Sheldon Adelson on career advancement | ‘If you’re not a risk taker, you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur’

No risk, no gain – this is certainly a proverb to bear in mind for employees working for Sands China, as the gaming operator’s chief executive officer, Sheldon Adelson, shared with attendees and employees the factors that have contributed to success in his career during the introduction of Sands China’s Academy & Sharing Session on the Local Talent Development Programme held yesterday afternoon at the Venetian Theater.
The entrepreneur also revealed at the function the true extent to which his company has transformed the city into a major retail destination in Asia, similar to Hong Kong and Singapore with its talent development programs.
Born into an underprivileged family, Mr Adelson confessed to attendees that his father, who lacked a decent educational background and sophisticated working skills, supported his determination to offer the best in vocational development and career advancement possible to his team members; this has been the case since he was a kid. “If I was ever in a position to have employees, I was going to do everything that was not done to my father. When he worked for other people, nobody cared about whether or not he had a good job. Nobody cared about whether he made sufficient money to put food on the table,” he recalled.
“I promised myself that if I was ever in a position, which fortunately I am in today, as we now have 50 thousand employees around the world coming together to create one big team, I would do everything I could to advance people’s training, their development, and to provide opportunities for promotion and growth, and enhance compensation. So this has been the philosophy of mine ever since I was a child,” the 81-year-old magnate said.
To him, a spacious, comfy and warm venue was a key factor in nurturing local workers, to which around 33,000 square feet of training space has been dedicated. Talent development was, according to the group’s head also what a responsible leader should take into account. “The idea is to give people an opportunity to grow within the company because I feel, and I always felt in my entrepreneurial career, that I am responsible as the chairman and chief executive officer of my companies. And I am responsible for providing a warm and comfortable occupational home,” said the top executive. “I am gonna do my best to provide a comfortable environment for them so they can not only experience this, stuck in one position, but they can also go to school.”
Besides, Mr Sheldon Adelson said that he would like to see his employees seizing every single opportunity ahead of them and venturing into unknowns, as progression only comes if you dare to accept uncertainty. After all, only the audacious can leave a mark and be successful.
He emphasised this, saying: “You must be willing and anxious to take risks. If you’re not a risk taker, you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur. You should let somebody else take the risk, and you rest down there, success or failure. But entrepreneurs don’t do that. I would like to encourage all of my employees to take risks. If they failed in taking risks, this is not going to count against them. What will count for them is the fact that they came up with an idea, they took a risk to try to make progress. No risks no gain. You can’t progress unless you take risks. I have been taking risks all my life since I was twelve years old.”
Afterwards, he also said that some of his competitors
suggested that his ambition in 2002 to develop the Venetian resort on Cotai Strip would eventually be in vain. However, as he said jokingly, “now everybody’s fighting to cut off their right arm – I’ve got a full warehouse of right arms – and a couple left ones too. Everyone wants to be in Cotai.”
Macau has enormous potential to raise its profile on the international stage as one of the top Asian retail destinations thanks to an abundance of venues on the Cotai Strip, said the group’s head, who reckoned the city could rise to be  on par with Hong Kong and Singapore. “When we first built the Venetian shopping mall right here in this building, people were saying that we were a little crazy, but look at this now, I felt that we could make Macau into another Hong Kong or another Singapore,” said Mr Adelson, citing the group’s Singaporean integrated resort, Marina Bay Sands Hotel, whose shopping mall is “arguably one of the most beautiful shopping malls in the world.”
Currently, the Sands China Academy is aimed at providing a diverse range of occupational training opportunities to the gaming operator’s employees for their long-term development, with two major areas: “Team Member Training and Development” and “Professional Development of Macau Locals.”
Another initiative is the Sands Retails Academy, a collaborative effort from Sands Retail and Sands China’s human resources department. Launched in 2013, it aims to provide training to retail professionals to enhance customer satisfaction and the shopping experience, improving the quality of service at Shoppes at Four Seasons, Venetian and at Cotai Central. Staff reporter