Lee Lai-shan
Windsurfer Lee Lai-shan was Hong Kong's first Olympic gold medal winner. She hated studying when she was young and was lucky to have an uncle who was an excellent mentor. She has said there is no shortcut to success, only hard work. Lots of practice, lots of competitions, lots of pain and lots of failure: these - and the support of others - are what have made her a success, she has said. Without friends and a team to cheer her on, she believes she would not have achieved what she has.
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen
No one would have guessed Chief Secretary Donald Tsang took the HKCEE twice. He quit studying after graduating from secondary school. At 19, he worked as a salesman in a pharmaceutical company. He has said those times were hard and 'no matter what the weather was, I had to go out and persuade different doctors to buy the products'. He applied for a government post twice before being accepted in 1967. His hard work was appreciated by his bosses and, in 1981, the government sponsored his studies for a Master's in Public Administration.
Fruit Chan
Fruit Chan is the most widely recognised Hong Kong film director in international film festivals after Wong Ka-wai. He has won several Hong Kong Golden Bauhinia Awards. He graduated from secondary school in 1979. The starting point of his career came when he joined a programme organised by a group of new-wave directors. He started at the bottom and was promoted step by step. This process gave him a good understanding of every detail of filmmaking, and the experiences made him an outstanding director.
