How do we use wealth to uplift communities?

“I began to see wealth as a tool to uplift an entire community,” writes Michael Lee-Chin in his first book, The Way of Wealth.

This conviction, said Lee-Chin at the launch of his memoir on Oct. 27, stemmed from the knowledge that his advantages — being born in an era in which he could receive an education, as the son of a remarkable woman, and in Jamaica, a country that “nurtured me to feel that I could be anybody, anywhere in the world” — had combined to set him on track for success.

The answer, he concluded, was to give back.

Lee-Chin (B.Eng. ’74, LL.D. ’03) is the chairman and CEO of Portland Holdings Inc. and chairman of NCB Financial Group, and one of the world’s few Black billionaires.

He is a philanthropist and founder of the Michael Lee-Chin & Family Institute for Strategic Business Studies at the DeGroote School of Business, which researches value creation in enterprises in order to equip business professionals with expertise to assess business strategies and assets.

Throughout his career, Lee-Chin has used his wealth to uplift others.

At the launch, which was hosted in part by McMaster University Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Maureen MacDonald on the tenth floor of the McLean Centre for Collaborative Discovery, Lee-Chin continued his pattern of generosity, this time by sharing lessons learned during his storied career.

Advice for success

Lee-Chin talked about his unlikely beginnings, when as a schoolchild he was labeled a “dunce.” His talent and perseverance, and his mother’s belief in his abilities, eventually won him a scholarship.

Another scholarship, in 1970, brought him to McMaster University, where he studied civil engineering. Later, he began graduate studies in business. For a while, he worked as a bouncer, but eventually joined Investors Group as a financial planner — despite initially struggling with an entry test.

Lee-Chin eventually invested in Mackenzie Financial Group, the proceeds from which he used to further his holdings and investments. Along the way, he sought advice from Warren Buffett and, based on what he learned, developed his famous five rules of wealth creation.

Here’s a snippet of the advice Lee-Chin shared.

If you want to be successful, he said, adopt the three Ps: predict, plan and persevere. Successful prediction, he said, is based on observation. Observe, then create an observation or hypothesis; then stress test that hypothesis to see if it holds true under different conditions. Then codify that hypothesis into a theory.

Lee-Chin used this theory, which he learned during his engineering studies, to create a set of rules for being successful in any endeavour — by finding a role model:

1. Identify a role model, and not just any role model. “Go straight to the top of the class, the best in the world,” he said.
2. Get the role model’s recipe. “Kneel figuratively at the role model’s feet,” he said. “Ask, ‘Role model, how did you do it? I need your recipe to the most minute, nuanced detail.’”
3. Don’t put your thumbprint on the recipe. “Execute the recipe faithfully,” he said. “Don’t let your ego interfere.”

The Way of Wealth is available now.