Amancio Ortega: The Humble Life of One of the World’s Richest Men
Behind the popular company Inditex is the 79-year-old Amancio Ortega, the company's fashion executive and founding chairman who ranks as one of the world's richest men with a real time net worth of $67.8 Billion.
In spite of being a billionaire and a business tycoon, Ortega refused to be engaged in the limelight and even stayed humble all these years. The tycoon still loves to enjoy his coffee at the La Coruña's coffee shop every day in Galician City at the North Atlantic coast-the same coffee shop he used to visit when he was still starting in the field. After finishing his coffee, he will usually spend his quiet time alone strolling across its Plaza Maria Pita finding fulfillment in that simple place instead of staying in a luxurious resorts.
Another unique personality of Ortega is how he values the people around him, especially his employees. During lunch, he can be seen enjoying his food inside the cafeteria with them. Also, unlike other bosses who disappear in the office, he can be found inside his room most of the time sharing the table with his designers, experts and buyers discussing things about the market and business.
Ortega, the son of a Spaniard railway worker, has started his professional life at an early age of 14. Life wasn't that easy for him and for his family that he began working as a delivery boy for a shirt-making business in Coruna, a city in Northern Spain. After many years of persistence, he finally set up his first business offering workshops in line with creating nightgowns, lingerie and babywear.
In 1963, he founded a company called Confeccionaes GOA, and finally integrated it into the holding group Inditex with his first wife, Rosalia Mera. According to Telegraph, Ortega now owns 59.3 percent of the company's stocks valued at €110 billion.
Later on, Inditex became the parent company to brands Pull and Bear, Zara and Massimo Dutti: the fashion lines that made other retail business entrepreneurs envy of Ortega. What makes these brands stand out in the market is how it can design, create, ship and market a garment in days. Because of how quick Inditex can respond to what their customers' desire, their fashion never goes out of trend.
As posted by Forbes, the key to Ortega's success is governed with only two principles: "giving customers what they want as quickly as possible."
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