Success Secret: The hardest victory is the victory over self.

"The hardest victory is the victory over self." --- Greek philosopher Aristotle

Image below of Aristotle, sourced from martinfrost.ws



This is one of the true secrets to success that most of us human beings either do not know, refuse to acknowledge or just simple cannot do.

Conquest of our own selves in terms of self-discipline, self-study, self-evaluation of strengths as well as weaknesses, nonstop self-training, all these are essential for achieving true and enduring success.

Outstanding entrepreneurs, great writers, exceptional artists, champion athletes and other peoples from all walks of life have attained the hardest of all victories which is the victory over self!


Here are photos of two super entrepreneurs who I admire for their business genius and discipline:

Image below of  world's wealthiest investor, the simple-living Warren Buffett, sourced from money.cnn.com



Asia's wealthiest billionaire as of 2013 is the disciplined, hardworking and simple-living "rags-to-riches" entrepreneur Li Ka Shing of Hong Kong, image below sourced from online.wsj.com




Imags below of athletes, sourced from salempress.com

A secret behind successful, hardworking & highly efficient people, why keep on striving even when already a success?

Why some already seemingly successful folks still work, study and innovate non-stop?

A lot of people say to hardworking people in Tagalog or the Filipino language: "Hindi mo madala 'yan sa hukay. (You cannot take it with you to the grave)."

For most hardworking, disciplined and efficient people, it's never about the money or the accomplishments, it's being productive, making the most of life and our God-given talents, it's about striving for excellence nonstop.
Here is a quote I want to share, which can partly explain the phenmenon of disciplined and driven people...

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me." --- Erma Bombeck


World's wealthiest investor tycoon, the hardworking and simple-living Warren Buffett, also a philanthropist. Image below sourced from money.cnn.com





Asia's richest self-made tycoon, Hong Kong billionaire taipan and philanthropist Li Ka Shing who is well-known for his frugality, simple lifestyle and hard work. Image below sourced from ualberta.ca




The Italian artist and genius Michaelangelo, this image below sourced from socialmedianews.com.au

Zara founder now richer than Warren Buffett, 3rd wealthiest billionaire in the world---self-made man Amancio Ortega of Spain!

No wonder when I had my exclusive interview with Japan's wealthiest tycoon and the founder of Uniqlo Tadashi Yanai, he told me his ambition is to surpass Zara fashion brand. Now I understand and know why. Read on...

Congratulations! Bloomberg recently published its Billionaire Index, and it has ranked self-made entrepreneur Amancio Ortega as the third richest man in the world with a net worth of US$47.4 billion.

The media-shy and low-profile Spanish businessman just surpassed the world-famous Warren Buffet, but Ortega still needs to earn $16 billion to eclipse another legend Bill Gates fopr world's No. 2 richest rank.

I'm originally torn between where to post this news, in the Will Soon Flourish blog on success or in the Will Soon Fashion blog.

Since the main phanomenon here in this news is not just Zara as a fashion brand or even the shared second article below on the inherited billions of the Zara and Prada heiresses, but my focus here in this post is to celebrate the success of the Zara founder as innovative and self-made entrepreneur plus the amazing rise in riches and high fashion purchasing power of such emerging market nations like China and Brazil, I've decided to post this item under the Will Soon Flourish blog celebrating flourishing success!

Congratulations not only to the founder of the global Zara fashion brand, but also to the new emerging economic powers China and Brazil---your new-rich consumers and buyers have helped some old world Europe families become so much richer despite the troubles in the Eurozone and USA economies.



Here's a short background on the world's new third wealthiest billionaire is Amancio Ortega of Zara.



Born in León in March, 1936, Amancio Ortega y Gaona is a self-made-man who started out at age 14 as a gofer in a shirt store in La Coruña, Galicia (north-western Spain).

In 1963 he started Confecciones Goa (his initials in reverse), which made bathrobes.

In 1975 he opened the first store in what would grow into the enormously popular global chain of  fashion boutiques called Zara.



(Images of Zara fasion)












Below is the Bloomberg news report on some of the young scions of the Zara and Prada fashion dynasties of Europe, and their fortunes courtesy of the rising buying power of such "economic miracles" as China and Brazil.

(Image of Prada fashion below)




Zara & Prada heiresses--- Hidden European Fashion Billionaires Undressed on China

By Robert LaFranco - Oct 19, 2012 7:02 AM GMT+0800

How to Become Very Rich From Europe's Debt Crisis

Surging demand for $100 Zara dresses and $3,000 Prada handbags in emerging markets has created three new billionaires who hail from countries at the center of the European debt crisis.

Enlarge image

Hidden Billionaires Unzipped From Europe With $950 China Shoes

Gianluca Colla/Bloomberg

A Prada SpA store in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall in Milan.

A Prada SpA store in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall in Milan. Photographer: Gianluca Colla/Bloomberg

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Hidden Billionaires Unzipped From Europe With $950 China Shoes

Thomas Lee/Bloomberg

Shoppers stand in front of a Prada SpA store on Canton Road in Hong Kong, China.

Shoppers stand in front of a Prada SpA store on Canton Road in Hong Kong, China. Photographer: Thomas Lee/Bloomberg

Enlarge image

Hidden Billionaires Unzipped From Europe With $950 China Shoes

Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg

Customers queue to enter a Prada SpA store in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Hong Kong, China.

Customers queue to enter a Prada SpA store in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Hong Kong, China. Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg

Sandra Ortega Mera, the 44-year-old daughter of Amancio Ortega, Europe’s richest man, is worth $1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. She owns 1 percent of Arteixo, Spain-based Inditex SA (ITX), the world’s largest clothing retailer and owner of the Zara clothing chain, whose shares have gained 58 percent this year as unemployment in its home country hovers above 20 percent.

Marina Prada and her brother Alberto Prada Bianchi -- two grandchildren of Prada SpA (1913) founder Mario Prada -- are worth $2.6 billion each. Shares of the Italian luxury-goods maker are up 75 percent year-to-date in Hong Kong trading. The Italian government said in September the country’s gross domestic product will probably fall 2.4 percent this year.

“You can’t really get more of a difficult home market than Italy and Spain right now,” said Rahul Sharma, managing director at Neev Capital, a London-based retail advisory firm. “For both companies, the ability to deliver a sense of freshness to their customers has been a big part of their success in Europe. When customers feel like they are seeing something different they are a lot less price sensitive. That becomes aspirational when you go to Asia where the product seems more exotic.”

None of the three billionaires has appeared on an international wealth ranking. Jose Leyte, a spokesman for Sandra Ortega, said she declined to comment on her net worth. A spokesman for Prada in Milan said the siblings also declined to comment.

China, Brazil

Defying Spain’s and Italy’s ravaging debt loads and the threat of impending fiscal austerity measures, shares of Inditex and Prada are rising on the demand for their products in countries such as China and Brazil.
Zara’s pricing is an enticement for cost-conscious shoppers searching for affordable fashion. The chain offers items such as $17 scarves and $60 skirts. Inditex, which operates eight retail lines, opened 166 stores in about 100 cities during the first half, including 32 locations in China, the world’s second- largest economy. Zara’s first online store in China opened in September.

Inditex said last month that earnings rose 32 percent to 944 million euros ($1.2 billion) in the first half. Revenue increased 17 percent to more than 7 billion euros on the strength of its global market expansion, the company said.

$950 Shoes

Prada, which sells $3,000 handbags and $950 shoes, has benefited from Chinese consumers’ hunger for luxury goods. The company reported last month that first-half profit surged almost 60 percent to 289 million euros on a 19 percent revenue gain. Revenue of more than 1.5 billion euros was fueled by a 45 percent sales increase in the Asia Pacific region.

“We understand consumers from all over the world,” said Patrizio Bertelli, the company’s 66-year-old billionaire CEO, on the company’s earnings call Sept. 24. “For instance, Chinese consumers are much more fashion-conscious and aware of what they wear than they were a few years ago. Consumers globally need to be enticed to buy.”

Mario Prada opened his first luxury goods store in Milan in 1912. The store sold traveling trunks, leather handbags, beauty cases and leather accessories. In 1919, it became an official supplier to the Italian royal family. Prada emerged as an international brand in the 1970s, when his granddaughter Miuccia Prada led the company’s design strategy while Bertelli ran sales and distribution. Miuccia Prada, 64, is the company’s chairwoman. Bertelli is her husband.

Accumulated Cash

Marina and Alberto Prada, who are Miuccia’s older siblings and whose ages couldn’t be confirmed, work as consultants to the company: Marina in public relations; Alberto in location scouting and distribution. They each own 12 percent stakes in Prada worth more than $2 billion through three Milan-based family holding companies: Bellatrix, Gipafin and Prada Holding BV.

Since 2009, Marina and Alberto have each accumulated a cash portfolio estimated at almost $200 million, including proceeds from dividends and shares sold in last year’s initial public offering.
Miuccia Prada and Bertelli each own 28 percent of the company. Their stakes are valued at about $5.7 billion. They have both earned more than $500 million from compensation, dividends and share sales since the IPO.

Women’s Bathrobes

Inditex sold shares to the public in 2001, enriching both Amancio Ortega and his now ex-wife, Rosalia Mera. Mera, 68, who co-founded the company making women’s bathrobes out of the couple’s home in 1963, controls more than 4 percent of Inditex through Rosp Corunna, a closely held investment company based in La Coruna, Spain. Mera owns 86 percent of the shares held by the investment company; the couple’s daughter, Sandra Ortega, owns the remaining 14 percent.

While Sandra Ortega isn’t involved in Inditex management, she manages Rosp Corunna with her mother. The holding company sold about $550 million of Inditex stock in the IPO, and used the proceeds to fund a portfolio of startup companies, including Zeltia SA, a publicly traded Spanish pharmaceutical company, in which it owns a 5 percent stake.

Passing Buffett

Like her father, who passed Warren Buffett to become the world’s third-richest person in August, Sandra Ortega prefers to stay out of the limelight. A trained psychologist, she lives in Galicia on Spain’s northwest coast with her husband and three children.

Sandra Ortega also serves as vice president of the Fundacion Paideia Galiza, which focuses on helping disabled people integrate into general society. The foundation was inspired by her brother, Marcos, who is mentally impaired.

Retail accounts for almost half of the 20 biggest fortunes in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Amancio Ortega’s fortune now stands at $53.6 billion, more than $10 billion ahead of Ingvar Kamprad, founder of the IKEA furniture chain. Europe’s next three largest fortunes include L’Oreal SA cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who has a net worth of $25.5 billion, as well as Hennes & Mauritz AB chairman Stefan Persson and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA founder Bernard Arnault, both of whom have a net worth of about $25 billion.

Bill Gates' amazing Windows 8, vast wealth, charities and his dream homes Will Soon Flourish column by Wilson Lee Flores The Philippine Star September 9, 2012

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.     — Bill Gates




SINGAPORE — During a recent trip to ASEAN’s financial and technology hub, top Microsoft officials showed me sleek mobile phones and laptops made by HTC, Samsung, Nokia, Lenovo and Acer which respectively run on Windows 7.7 and 7.1 software.

A Microsoft executive told the Philippine STAR: “Windows 7.5 offers hundreds of features and experiences designed to build on phones’ intuitive, ‘people-first’ foundation — multitasking, more integrated apps, primo mobile Web browsing and powerful/personalized tools like integrated social networking and conversation threads for connecting with people in our lives.”

What is even more exciting is the scheduled global launch of Windows 8 in late October, which incidentally coincides with the 57th birthday of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.



More than all the impressive technological advancements which are expected to improve our lifestyles, I decided to do additional research on Bill Gates. Here are some of the many reasons why we should admire this extraordinary visionary:

Continuous innovation is key to real success. Bill Gates has shown that innovating is essential not only to business, but also to professional and other successes. The popularity of computers and Microsoft’s Windows software in virtually every household or business on earth became a reality due to Bill Gates’ nonstop quest for technological innovations.



Nowadays, Bill and wife Melinda use nonstop innovations in their passionate and diverse philanthropic endeavours in Third World nations. Bill Gates said: “Never before in history has innovation offered the promise of so much to so many in so short a time.”




Bill Gates, a self-made man, is the world’s second wealthiest. Once the world’s wealthiest tycoon for 13 years, Gates established Microsoft as the world’s technological trendsetter.

At the start of September, his estimated personal fortune was US$72.89 billion based on Microsoft stock price of $30.82 per share. Unknown to most people, his three kids like to tease Bill Gates by singing the song Billionaire by Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars.




Gates advocates not giving too much in inheritance. Last year, Bill Gates made global headlines by saying that his three children---16-year-old Jennifer, 13-year-old Rory and 10-year-old Phoebe---would only inherit "a miniscule portion" of his wealth.

He added: “It will mean they will have to find their own way.” Various media reports added that each child would receive possibly less than $10 million each. Of course, he will give his kids “an unbelievable education” plus health benefits.



This writer admires the bold unconventional thinking of Bill Gates and his friend, the world’s third wealthiest tycoon Warren Buffett, of not bequeathing too much wealth to kids or kin. I believe that not giving too much wealth can help build the character of people. By allowing kids and kin to find their own way, we allow them the struggle to amass one’s own money which is one of the world’s incomparably great thrills!

(Photo below of Bill Gates with his friend world's third wealthiest billionaire, during the launch of a Chinese-manufactured car)



(Again, picture of the two friends)



Bill Gates seems to have another thought-provoking reason for not wanting to bequeath wealth to kids. He said last year that self-made millionaires and billionaires tend to donate so much more money to charities which help the world, compared to generally less-generous heirs. He said in March 2011: “Our experience worldwide is that first-generation wealth is actually more generous than dynastic wealth.”

Losing world’s richest crown, Bill Gates is still the most generous philanthropist. The Microsoft founder actually didn’t lose his title as the world’s richest man in 2010 to Mexico’s telecom monopolist Carlos Slim due to lack of business acumen or a slack in Microsoft’s success. Bill Gates gave away that title by donating a huge chunk of his wealth — worth billions of dollars — to his charitable organization called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

(Below is photo of world's No. 1 richest billionaire Carlos Slim of Mexico, as photographed by Adriana Zehbrauskas of the New York Times)



This foundation helps educational and public health causes all over the world. He has studied the charitable works of past American self-made tycoons Andrew Carnegie (who donated most of his wealth) and John D. Rockefeller. I believe Bill Gates now has a greater distinction in being the world’s No. 1 most generous philanthropist; in fact, he has already donated $28 billion.

(Photos of phenomenal American "rags-to-riches" tycoons Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockfeller, whose magnanimous philanthropies Bill Gates studied)








Melinda French Gates has encouraged the public to learn from the philanthropic efforts of the Salwen family, who sold their house in order to donate half its value. This story is recounted in the 2010 book by Kevin Salwen and his 14-year-old daughter Hannah entitled The Power of Half: One Family’s Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back.

Bill and Melinda Gates invited Joan Salwen to Seattle to speak about their family’s social idealism. Then, on Dec. 9, 2010, Gates, his friends Warren Buffett and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg signed a promise called the “Gates-Buffet Giving Pledge”: a pledge to eventually donate to charity at least half of their wealth.

(Pictures below of the Salwen family, the house they sold in order to donate half their money to charity, and the popular book)









Bill Gates is a good family man with a dream house by the lake. For his family, Bill Gates took seven years to build a high-tech, Pacific Northwest lodge design house with total floor area of 66,000 square feet over five acres of land by the lake. Much of this mansion is underground, so it doesn’t look humongous. This house is auspicious based on ancient Chinese feng shui or geomancy — located by a hill and overlooking a lake.

Nicknamed Xanadu 2.0, this wonderful home has the following areas: seven bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, six kitchens, six fireplaces, a pool building, exercise facilities, a 2,100-square-foot domed library including two secret bookcases (Gates has loved to read ever since he was a kid), an art collection, a formal dining room, a trampoline room, offices, a reception hall, a multi-purpose room, guest house, underground garage and two above-ground garages, a theater that seats 20 people, gatehouse, boathouse, activities building, estuary, 60-foot swimming pool with underwater music system, a reception hall that can accommodate 150 people for a sitdown dinner or 200 people for a cocktail party, gardens, and a stocked trout stream.

(The residence or mansion of Bill Gates and his family)



(Another view of the Bill Gates mansion)



(A picture of the unique and extraordinary Bill Gates mansion)




(U.S. News & World Report rendition of Bill Gates' high-tech mansion)




Bill Gates once said about his parents’ marriage: “In my parents I saw a model where they were really always communicating, doing things together. They were really kind of a team. I wanted some of that magic myself.”

A bridge player, golfer and fan of Frank Sinatra songs, Bill Gates is a loving husband and has raised his three kids to lead healthy, normal lives. Beyond his being the Genghis Khan of technological conquests, his vast wealth or his philanthropic largesse, this writer also admires tech whiz Bill Gates for his success as a good husband and a good father.

(Singer Frank Sinatra, Bill Gates admires his songs)

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