The entrepreneurial story of property tycoon Li Ka-shing

When he was 14 years old (1940), he fled to Hong Kong with his parents during the war in China to join his wealthy uncle, Chong Jing-an.

As the eldest son, Li decided to drop out of school in order to support his family and not to depend on others. Due to his hard work and outstanding performance, he was appreciated by his boss and promoted to general manager in only two years, when he was only 18 years old.

In the summer of 1950, Li Ka-shing determined to start a business, borrowed 50,000 Hong Kong dollars from friends and relatives, plus his own savings of $ 7,000, rented a factory in Shau Kei Wan, formally founded the "Cheung Kong Plastics Factory".

However, Li Ka-shing predicted that the plastic flower business will not always look good, he believes that the opposite of what is extreme. So a sharp retreat, and switched to the production of plastic toys. Sure enough, two years later, plastic flower products are seriously stagnant, while "Cheung Kong" has been in the international toy market, the annual export volume reached 10 million U.S. dollars, for the Hong Kong plastic toy export industry's top.

In February 1965, Hong Kong had a serious bank credit crisis, panic, investors and the public have to sell their properties, leaving Hong Kong. In 1967, there were anti-British riots in Hong Kong, which further brought the real estate market to a standstill.

However, Li Ka-shing was optimistic about the future of Hong Kong's industry and commerce, believing that Hong Kong, a colony full of business opportunities, would not be in chaos for long. He did the opposite, buying up lots of land and old buildings while people were selling off their properties at bargain prices. Within three years, the storm subsided, Hong Kong society returned to normal, the economy recovered, and a large number of businessmen who had left Hong Kong that year returned, and property prices then skyrocketed. By the early 1970s, he had already owned 6.3 million square feet of real estate.

In Hong Kong in the 1970s, the four most capitalized British-owned foreign banks, Jardine Matheson, Swire Pacific, HSBC and Hutchison, had a strong hand in many large unemployed businesses. Li Ka-shing decided to use the strong capital of CKH to acquire some powerful listed companies in Hong Kong, and the first target was the main flagship of the Jardine Matheson Group, "Wharf".

In 1978, Li Ka-shing used another unexpected tactic to acquire another old British company, Green Island Cement, and became the chairman of its board of directors. However, the most memorable victory for Li Ka-shing was the successful control of the old British consortium Hutchison Whampoa.

With HK$693 million in assets, Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings took control of Hutchison Whampoa, an old British consortium worth more than HK$5 billion, a miracle of "a small snake swallowing a big elephant"; and Li Ka-shing became the first Chinese to own a British consortium.

After the 1980s, Li Ka-shing's territory underwent another series of expansion. In addition to real estate, the company also operated shipping services, electricity supply, container terminals, and retail, forming a large, integrated consortium that was indestructible and significant in Hong Kong.

After 1990, Li Ka-shing began to develop the telecommunications industry in the United Kingdom, forming Orange Telecom, which was listed in the United Kingdom with a total investment of HK$8.4 billion. In April 2000, he sold more than 40% of his shares in Orange to Deutsche Telekom AG for HK$113 billion, the highest profit ever made in Hong Kong, and Orange was listed in the UK in 1996.

In 2000, Li Ka-shing was the first Chinese to be listed on the list of the world's 10 richest people twice, with personal assets of US$12.6 billion (HK$98.3 billion), and the first Chinese to be listed for two consecutive years. He has also been honored as an outstanding entrepreneur around the world and has received honorary doctorates from prestigious international universities five times.

After more than 20 years of "pioneering", Li Ka-shing owns four blue-chip companies with a market value of HK$781 billion, including Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, Hongkong Electric and Cheung Kong Infrastructure, accounting for 20% of the Hang Seng Index. The group employs over 31,000 people and is the 4th largest employer in Hong Kong. 1999 group profits reached HK$117.3 billion.

Li Ka-shing must read a new book for half an hour at night before going to bed to learn about cutting-edge theories of thought and science and technology. According to himself, he reads all books on literature, history, philosophy, science and technology, and economics, except novels. This is actually a habit that he has kept for decades