72-year-old hotel tycoon cautions against a major character flaw in successful people: ‘Never get caught by hubris’

Building a business is not for the faint of heart, and many of those who dare to take the chance share one trait: self-confidence.

That’s according to hotel tycoon Ho Kwon Ping, 72, the founder and executive chairman of Banyan Group, a hospitality company with a portfolio of about 80 resorts and hotels in 22 countries.

The company, which is listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, generated about $328 million Singapore dollars (about $240 million) in revenue in 2023.

Ho is also the executive chairman of food and beverage manufacturing business Thai Wah Public Company as well as the founding chairman of Singapore Management University.

He attributes his success in part to being headstrong since he was young.

“Headstrongness and self-confidence are related. If you’re not, to some extent, headstrong … then you’re going to be basically a risk-averse person,” Ho told CNBC Make It. “You need [to be] a bit headstrong if you want to be an entrepreneur. You also need a bit of self-confidence.”

But there is a fine line between confidence and hubris, and while the former is important for starting and running a business, the latter can be “a recipe for disaster,” Ho warns.

“My wife has said I’m the bloody most optimistic person she’s known, because I fail in everything [but] I still pick up and go on, so you need self-confidence. But, if you have too much of it, it becomes hubris. So you need to know where the line is drawn,” he said.

One common mistake with hubris is that it can cause companies or founders to “over-expand” or take on more risk than they should, but in business, conditions are not always favorable, he explained.

As an entrepreneur, “you always have to be prepared for the worst, because nobody’s going to help you when things are bad,” he added. Rather than thinking about how much money you can make when starting a new project or business, one should think about how much they can afford to lose, he said.

“Never get caught by hubris into thinking you are great,” he said. “The saying I use … is create your own fantastic PR, but don’t ever believe a word of it.”

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