03/08/2019
Amancio Ortega: The Fashion Designer who is Richer than Ghana, Benin Republic & Togo Combined!
Many people do not know much about this humble Fashion Designer, who is currently the Forbes 6th Richest Man on Earth with a Net Worth of $62.7 Billion as at 2nd August 2019.
Amancio Ortega is the Founder and Former Chairman of Inditex Fashion Group, best known for its chain of Zara Clothing and Accessories Retail Shops.
Amancio Ortega was born into the family of a poor railway worker in Busdongo de Arbás, León, Spain.
They lived in a beggarly house at the railway workers’ quarters, and his mother was employed as a housemaid.
Amancio have heard his mother pleading for credit at local grocery stores, unable to afford essential items, which fuelled his resolve to get a job and help out with the family’s finances.
Being extremely poor, things were so difficult for young Amancio so he abandoned school and left his hometown to look for work.
Shortly after, at the age of 13, Amancio Ortega found a job as a shop hand for a local shirt maker called Gala. Gala, a conventional shirts maker, is still active and open on one of La Coruña’s downtown corners, selling traditional shirts, caps and cardigans. José Martínez, who inherited the Gala business from his father, recently reported that visitors never buy, they simply ask about his youth friend, Amancio.
At the age of 16, Amancio Ortega was pondering on how to figure out potential client desires and more importantly, meet that demand.
So, he usually sits outside at the street corner, watching passers-by to gain insight into what they need.
In 1975, he opened his first Zara store with his wife Rosalía Mera. He had wanted to call the name of the business, Zorba, but that name was already taken.
Zara’s success was in part due to its strategy of imitating popular fashions and quickly making them for sale at inexpensive prices.
Ortega insists on being involved from the designing of any clothing right through to sewing and mass production.
He keeps a very low profile and, until 1999, no photograph of Ortega had ever been published and is known for his preference for a simple lifestyle.
He refuses to wear a tie and typically wears a simple uniform of a blue blazer, white shirt, and grey trousers.
Today Amancio Ortega is the sixth richest man in the world, with a wealth index of $62.7 billion. To put this in perspective, Ghana’s GDP is $47.33 billion, Togo’s GDP $4.813 billion while Benin’s Republic GDP is $9.274 billion. All 3 countries have a combined GDP of $61.417 billion, making Amancio Ortega richer than all 3 countries by $1.283 billion!
This goes to buttress the point that human resources is far more valuable than mineral resources. Individuals who develop their innate human resource, produce great wealth equivalent to nations. As such we know that the poverty in Africa is not due to lack of natural resources, but due to lack of quality human resources.
You can be as successful as Amancio Ortega if you can believe in yourself and take action. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a step.
Be Inspired
