Late Genting's Founder Faced Rejection

The road to success is never a one straight line. The road depicts a long journey. Lets take our education system for example. You would need at least 13 years of study before this society gladly accept you as a university graduate.


The late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong is a solid example of a hard core entrepreneur - from rag to riches. He will, without question remain a legacy for the Malaysians. After accumulating a mass of wealth at the late age of 50, he had a vision to build a hill resort near Kuala Lumpur. He poured his entire fortune of RM4 million into the project. He even invited his friends to invest RM1 million into this venture for a 10 per cent stake. I'm sure at that time, he was surprised that his friends rejected his generous offer and even gave him the wet blanket. They warned Tan Sri Lim that the project would fail. I believe those were his closest friends, but yet he was not spared from their unkind remarks. Without saying, time proved them wrong. The Genting Highlands resort was a great success.

Today, the Genting Group is Malaysia’s leading multinational corporation and one of Asia’s best-managed companies. The Group has over 40,000 employees globally, 11,000 acres of prime resort land and more than 200,000 hectares of plantation land. The Genting Group (www.genting.com) is the collective name for Genting Berhad and its subsidiaries and associates that comprises five listed entities with a combined market capitalisation of over US$22 billion (*as at 22 August 2007).

One of Genting's subsidiary, Genting International has 46 casino properties in the UK under the brands of the Stanley Leisure group. In Singapore, it is developing Resorts World at Sentosa, an integrated leisure and entertainment resort on Sentosa Island.

Lessons to be learned:

Success belongs to those who have great visions and determination. Tan Sri Lim pursued his dream and never gave up.

Believe in your dreams and don't let others pull you down. At certain points in our life, we will face people who don't share our dreams. Never ever let their negative words stop you from achieving your goals.

All genuine problems will have solutions. Knowing that the resort would be located high up in the mountain, it would be a hinder to visitors. So he built a road up the mountain in 1968.