Shadowing Practice: The best tips for innovation by Jack Ma - Learn English Speaking with Video

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I was sitting there listening and I forgot I'm going to speak.

I'm getting so excited when we talk about innovation.

It's something that in the past 20 years, people say, Jack, what are you doing?

I call myself innovation.

But most people say you're crazy.

You're doing something that never exists.

And I'm very, very honored to be invited here today.

I think I want to say great congratulations for this great

innovation center the opening I met Simon Paris I think 10

years ago in Davos I listened to his speech his determination

for innovation leadership courage inspired me I would say many of the things

that Alibaba doing that needs courage needs determination needs leaderships

so I think he is with us all the time

and I think this innovation center is also a gift for

the 70th anniversary of Israel four months ago I came to

Israel this is my first trip to Israel I came with

737 Alibaba senior executives why we came here we got a lot of invitations

but the reason we came here because we had a huge debate among ourselves

because of the competition because of the pressure because of all these things

that around us the anxiety and I say let's go to Israel

when you are there you know what competition means

when you're there you know when the people surrounded you how you can survive

and after after four days visited the government companies venture capitalists

and a lot of entrepreneurs we learned two things first is innovation second is who's the courage to challenge

and we find in Israel innovation is everywhere

and just like people it's just like a water it's just like a food it's so natural

and I think to not discuss about innovation is the innovation

in Israel people here all talk about this in the past 70 years for my experience for what we learned

that Israel people proved one thing even you have nothing you haven't anything

or you don't have anything but if you have brain if your heart you can make everything possible

for my understanding brain is the place where you hold the

knowledge education training the heart is the place where you hold the wisdom and IQ is the brain

and EQ is the heart.

If you have a strong EQ, you may be easy to be successful, but people like you, you have a value, you have a friendship, you have trust.

But if you have great IQ, it's very difficult for you to fail quickly.

A lot of people easy to get success, but losing very quickly.

That because they don't have enough IQ.

When IQ and EQ connected, that means when brain and heart connected, that is the knowledge and wisdom connected that is called innovation.

And I believe that if you want to be successful, you should have the good EQ.

If you don't want to fail quickly, you should have IQ.

But if you want to be respected, you should have LQ, the Q of love.

And Israel has all these things.

Israel has the best education systems.

I had a wonderful discussion with the minister of education.

I learned a lot, and I think this is the treasure.

Israel is the country.

They know the most precious resource in the world is not oil, it's not gas, it's the human brains.

You make the human brains great.

And Israel also have the great life experience that very few countries in this world have.

You combine these things together.

And that is the secret sauce of magic of Israel's success.

I'm very happy to hear that today the innovation is for better life

and this is Israel innovate not only for himself not only for Israel Israel innovate for humans for the world

and this is the exact LQ we need today I come

here to discuss my innovation where the idea comes from

and people say Jack after 19 years and you know being an Alibaba founder and CEO.

What you've got?

People say you got rich.

I think the wealth I've got is that I've known and seen, met

so many great people in the world i remember one story

after second world war a grandson asked grandfather grandfather you joined the war so are you a hero in the world

the grandfather said no i'm not the hero

but i have the honor to work with

and fight together with all the heroes i'm lucky enough in

the past the 19 years i have the honor to meet

so many great leaders and make

so many great entrepreneurs innovators i think from them i have the honor this is my wealth

and i want to share with you most of innovations not

because they want to because they will foster to israel there's no water no oil no resources

and most people innovate for success

and I found Israel people innovate for survive you don't have diamond

but you have the biggest diamond exchange in the world

and you don't have you don't make cars

but you have the best car technology in the world you'd have water

and I heard I was first time four months I heard

that you are one of the biggest export of vegetables or fruits to the Europe and you'd have water

that's amazing and the other thing is

that Alibaba you know people say Jack you are amazing how

could you make such a huge investment in nine years ago to develop develop cloud computing

and you know nothing but technology that is true I know nothing

but technology I'm scared of technology

so I was the first to take the product tester of my company

because I said if I can use it 80% of people can use it

if I cannot use it 80% don't want to use it

so nine years ago I know

if we do not develop technology on clock computing Alibaba will bankrupt because we cannot afford the cost of IBM and Oracle.

The cost of using this IT is so too expensive for us, so we have to innovate,

we have to design a technology that is simple enough.

If we can use that technology simple and cost effective, not only for Alibaba, it's also going to support millions of small business.

That was, we were forced.

And the other thing is that, you know, we have 11 11 november 11 is the largest shopping day

of china last year for the first minute minute of november

11 we had 18 million people came in for the one sec first the second with

that good technology our company will bankrupt immediately we sold more

than 24 billion dollars last year for one day this year

we don't know how much we will sell for one night it's the technology behind it

so we were forced to do that

and today a lot of people say oh young people have no opportunities i think

that that thing i've heard for 40 years

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when i was young i oh i hate bill gates

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because i think microsoft take all the opportunity ibm oracle they take all the opportunity

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but later i found when people start to complain

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that is the opportunity most people keep on complaining

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if you can solve the complaining if you've solved the problems

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and that is the opportunity innovation is the way to solve anxiety worries

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and to suspect innovation is for happier life

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so we believe through the innovation you can grasp the opportunity of the grasp the opportunity for success.

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The first technology revolution released the physical power of human beings.

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The second technology revolution released the distance.

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And this is the third technology revolution, released the human brains.

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Human beings, like the Prime Minister said last night, we never satisfied with today

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and the way to make yourself to change to change yourself to embrace this challenge is called innovation

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and I would like to say who are those kind of

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innovation innovated the people who are these kind of people I

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would say those innovators they look like crazy stupid lazy

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and even lies

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when we started Alibaba I tell the story about I went

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to Silicon Valley raising fund I talked to over 30 venture capitalists they say crazy Alibaba stupid crazy name

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and e-commerce in China won't work

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because China has no internet China had a censorship no credit card no deliver nothing else

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so they think it's impossible to make they think Jack you're coming here to tell to tell a lie.

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But we believe China has the future we believe internet is going to change the China

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and at that time e-commerce in America style is only supported big companies we believe small business

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and people say small business they don't make money how could you make money from them they're right we say

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if small business in America e-commerce for big companies helping big

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company to cut the cost we think helping small companies not to teach them how to cut the cost

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because they know better than you do you should help them how to make the money

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and washing machine a lot of lot of things are designed

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for lazy people people don't want to wash them washing machine

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people don't want to climb they have the elevators even the

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iPhone came a lot of experts of telephone set how could this stupid thing there is no even press buttons

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when Bell start sell his telephones a new famous newspaper in America's tell the policeman please arrest

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that guy because he's cheating the people

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so innovation innovated the people are believers most people seeing is believing people like us we believe

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and we see it innovation innovators they are not one person they a group of people

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so when you invest in money in somebody you should see do this guy does this guy have followers

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if you have a group of people who are crazy like him

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that would be great i remember early 2000 i went to united states to talk about

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and make my speech about internet in the future in china

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i believe internet population in china will be bigger than the usa people say ah

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that is not true my reason was very simple china have

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1.4 billion people usa have only 300 million people make everybody online you know 300 million right

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so china has a huge potential for that

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but one of the guys said jack what you're talking about internet companies are the values

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and mission that is crazy and i say sir please come to my company

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so i came to hanzo my company spent one week

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and the day he left he said Jack I know you're crazy

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but I found 100 people your companies they're all crazy crazy

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people don't think they're crazy they think people outside they're crazy

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so and most of the innovators are not very successful people

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because successful people very difficult to change I never tried to

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convince successful people they will tell you how they succeed they will continue to do this.

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Those people who don't succeed, they always want the success.

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So one of the reasons why Alibaba succeed 20 years ago, we never tried to convince those people who are successful.

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We try to spend time on the people who are 18 years old, 20 years old, they are not successful.

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So 20 years later, they become successful, we become successful.

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That is how we did it.

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Now most of the people who buy online there for 35 to 40.

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20 years ago they only spent two dollars now they spend three thousand dollars that is the difference.

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Innovation has nothing to do with the technology.

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Technology is just a way to do it.

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When we talk about innovation everybody say ah hi technology it's not about that.

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Innovation everybody can do it right.

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Those people who do not know anything like technology like me

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we can find those people rely on these people try those

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people who have the technology in our site alibaba site there's a one guy selling shoes 48 inches only

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and i said how can this guy sell shoes for 48 inches

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and we find out he's very innovative because people with 48

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inches feet difficult for him to buy shoes in the shops there's only one on the online

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and there are a lot of innovative ways those guys design

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lazy guys you know they watch tv lying on the sofa

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so they designed a specific glass that you can lie on the on the sofa watch the

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on tv they sell perfectly

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and there are also some guys helping people to write letters to say goodbye to boyfriends and girlfriends

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and write the resign letters to bosses there are a lot of crazy interesting ideas they are all wonderful sellers

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and most of the innovations today are only talk

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innovation they think it's an idea entrepreneurs make the innovation reality

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so we have to share a real entrepreneur have to believe

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in the future have to suffer have to be ready for the terrible our lives in the future.

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So we think, I believe everybody has the ability of innovation, but you just don't spend the time to discover that.

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And lastly, very important is the government.

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Now, we are entering into a new world.

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This world is going to be very complex, very disrupted, and every technology revolution caused world problems.

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The first technology revolution caused World War I.

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The second technology revolution caused World War II.

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Now we are into the third technology revolution.

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We should not have a third world war.

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But if there is a third world war, it should be the war against poverty, disease and environment.

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These are the things that human beings should fight together and work together.

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A government should lead, not to govern.

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The government should empower and protect the innovation, not control the innovation.

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And I think the best investment for tomorrow is education.

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In the past 20 years, we make people like machines.

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Next 20 years, we will make machines like people.

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You like it or don't like it?

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We have to change ourselves.

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This thing is coming.

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how what we should do to change our education systems, to teach our kids they can do the things the machine cannot do.

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This is the thing.

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It's concerned to every family and every government should pay attention to that.

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And I think government should also encourage entrepreneurships.

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I really appreciate Prime Minister yesterday to talk about entrepreneurs.

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It's the entrepreneurships that make ideas reality.

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Innovation is always going to destroy of yesterday.

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A lot of people who successfully yesterday would not like it.

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So government should know what not to do.

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Let me tell you one story.

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In the 1860s, when UK had first cars, the cars came in, automobile coming,

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they destroyed a lot of jobs of these horsemen.

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Horsemen at that time are the main jobs of the society.

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These are white-collar people.

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They went to the government, pushed the government, say you should stop these cars because they're going to kill people on the road, it's going to destroy the jobs.

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So the government passed a law called red flag bill.

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They do not allow any car drive faster than seven miles per hour.

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And they should always follow behind the causes.

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That's stopping.

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Protect the people for some people's interest, but destroy the whole industry.

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And the other thing, innovation is interesting, and it's also gonna stop by a lot of people.

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People don't like it.

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I went to the Museum of Basketball.

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You know, basketball used to have a basket.

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People threw the ball inside, and with a ladder to take the ball out.

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This thing has been lasted for 18 years.

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And there's one guy said, why not cut the bottom?

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And it could be easier.

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It's a great idea, much more basketball become more competitive, but people hate it.

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It's the people who hate it the most or the guy who wins the letter.

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He said, I'm losing my job.

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So this is what I want to say.

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People start to worry.

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Artificial intelligence, robots, jobs.

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But don't worry about it.

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Human beings are much smarter than machines machines machine can never control

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because machine only have chips human beings have the hearts I remember 1995

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when I studied Ali

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or studied internet in China there is a big meeting there's

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a small meeting amount 24 people in Beijing in the evening

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for discussing for three hours there are a lot of experts

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start to discuss about the Internet they think internet is going to destroy this destroy

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that a lot of worries they think government should control it.

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Almost 22 years passed.

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Those things we worried never come up.

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Those things we did not worry all came up.

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And I want to say don't worry about the future.

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Young people don't worry of the future.

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And don't worry about the the size of the machine.

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I think small business don't worry about because small business believe small is powerful, small is beautiful.

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Using innovation, small business can compete anybody in the world

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and this is just like Israel the small is beautiful and small is powerful so my ability is

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that rely on the young people rely on the small business

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believe the future be optimistic the world is beautiful today is just a beginning

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but anything remember this is my philosophy of life the past 20 years Today is difficult.

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Tomorrow is much more difficult.

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The day of tomorrow is beautiful.

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Most people die tomorrow evening.

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Thank you very much.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 256 sentences and 2948 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:43. The speaker talks at a steady 142 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — The act of innovating; the introduction of something new, in customs, rites, etc.
entrepreneur /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/ (noun) — A person who sets up a business; generally, a person who owns and manages a business and assumes its financial risks.
solve /sɒlv/ (verb) — To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out.
connect /kəˈnɛkt/ (verb) — To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object.
commerce /ˈkɑ.mɚs/ (noun) — The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; especially the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended…
courage /ˈkʌ.ɹɪd͡ʒ/ (noun) — The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
rely /ɹɪˈlaɪ/ (verb) — To trust; to have confidence in; to depend.
succeed /səkˈsiːd/ (verb) — To follow something in sequence or time.
grandfather /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑðɚ/ (noun) — A father of someone's parent.
lazy /ˈleɪ̯zi(ː)/ (adjective) — Unwilling to do work or make an effort; disinclined to exertion.
shoe /ˈʃu/ (noun) — A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of…
complain /kəmˈpleɪn/ (verb) — To express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment.
wash /wɑʃ/ (verb) — To clean with water.
anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ (noun) — An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event.
diamond /ˈdaɪ.ə.mənd/ (noun) — A glimmering glass-like mineral that is an allotrope of carbon in which each atom is surrounded by four others in the form of a tetrahedron.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
rely on (verb) — To be confident in.
come up (verb) — To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
come from (verb) — To have as one's origin, birthplace or nationality.
come in /ˌkʌm ˈɪn/ (verb) — To enter.
come in for (verb) — To be subjected to.
come with (verb) — To join and come along.
do with (verb) — Only used in to do with

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 50 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, shoe /ˈʃu/, wash /wɑʃ/, determination /dɪˌtɜːmɪˈneɪʃən/, entrepreneurship /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ.ʃɪp/
Long words — get the stress right: innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, entrepreneur /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, determination /dɪˌtɜːmɪˈneɪʃən/, innovative /ˈɪn.əˌveɪtɪv/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like innovation, entrepreneur, solve.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who are · people who don · people who buy
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	be invited · is called · be respected
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've known · i've heard · you've solved

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: The best tips for innovation by Jack Ma - Learn English Speaking with Video

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