LEADER

FROM

S CR AT C H

RAGS TO RICHES

SHAHID KHAN AKA SHAD KHAN, THE 16

YO KID FROM LAHORE THAT LIVED THE
AMERICAN DREAM FOR 45 YEARS

THE RICHEST MAN OF

ORG.

BEHAVIOR

SECTION

C -

UCP

&

LEADERSHIP
MBA

FA L L

14

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

D A N E Y A L
M I R Z A
AUDIENCE:

D R . H I N A
K H A N

INTRODUCTION & EARLY LIFE

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

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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 UrbanaChampaign.
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 unions hotel wanted $9 a night, far too much. The next day he began
his first American job washing dishes for $1.20 an hour. Khans journey
began after that days 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
werent 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 wouldnt 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.

KHANS WAY OF ADAPTING IN TOUGH US CONDITIONS

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

Its 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,

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enthusiastic to meet people who werent 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 Khans
close friends. He got to know about sports that werent 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.

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.
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 where there were problems some of the best
opportunities for growth.

HOW KHAN VENTURED INTO SPORTS & WELFARE

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s Khans 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. Hes also spent tens of millions of dollars on academic
constructions.
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 doesnt 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 wont 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, its possible.