L E A D E R F R O M S C R A T C H

R A G S T O R I C H E S

P R E S E N T E D B Y :

D A N E Y A L

M I R Z A

A U D I E N C E :

D R . H I N A

K H A N

INTRODUCTION & EARLY LIFE

SHAHID KHAN AKA SHAD KHAN, THE 16 YO KID FROM LAHORE THAT LIVED THE

AMERICAN DREAM FOR 45 YEARS

THE RICHEST MAN OF

O R G . B E H A V I O R & L E A D E R S H I P

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R A G S T O R I C H E S – S H A H I D K H A N

hahid Khan has true rags to riches Paki - American

story, his rise to success and his habit of helping

others and giving back is something which is so

phenomenal about this Pakistani origin billionaire. He

came to US with only $ 500 to his name, his journey

from 500 US$ To 4.6 Billion US $ is filled with sweats

and smarts. Khan was born in Lahore, Pakistan to a

middle-class family who were involved in the construction industry. His

mother (now retired) was a professor of mathematics. He progressed to

the United States in 1968 at age 16 to study at the University of Illinois at

Urbana–Champaign.

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The soles of his shoes were torn by the time Shahid Khan made it to the

YMCA where he expended his first night here. The Y wanted $2 a night,

which Khan, then only 16 years old, could afford until the dorms at the

University of Illinois opened. He had strained the student union before

that, after a Greyhound bus deposited him in the small college town. But

the union’s hotel wanted $9 a night, far too much. The next day he began

his first American job — washing dishes for $1.20 an hour. Khan’s journey

began after that day’s blizzard, still one of the most severe Illinois has

ever seen — 2 feet of snow in two days. None of this was normal for Khan,

nothing like what he experienced in his native Pakistan. But these

weren’t obstacles. They were adventures.

If that 16-year-old boy could have seen his future, he would have seen a

bloke who built a business by being opportunistic and adaptable, like

he was his first night in Champaign. He would have seen it grow into a

billion-dollar industry. He would have seen his name all over the campus,

on a tennis facility and an academic building.

If that 16-year-old lad could have seen his future, it might have delighted

him, but wouldn’t have shocked him. After all, in a way he came seeking

exactly what he found. His was a life created from nothing outside

his own spirit, intellect, hard work and charm.

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KHAN’S WAY OF ADAPTING IN TOUGH US CONDITIONS

n an unfamiliar atmosphere, most humans stick to others like them. It’s

comfortable in a time of a demanding evolution. Khan took a

different track. Instead of seeking others who could relate to his

immigrant story, Khan signed up for community as soon as he could,

enthusiastic to meet people who weren’t like him in his new home. “The

Beta Theta Pi house, which was a very choosy house, and all customarily

white Anglo Saxon Protestant invited him either out of curiosity, for fun or

to see who he was, and they loved him,” said David Sholem, one of Khan’s

close friends. He got to know about sports that weren’t like the ones he

saw growing up in Lahore, Pakistan. They had rugby and cricket. Here he

had to learn football and basketball. He went to football and basketball

games with his society brothers, learning about the sports that were alien

to him. Khan met Ann Carlson, the woman he married after more than a

decade of dating.

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HOW DID KHAN SHAPE AN EMPIRE

hile the optimistic, young engineering student was still in school,

he began working at a minor manufacturing company called Flex-

N-Gate. Khan worked there until 1978, when he left with a loan from the

Small Business Administration to start a company called Bumper Works.

There Khan developed a bumper that has since become an industry

standard. Then he returned to Flex-

N-Gate and bought the auto parts

manufacturing company.

W

Flex-N-Gate started with Japanese

manufacturers, who were importing

small trucks without bumpers into

the United States that needed bumpers before they hit the market.

Eventually, the American auto companies, awestruck by the quality of

Flex-N-Gate's products, came around. The firm grew from there. Khan

worked around the obstacles presented him. He saw opportunities

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where there were problems — some of the best opportunities for

growth.

HOW KHAN VENTURED INTO SPORTS & WELFARE

s Khan’s fortune nurtured, he spent his money on the university that

accepted him in 1966 and helped start his extraordinary expedition.

He paid for a tennis centre, which bears his name, and has donated to the

entire athletic sector. Khan has lent his plane for recruiting purposes. He’s

also spent tens of millions of dollars on academic constructions.

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Khan and his wife gave more than $1 million to the YMCA, memorizing his

very first days in Champaign. He bought the Urbana Golf and Country

Club, of which he is a member even though he doesn’t golf much, and

facilitated it survive a financially tough time.

Khan is not thoughtless or a thrill seeker. He is a venturesome

opportunist, now he owns a NFL Team Jaguars & an English Football Club

Fulham.

Currently he is busy in making his NFL team

get into good shape, Khan admits it won’t be easy. For him it never has

been. But he retains the spirit that comes from people who have seen

enough of other parts of the world to appreciate the eternal opportunities

of America. “You can do anything you want to do,” Khan says. “You have

to work hard, you have to create your own luck, and you have to

have some luck also. But here, it’s possible.”

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