3. Introduction
There are three kinds of people in life. There are businessmen, scholars and
scholars/businessmen. A scholar is a specialist in a particular branch of study. He/she is
a person who is highly educated or has an aptitude for study. The scholar suffers from a
condition I refer to as social polio; this disables him/her from socializing as much. They
are more inclined to studies and research. The scholar/businessman is quasi-social.
They are inclined to both business and social aspects, in short they break even. The
business man has good social characteristics, does not engage in research or many
studies, but instead utilizes the ability of intellects to achieve his/her goals. They are
backed by a natural strategy that is aimed at generating income. A businessman,
businesswoman, or businessperson is someone who works in business or commerce.
The term can refer to the owner of a business, an executive at a business, or a lower-
level manager at a business. At its most general, a businessperson is anyone engaged in
commerce or industry. These are pro-social, they portray or denote behaviour which is
positive, helpful, and intended to promote social acceptance and friendship for business
purposes mostly. Not everyone can be a scholar or businessman; some unique
individuals however share both characteristics.
People such as Warren Buffet and Hakainde Hichilema are both scholars and businessmen.
The essence or intention of this book is to help you find a category that will best help you
formulate the right strategies in life. It also gives you the chance to read about people who
fall under different categories and are successful. Every category has its own flaws and
advantages, and can be used to achieve success. You don’t necessarily have to be a
businessman or very educated to become successful, the key is taking advantage of what
you are good at. Athletes can be classified as businessmen as they require natural talent to
generate income. Talent is natural and cannot be learnt at school. Most books have
focused on organizational strategy but have neglected the individual who works there or
doing business. My aim focuses purely on the success of individuals and strategy at
individual level with examples of people who are successful because of good strategy.
4. Chapter 1: How to Categorize Yourself
According to Michael Porter an organization exists in an environment. The strategies
that it formulates will be based on the existing environmental factors such as
political, social, economic technological and legal aspects. PEST analysis is a scan of
the external macro-environment in which an organization exists. It is a useful tool for
understanding the political, economic, socio-cultural and technological environment
that an organization operates in. It can be used for evaluating market growth or
decline, and as such the position, potential and direction for a business. Political
factors include government regulations such as employment laws, environmental
regulations and tax policy. Other political factors are trade restrictions and political
stability. Economic factors affect the cost of capital and purchasing power of an
organization/individual. Economic factors include economic growth, interest rates,
inflation and currency exchange rates. Social factors impacts on the consumer’s need
and the potential market size for an organization’s goods and services
Social factors include population growth, age demographics and attitudes
towards health. Technological factors influence barriers to entry, make or buy
decisions and investment in innovation, such as automation, investment
incentives and the rate of technological change.
He also further notes that an organization also has internal factors such as
strengths and weaknesses; these include resources, capacity, capabilities, and
human capital. An individual person is not any different from an organization,
they have strengths and weaknesses, they exist in an environment and are
affected by political, economic, technological and legal issues. Your strength
can be your ability to grasps concepts or learn quicker, developing applications
and so on, in that instance you can be a scholar. If you can easily convince
people and setup business deals, or you are already selling and buying
commodities, then you are likely a businessman. . If you can do both, it’s most
likely that you are the unique type that can be a business man and scholar
5. Chapter 1: How to Categorize Yourself
The first step is to establish your strengths and weaknesses and see where
you best fit in. Most people have failed to be successful because they have
not categorized themselves and in the end choose a wrong category. The
next page will give you the opportunity to list your strengths and
weaknesses, in this way; it will be very easy to categorize yourself. Once
you have categorized yourself, it is thus important to know why you are
and why you need to be in that category.
7. Chapter 2: Why Categorize Yourself
Categorizing gives you an identity, a feeling of belonging or being affiliated to
something. A group of lions is called a pride. A group of mostly female lions is
called a pride, and a group of male lions is called a coalition. The pride contains
female lions and their young offspring, and usually has fewer than 20 members.
A coalition of male lions usually includes less than 10 individuals. A group of
elephants is called a parade and a group of Tigers is called a streak or ambush. A
tigress and her cubs may also be referred to as a streak or an ambush. Once you
are categorized, you can either walk with pride, parade or ambush your success.
You will know whether you are business minded, a scholar or both. In this way,
you will be able to come up with the best strategy that will be effective in
achieving your goals. When one knows who they are or where they belong, it is
easier to create synergies, groups and syndicates of like minds.
It is not a coincident that business people hung around together, neither is it a
coincident that nerds also hung around together. However, the scholar/ Business
man cuts across both barriers
8. Chapter 3: Attitude
Attitude can be a strong value or behavior for or against something. It has been
noted, though not really proven that if you hate a teacher you are most likely
going to fail their subject. You might think you like success but in real
quintessence you hate it, this is because you neglect the doctrines you need to
uphold in order for you to be fruitful. Misdirection is also an enemy to
successful. This book choses a category approach which will help individuals
understand who they are and what direction they need to take. Positive attitude
towards something will guarantee you good results. This is because of the
interest you take in getting to know what you are doing. It is the only way you
can become good at what you are pursuing. Categorization becomes important in
the sense that you can only have a positive attitude to something you know and
belong to.
If am not a banker, I would probably have a negative attitude towards it, but In
essence I may know a lot about banking and would be a good banker. This is
what I refer to as unrealized or repressed potential. This situation occurs when
you are wrongly categorized and display negative vibes towards your actual
category.
9. Chapter 4: Relationships
Relationships create bonds in each of the given categories. One can only
make and develop the right relationships when they know who they are.
These relationship are not only business or formal based, but also carry
some informal aspects. Emotions are shared, failure and success as well.
Everybody needs a shoulder to lean on, and advice in times of failure. It is
almost impossible to be successful without relationships.
10. Chapter 5: Challenges of each category
Each category has its own challenges. This book summarizes a few challenges you
are likely to face as you pursue your dreams. My approach assists you in knowing
actual challenges you might face and related to your category. It exposes you to
successful people who went through different kinds of situations to get where they
are. Inspiring stories such as that of Li Ka-shing. Li Ka-shing was born in
Chaozhou in Guangdong province, China, in 1928 to Teochew people. Due to his
father's death, he was forced to leave school before the age of 15 and found a job
in a plastics trading company where he worked 16 hours a day. In 1950 he started
his own company. From a school dropout to a business owner of multimillion
dollar group of companies. Li was no genius, he was an ordinary human being.
Alekperov is also an inspiring story. He had to work in extreme conditions on oil
platforms. On one occasion, an explosion on his rig threw him into the stormy
Caspian Sea, and he had to swim for his life, despite the trauma, he still persisted
and achieved his dream of becoming successful.
The point I am trying to put across is that whatever you think you might be going
through, someone out there probably went through the same or even tougher
situations. The difference in outcome was how each person responded to the
problem. Every problem except death always has a solution, temporal or
permanent. If you lack capital for your business look for someone who has, but
does not know what to do with it. Establish consortiums, start small and grow.
Scholars can use their knowledge to generate money, the problem with most
scholars is that they end up as company slaves.
11. Chapter 6: Persistence
This should be the most important topic in this book. Whether you are
categorized, have a positive attitude, already doing business or a scholar, without
persistence you are most likely to fail. Persistence is the ability to strive on in the
midst of trouble or crinkum crankum. An economy goes through 4 cycles.
There’s the recession, depression, recovery and boom. An individual goes
through similar situations, you might be facing a problem in your business, which
can be your recession. If the problem becomes worse that’s your depression, and
when you find a solution that becomes your recovery. The boom comes in after
the recovery, this is when your business can be fruitful. A scholar will go through
similar challenges. Studies are never easy and will expose you to situations that
make you wish you never started school. However the secret is to be persistent
during these trials, as well as making the right choices.
12. Chapter 7: Self Confidence
Self-confidence has a lot to do with how you feel about yourself. How do you
motivate yourself even when others are looking down on you or your ideas? Li is
a good example of a self-confident man. He did not care what he was going
through and what people thought about him selling plastic bags. Once you have
categorized yourself, it is important to be confident and true to who you are. If
you are a scholar or businessman be proud of your category. Most people divert
from their true calling due to loss or lack of confidence. The story of a man who
had 100 barriers to freedom is a good example of why we should never give up
on our dreams. The man gave up after jumping 99 barriers. Just when he had
reached the last wall, he felt tired and gave up, and instead started going back.
Just because he could not see where he was going, he lost confidence In his
ability to accomplish his mission and thought he would never make it
13. Chapter 8: Self Discipline
In most circumstances, people fail to succeed because they lack discipline. Each
category requires a level of discipline and commitment. If you are a
businessman, you are required not to misuse funds or capital for pleasure. For a
scholar, be committed to your studies, research and make use of your mind to
take advantage of what’s going on in the markets.
14. Chapter 9: Talk less, Listen and Learn More
Some proverbs state that there’s more wisdom in listening than in talking. This is
because the more you listen, the more you add on to your already existing
wisdom. Most people spend more time talking and miss out on what others have
on the table. Ninety percent of the time, we fail to realize what is wrong with
ourselves and only takes someone out there to help us notice. This also now
brings us back to the issue of relationships and why they are important. The
people we build relationships with have the ability to impart knowledge and help
us realize who we truly are. Categorization becomes important in the sense that it
is most likely impossible for someone in a different category to understand and
advice you correctly, in most cases, though not every case, good business advice
can be given by a good business man. For a scholar, a businessman may not give
you the right advice on how to do logarithms.
15. Chapter 10: Basic Understanding of Investments
Regardless of category, one should at least have a basic understanding of investments.
Investing is essential to making money. You have to invest money to make money.
Whatever your motto may be the idea to invest money is larger now more than ever and
continues to grow more and more each year. By foregoing consumption today and investing
the savings, investors expect to enhance their future consumption possibilities by increasing
their wealth. By the mid 1990’there were roughly 3 million households in America that
qualify as “millionaires. So far, American Stock markets has produced 300 billionaires
while in Asia, the stock markets have made more than 100 investors as billionaires. An
investment is the current commitment of funds to one or more assets that will be held over
some future time period. Investments can be classified into financial assets and real assets.
Investors have a choice of these assets based on their objective of investment. Financial
assets are paper claims on some issuer, such as the federal government or a corporation.
Marketable securities are financial assets that are easily and cheaply tradable in organized
markets (Financial markets). They include certificate of deposits, bonds, common stocks
and mutual funds. Real assets are tangible assets such as land, building, machinery, gold,
silver, diamond, and art.
The investors can be an individual, a government, a pension fund or a corporation
(company). Thus Investors can be classified as Individual investors and Institutional
investors. Any investment program will be successful if you follow some basic
rules and apply them sensibly. Get Rid Of Debt: As a common rule, you should not
have debt while making investments. The reason for this is that you cannot be sure
that you will receive a tax-free return from your investments that will equal or
exceed what you are paying in interest on your debt. Of course, this rule does not
apply all the time as you could simultaneously be paying back your home loan
while contributing to a retirement fund. Know the difference between Investment
and Saving: Investing means taking risks making it grow for medium to long-term
goals. With savings you are building up your resources; with investment your
money is working for you.
16. Chapter 10: Basic Understanding of Investments
Saving money is not investing. With saving, you earn nominal interest below the
inflation rate. Investing means seeking total growth of your money, which
includes, importantly, capital gains. Set Goals: Set investment targets. These
should be medium to long-term. Separate goals may include retirement, an
overseas holiday, or paying for education of children. The main reasons for
separating your investment targets are: the different time spans required to reach
each target; the priority accorded to each target; and the investment risk you can
afford to take to reach a target.
17. Chapter 11: Performance of Your Investment
Involves a number of complex methods which cannot be discussed in this book.
Performance measurement allows you to determine the success of your investment.
You have to evaluate risks that are being taken, the reasons for success or failure of
the investing. This in turn, could lead to revisions in the process. You will have to
look at expected returns, associated risk & certain tax considerations that may
affect the returns. Investors must measure & compare actual performance with
anticipated performance. To analyze the performance of individual investments,
investor must gather current market information & abreast of international,
national, economic & market developments. Indexes such as Dow Jones (DJIA) &
bond market indicators provide market behavior. Performance of individual
investment vehicles—stocks, bonds etc, can be measured on both pre-tax & after-
tax basis using holding period return (HPR). HPR measure total return on the
investment during investment period. HPR can be compared to investment goals. In
this instance, one category can do a cross reference or build a cross relationship
with other categories for advice, the most important thing is that you chose and
maintain a category
18. Chapter 12: Successful people and their categories
• I made an analysis of successful people and categorized them from studying their biographies. These include successful people from Africa, America, Asia, Europe
and Latin America
19. AFRICA
Aliko Dangote
Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian billionaire owns the Dangote Group, which has
interests in commodities. The company operates in Nigeria and other African
countries, including Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania, and
Zambia. As of January 2015, he had an estimated net worth of US$18.6 billion.
Dangote is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 67th richest person in the world
and the richest in Africa. Dangote said, "I can remember when I was in primary
school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets [sugar boxes] and I would start
selling them just to make money. I was so interested in business, even at that
time." The Dangote Group was established as a small trading firm in 1977.
Today, it is a multi-trillion naira conglomerate with many of its operations in
Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. In the 1970s he attended Al Azhar University,
Cairo, Egypt, where he bagged a degree in business studies and administration.
Dangote has expanded to cover food processing, cement manufacturing, and
freight. The Dangote Group also dominates the sugar market in Nigeria and is a
major supplier to the country's soft drink companies, breweries, and
confectioners. Dangote has also diversified into telecommunications, and has
started building 14,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables to supply the whole of
Nigeria. As a result, Dangote was honoured in January 2009 as the leading
provider of employment in the Nigerian construction industry. He said, "Let me
tell you this and I want to really emphasize it...nothing is going to help Nigeria
like Nigerians bringing back their money. If you give me $5 billion today, I will
invest everything here in Nigeria. Let us put our heads together and work."
Dangote can be categorized as a scholar/businessman as he qualifies for both.
Though he has always been a businessman.
20. Dr Deji Adeleke
He is a successful businessman and a billionaire. He was born on March, 6, 1957
in Enugu. Deji Adeleke used to be married to Dr. Vero Adeleke who passed away
in the year 2003. Deji Adeleke is the Pro-chancellor at Adeleke University in
Ede, Osun State of Nigeria. Dr. Deji Adeleke is the founder of Pacific Holdings
Limited, a company which specializes in investing in various sectors across the
country.
He is a scholar/ Businessman
21. Dambisa Moyo
Dambisa Moyo (born 2 February 1969) is a Zambian-born international
economist and author who analyzes the macro economy and global affairs. With
post-graduate degrees in business, public administration, and economics from
American University, Harvard, and Oxford, Moyo currently serves on the boards
of Barclays Bank, the financial services group, SABMiller, the global brewer,
and Barrick Gold, the global miner. She worked for two years at the World Bank
and eight years at Goldman Sachs before becoming an author and international
public speaker. She has written three New York Times bestselling books: Dead
Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (2009),
How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly – And the Stark Choices
that Lie Ahead (2011), and Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and
What It Means for the World (2012).
Dambisa is the definition of a scholar.
22. ASIA
Lui Che Woo
He was born in Jiangmen, China in August 9, 1929. He is Chairman of K. Wah
Group, owner of Galaxy Entertainment Group. As of November 2013, he is the
second richest man in Asia. Then in January 2014, with a worth of US$21
billion, he was named the second richest man in Hong Kong. He established the
first K. Wah Company in Hong Kong in the 1950s. Its major member companies
include K. Wah International Holdings Ltd. Galaxy Entertainment Group,
Stanford Hotels International and K. Wah Construction Materials Limited.
Today, K. Wah has developed into a multi-national conglomerate involving
properties, entertainment & leisure, construction materials and hotels with over
200 subsidiaries and more than 33,000 employees in Hong Kong, Mainland
China, Macau, North America and Southeast Asia.
Lui was also awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa by the
University of Victoria in 2001; the degree of Doctor of Social Science,
honoris causa, by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2002; an
Honorary University Fellowship by the University of Hong Kong in 2002;
the degree of Honorary Doctor of Laws by Concordia University in 2004,
and the degree of Doctor of Business Administration, honoris causa, by the
Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In addition, Lui was awarded the Gold
Bauhinia Star (GBS) in 2005. In 2007, he was honored as the Business
Person of the Year in DHL/SCMP Hong Kong Business Awards and
presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by American Academy of
Hospitality Sciences.
Lui is a scholar/businessman
23. Li Ka-shing
• He was born in Chaozhou in Guangdong province, China, in 1928 to
Teochew people. Due to his father's death, he was forced to leave school
before the age of 15 and found a job in a plastics trading company where he
worked 16 hours a day. In 1950 he started his own company, Cheung Kong
Industries. From manufacturing plastics, Li developed his company into a
leading real estate investment company in Hong Kong that was listed on the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. Cheung Kong expanded by acquiring
Hutchison Whampoa and Hong kong Electric Holdings Limited in 1979 and
1985 respectively. A Harvard Business School article summarizes Li's career
in the following way: From his humble beginnings in China as a teacher's
son, a refugee, and later as a salesman, Li provides a lesson in integrity and
adaptability.
• Through hard work, and a reputation for remaining true to his internal moral
compass, he was able to build a business empire that includes: banking,
construction, real estate, plastics, cellular phones, satellite television, cement
production, retail outlets (pharmacies and supermarkets), hotels, domestic
transportation (sky train), airports, electric power, steel production, ports, and
shipping. Li's businesses cover almost every facet of life in Hong Kong, from
electricity to telecommunications, from real estate to retail, from shipping to
the Internet. The Cheung Kong Group's market capitalization is HK$647
billion (US$82.9 billion) as of December 2009.
24. Li Ka-shing
• In 1950, after learning how to operate a plant, Li founded a plastic
manufacturing company in Hong Kong with funds borrowed from family and
friends and contacts he cultivated as a salesman. Li avidly read trade
publications and business news before deciding to supply the world with high
quality plastic flowers at low prices. Li learned the technique of mixing color
with plastics that resemble real flowers. After retooling his shop and hiring
the best technicians he could find, he prepared for weeks for the plant visit of
a large foreign buyer. Impressed with the quality of Li's plant, the buyer
placed a large order. A few years later, Li grew to be the largest supplier
plastic flowers in Asia and made a fortune selling them
• In 1958, unable to renew the lease for his company, Li was forced to purchase
and develop a site by himself. An opportunity to acquire land arrived after the
1967 riots were in full swing when many people fled Hong Kong. As a result,
property prices plummeted. Li, believing the political crisis would be
temporary, and property prices would eventually rise, bought parcels of land
at low prices. By 1971, Li officially named his real estate development
company Cheung Kong (長江實業), named after Cheung Kong, (Chang
Jiang or the Yangtze River) the longest river in China.
• Li is a great businessman. Anybody with persistence can do what he did. He
is not a scholar, neither both but a pure business man
25. AMERICA
Warren Edward Buffett
He was born on August 30, 1930. He is an American business magnate, investor
and philanthropist. He is the most successful investor in the world. Buffett is the
chairman, CEO and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, and is consistently
ranked among the world's wealthiest people. He was ranked as the world's
wealthiest person in 2008 and as the third wealthiest in 2015. In 2012 Time named
Buffett one of the world's most influential people. Buffett was born in Omaha,
Nebraska, of distant French Huguenot descent. He was the second of three children
and the only son of Leila (née Stahl) and Congressman Howard Buffett. Buffett
began his education at Rose Hill Elementary School. In 1942, his father was elected
to the first of four terms in the United States Congress, and after moving with his
family to Washington, D.C. Warren finished elementary school, attended Alice Deal
Junior High School and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1947,
where his senior yearbook picture reads: "likes math; a future stockbroker."
Buffett displayed an interest in business and investing at a young age. One of his first
business ventures, Buffett sold chewing gum, Coca-Cola bottles, or weekly magazines
door to door. He worked in his grandfather's grocery store. While still in high school, he
made money delivering newspapers, selling golf balls and stamps, and detailing cars,
among other means. On his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction
for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route. In 1945, as a high school
sophomore, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they
placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in 3 different
barber shops across Omaha. The business was sold later in the year for $1,200 to a war
veteran. Buffett's interest in the stock market and investing dated to schoolboy days he
spent in the customers' lounge of a regional stock brokerage near his father's own
brokerage office. On a trip to New York City at age ten, he made a point to visit the New
York Stock Exchange. At 11, he bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred for
himself, and three for his sister Doris Buffett (founder The Sunshine Lady Foundation).
26. Warren Edward Buffett
In 1947, Buffett entered the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania. He would have preferred to focus on his business ventures;
however, he enrolled due to pressure from his father. Warren studied there
for two years and joined the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. He then
transferred to the University of Nebraska Lincoln where at nineteen, he
graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. After
being rejected by Harvard Business School, Buffett enrolled at Columbia
Business School upon learning that Benjamin Graham taught there. He
earned a Master of Science in Economics from Columbia in 1951. Buffett
also attended the New York Institute of Finance. The basic ideas of
investing are to look at stocks as business, use the market's fluctuations to
your advantage, and seek a margin of safety. That's what Ben Graham
taught us. A hundred years from now they will still be the cornerstones of
investing.
• Warren Buffett is a scholar/businessman. His ability to make good
investments was amplified by his education. He utilized his ability to learn
and grasps investment and stock market concepts and operations. His visions
and business background is probably the reason he chose to study business
administration and economics. He categorized himself as a scholar and
businessman
27. Bill Gates
Starting in 1987, Gates was included in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest
people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2014 excluding a few years
after the financial crisis of 2007–08. Between 2009 and 2014, his wealth doubled
from US$40 billion to more than US$82 billion. Between 2013 and 2014, his
wealth increased by US$15 billion. Gates is currently the richest man in the world.
Gates was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955. He is the son of
William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. Gates' ancestral origin includes
English, German, and Irish, Scots-Irish. His father was a prominent lawyer, and his
mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Banc System and the
United Way. Gates's maternal grandfather was JW Maxwell, a national bank
president. Gates has one elder sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister,
Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William
Gates III or "Trey" because his father had the "II" suffix. Early on in his life,
Gates's parents had a law career in mind for him
At 13, he enrolled in the Lakeside School, a private preparatory school. When he
was in the eighth grade, the Mothers Club at the school used proceeds from
Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a
block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) computer for the school's
students. Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC, and
was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his first computer
program on this machine: an implementation of tic-tac-toe that allowed users to
play games against the computer. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how
it would always execute software code perfectly. Gates graduated from Lakeside
School in 1973, and was a National Merit Scholar. He scored 1590 out of 1600
on the SAT and enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973. While at
Harvard, he met Steve Ballmer, who would later succeed Gates as CEO of
Microsoft. The Poker Room in Currier House at Harvard College, where Gates
and Allen founded Microsoft
28. Bill Gates
A lot of people have actually been inspired by his story. But not everyone can be
like Bill Gates, hence the need for you to properly categorize yourself and look
up to your ideal and actual role model. He can be classified as a unique scholar
and businessman. Despite him dropping out of school, he still had a rare ability
to grasps concepts and develop applications, with or without Lecturers.
29. EUROPE
Leonid Mikhelson
He was born on August 11, 1955 in Kaspiysk. He is a Russian businessman,
CEO, chairman and major shareholder of the Russian gas company Novatek.
According to Forbes, his personal fortune was estimated at US$15.6 billion as of
2014. Mikhelson began his career as an engineer after graduating with a degree
in Industrial Civil Engineering from the Samara Institute of Civil Engineering in
1977. He started working as a foreman at a construction and assembling
company in the Tyumen area of Siberia. One of his initial projects was work on
the Urengoi-Chelyabinsk gas pipeline. In 1985, he was appointed as Chief
Engineer of Ryazantruboprovodstroy. In 1987, he became General Director of
Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy. In 1991, Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy was one of the
first companies to undergo privatization after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Mikhelson continued as Managing Director at the company, which has been
renamed NOVA, until October 1994. He then became General Director of its
holding company, Novafinivest, which later became known as NOVATEK. From
2008 until 2010 Mikhelson was Chairman of the Board of Directors for OAO
Stroytransgas and OOO Art Finance. He currently holds the position of Chairman
of the Board of Directors of ZAO SIBUR and serves on the Supervisory Board of
OAO Russian Regional Development Bank. SIBUR is a gas processing and
petrochemicals company operating 26 production sites across Russia with
headquarters in Moscow. Mikhelson owns 57.5% interest in Sibur, as well as
25% of Novatek. Mikhelson often partners with Russian billionaire Gennady
Timchenko on business and investment projects. They are partners and majority
shareholders in Novatek and Sibur.
He is a scholar and businessman
30. Alekperov
He was born in Baku, one of the earliest centers of the international petroleum
industry. His father, who died when Vagit was a boy, worked in the oil fields all
his life and inspired Alekperov to follow in his footsteps. Alekperov's father was
a Muslim and his mother, Russian Orthodox. Alekperov is religious, but does not
define himself as either Muslim or Orthodox. He was eighteen when he landed
his first job in the industry. Alekperov graduated in 1974 from the Azerbaijan Oil
and Chemistry Institute. As a student he also worked as a drilling operator in
Kaspmorneft, a Caspian regional production company. After graduation, he
continued to work there, and by 1979 he had advanced from engineer to deputy
head of a production unit. He had to work in extreme conditions on oil platforms.
On one occasion, an explosion on his rig threw him into the stormy Caspian Sea,
and he had to swim for his life.
Alekperov moved to Western Siberia in 1979 and worked at Surgutneftegaz
between 1979 and 1985, earning his reputation as an industry expert. He was
ascending positions and by 1985 became first deputy general director of Bashneft
production company. In 1987, he became general director of the newly created
production company Kogalymneftegaz. In 1990, Alekperov was appointed
deputy minister of the Oil and Gas Industry of the Soviet Union and became the
youngest deputy energy minister in Soviet history. At that time, Alekperov
promoted the establishment of vertically integrated state-owned energy
companies, which would bring together the wide range of organizations in the
energy sector that were, at the time, reporting to different Soviet bureaucratic
institutions. As deputy minister of the oil and gas industry of the Soviet Union,
Alekperov was engaged in the formation of the first vertically integrated state-
owned energy company, Langepas-Uray-Kogalymneft, which was established in
late 1991 as a subsidiary of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy. In April 1993,
Langepas-Uray-Kogalymneft became LUKoil Oil Company, with Alekperov as
its president. He is a scholar
31. LATIN AMERICA
Jorge Paulo Lemann
He was born on August 26, 1939. He is a Swiss-Brazilian investor. He is ranked
as the 26th richest person in the world by Bloomberg Billionaire Index, with an
estimated net worth of US$25 billion as of February 2015, He is Brazil's richest
man and Switzerland's second richest. As of 2015, Forbes Brazil listed Lemann
as the top entry for the Richest Brazilians list. In 1939, Lemann was born in Rio
de Janeiro to Paul Lemann, a Swiss immigrant, who founded the dairy
manufacturer, Leco, and Anna Yvette Truebner, a Brazilian of Swiss origin.
Lemann attended the American School of Rio de Janeiro. His father died in a bus
accident in 1953, when Lemann was 14. In 1961, he received his Bachelor of
Arts degree in economics from Harvard University. He also participated in the
Wimbledon.
He is a scholar/ business man
32. The table below will help you choose which of the individuals above are best suited for your
encouragement and match your goals and strategies. Spot out issues concerning education, business focus
and background.
34. Conclusion
Most people are misguided and follow the wrong examples and people. The question now is are you a
businessman, scholar or both. Recognizing and knowing your category is vital for goal achievement.
Many people opted to be inspired by the Bill Gates story, which is not a bad thing, but they ended up
neglecting their true inspirations. Many motivational books are shallow. They portray one individual and
how they made it, with more emphasis on doing business. Success can be achieved in many ways as I
have already proven in this book. Not everyone is a computer genius like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, and
not everyone is a business man like Donald Trump with a fat capital inheritance. But you can be like
Dangote, Li or any other successful person. The topic of categorization should be a focus area in strategic
management or social sciences
