In life, we come across several moments such as good, bad and ugly. Life is a series of choices and the little decisions that we make determine our destiny. This is the story of a school dropout who struggled in life before becoming the richest man in Asia.
Li Ka-Shing was born in Guangdong province, China. After his father’s demise, he was forced to quit school to be a sole breadwinner for his family before he turned 15. With no basic education at one end, life put him in the dark zone.
But he had the burning desire to do something big. He somehow found work at plastics trading company where he worked 16 hours daily. After years of back-breaking work, he was able to set-up a company on his own identified as Cheung Kong Industries.
Li Ka-Shing is a hard-working person, according to a Harvard Business School article. He is an epic source of inspiration to many for his integrity and adaptability. Besides setting up a business, he made a huge impact in several other fields too. The Cheung Kong Group operates in 55 countries and employs over 260,000 staff worldwide.
“From his humble beginnings in China as a teacher’s son, a refugee, and later as a salesman, Li provides a lesson in integrity and adaptability.
Through hard work, and a reputation for remaining true to his internal moral compass, he was able to build a business empire that includes: banking, construction, real estate, plastics, cellular phones, satellite television, cement production, retail outlets (pharmacies and supermarkets), hotels, domestic transportation (sky train), airports, electric power, steel production, ports, and shipping.”
From facing all types of challenges in life to becoming the business magnate of Hong Kong, Li Ka-Shing has come a long way in his life to relish the taste of success.
Today, the 90-year-old is not just a Hong Kong businessman but also an investor, and philanthropist. Hong Kong businessman in Asia has mind-boggling numbers to his name with staggering net worth- $31.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of April 16, 2014.
Today, Li’s businesses cover almost every aspect of life in Hong Kong i.e. from electricity to telecommunications and from real estate to retail and from shipping to the Internet.
