investment dollars from companies such as Goldman Sachs. The vision of the company is to help small and medium-sized companies to interact and make money. He wanted a business model that worked. “It has to be – click and get it – if I can’t get it, then it’s rubbish,” he observes.

Like all expanding businesses, Alibaba suffered through its ups and downs. Ultimately, they developed a product for Chinese exporters to meet US buyers online and from there the business-to-business site really exploded. A new site taobao.com did so well that in 2006 eBay shut down its own similar site in China. Revenues for Alibaba exceeded $440 million in 2008.

“My vision is to build an e-commerce ecosystem that allows consumers and businesses to do all aspects of business online. We are going into search with Yahoo and have launched online auction payment businesses.” Ma maintains that he wants to create 1 million jobs in his own country, to change China’s social and economic environment and make it the largest Internet marketing place in the world.

This softly spoken 44-year-old calls himself a purist. He wants to be able to influence many people in the development of his beloved home nation. “When I am myself, I am relaxed and happy and have a good result.” It seems that Ma must be relaxed and happy all the time.

Adam Toren