Not long ago, I heard this piece of advice from Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba and one of China’s richest man: “Don’t be the best. Be the first!” This advice is very profound. But it is also very counterintuitive and goes against the grain of conventional wisdom that we have learnt since we were children. If you want to succeed in today’s hyper-competitive world, you have to be a contrarian. Conventional wisdom will not work anymore.
