Prince

"[Jack Ma's] score was several points below the normal acceptance rate at other universities for a full four-year undergraduate degree... but Hangzhou Teachers College had a few spaces left for male students and Jack squeaked in... In his sophomore year, Jack was elected president of the school's student union where he launched Top Ten Campus singers Competition, and was later president of the Hangzhou Student Federation."

That's an early excerpt from the lucky and ambitious life of Jack Ma. It is clear that what lead to Jack Ma and Alibaba's success was his incredible ability to communicate and influence.

The book focuses mainly on the story of Alibaba, but that story can't be told without telling the story of Jack Ma. This book is a business book masquerading as an autobiography. It speaks about earnings, IPOs, and scandals related to Alibaba and the raising internet scene in China.

It's a bit out-dated, but it's not hard, with a little imagination, to map the concepts in the book to modern technology tools.

Overall, I would recommend this as a foundational book to any knowledge worker trying to optimize their productivity system.

The book tells the story of a young single mother living in Queens moving back to her hometown in upstate New York and encountering her past troubles.

The book had a slow and clunky start, but it picked up at the middle. The suspense was amazing, but the writing and story were not inspiring.

3/5 stars.