Doing It The Old Fashion Way

Many of today’s billionaires have become rich at a very early age. There is no doubt they put in the hard work.  One man not only put in the hard work, but had to face great adversity. How many of today’s young billionaires had to stop schooling at the age of 15 to support their families? He managed to do so by simply working hard, grinding through the years to get him to where he is right now.

Li Ka-shing was born on June 13, 1928. He took on responsibility at an early age. His father died when he was 15 years old. He had to stop schooling to support his family. He worked 16 hours a day for a plastic trading company to make ends meet.

All his hard work paid off. By 1950 he was able to start his own plastic manufacturing company which sold plastic flowers to America. This was a lucrative business.  When his lease was not renewed it forced him to buy his own land that led him to the real estate business in Hong Kong. Riots in 1967 caused people to flee Hong Kong, dropping real estate prices. He saw this as an opportunity to acquire more land making him eventually as one of the largest land owners in now booming Hong Kong.

He was able to acquire Hutchison Whampoa Limited in 1979, giving him a huge conglomerate with many businesses in different industries. It also made him one of the largest port container operators in the world.  Li is known to spot emerging trends like in the mobile phone industry, make investments, and then sell the company at a huge profit. 

He’s always looking ahead and is now into venture capital, funding startup technology companies. He did it the old fashion way.