Ilustration. Source
Chairul Tanjung is a person who had a dark life in the past who is now an inspiration to everyone because of his success. The man who was born on June 16, 1962 has a family with six siblings. He is the son of Abdul Gafar and Halimah. His father was a journalist during the old order who published a small circulation newspaper. While his mother is a housewife.
Entering the new order era, Chairul Tanjung's father's business was forced to close because it was against the political policies of the rulers at that time. This resulted in his family being threatened with economic shortages, and his parents were forced to sell their house and decided to live in a narrow inn room.
This did not dampen his enthusiasm to continue trying to improve his standard of living. Chairul Tanjung completed his secondary education at SMAN 1 Boedi Oetomo Jakarta in 1981 and continued his studies at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Indonesia and graduated in 1987.
When he started college, that's when Chairul Tanjung started his business to fulfill his college needs. Starting from selling books to selling t-shirts and opening photocopy services. Thanks to his persistence and enthusiasm, Chairul Tanjung also received an award as an exemplary student at the National level in 1984-1985.
Apart from selling books and t-shirts, Chairul Tanjung also opened a medical and laboratory equipment shop in Senen, Central Jakarta. But it didn't last long, the business just went bankrupt.
After completing his education at the University of Indonesia, Chairul Tanjung started his business in producing children's shoes for export. He founded PT Pariarti Shindutama with three colleagues in 1987 with an initial capital of Rp. 150 million, loan from Exim Bank.
They are very lucky, the business is still new to getting orders from Italy up to 160 thousand pairs of shoes. However, Chairul Tanjung's collaboration with his two colleagues did not last long. He decided to set up his own business due to a different vision of business expansion.
Chairul Tanjung is very good at building networks that make his business grow rapidly. Chairul directs his efforts to conglomerate into three core businesses, namely finance, property and multimedia. He named his company Para Group.
In finance, he took over Bank Karman which is now known as Bank Mega. While in the property sector, Para Group owns the Bandung Supermall. Meanwhile, in the investment sector, in early 2010 Para Group through its subsidiary, Trans Corp, bought 40 percent of Carrefour Indonesia's shares, another business. So that in 2018 he was included in the ten richest people in Indonesia.
Chairul Tanjung's story shows that with sincerity and effort, he did not give up even though he was bankrupt. But he was not discouraged to improve his family's economy, thus becoming one of the richest and inspiring entrepreneurs.