He's the life of the party district

Meet Allan Zeman, aka 'Mr Lan Kwai Fong'. In 1983, he saw the potential of the once-sleepy area tucked in the back of Central District, and opened his California Restaurant there. Encouraged by its success, he bought a whole block of buildings around the establishment, and thus was born Hong Kong's best known nightlife district.

Zeman has always been a man of diverse interests and enterprises. He is chairman of Hong Kong's non-profit, home-grown theme park, Ocean World. He got his start - and made his first fortune - in the garment industry, and built a thriving import/export business.

Today he is looking to export the Lan Kwai Fong brand, which is indelibly associated with Hong Kong's fevered, expat-heavy nightlife, to the mainland. He is launching a US$500 million fund that will help him build four new Lan Kwai Fong-style districts in mainland cities and, at the same time, he is rebuilding the tower that housed his first restaurant to give the original Lan Kwai Fong a revamp, arguably overdue.

But first things first. How did a guy who began his business career as a Montreal garment salesman peddling his wares to customers in small Canadian prairie towns become a billionaire nightlife entrepreneur in Hong Kong?

'Starting out as a travelling salesman gave me a diverse background dealing with different kinds of people. It made me think like an independent businessman. As a salesman, I learned that the toughest thing to do is ask someone for money. That's an important first lesson about business,' says Zeman.

Zeman had no formal education in business. 'I have worked for myself since I was 19 years old. Even when I worked alone, I understood the importance of imagination and developing a future vision of yourself and your business.'