[News Inside] From Unauthorized Shantytown Resident to Global Entrepreneur... 'Jackpot' Through Tenacious Investment

Son Jeong-ui, Chairman of SoftBank

▲Masayoshi Son, Chairman of SoftBank [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] WeWork investment failure. Uber investment failure. Bitcoin investment failure.

The man once called the Midas touch, whose investment judgment was questioned due to a series of investment failures. That man is Son Jeong-ui, chairman of SoftBank.

Then he made a spectacular comeback. He hit the 'jackpot' with the New York Stock Exchange listing of DoorDash, the largest food delivery startup in the U.S. On the 9th (local time), DoorDash closed at $189.51, up 85.79% from the IPO price, bringing huge profits to SoftBank, which invested in the company.

Although he seems to have always been on the road to success, he actually comes from an unauthorized shantytown. His parents, originally from Daegu, decided to move to Japan for a better life and settled in Kyushu. Born in Kyushu in 1957, he grew up experiencing poverty every moment. His parents did whatever work they could, from making illicit liquor to selling fish, to raise four children. Then one day, when Son became a middle school student, his parents started a pachinko business and finally hit the jackpot, becoming wealthy overnight.

With improved family circumstances, Son, supported wholeheartedly by his parents, dropped out of high school and decided to study abroad in the U.S. at the age of 16.

The reason behind his decision to study in the U.S. was the president of Fujita Denden. Fujita was the person who brought McDonald's to Japan and is one of the top business leaders in Japan. Son was moved after reading a book written by him and firmly decided to meet him and go to the U.S. However, it was unlikely that the legendary business leader would make time for a mere high school student.

Son started calling Fujita’s secretary every day. Despite several rejections, he did not give up and boarded a plane to Tokyo. After arriving in Tokyo, he called the secretary again, pleading to sit in the president’s office for just three minutes. Moved by his passion and persistence, Fujita finally gave Son 15 minutes of his time.

Fujita advised the high school student Son that the era of computers was coming and urged him to prepare for it.

Son took this advice to heart and set off to study abroad. It was 1974, a time when most people did not even know about computers. He enrolled at UC Berkeley near San Francisco, California, majoring in economics and computer science.

Then a crisis struck. His father fell ill, and the family’s financial situation began to decline. With family support cut off, Son had to earn his tuition and living expenses himself. At that time, he came up with the idea to create and sell an electronic dictionary. At 19, he approached a professor in the engineering department with his idea and worked together on it. This technology was sold to Sharp Corporation, earning him about 1.1 billion won at the age of 21.

After safely completing his studies, Son returned to Japan and spent a year and a half planning his business before founding SoftBank at the age of 24.

His business acumen and foresight began to show their true value. When Microsoft (MS) was still a small company, he signed an exclusive sales contract in Japan, generating sales exceeding 1 trillion won. He also invested in Yahoo, which was running at a loss, and turned it into Japan’s top portal.

What placed him among the world’s wealthiest was the exclusive contract with Apple. He met Steve Jobs in person and signed an exclusive iPhone contract in Japan. With the iPhone boasting over 60% market share in Japan, Son gained enormous wealth.

A famous anecdote is when he decided to invest 20 billion won in Alibaba after listening to CEO Jack Ma’s presentation for just six minutes. This investment yielded nearly 3,000 times the return.

Son Jeong-ui reportedly set a life plan at age 19: "In your 20s, make a name for yourself; in your 30s, gather at least 100 billion yen; in your 40s, take risks; in your 50s, complete your business; and in your 60s, pass the business on to your successor."

This shows that his success was not achieved overnight.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.