Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong (February 28, 1918 – October 23, 2007) was a prominent wealthy Malaysian Chinese businessman. He was renowned for his vision and courage in transforming Genting Highlands from an unexplored hilltop to one of the world's most successful casino resorts. He was once the 3rd richest man in Malaysia with a net worth estimated to be 4.2 billion USD, making him the 204th richest person in the billionaire list compiled by Forbes.
The idea of developing Genting Highlands was first conceived when Lim Goh Tong was having a dinner in Cameron Highlands. An idea struck him when he was enjoying the soothing cool breeze of Cameron Highlands that as the living standard rose in Malaysia, more and more people would visit mountain resorts for relaxation and recreation, but Cameron Highlands was too far away from the capital city Kuala Lumpur, therefore building a mountain resort nearer to Kuala Lumpur would have great business potential.
Upon conceiving this idea, many people were skeptical of him to turn a forest into a tourist resort. Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong ignored all the negativities and went ahead with his plan although most thought it was really risky and reckoned him who was financially comfortable to be foolish to invest heavily in money and time to develop Genting.
After Tunku Abdul Rahman, the prime minister of Malaysia visited Genting Highlands and commended Lim's effort to develop a resort contributing to Malaysia's tourism industry without government help, Genting was granted the only casino license. The whole Genting project was completed in January 1971but opened its door for business on 8 May 1971.
In the next 30 years, Lim continued to develop and expand Genting Highlands beyond its original idea of a hotel with basic tourist facilities. Among the projects were the construction of more hotels, indoor and outdoor theme parks, and a convention centre. In 1993, a township was developed on an 81-hectare piece of land around the site of the Genting Skyway cable car station at the suggestion of Tun Mahathir, the prime minister of Malaysia. It was named Gohtong Jaya after Lim as a token of remembrance for his efforts in the development of Genting Highlands.
As of now, Genting Highlands is one of the most successful Casino resorts in the world and is one of the primary tourist attractions in Malaysia. Lim's company, Genting Group operates Genting Highlands and has diversified into many other industries such as plantations, property, paper, power generation, oil and gas exploration and cruise boat industries.
His eventual success was attributed to his entrepreneurial spirit. "The Genting project fitted my idea of an ideal business," he wrote. "No one was interested in it, which meant no competition." Lim Goh Tong had won many awards together with his company Genting Group for his entrepreneurship and his contribution, among them were Malaysian Entrepreneurs Award 1985, Manager of the Year Award 1986, Business Achiever of the Year Award1994, Number 1 ranking of 10 Malaysian Leading Companies 1999 and The Best Employer Award 1996.
After I read all the three articles about Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, I found that to become a success entrepreneur, we need to have some of the characteristics. First of all, an entrepreneur must be creative. Just like Lim Goh Tong, he had the idea to develop a hilltop resort when he visited Cameron Highlands. Besides to develop the resort, he designed Genting to become a place suitable for a family trip. The second characteristic I saw from Lim Goh Tong is brave. This can be showed when he had the idea to develop Genting, although many people said that it was really risky and foolish, Lim Goh Tong ignored all the negativities and continue the project and lastly, he was success. Last but not least, an entrepreneur should be innovative. Although Genting is successfully developed but Lim Goh Tong still make innovation on it to become more attractive and involved in more sectors. For example, he get the license of casino, plantations, property, paper, power generation, oil and gas exploration and cruise boat industries.
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