11 Quotes That Illustrate The Strange, Relentless Genius Of Alibaba Founder Jack Ma

Alibaba, the enormous Chinese e-commerce company, is expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange this Friday.

At its helm is founder Jack Ma, a charismatic leader who started the company with 18 friends out of his small apartment in 1999. Although Ma is no longer CEO of Alibaba, he's still the face of the company.

Ma has succeeded because he is relentless, and some of his more memorable quotes - "Today is cruel, tomorrow is crueler" - illustrate how that relentlessness has formed his thinking.