Looking through the lens
Zhou started working at a lens factory at the age of 16. All day long she polished glass and earned just $1 a day (US equivalent). She soon tired of this and actually wrote to her boss to complain. What happened next was a game changer for Zhou.
Instead of firing her, he promoted her. By 1993, she had enough knowledge to break off on her own and founded Lens Technology. With the help of her family, she had enough to invest in her first company, a small glass polishing factory, which just happened to be located next door to her former employer.
Taking her company to the next level
Eventually, the company went from polishing glass for watches to polishing glass for smart phones. Another game changer for Zhou. When Apple released the iPhone in 2007, they took her company on as its supplier to produce flat glass screens.
Zhou is quiet, modest, and very, very smart. She is fastidious about the quality of her products, so fastidious that she often stays at an on-site apartment so she can inspect the workers and employees anytime. But she doesn't just inspect; she is known to roll up her sleeves and work right beside them.
How she became a billionaire
In less than 20 years, Zhou already had more than 80,000 employees and was generating more than $2 billion dollars in annual revenue.
So, when her company went public in 2015, it instantly made her a multi-billionaire. Her net worth has been estimated most recently at over $9 billion, making her not only the youngest self-made female billionaire, but also the richest self-made woman on earth period.
For more details about her company, Lens Technology, visit www.hnlens.com
