From a paper boy to a multi-millionaire

Thursday, 15 April 2004, 19:30 IST
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LONDON: A multi-millionaire in Britain, who launched his career as a paper boy and progressed to trading lawnmower parts, bagged the newcomer of the year title at the prestigious Asian Business Awards function. Jojar Dhinsa, 28, from Kenilworth town in Warwickshire, who made his first 1,000 pounds after starting out in business as a 13-year-old, was Tuesday night conferred the award at the function organised by a leading British Asian newspaper Eastern Eye. Dhinsa is now worth an estimated 40 million pounds and is the founder and chief executive of the Athlone group. The company that he set up in February 2002 is a private equity firm investing in technology, media and telecommunications. It also has interests in hotels, hot spas in real estate in Eastern Europe, Russia, China and India. Other ventures include Athlone Executive Search, Athlone Financial Services, Athlone Media Services and Athlone Business Services. The group operates internationally with its headquarters in Reading, with 16 full-time employees. "It's fantastic I've won. I am just a normal kid from Coventry, but I am very driven and persistent," Dhinsa said. "I only got a 2:2 in my degree and only got one A-level. But that should not stop people achieving things. If you put your mind to it you can achieve anything. "I always knew I was going to be a millionaire. I don't know where it came from, I just knew." Dhinsa began working as a paperboy at the age of six, and progressed to importing garden furniture from the Far East to sell in the Midlands. At first he rang contacts from his bedroom and his age initially got in the way of his business dealings until he came up with an innovative solution. "I was only 14 or 15, and because of my age some people did not take me seriously," he recalled. "So I went to a hotel and recorded a lot of the background noise from the reception, and then played it back so my bedroom sounded more like an office." After that he set up a dye importing business, bringing in dyes from India for the textile trade. That business, JK Trading, was sold for $70 million to an Indian consortium while Dhinsa completed his degree in chartered surveying at the University of Central England. "I didn't want to be a doctor because I hate blood, but while I was studying for my degree I realised I didn't want to be a chartered surveyor, I didn't want to wait 20 or 30 years to become a partner," he said. "My father wanted me to enter a profession, but I wanted to be a salesman. I did that and really enjoyed it. But I didn't want to work for anyone else. "The more people said no to something, the more I wanted to do it."
Source: IANS