Riyadh: Hard work and savings are the keys to success and prosperity, Saudi Arabian billionaire Sulaiman Al Rajhi, chairman of the board of Al Rajhi Bank, told young people on Saturday.
Speaking to more than 1,000 young businessmen and youth at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI), Al Rajhi said he has already distributed his assets among his children.
He also said he has allocated some of his wealth to the wakf "endowment", and now he only owns his personal clothes.
The Al Rajhi Group is one of the largest private sector conglomerates in Saudi Arabia.
Al Rajhi said he distributed his wealth to avoid any disputes between his family members after his death.
"I was also afraid that a family member could pass away before me and thus be deprived from his rights in my wealth," he added.
Al Rajhi said he kept his money in investment portfolios, which he distributed among his children after taking theirs and his wives' views into consideration.
He added that his endowments include the establishment of a charity university, a charity hospital, a financial institute and other charitable bodies.
The university will include colleges for medicine and nursing and a university hospital affiliated to the Sulaiman Al Rajhi Charity University. In future, a college of economy and the Al Rajhi Economic Centre would also be established.
The 85-year-old philanthropist, who invests in the finance, industry, agriculture and real estate sectors, said Saudi Arabia's security and stability enabled him to work without fear.
Excessive use
"I have travelled with a bag of gold across dirt roads with a driver I didn't know," he said about visits to his projects scattered all over the kingdom.
Al Rajhi advised the 1,000-plus youths packed in the RCCI hall to work 14 hours a day if they wanted to succeed.
"If you save the money you consume in excessive use of electricity, you can buy a flat after 20 years," he said. "In the beginning my wife did not respond to my advice on power saving, but when I told her the money saved from it would be given to her, she used to put off the lights I had left on."
"It is not wise to give your children pocket money without teaching them to save some of it," the billionaire magnate said.
