by Elle Morena

Created on: June 11, 2008   Last Updated: June 27, 2008

The following are two Asian men whom are entrepreneurial success not only locally, but also noted internationally. One by taking available opportunities during World War II, and the other, a post 1997 Asian financial crisis victim, also known as the Sandwich Man.

Genting Group
Lim Goh Tong was born in 1918, an educated immigrant with nothing on his back after the death of his father, took a risk from the strive and revolution during that time in China to come over to Malaya in 1937, when he was 19 years old. He worked for his uncle as a carpenter where he picked up the local language, Malay, and he eventually became a building sub contractor completing his first project, a two storey school, before the Japanese invasion in 1942. Prior to that, Malaya was under British rule.

During the second world war, all development halted, whereby Lim Goh Tong then became a vegetable farmer, followed by petty trading of scrap metal and hardware. After the Japanese were defeated in 1945, there was a demand for heavy machinery to resume operations in the mining and plantation sectors. Since he was established as a trader he decided to trade in second hand machinery, and this was where he made his first fortune that lead to his first major venture into iron mining. He was made partner, when his creditors could not afford to pay for two bulldozers. With his mining knowledge and his experience in machinery, he ventured into tin mining using modern dredges, and into second hand trading of heavy machinery. He subsequently set up his own family company Kien Huat Pte Ltd, which was a construction company that benefited from the availability of all the machinery that was already his.

His company was noted for the many development projects which included the building of dams, and he was once caught on cash flow problems which almost made him a bankrupt. However, he overcame the problem and from there onwards there was no looking back. His most ambitious project is developing Genting Highlands Resort, with his own resources, which includes the only one casino in Islamic Malaysia. He envisioned a casino and a resort, which is located on a mountain, that is also strategically near Kuala Lumpur city. He foresaw the great business potential, as the neighboring countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore did not have any casinos as yet. He encountered many obstacles, which was overcome through perseverance, when constructing a resort out in the jungle. Genting Group later ventured into

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