Special Correspondent: Xian Liting
[Yahoo newspaper report]
Fate can eat people, but people always have a way to go.
Simon Murray, former managing director of Hutchison Whampoa (now merged with Cheung Kong Hutchison Holdings) at the age of 83, always faced reality and became a strong man in the face of challenges. Hong Kong has experienced social incidents and epidemics for three years. In an era full of international and local changes, he encourages young people to work hard to do what they love. No matter where they are, the strength to persevere comes from a heart: fortitude, fortitude.
On January 8, the day when China and Hong Kong officially resumed customs clearance, Ma Shimin mightn’t bear it anymore and returned to Hong Kong first, but he came back from Thailand. He has four listed companies in Hong Kong, doing business with China, and also has a small-scale nuclear energy business in the United States. He often traveled to London, France, Switzerland, Thailand and Singapore, and returned to Hong Kong for the first time in three years. The former colonial Tai Pan claimed that he felt like coming home.
He laughed and told reporters that when he boarded the taxi at the Pedder Street taxi stand in Central, the driver still recognized him as “Ma Shimin”. Today, journalists are less vocal than they were three years ago at his home in Chelsea, London, and he is more cautious than ever.
Ma Shimin, the former team leader of Hehuang, had a wonderful life, but young people in Hong Kong may not know him. At the age of eighteen, he gave up the opportunity to study at Cambridge University, and jumped into the world of merchant ships; at the age of nineteen, he joined the French Foreign Legion for five years and understood that survival is victory; Hong Kong’s British-funded business was gradually transferred to Huazi. He was Li Ka-shing’s most trusted person; at the age of 63, he challenged his physical fitness and became the oldest explorer who hiked to the South Pole.
He is more willful than anyone else, but he wins respect every time, because, every time, Ma Shimin is able to fulfill his whimsical dreams.
Where does the courage to venture into the world come from? His first reaction: “I don’t know.” This is the truth. For him, it may be natural, but he believes that character can be cultivated. He lived in a British boarding school following World War II, and he was definitely as strict as Dickens’s plot, and he would be punished with a cane for minor mistakes. At the same time, the school also encourages students to explore outside, climb up, and develop a personality of fortitude. Like history and literature, Ma Shimin talked regarding English characters concisely and clearly, “The word Fortitude comes from the Latin fortis, which means strong and brave. If you study it in the dictionary, it also has physical resilience and the meaning of defense, like building a fortress.” The same.” The Latin source of Fortitude also comes from fortitudio, which means bravery and strength (bravery, strength). And the explanation of fortitude in the Oxford dictionary: “courage, endurance and self-control in facing pain, danger or difficulty (the courage shown in the face of pain, danger or difficulty).”
Being able to defend and attack is the ability to travel across the world. The reporter started interviewing Ma Shimin ten years ago. He has different views on the future and politics from many Hong Kong people. He has his own world. He said that Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, is a good friend. He likes doing business in China more than in the United States. He said he loves Hong Kong, it is full of old friends, including Kuok Hok-nien, Donald Tsang and Anson Chan.
Looking at people is like reading a book, inside and out, with different backgrounds, standpoints, and opinions. The question is how to find the nutrients that are useful to you. Ma Shimin published a new book “No Body Will Shoot You If You Make Them Laugh” in the UK half a year ago. He has his own survival skills in high mountains and low valleys. Whether in harsh natural environments, battlefields or shopping malls, he is the best in his life The portrayal also hopes to inspire young people.
Portraits are born as if trapped in a box
Less than a year following birth, his parents divorced. When Ma Shimin was young, he grew up in a single-parent family without a father. He competed with his elder brother for his mother’s favor and was always the loser. This successful businessman has a particularly keen sense of human nature. He understands life and death, interests, good and evil, sincerity and hypocrisy. No matter what others think, he once said to Li Ka-shing that if you want to choose a friend, Deng Yongqiang is his friend. There may be injustice or frustration in the world, but there is always a way to deal with it. French writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau said in the first sentence of his book “The Social Contract”: “Man is born free, but everywhere he finds himself encoded”. (Man is born free, but his life is full of shackles.) He strongly disagrees and has his own views:
“I think that every human being is born in a box. Our situation makes us like prisoners and pets.” Some people were born in Africa and did not eat three meals a day; Chairman of the company, retired and busy playing golf. Some people were born with their fathers already in prison, and some were born three days later and their fathers died in the army. It was different for different people and different situations, but he believed that people have the ability to get out of the predicament and find their own way.
find space find freedom find yourself
“We are born trapped in a box, we can’t control it, but following some time, I want to say to young people, you will always find your own way, go ahead, whatever you do, find a living space, Then, in this space, you will find freedom, and if you find freedom, you will find yourself, and if you find yourself, you will be able to do what you like to do. Remember, we only live once, James Bond said we only live twice, it is nonsense Ah, hahaha!” Looking back with a smile, he looked at the hardships and dangers of life, and in just five years of the French Legion, he has already lived a lifetime.
“Everyone has the ability to break free from the invisible and visible walls?” the reporter asked.
“I’m not saying that you will do what you like, but you should try to do what you like. Someone said: When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” This sentence often appears in his In autobiography, it means that when faced with a choice, you must make a choice. Perhaps, there is no turning back, it is him who tries a new way, but achieves a rich and wonderful life instead.
Encourage young people to do what they love
Ma Shimin agrees that the departure of some Hong Kong people in recent years has something to do with politics, and he himself has permanent resident status in both Hong Kong and Singapore. For young people who stay in Hong Kong, in the changing era, finding what they like to do is the motivation. If you like playing the piano, go for it; if you like doing business, go for it; if you like carpentry, go for it. He said: “You are what you have done. And what you do now is what you will become” (what you have done in the past forms what you are today; what you do today is what you will become in the future).
Bravery includes daring to think what others dare not imagine. Li Ka-shing of Hutchison Wong absolutely did not believe that Hong Kong Land would sell Hong Kong Electric. In the end, Ma Shimin facilitated the transaction. Today, you only need to make a choice, and the ending belongs to the future.
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