Robert Kuok A Memoir

Syukur Kuok tukar warganegara Hong Kong. Actually all his children based in HK and reside there. (Mr.Robert @ Apr 8 2021, 08:27 AM). I think from his memoir.
But this legendary Overseas Chinese entrepreneur, commodities trader who made his first milion on the London sugar market, hotelier of the Shangri-la chain, and property mogul has maintained a low profile and seldom shed light in public on his business empire or personal life. That is, until now. In these memoirs, the 94-year-old Kuok tells the remarkable story of how, starting in British Colonial Malaya, he.

Robert Kuok is no stranger to most of us in Malaysia. He is the wealthiest Malaysian with an estimated net worth of 10.5 billion USD in 2020 according to Forbes. He is also well known as the ‘Sugar King of Asia’, a nickname that he earned due to his large control of both the local and world’s sugar trade back then. He is also the founder of one of the world’s most luxurious hotel chain we know of today, the Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts.

Despite his successes in business, Robert had a difficult childhood. His father was abusive and his parents always quarrel. He felt ignored by most people and they became poor when his father's business suffered through the Great Depression. He had to go through both the British colonization and Japanese invasion during his lifetime. However, these incite him to achieve great things in life.

Free 2-day shipping on qualified orders over $35. Buy Robert Kuok a Memoir (Hardcover) at Walmart.com. Robert Kuok's Memoir - biography of a Malaysian born business magnate and investor who made his fortunes building commodity empires and international hotel brands. It’s interesting to read up on the way he approached business in this part of the world (Asia) and how they had the general economic foresight to spot opportunities (and disasters).

His memoir, released in 2018 is full of wisdom covering various aspects of life, culture, politics, business, and strategies as well as his principles and philosophy. Below are some of the key lessons and perspectives I learned based on his words from the memoir.

Lesson 1: Never Forget Your Root

Robert never forgets his Chinese root despite being born in Malaysia. He resented the Japanese invasion of China so much when he was young to the point that he wanted to go and severed in the military there.
Robert graduated from English School and College but took a detour to Chinese school to learn Chinese.
Robert was one of the first Overseas Chinese to respond to China's call when the country opened its doors to foreign investors.

Lesson 2: Who You Know is Important

Robert went to the prestigious Raffles College in Singapore where he met Abdul Razak who was to become the 2nd Prime Minister of Malaysia and Lee Kuan Yew, the future Prime Minister of Singapore.
Robert was well connected with the Malaysian Government. He said, “I was in Raffles College when Razak was there. In Fact, I think two-thirds or three-quarters of the top civil servants in Malaysia had been at Raffles College when I was there; many of the others were in school with me in Johor.'

Lesson 3: Maintain a Good Relationship with Your Superior

Robert started working at the age of 17 with Mitsubishi during the Japanese Invasion from 1942-1945. He worked as a Clerk for the Rice Department and rose to become the Section Head.
He managed to work well and build a good relationship with his bosses (Uemura and Nagaoka) at Mitsubishi. He keeps in touch with Nagaoka even after the Japanese occupation on each trip he made to Japan. He feels Nagaoka was a wonderful man, as per his words: “In my eyes, Nagaoka was more human than any of my fellow compatriots, Malays, Chinese or Indians.”

Lesson 4: Politics and Business are Inseparable

One of his brothers, William advised him 'You have to get interested in politics. If you get big in the business-world, politics will not leave you alone.'
Robert realized he was right and admitted that 'Politics and economics are indivisible; politics and life are inseparable.'
Robert also said 'I very often talk politics in business. That's why I am what I am. I feel that the two are indivisible, and my partner had better know how I feel about life. Otherwise, how can any partnership last?'

Lessons 5: You Must Work Hard in Life

As a young man, Robert believed that there was no substitute for hard work. He said, 'I never had a day's rest, except for my 1947 honeymoon to Hong Kong with Joy, and a six-month trip to Europe with Mother in 1951. I worked everyday of my life, including Sundays.'
'Man must work; work is therapeutic, it binds your mind and body together. When you work, you wake up earlier than everybody; you go to bed earlier than everybody because you need to recharge your batteries. You're are not wasting your life away.'
“I believe man should gradually acquire wealth, working hard. By gradually acquiring it, he knows the meaning of thrift and how to conserve wealth.”

Lesson 6: Hone Your Senses & Pay Attention

“To be a successful businessman, you really need to brush all your senses every morning, just as you brush your teeth. I call it 'honing your senses' in business: Your vision, hearing, sense of smell, touch and taste.”
'All my life, I have tried to listen carefully.'
'When I go into a room, I've seen everyone before they've seen me. I hear every sound, including those that others may have missed.'
'I have always felt that wisdom is in the air. Structured learning is fine. But you can pick, you can distill, wisdom by yourself. However, to do that, you have to hone your senses, listen more carefully, smell more deeply, see more sharply, and through that try to distill the wisdom from the air.'

Robert Kuok Family Members

Lesson 7: Focus on the Basic

Robert focused from the beginning on commodities with very ready markets: basic foodstuffs such as rice, sugar and wheat flour.
As he said: 'One thing I learned from the Japanese is that you should focus on products for which there are large, established markets, and for which demand is uniform and sustainable.'
'Basic process food such as sugar and flour have virtually no variation. There is basically only one product, which greatly simplifies factory investment.'

Lesson 8: The Value of Visiting Someone Office/Shop

'When you enter a man's office or shop, you can get a feel, a psychic feel, of how well that firm is doing or may one day be doing. It's an abstract thing.'

Lesson 9: Be Honourable in Your Business Conduct

“Be honourable and developed a good reputation in the trade. Because of this, you could get a silent discount from a good seller not known to the rest of the trade because he knew his money and goods were safe with you. It's just common-sense business.”
'Be humble; be straight; don't be crooked; don't take advantage of people.'

Lesson 10: Plot Your Next Move while People are Wasting Their Time Away

In Kuala Lumpur circa 1953, most real businesses were conducted in clubs called 'messes' during cocktail hours. Men lounged around, and the girls sat with them.
Robert feels it was a decadent culture, and many of the Chinese businessmen in Kuala Lumpur would be in these Clubs every night. He said, “People were drinking themselves stupid.”
'While these people play on their banjos, I can plan, plot and drive my business plans forward.'

Lesson 11: Learn by Observing How Others Do It

From 1953-1958 Robert made numerous trips to Bangkok to meet rice traders and learn first-hand how the Chinese did their business there.
Robert said, 'I watched their ways, observing their faults and mistakes, and vowed to myself to never commit the same errors.'
“I don't believe a man can become a successful businessman merely by reading a book. I think it's better to observe the falling leaves than to read someone else's advice.”
In the 1960s and the first half of the 1970s, Robert spent a lot of time in excellent European hotels. He said, 'My mind took mental photographs of everything I saw and experienced - various physical comforts and discomforts and, of course, service qualities.'

Lesson 12: Sought Partners in Life & Be Willing to Give In

'All my life, I have sought partners, because I knew that there must always be teamwork in society. If we cut each other's throats, the fourth or fifth dog gets the bone.'
On Kuok Group merger with Wilmar International, Robert said: In any merger there are on-going issues, different warlords fighting to preserve their little bases. That's why I told my side early on, 'Give in, give in, give in.' I prefer to see life's big picture. If you nitpick you will never get things done.

Lesson 13: Be Thrift on Yourself but Generous Toward Your Friends

'Having made friends with all the major sugar brokers in the City (London), I was winning, dining and spending money like water on them. It was good public relations as only a Chinese knows how, practicing thrift on yourself, but generousity toward your friends.'

Lesson 14: Share a Good Deal with Others

Robert said: When I had a good deal, I shared it with them (Mans in London). Say somebody gives you a lovely plate of food. Instead of gobbling it all down you say 'Come on, take half of this.'
'I have always believe in some degree of socialism when you have made money. You know very well that you alone didn't make it; it was a joint effort.'

Lesson 15: Find Simple Ways to Tackle Problems

'I never studied hotel management, but whatever I learned at home and in school taught me that everything in life is very simple. So why complicate matters?'
'In each and every business, whether simple or complex, there are simple ways of tackling problems and operating the business. It's those who adopt convoluted ways never get to the top, because they are tripping themselves up all the time.'

Lesson 16: Look for Honest, Talented & Hard-Working Candidate when Hiring

'All business on earth is management. In the hotel world - in any business world - you must look for three ingredients when you hire staff: talent, integrity and the stamina for hard work. If any of these traits are missing, forget the guy.'
“When I hire staff, I look for honest, hardworking, intelligent people. When I look candidates in the eye, they must appear very honest to me.”
“The important thing is unity in the Group: Teamwork, hard work and zero treachery. You don't need to employ Einsteins and Nobel Prize winners to build up a solid enterprise.”
“When I hire or do business with people, I look closely for traits like vanity. I find that, for the majority of men, the hardest thing for them to do is to admit fault. But if you flatter them, their egos go sky high: flattery is the cheapest form of bribery.”

Lesson 17: Get Out from a Bad Deal and Assume People are Going to be Unreasonable

'In life, when you can get out, get out. Life is not reasonable. You mustn't face life thinking everybody is going to be reasonable. You must look at life and assume everybody is going to be unreasonable.'

Lesson 18: Don’t Waste Your Time on Unnecessary Matters

Robert said: From my early days of setting up in business, I had told all my managers, 'Don't ever send off anybody or receive anybody. You are hired to work and to make money, not to squander your time seeing off and receiving your boss or colleagues.'

Lesson 19: Have a Good No. 2 to Help Implement Your Vision

Robert mentioned: Tunku Abdul Rahman was like a strategist who saw the big picture. He knew where to move his troops, but actually going to battle and plotting the detailed campaign - that was not Tunku. He'd say, 'Razak, you take over. You handle it now.' In that sense, they worked very well together.

Lesson 20: Keep Your Family and Relatives Close

“On my part, for my entire adult life, I have strived to bring my cousins and their descendants together under one flag, to keep their bellies full and to send their children to the best schools.”

Lesson 21: Listen to Your Mother Advice

'Kuok Brothers was a funny blend of my rough and tough ways and Mother's soft, Buddhist aura.”
“She kept us focused on the big picture. She counselled us to avoid business that bring harm, destruction or grief to people.”
“She (Mother) taught my brothers and me never to be greedy, and that in making money one could practice high morality.”
'If I had extreme frustration with colleagues, I might go to see her, since you have to cry on somebody's shoulders. The few words she uttered after hearing me would always cool me down.'
Robert said, As for my wealth, Mother left me with this advice: 'Don't squander it all on yourself, son. Leave most of it for your descendants and the foundations you have set up.'

Lesson 22: Make Your Employees Shareholders of the Company

“Once people turn from an employee to a shareholder, the attitude changes. If we make a foolish investment they feel the pain too.”
“One technique I employed from an early stage was to maintain reservoirs of shares in each holding company that were not owned by anyone.”
“I had in mind from day one that my co-workers of the 1960s may no longer be the achievers of the 1970s, the achievers of the 1970s may not be the achievers of the 1980s, and so forth. So, we always kept blocks in reserve to reward the new and future achievers.”

Lesson 23: Have Humility in Life

“Indeed, one of the most important ingredients for a man or woman to become a success in life is humility.”
“Humility has only pluses and no minuses - and it costs you nothing.”
Robert said: I have found that if a person is truly humble, most people will do anything for him; but if he is a cocky person, out of 20 “friends”, barely two will help him.

Lesson 24: Do not Compare Yourself with Other People

“I don't have any business models or mentors. I don't compare myself with anyone, and perhaps, in this respect, my pride tells me not to compare myself with anyone.”

Lesson 25: Be Resilience and Find Solutions to Problems instead of Worrying about them

“The road to success is paved with challenges, and, with each test of failure, a man must show resilience.”
“Worrying never provides the solution to a problem. In fact, worrying exacerbates the problem. It weakens the mind and eventually the physique to the point where people die from frustration, from worrying about their failure.”
“Problems must not be seen as brick walls. You can walk through a problem. Penetrate it and go on to the other side; forget it and start life afresh.”

Lessons 26: Throw Your Shyness Away if You want to be in Business

“Many people think that shyness is a great virtue. Well, if you want to join the business world, leave that outside your door. You have to be thick-skinned, able to take knocks.”

Lesson 27: Robert's Perspective on Banks & Bankers

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One of the first things that drove Robert to make money in business was the humiliation he suffered at the hands of the banks.
'Bankers live by a simple creed: Lend money to those who do not need to borrow. When you're penniless, your bank will desert you as if you're a leper. That is one irony of the world.'
'Bankers are not my friends. Among my friends, some happen to be bankers.'

Lesson 28: Robert's Perspective on Futures Market

'I never read charts. I don't believe in them. To me, charts are post-mortems, like dissecting a corpse. No chart can tell the future.'
'Success in futures depends on your feel for the market, your instinct and rhythm.'

Lesson 29: Robert’s Perspective on Hotel Management

'Where are the currents flowing that bring schools of fish? You must park your hotel where those schools of fish tend to swim. You shouldn't be fishing in an area of the ocean where there is no current and therefore no fish around.'
Robert constantly repeated at the early board meetings of Shangri-La Singapore, 'We must set out to do three things, in this order: To look after our hotel staff; to look after our guests; to look after our shareholders.'

Lesson 30: Robert’s Perspective on Cronyism

'Cronies are lapdogs who polish a leader's ego. In return, the leader hands out national favours to them.'
'Tunku (Abdul Rahman) would also do favours for his friends, but he never adopted cronies.'

Lesson 31: Robert’s Perspective on Capitalism

'I've always believed that the rules of capitalism, if properly observed, are the way forward in life.'
'Capitalism is a ruthless animal. For every successful businessman, there are at least 10,000 bleached skeletons of those who have failed. It's a very sad commentary on capitalism, but that is capitalism and real capitalism, not crony capitalism.'
'Capitalism is a wonderful creature - just don't abuse its principles and unwritten laws.'
“Capitalism needs to be inspected under a magnifying glass once a day, a microscope once a week, and put through the cleaning machine once a month.”
“In capitalism, man needs elements of ambition and greed to drive him. But where does ambition end and greed take over?”

Lesson 32: Roberts’s Perspective on True Leadership

'A true leader is the chief trustee of a nation. If there is a lack of an established system to guide him, his fiduciary sense should set him on the proper course.'
“True leaders are those who come out of the community and govern to raise the people to greater height.”

Lesson 33: Roberts’s Perspective on Publishing News

“A paper must publish news, not speculation. For every slanted opinion piece, there should be a proponent for the opposite view. Give the reader a choice, and let the reader decide who has the better argument.”

Lesson 34: Robert’s Perspective on the Greatest Problems Facing America & China

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“America's greatest problem is that its culture is based on materialism.”
“To my mind, the two greatest challenges facing China are the restoration of education in morals and the establishment of the rule of law.”

Lesson 35: Robert’s Perspective on Wealth and Inheritance

“Wealth isn't an end in itself. Wealth helps you to achieve things, but money itself does not make people happy. You soon learn that even the sweetest of material pleasures are at best only a passing cloud.”
“Wealth should be used for two main purposes. One: to invest and re-invest in creating new and better opportunities. Two: for the betterment of mankind, either by acts of pure philanthropy or by investment in research and development along the frontiers of science, healthcare and so forth.”
“If you achieve wealth, but you do not have a good name or good health, then your whole family is travelling on a short, dead-end road. You have no future.”
“I could leave all of my wealth to my children. I will not. In fact, I am troubled even by the concept of inheritance; it can be corrosive, upsetting their balance and leaving their moral compass askew.”

Lesson 36: Robert’s Perspective on Greed

“You need some greed to propel yourself forward; it is the rocket fuel that motivates you. Without greed there is no successful capitalism. But beyond a limit, greed becomes a disease, and is increasingly becoming the curse of mankind.”
“What makes people unhappy is greed. You have something, but you are still not satisfied.”

Lesson 37: Robert’s Perspective on How to be Healthy and Achieve Happiness

“Nearly everyone I meet now asks how I keep so healthy at the age of 94. The golden rule for good health is to lead a simple life, physically and mentally.”
“To achieve happiness and live a contented life, I believe there are some important practices every person should adopt and cultivate. Number one is to curb envy and jealousy. Number two is to curb greed.”
“If you get lucky and then share what you have with people around you, it gives you a sense of happiness that is unmatchable. With happiness and contentment normally comes longevity.”

Lesson 38: Robert’s Perspective on the Ultimate Goal in Life

“I believe the ultimate goal in life should be to adopt moral values and to emphasize morality in all actions, so as to achieve a more fair and just world.”

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