Dai Peiliang

In Hongkong, Li Ka-shing is a myth.

Where there are Hong Kong people, there is the name of Li Ka-shing; Or now, where there are Chinese footprints, there will be Li Ka-shing's name.

He became famous for a while, not only because he is one of the richest people on the planet, but also because he set a precedent for Chinese consortia to annex foreign consortia in Hong Kong. He is the first Chinese to join a British-funded consortium.

When his subordinate "Cheung Kong" group successfully controlled Hutchison Whampoa Limited, an old British consortium worth HK$ 5 billion, with assets of HK$ 693 million, the media in Hong Kong described Li Ka-shing's success as "snake swallowing elephant" and "rock-breaking". However, in Li Ka-shing's view, British people are not elephants, and China people are not snakes. He said, "In my life, I haven't forced to buy a company. Up to today, all the companies I have acquired are friendly and easy to discuss. "

In p>1958, when he established the world's largest plastic flower factory in Hongkong and was known as the "King of Plastic Flowers", people talked about Li Ka-shing. In 1979, when "Cheung Kong" Group surpassed the British consortium to "land" and became the largest real estate group in Hong Kong, people talked about Li Ka-shing. In 1984, when Jardine Matheson, a veteran British-funded consortium, announced that it would move its books to Bermuda, and he announced that "Cheung Kong will never move its books" and "all its companies are registered in Hong Kong", people talked about Li Ka-shing; When Li Ka-shing donated more than one billion Hong Kong dollars to build Shantou University, people were still talking about Li Ka-shing. In 21, when Forbes magazine named him "Asia's richest man" and "Chinese's richest man in the world" in the latest list of the world's richest people, people talked about Li Ka-shing. There is no doubt that in the years to come, people will often talk about this name.

This simple and China-rich name is a miracle. If Chinese people regard the name "Napoleon" as a model of self-made, then China people can be proud of the word "Li Ka-shing". However, this does not mean that they are the same kind of people or can be compared. As Li Ka-shing himself said, "I dare not say that there must be no fate, but if something goes against everything in terms of weather, geography, physics, etc., it will definitely not succeed, and we rush to do it and blame fate when we fail. This is wrong. Napoleon, a historical figure, is admired by many people, but I think some of his words are too much. For example, he said that there was no word' difficult' in his dictionary. As a result, he finally failed and died in a semi-prison on a desert island. "

For a China person, it is undoubtedly exciting to have a face-to-face talk with Li Ka-shing. His life is so attractive because of its legendary color. A young man left his hometown and lost his father at an early age; From nothing, with his bare hands, to becoming a multi-millionaire at the age of 3, Li Ka-shing's business empire now covers dozens of countries all over the world. However, it is by no means easy to record him accurately through words. This is not because he is inaccessible or tight-lipped. On the contrary, biographies and articles about him can be easily searched. However, people sometimes doubt about those stories that are familiar to people and are still circulated orally or in writing. What is Li Ka-shing's true human nature?

Because there are thousands of hard-working people in this world, and how many self-made people regard Li Ka-shing as a model. However, the richest man in China can achieve today not only because of hard work, but also by what?

Li Ka-shing quoted The Analects of Confucius and said, "Being unjust and rich and expensive is like a cloud to me." What does he think of fame and wealth? Is he really what he says?

subordinates, friends, students ... almost everyone who has come into contact with Li Ka-shing praised him. Is it true or lies?

Wealth and emotion are everyone's puzzles. How does Li Ka-shing, 72, comment on this?

Wealth: "Being unjust, being rich and expensive is like a cloud to me"

In p>1938, when Li Ka-shing was just in junior high school, the Japanese bombed Chaozhou. Up to now, Li Ka-shing still remembers the appearance of the dropped bomb, and there is only a thin line between birth and death. After a year, Li Ka-shing fled to Hongkong with his father, Li Yun, via Shantou. The imprint of his childhood made Li Ka-shing pay unusual attention to medical care and education all his life.

"Because he (father Li Yunjing) has lung disease, I went to buy some old books. Buy some books about the treatment of lung disease and how to take care of patients with lung disease. I was only thirteen years old. After reading those books, I was shocked. I had all the symptoms. My childhood was hard, because there was no one to talk to; Did you write to tell mom? Absolutely not. Never tell your mother anything unpleasant in your life; For dad, there is only one thing that can comfort me so far. The day before my father died, he, on the other hand, had nothing to say but ask me what I had to tell him. If you think about it, you also feel sad; But I told him confidently and comforted him:' Our family will have a good life.' "

In Hong Kong, Li Ka-shing may be the fastest walker. Even today, Li Ka-shing, who is over 7 years old, is still striding like a fly. Many young people can't catch up with him, and his watch is always 15 minutes ahead of others. It is no accident that Li Ka-shing can achieve today. When he started his business, he worked 14 or 5 hours a day and insisted on going to night school at night. In 1981, when Radio Television Hong Kong selected the man of the hour to interview Li Ka-shing, it asked him such a question: "Mr. Li, how much does your success today have to do with luck? "

Li Ka-shing's answer at that time was," I can't deny that the times make heroes ... "

Now Li Ka-shing faces this question again, and his answer is," I was modest then, but I'll be frank today. When I started my business, I almost didn't rely on luck. I made money by working, working hard and working ability. It is very important to devote yourself to your work. You should be interested in your career. You are interested in your career today, and you must do well in your work. "

Fate is like a pair of flying hands, and quite a few people think that they were born at a bad time. Does Li Ka-shing believe in fate?

"I never believed in fate when I was a child. When I was young, I could say that I was born at an inopportune time, took refuge in Hong Kong during the war of resistance against Japan, and my father died. At the age of 15, I was burdened with my family. When I was a child, I was a very, very fond of studying. My father died of lung disease. After my father was in the hospital for two or three days, I knew I had lung disease myself, because a 13-year-old child knew how to buy old medical books to read. For 38 days and nights, a doctor didn't see me. There was blood in the sputum in the morning and fever in the afternoon. No one could talk about all the symptoms. Remembering this, it was really sad and bitter.

At that time, lung disease was a fatal disease. When I went to take an X-ray, the doctor would be scared. There were many different holes in my lungs, which were calcified. How can we treat it at that time? You vomited a lot of blood, and you have no money. If you have a cold and are in poor health, drink salt water. Salt water can't cure diseases. But if you have a sore throat, a cold and a fever, salt water will help.

at the age of p>21, my lung disease was cured. I was a manager at the age of 18 and a general manager at the age of 19, in charge of office work and factory work. Although I work part-time, I work for more than 1 hours a day. Sometimes I do it at night, and I am very, very tired. There is no elevator in my apartment at 11 o'clock in the evening. I often climb the stairs to the tenth floor, and sometimes I am so tired that I climb with my eyes closed. I said, I must have a way to make myself feel more comfortable when climbing stairs. I will count the stairs while climbing, and when I have counted the number of stairs, I will open my eyes ... "

Every day in Li Ka-shing, life always starts earlier than others, but rest is always later than others.

"Fifty-eight years, fifty-eight years, and I have been working for fifty-eight years. "

In the past 58 years, Li Ka-shing has grown from nothing to four listed companies with a market value of 3 billion. The ups and downs he faced witnessed the economic miracle created by Hong Kong since the post-war period, and his personal development process is also a commercial history of Hong Kong since the post-war period.

Since the age of 3, Li Ka-shing has never counted his wealth carefully.

"I made a lot of money for the first time in 1957 and 1958. Will life really be happy if I have money? At that time, I began to feel confused and felt uncertain. Later, we finally got to know each other. We should make more money in our careers and spend money whenever we have the opportunity, so that it makes sense to make money all our lives. When I first started working, I was under great pressure. When I work, especially in the first year or two, I have to know and pay tuition. I am extremely frugal and have to pay for my siblings to attend primary and secondary schools and even universities. It is quite hard. In the first few years of starting a business, I had very little money, and I really had to face many problems and hardships. But slowly, you figured it out. With such diligence, you are willing to seek knowledge, and you are willing to think about innovative ideas often, saving yourself and being generous to others. Make friends, be loyal and willing to help others. If you can do it yourself, do your best. If you follow this road, you will achieve something sooner or later, and you should live a carefree life. When doing business in by going up one flight of stairs, you will never be greedy, let alone insatiable. "

Today, the social environment is quite different from that when Li Ka-shing struggled many years ago. Some people can do whatever it takes to succeed, but Li Ka-shing said," Never agree to do whatever it takes to succeed. Even if you get a little by luck, it will not last long. As the saying goes,' If you get married mean, you can't enjoy it for long' ".

For a successful person like Li Ka-shing, diligence is undoubtedly basic and necessary. However, there are thousands of people who work hard in the world, but only a few have achieved great success. For those who dream of success, Li Ka-shing said, "Besides diligence, be frugal (only to yourself, not to others); In addition, we must establish a good reputation and sincere interpersonal relationships; The ability to judge is also an important condition for the success of your career. You must fully understand and study everything in detail and master accurate information, so you can naturally make appropriate judgments.

Knowledge is the most important link. Some people are satisfied at a certain point, stop learning and stagnate. Today, I continue to study, try to watch the latest reports on science and technology, finance and politics, and insist on watching English TV every night to brush up on my English. "

Some people say that Li Ka-shing is the most frugal billionaire in the world, but he says," Being unjust and rich and expensive is like a cloud to me. "

Righteousness: Not only businessmen, but also a country can't stand without faith.

Li Ka-shing has placed great hopes on his two sons, Li Zeju and Li Zekai, since childhood.

"'Ze' is the generation order of our family. When I name them, I hope they will be big enough to set an example. "

When our two sons are studying, Li Ka-shing often takes them to the company to watch our meetings and let them sit by." My purpose is not to teach them to do business, but to let them know that doing business is not that simple; How much effort, how many meetings, and how many people help to complete a thing. Rich children are plants that grow up in greenhouses. No matter what trees or plants, their roots must be weak. If you indulge him a little more, he will have a hard life in the future. He can't cope with any blow and adversity. Although I am not very skilled, I can say that my little tree grew up in the wind and rain, from the cracks in the sand and gravel. You can try it on the mountain. It's quite hard to pull up the small plants that grow out of the cracks in the sand and gravel. "

When talking about his father's education, Li Zeju, the eldest son, was deeply moved:" Dad knows how to use money. Knowing how to use money means that he knows what is important to him in life. He feels that if he can help those less fortunate people in his life, whether in medical care or education, he feels that doing so will make him feel richer ... I feel very lucky. Others can't estimate that our life is so simple: but simplicity is not suffering, but simplicity is happiness. "

One day, a big tree in Li Ka-shing's residence was blown down across the doorway by a typhoon, and two Filipino workers sawed the tree under heavy wind and rain, and they were soaked to the skin. "Li Ka-shing immediately told his two sons to get up quickly and change their swimming trunks. The workers sawed the tree and they were responsible for pulling it away. The most important thing is to remember that people are human beings like themselves. Because the environment is not as good as ours, they left their hometown to work here. Today, it is stormy and rainy, and they can't be expected to cut trees. They were told to wear swimming trunks to help. They were also obedient when they were young, and they really went down to help lift trees. "

China's business culture for thousands of years preaches the word" traitor ".However, for this 3-year-old man who made a fortune by his own efforts, the most important quality of a businessman is faith.

"It's not only businessmen who make others trust you, but also a country that has no trust. "

In fact, Li Ka-shing's" faithfulness "in his career is inseparable from his" sincerity "towards people, and the combination of sincerity is" righteousness ". This point is deeply felt by his employees.

In a company in Li Ka-shing, there was a middle-level accountant who had worked for more than 1 years. Because of glaucoma, he couldn't continue to work. At this time, all the medical expenses stipulated by the company had been used up, and the pressure on his life was great. After Li Ka-shing knew it, he said two words, "First, I will support you to see a doctor; Second, I don't know if your wife's job is stable. If she is unstable, she can work here. I can guarantee her a stable job. Your wife has a stable job, so you don't have to worry about income and life. "

Later, the sick accountant accepted the doctor's advice and retired in New Zealand. Things should have passed, but what is commendable is that over the years, whenever Li Ka-shing read articles about the treatment of glaucoma in newspapers, he would ask his subordinates to send those articles to New Zealand and the accountant with glaucoma to see if he knew the news and knew these new treatments. The accountant's whole family was very moved. His children were very young, maybe less than 1 years old, but the children drew a greeting card by themselves and gave it to Mr. Li. A thin card said the word "person" in capital.

If we say that a person's attitude and thoughts can best be seen from the education of his children, Li Ka-shing said, "In the past, 99% of his two sons were taught how to behave, but now they sometimes talk about business, about one-third talk about business, and two-thirds teach them how to behave. Because the world is the university question, when I was young, I already knew who I should know and the order of seniority, and how to teach' giving' and' erosion' is the university question. Everyone in the world is smart, and it is important to convince people and like to associate with you. I often teach them that in life, at this moment, ten times as much money is not enough to cope with so many businesses, and many of them are actively looking for themselves. World financial fluctuations will happen at any time, so we should always be on guard. The most important thing is to teach them to keep their promises. Keep your word to others, and there is loyalty between friends. Today, many people may not believe it, but I really think the word' righteousness' is useful for life. "

" Ten years ago, when the two children were young, I remember it was summer. We came to this lake and canoed here. The same mountains, the same environment; A hundred years and a thousand years later, the mountains are still the same, but people are different. When you think that life is just a short journey, you hope to sow good seeds in the world as much as possible while you are able to do things. This is worthwhile. "

Education and medical care: beyond the limit of life < p