sUCCess stoRy - laKsHMI MIttal

sUCCess stoRIes - laKsHMI MIttal

SUCCESS STORIES Lakshmi Mitt al: A Rich Life

Sometimes, believe it or not, nice guys don’t fi nish last. Lakshmi Narayan Mitt al is a case in point, as he has broken the mold of the overambitious entrepreneur and replaced it with an inspiring combination of business savvy, philanthropy and individualism. The end result, at least in fi nancial terms, is a personal net worth of $20.7 billion. More importantly, however, is the fact that he did it without sacrifi cing his integrity or victimizing others. From his formative years in India to his current prosperity in London, Lakshmi Mitt al has exemplifi ed the spirit of the modern entrepreneur.

Lakshmi Narayan Mitt al was born in the Churu district of Rajasthan, India, on June 15, 1950, and soon moved with his family to Calcutt a. That was where he fi rst learned about business from his father, Mohan Lal Mitt al, who was busy building a steel business while young Mitt al excelled at business and accountancy at St. Xavier’s College in Calcutt a. After graduation, Mitt al worked for the family fi rm for a while, and then struck out on his own in 1976 when he founded a steel plant in Indonesia. Calling his steel company Arcelor Mitt al, he ran this business successfully throughout the 1980s, and in 1995 Mitt al made a full separation of his own steel business from the family’s corporate holdings in India. Soon afterward, Mitt al sett led in London, where he still resides to this day. Throughout this saga of independence, Mitt al has made his mark on the world steel industry. Now known simply as Mitt al Steel, his company currently has operations in 14 countries around the world. At one point in 2007, Mitt al was the fi fth richest person in the world, and at the time of this writing, he is the sixth richest person. Some have even compared Mitt al to Andrew Carnegie. This is an apt comparison; after all, Carnegie was a steel magnate who created his own wealth. Carnegie and Mitt al were both accountants with global visions and practically endless determination to succeed. Furthermore, both men overcame obstacles and prevailed in consolidating the extensively divided steel industry. At 61 years of age, Mitt al could certainly be considered the Andrew Carnegie of the new millennium.

The comparison with Carnegie, need not end there, however. While Andrew Carnegie was well known as a philanthropist, Mitt al has also held his own in this regard. Consider, for example, how Mitt al reacted after India, his birthplace, fared poorly at the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Summer Olympic Games. Rather than stand at the sidelines and grumble, Mitt al characteristically took action. In reaction to the poor Olympic showing, Mitt al set up what became known as the Mitt al Champions Trust. In this trust Mitt al placed $9 million of his own personal assets with the objective of fi nancially supporting ten Indian athletes, each of whom displayed winning potential. Mitt al’s hope, which is equally India’s hope, is that these athletes will excel in the 2012 Olympic Games, which are slated to be held in London, where Mitt al himself resides. Sports including boxing, swimming, archery, squash, and badminton will be supported through the Mitt al Champions Trust. Currently, this trust supports 40 athletes and has plans to develop training facilities in India.

The Mitt al Champions Trust has not been Mitt al’s only charitable cause. In 2002, Mitt al contributed to the LNM Institute of Information Technology, a nonprofi t institute of higher learning located in Jaipur, India. Furthermore, in 2007, on the BBC television program The Apprentice, Mitt al donated £1 million to the charitable organization Comic Relief.

While Mitt al has excelled as a philanthropist, he has also established a number of milestones as a world-renowned entrepreneur. Consider, for example, the fact that Mitt al Steel is three times the size of its nearest competitor. His personal wealth outweighs that of anyone else in England, and Forbes has declared him the 55th most powerful person. The wedding of his daughter, Vanisha, was the second most expensive wedding in recorded history. In addition, Mitt al owns 34 percent of the London-based Queens Park Rangers Football Club football team. This team has performed quite well, winning the 2010-2011 Football League Championship.

Mitt al has embodied the life of a winner, even in his personal life. His estate in Kensington Palace Gardens, which was purchased in 2004 for the sum of £57 million (approximately US $128 million), was the world’s most expensive home at that time. Mitt al owns, in total, three properties worth £500 million

in the posh region of London known as the “Billionaire’s Row” at Kensington Palace Gardens. The Mitt al family lives luxuriously, all due to this one individual’s dream of expanding his steel business from a contender into an empire.

We can all be inspired by what Mitt al has accomplished in his lifetime. The man was not born with a dominating steel empire, but he forged one from the raw materials of persistence and ingenuity. As a result, Mitt al has earned a great number of prestigious awards. Among these awards are the 2008 Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award from Forbes magazine; the 2007 Grand Cross of Civil Merit from the government of Spain; 2004 Entrepreneur of the Year from the Wall Street Journal; the 2007 Dwight D. Eisenhower Global Leadership Award from the Business Council for International Understanding; and the 2008 Padma Vibushan, which is the second highest civilian award given in the Republic of India.

Even with all of this, the story of Lakshmi Narayan Mitt al is not yet fi nished. If Mitt al’s past accomplishments are any indication of what the future holds, then clearly we can expect more great things from this man. In every sense of the word, Lakshmi Mitt al continues to show us what it means to live a rich life.