Swimming with Asian Sharks - Business Secrets from the Pacific Rim

Then, later, he became a politician in Taiwan, an ambassador in Hong Kong, an artist, and a writer.

Business is very much like the life of my Grandfather.  Luck plays a large role in how far you get.  Even if you have the skills and the resources, this does not guarantee success.  If my grandfather had been unlucky and unable to find a family to take him in, he would have starved to death.  If he hadn’t had a friend to help him escape to Hong Kong, things would have been unpleasant in China.  If you find yourself wondering why the other guy got the big break while you are struggling, luck of the draw may be the cause; don’t allow this to upset you, though, because eventually, if you stick to it, luck will come.

12 Years’ Worth of Determination

From 1958 to 1970, my aunt tried to get into Hong Kong from China.

The first time she tried to reach Hong Kong, she went by motorboat.  However, this attempt ended abruptly when she and her fellow travelers were caught and towed back to another station.  It took her nearly four months to get home, going from prison to prison.

The second time she went via a mountain route; the police would send dogs to hunt down anyone who tried to reach Hong Kong this way.  Those who made the journey used tiger droppings to cover their scent. This didn’t work for my aunt, as the dogs and gunshots were too close, so she turned back slowly, concealing herself in the jungles and in holes until she got home.  Many people were killed falling from the mountain, and they died without even knowing if that was the right way to go.

The next three times were by boat.  Where did they get the money for the boats, you ask?  They needed several thousand RMB to buy a little motorboat, which would be confiscated if you failed your run. 

Auntie has a crippled arm due to a biking accident.  For her, the fastest way to make money was to capture clams using string.  The average salary of a farmer back in the day was seven RMB a month. With her clams she was able to make about three RMB a day by selling them at market.  She would tie the rope to her waist, and sway back and forth until she caught a number of shellfish. If the wind was strong, she would lose the day’s catch, and this would break her heart. Eventually, with the money she earned from selling her catch, she managed to save up a couple of hundred dollars to go splits with five other people to buy a boat. How did these people have thousands of dollars to buy a boat?  Some had relatives in America who sent thousands of RMB back, so she would partner with these rich people to make a run for it.

The next two attempts by boat failed.  She was lucky; she had a relative in the processing pipeline for people who got caught, or she would have faced more serious consequences for trying to cross the border illegally.

They made another attempt, again by mountain; this also failed.

On their last attempt, they carried weapons with them because they were sure they would either make it or die fighting.  They couldn’t afford guns, so they carried hammers and knives; six adults and one child boarded the tiny motorboat.

They were not the only ones; a few other boats set sail that night.  As they motor boated across the water, they could hear someone shouting “people trying to cross illegally!” The party got ready to fight for their lives.  It appeared that one of the boats got caught.  The person manning the boat panicked, and released the sail, which caught a heavy gust of wind.  The boat, which had originally been heading right towards Hong Kong’s shores, got blown almost 190 degrees off course.  The boat sailed for many hours until it finally hit shore on an unknown mountain range.

At this point, it was pitch dark; the party had no idea if it had made it to Hong Kong or returned to China.  The group decided to take a gamble, leave the boat, and climb the mountains to find a place to hide until morning.

The next morning they climbed to the peak to see where they were.  There were a few people in the mountains, gathering stones to sell.  The party asked these stone gatherers where they were, and the stone gatherers told them they were in Ching Shun.  My aunt asked them how far they were from Hong Kong and they told her it was several hours away.  She pressed them further, asking, “Is this Hong Kong or China?”  “Hong Kong,” came the reply.  At this point, the group felt as though it had won the lottery.  Countless people had died trying to get to Hong Kong, and they had made it by blind luck.

My aunt and the rest of the group begged these stone gatherers to let them stay the night.  They agreed; they also told them that people in Hong Kong were sickly yellow and thin, and that the people in their party looked white and fat, so what was the point of going to Hong Kong?  My aunt answered, saying, “Because there is nothing to eat in China.”

One member of the group had four sacks; one sack was filled with HKD and one was filled with drugs, to sell if necessary.

Business is about persistence.  If you eliminate the chance of turning back, like my aunt did when they decided to cross the border or die trying, you’re more likely to succeed.  As Napoleon Hill illustrates in his book Think and Grow Rich, desire is the starting place of all achievement.