Li Ka-shing : Hardworking,Frugal & Steadfast
August 4, 2011
The Honourable Li Ka-shing GBM, KBE, JP (nickname “Superman”) stands 11th in the Forbes List with an estimated wealth of US$26.0 billion.He is the wealthiest person of East Asian descent.
Li is a product of adversity.He sees himself as a gnarled tree firmly rooted among the rocks of a mountain slope.Whenever he has found himself beset by troubles he has found himself “upto”dealing”with it.He describes himself as hardworking, frugal, steadfast,willing to learn and build a credible name.These qualities have taken him very far indeed in life.Presently, he is the Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) and Cheung Kong Holdings; through them, he is the world’s largest operator of container terminals(including those in Hong Kong, Vancouver, Canada, China, UK, Rotterdam,Panama, Bahamas etc.- in all, his business controls 13% of all container port capacity in the world) and the world’s largest health and beauty retailer(a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, the A.S. Watson Group is a leading retail operator with over 7,800 stores whose portfolio encompasses popular retail brands in Europe such as Superdrug (UK), Marionnaud (France), Kruidvat (Benelux countries), and in Asia including health & beauty specialist Watson’s Your Personal Store, PARKnSHOP supermarkets, Great Food Hall, TASTE food galleria, gourmet boutique style fine food hall, Fortress electrical appliance stores, Watson’s Wine Cellars and Nuance-Watson airport duty free shops. ASW is also a major producer and distributor of water products and beverages in the region with Watsons Water the top selling brand in Hong Kong). His companies make up 15% of the market cap of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.In fact the story goes that out of every dollar spent in Hong Kong, 5c goes into Li Ka-shing’s cash-registers.His business empire 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. Read more of this post
Here is a video “Money’s Prophets” based on Prof.Niall Fergusson’s work to balance out all the sinister acts attributed to the Rothschilds in ‘The Money Masters’.Do watch it.It will show an ambitious family rise from relative obscurity to the pinnacle of finance.It will show how they deliberately cultivated their social superiors till they could buy they way into the aristocracy.They might have been upstarts early on but soon they became the very establishment they worked so hard to enter.Undoubtedly they enjoyed the privileges that came from wealth and the proximity to power but it’s hard to see them as evil incarnate.Whatever motives others might choose to impute to them ,they probably saw their own actions as purely business.In fact if we consider the fact that they chose to diversify internationally as a protection against losses due to Anti-Semitic persecution it’s hard not to feel sympathy for them.Do watch this documentary and draw your own conclusions. 
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