Today is cruel. Tomorrow is crueller. And the day after tomorrow is beautiful.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the struggles of today and tomorrow while suggesting that hope and beauty will ultimately emerge.
Jack Ma's quote reflects on the difficult and often harsh realities we face in our lives today and in the immediate future. However, it conveys a powerful message about resilience and optimism, indicating that despite current hardships, a brighter and more beautiful future awaits us. It encourages individuals to endure through tough times with the belief that better days are ahead.
In practice
During a motivational speech about overcoming challenges.
Hong Kong people say Hong Kong needs to preserve its uniqueness. I say Hong Kong's uniqueness is in its diversity, its tolerance of difference cultures... China does not want to see Hong Kong in decline. I have full confidence in its future.
If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat tons of them.
It's not that other countries steal jobs from you guys. It's your strategy. Distribute the money and things in a proper way.
Helping doing business easier, we choose the name Alibaba because it is a global company. It is founded in China, but it was created for the world.
In the beginning I just wanted to survive. For the first three years, we made zero revenue. I remember many times when I was trying to pay up, the restaurant owner would say, 'Your bill was paid.' And there would be a note saying, 'Mr. Ma, I'm your customer on the Alibaba platform. I made a lot of money, and I know you don't, so I paid the bill.'
Even if your competitor is still small in size or weak, you should take him seriously and treat him as a giant. Likewise, even if your competitor is massive in size, you shouldn't regard yourself as a weakling.
It is best as one grows older to strip oneself of possessions, to shed oneself downward like a tree, to be almost wholly earth before one dies.
Desperate times breed desperate measures
Republics, one after another . . . have perished from a want of intelligence and virtue in the masses of the people. . . .
The most effortful forms of slow thinking are those that require you to think fast.
You must bring out of each word its practical cash-value, set it at work within the stream of your experience.
Show your contempt for the problem and your concern for the person.
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