Charlie Rose Talks to Alibaba's Jack Ma

Tell me about the size of Alibaba and its IPO.
We have over 100 million buyers visiting our site and shopping at our site every day. We’ve created 14 million jobs for China directly and indirectly. And we’ve grown from 18 people in my apartment to 30,000 people on four big campuses. I remember, in 2001, we went to raise some $3 million in venture capital in the U.S. and got rejected. So we’ve come back and raised a little bit more: $25 billion. This is not money; this is trust from the world, trust from the people. They want us to do a better job and help more people. And they want to have a good return. So it puts more pressure on me.

You got used to rejection. Weren’t you turned down for admission to college?
There’s an examination for young people to go to university. I failed it three times. I failed a lot. So I applied to 30 different jobs and got rejected. I went for a job with the police; they said, “You’re no good.” I even went to KFC when it came to my city. Twenty-four people went for the job. Twenty-three were accepted. I was the only guy. …