Page 24 - Sphere No.18 (Feb 2007)

22 SPHERE
A university is a place to nurture new ideas.
But at first his brainchild was met with indiffer-
ence and mistrust, especially in a society that
had been cut off from the outside world for 30
years, and in the early days even Mr Li himself
admitted that his was a “lonely passion”.
By 2006, however, this university, built on
what used to be agricultural land, had pro-
duced 42 PhDs, 1,081 Masters and 26,169
Bachelor degrees. Mr Li has said that this fills
him with “an emotion that words
cannot express”.
One sleepless night, as he wasmull-
ing over the future of the Foundation,
it dawned on him that it was an extension of his own life.
In his speech entitled “My Third Son” at the Forbes Award
ceremony, he said, “I have dedicated to him not only my assets
but all my heart, and I believe that my colleagues in the Foun-
dation and my family, are – and will remain – as committed
as I am to serving its causes, reshaping destiny through edu-
cation and seeking efficient initiatives that can forever help
those in need.”
In front of a 400-strong audience of CEOs eager to know the
secret of his entrepreneurial success, he had this to say, “We
his strength. This was the first major battle in his life, and years
later he still wondered about where he found such a strong will
to fight on.
Lifetime achievement
That September afternoon in Singapore, I was still perplexed
with the question of how that sick, lonely, poverty-stricken
16-year-old had become the richest man in Asia. There was
a commotion as soon as the 78-year-old Mr Li strode into the
hall, a reflection of the esteem in which he was held by the audi-
ence of elite businessmen who had gathered for the
awards ceremony.
Wherever he is, Mr Li stands out from the crowd
like a superstar. Whether he is conducting a busi-
ness meeting, fielding questions at a press confer-
ence, or attending a meeting in the Great Hall of
the People in China, people want to shake his hand,
have their photograph taken with him or get his au-
tograph. Once, when he was waiting for his yacht in
Hong Kong, a bride left her bridegroom’s side in the
middle of the wedding pictures to have her photo-
graph taken with Mr Li.
“Few entrepreneurs in Asia, indeed in the world,
have achieved so much from such humble begin-
nings, building a business empire which spans 54
countries andmultiple industries,” said Steve Forbes,
President and CEO of Forbes Inc. To Mr Forbes, Li
Ka-shing is not only the “greatest entrepreneur of
our time”, but also the “greatest entrepreneur at any
time in history”.
This latest award brings to mind his nomination as
the Entrepreneur of the Millennium in 1999 by The
Times and Ernst & Young, ahead of such names as
John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Bill Gates and Akio
Morita. In the history of human economic enterprise, few en-
trepreneurs can match Mr Li’s magic touch that has maximised
the value of every business he is involved in.
“My third son”
Despite all these awards and honours, Mr Li would much rather
talk about the work of his charity, the Li Ka Shing Foundation,
than his own illustrious achievements. Shantou University, es-
tablished in 1981, is one of his favourite topics of conversation
and few outsiders realise how much its success means to him.
Mr Li receives the Malcolm
S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement
Award from Steve Forbes
in Singapore.
“I believe that my colleagues in the Foundation
and my family, are – and will remain – as committed
as I am to serving its causes . . .