In order to survive as a teenager, Chen Yongzhi left his hometown and went to the Philippines twice. At the age of 11, he entered the tobacco factory and became a miscellaneous servant who could do everything, and his young shoulders carried the burden of supporting his family.
Not yielding to fate, he worked half time, completed his university studies, opened a factory, turned over step by step, even if he fell, he did not flinch, step by step to build his own business empire, "king" in many industries, and has become a rich man in the Philippines. To reduce commuting time, he commutes only by helicopter.
In this issue, Ziya Children's Fun Merchant will take you into the legendary life of Filipino Chinese billionaire Chen Yongzhi.
Birth does not determine the direction of a person's life, and this sentence is particularly suitable for Chen Yongzhi. In 1937, he was born in Jinjiang City, Fujian Province, to a very poor family.
When Chen Yongzhi was 4 years old, it was just the peak of the "South China Sea", forced to make a living, his father took the whole family to leave his hometown and crossed the ocean to the Philippines. Because of their helplessness, the family lived a miserable life in the Philippines, often eating up and down.
To make matters worse, when he was 9 years old, his poor father fell seriously ill due to overwork, the top pillar of the family fell, the family had no income in the Philippines, and the mother returned to her hometown of Fujian with the whole family.
When people are miserable, it seems that they are more likely to encounter unpleasant things. Two years later, there was a sudden famine in his hometown, and the family had no grain harvest and could not eat their food.
(1) Livelihood
At this time, Chen Yongzhi had just turned 11 years old, and after consulting with his mother, he followed his uncle to the Philippines again. Before he was an adult, he could not do a lot of physical work, so he could only do some relatively easy work, and worked as a miscellaneous servant in a tobacco factory.
Every day, the teenagers who are busy before and after are not cleaning or sorting out materials, and there is no moment of leisure time. The hardships of life have not dampened the enthusiasm of teenagers to learn. Even if he was tired every day, Chen Yongzhi would still use the dim street lamp to keep his hands rolled.
He did not intend to study for the university, but he was so clever that he was admitted to the university, and after that, he worked to earn money to support his family while studying for courses in the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Time flies, after graduating from school, Chen Yongzhi did not leave the tobacco factory, but chose to stay, and the director of the factory also promoted him to a chemist. After staying for a while, he felt unwilling and did not want to work for others all the time.
In 1954, Chen Yongzhi left the tobacco factory and decided to start his own business and start a new journey in life. With the help of friends and family, he opened a starch processing plant.
Although Chen Yongzhi has many years of experience in working in tobacco factories and chemical knowledge, success is rarely achieved overnight, and it did not take long for him to fail miserably due to fierce competition.
The newborn calf was not afraid of tigers, and he did not retreat because of this, but bravely went forward, summed up the reasons for the defeat, and fought again. After analyzing the problem, he summed up a valuable lesson: everything has both good and bad sides, and it is important to convert unfavorable conditions into favorable conditions, which has an important impact on his later life.
(2) Establishment of trading companies
With the money he had borrowed, Chen Yongzhi started a business again and started a chemical production and trading company. At the beginning, it was very difficult to set up a factory, and he was eager to break one dollar into two pieces.
In order to save money, Chen Yongzhi, who is "not pulling out a dime", has looked for a lot of worn-out objects in the second-hand market, and it is this "searching" energy that allows the factory to develop smoothly. Unexpectedly, this simple factory earned him the first pot of gold, and later became the cornerstone of Chen Yongzhi's business empire.
Chen Yongzhi, who felt the joy of making money in entrepreneurship, decided to set foot in the tobacco industry. In 1965, full of confidence, he and a few friends founded the "Fukukawa" tobacco factory in a small house, and all the equipment in the factory was second-hand. The harshness of the production environment did not dampen the confidence of this group of young people, who overcame difficulties and were brave and tenacious.
In fact, when Chen Yongzhi founded the tobacco factory, the tobacco industry in the Philippines had already entered a state of fierce competition. Trying to squeeze out a little living space through a nameless small factory is simply whimsical.
But Chen Yongzhi, who was born with business acumen, found room for profit. The price of high-end cigarettes is too expensive, only the rich can afford to consume, the market share is not large; low-grade cigarettes are too cheap, many people taste a bite, they are reluctant to try again, there are almost no repeat customers; in between the mid-range cigarettes, deeply loved by everyone.
(3) Production of mid-range tobacco
If you produce this kind of smoke yourself, you can definitely make a big profit in the market, and he immediately asked the factory to produce mid-range tobacco, in order to open up the market, it is even more required that the quality of the tobacco produced must be better than others.
The tobacco produced by Chen Yongzhi was inexpensive, and once it was listed, it was sold out, and the tobacco factory also opened up sales channels.
No matter how strong people are, doing business will also experience ups and downs, and Chen Yongzhi has not been spared. In 1968, the booming tobacco factory ushered in an unpredictable natural disaster, a sudden typhoon destroyed the factory, and most of the equipment was destroyed in the wind and rain.
In the face of the powerless natural disaster, Chen Yongzhi was unusually calm, believing that he could definitely turn unfavorable conditions into favorable conditions. He and his workers worked tirelessly to repair the factory buildings and machines, and during this time, he found that his tobacco-making equipment was too backward.
Therefore, he boldly introduced the world's most advanced production lines and cigarette machines, which made the output of the tobacco factory increase significantly and the sales increase rapidly.
The Fukugawa factory has become the largest cigarette manufacturing company in the Philippines, and has a certain market share in Europe, america, other countries in Asia, and Chen Yongzhi has also become a well-known tobacco king.
As the tobacco business grew bigger and bigger, Chen Yongzhi also had more and more money in his hands, and he began to enter different fields. The scope of business extends to aviation, hotels, banks and so on.
In 1970, Chen Yongzhi founded Fumu Farm to develop the pig industry. It didn't take long for his pig farm to be the largest in Southeast Asia. In 1982, he invested in the brewery, which soon became the second largest brewery in the Philippines.
In 2020, Chen Yongzhi ranked 7th in the 2020 Forbes Philippine Rich List with a wealth of US$2.2 billion. [7] In April 2021, the Forbes Global Rich List was released, and Chen Yongzhi ranked 925th on the list with a wealth of US$3.3 billion.
Chen Yongzhi, who has been in a foreign country for a long time, has never forgotten that he has the blood of Chinese, and after making money, he has invested in domestic undertakings, involving Fujian, Guangdong and other places. At the same time, he is also a philanthropist, often helping the poor and the poor, donating to schools and revitalizing education at great expense, making great contributions to promoting the welfare of the whole society.
Chen Yongzhi is very fond of classical Chinese masterpieces, and during his miscellaneous work in a tobacco factory, after finishing work, he will read the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" under the street lamp, which has wonderful stories and wonderful strategies that deeply attract young people.
Throughout his life, Chen Yongzhi has won many reputations, "Tobacco King", "Pig King", "Beer King", any achievement is beyond the reach of many ordinary people.
With such high results, he is not proud and complacent, down-to-earth in business to make money. In his old age, he especially agreed with Lao Tzu's advocacy of "quiet and inaction, no dispute with the world", and his understanding of life has gone beyond fame and fortune.
After countless hardships, we know that success is not easy. Chen Yongzhi's life has been busy, when he was a child, in order to support his family, he did all kinds of chores, and when he grew up, for the survival of the factory, he ran east and west to pull business, brilliant and lonely, but always did not accept defeat and bravely moved forward.
Chen Yongzhi has many good qualities worth learning, dare to fight and dare to break through, be diligent and thrifty, and have great love. After reading his story, what do you think? Feel free to leave a message in the comments section.
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Golden glitter