Zhou Qunfei attributes her success to her perseverance. The 48-year-old built her empire from the ground up. She didn’t have an easy childhood. Her father, a skilled craftsman, lost a finger in an accident in a factory and went blind before she was born. Her mother died when she was just 5 years old. She recently told CNBC: Zhou dropped out of high school at 16 to work on an assembly line at a watch lens factory. At night, she took accounting classes and dreamed about one day starting her own business. She had saved about $2,500 by 1993 and founded a family watch lens business with that money. She lived in a three bedroom apartment with seven family members for four years. Over the next 10 years, Zhou built a booming business making watch lenses. She employed 1,000 people. In 2003, she beat out competitors and was awarded a contract with Motorola. She says this was her darkest moment. Basically, the supplier demanded full payment before delivering any materials. This was a highly unusual move for a supplier. Zhou sold her house in order to meet the demands of the supplier, but it wasn’t enough. At that low point, a phone call from her daughter brought her back from the edge. She realized she had to carry on. She sent an email to Motorola describing the situation and they stepped in to help her. Zhou took her company public in March 2015, and the price of shares went through the roof. She owns 98 percent of her company.Today Lens Technology is valued at $11.4 billion and employs 82,000 people across China.
