How Jamaican Billionaire Michael Lee Chin Inspires This Teen Entrepreneur Success is tough enough in big, wealthy countries. This teen 'trep from a tiny island nation is studying the example of a local hero.
By Warren Cassell, Jr. Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As a teen entrepreneur I look to learn from those who have achieved massive amounts of success. Coming from a small Caribbean island with a population of only 4,000, I know that becoming wealthy is not an easy task but Jamaican billionaire Michael Lee-Chin has proven that it isn't an impossible one either.
At the age of 32, Lee-Chin borrowed $500,000 and invested it in the stock market. Four years later his investments had appreciated by seven fold. Today, he is one of the wealthiest persons living in Canada. There is no one who I admire more than Lee-Chin. He is proof that even a person from an island with limited opportunities can create success. Here are five lessons that I've garnered straight from Michael Lee-Chin – an entrepreneur whose ideology stems from "doing well and doing good."
Related: Need Inspiration? Here Are 9 Ways to Find It.
1. Grasp every opportunity that comes your way. According to Lee-Chin, "Our behavior today will be our history tomorrow. Wealth is created by every instance in the real world."
There is no need to actively look for opportunities. They come by each and every day. The opportunities you seek are often obscured by the crisis or the danger they come with. You have to recognize these openings, and then steadily fight your instinct to back away and not tackle the dangers that come with them, head on. When you've found the right amount of courage, you can then start seeing the opportunities that lie ahead.
2. The way to success is simple, but not easy. Lee-Chin believes that in every endeavor you seek success in, there are three main principles to guide your way.
The first is to identify a role model, second is to amass the secret or the recipe of success from the role model, and third is to not let your ego or your arrogance hinder your way with the recipe or the knowledge you've acquired.
To identify a role model, look for who has achieved the goals you want to reach, ahead of you. Find out how your role model achieved their personal success. Lastly, do not arrogantly change the formula for success. Assume that if it worked for them, it will surely work for you.
3. Being successful requires 1 percent strategy and 99 percent execution. Most people do not have the commitment, discipline or focus to stick with the game plan over the long run, even when they have learned the strategies that led others to success, .
According to Lee-Chin, "It isn't easy to persevere but all of these ingredients are necessary to be successful in whatever aspect of life."
Focus leads to understanding and the more you understand the more you create a way to your own success. Own a few, high quality businesses and hold onto these businesses. Focus on long-term growth.
Related: Best Advice from Billionaire Investors for Entrepreneurs (Infographic)
4. Stand up with your own philosophy and values.
To be successful at anything, Lee-Chin believes that to do well (or successfully) while doing what's good is the perfect formula, and that one should, "invoke all of the character traits that lets you believe firmly on a principle, or in principles, a philosophy, a value-system that you really believe in and are willing to stand up and be a martyr for." According to him, committing with one's life to "a purpose that transcends making money," treating money as a positive results rather than the main driving force.
5. Do not be greedy. Greed is the strong desire for more than you need. Lee-Chin said that "when times are good, the hazard is that you become arrogant, and you depart from your core principles, you get greedy, emotions trip in, then you also get fearful."
When emotions are stirred, you lose the ability to make sound judgments. Lee-Chin added that "to be successful in the long run, what's needed is a sound intellectual framework for decisions and the ability to keep one's emotions from corroding the framework."
You need control over your desires and emotions to be the master of the way to your own personal success.
Related: Life Advice From 18 of the Wealthiest People in History (Interactive Graphic)
