How Sheldon Adelson Went From Being a Poor Paperboy To A Billionaire

No one would have guessed American casino magnate, Sheldon Adelson, was born and raised in a poor neighborhood in Boston. Today, he is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the world’s largest casino company.

Sheldon Gary Adelson was born on August 4, 1933. His father was a taxi driver and his mother worked in a knitting shop. As a child, Adelson worked hard as a paperboy to help support his family. By age 12, Adelson had his own amateur business selling toiletries.

Adelson enrolled at the City College of New York, majoring in corporate finance, but quit in his second year to briefly attend a trade school that helped him get a job in the army as a court reporter, earning minimum wage. When he came back home, Adelson worked as a mortgage broker and investment advisor. He used the money he earned to invest in a few business opportunities back in Boston. By 1968, Adelson had a fortune of about $5 million. However, due to the stock market decline and a couple of failed businesses, Adelson lost all the profit he had made and had to start again. Sheldon Adelson did not let this setback slow him down or lose all hope.

In the early 1970s, Sheldon Adelson became interested in a new business: converting apartment buildings into condominiums in Boston. Unfortunately, the condo market had also declined and he was losing more money than he was gaining. This time Adelson was troubled and had difficulty staying positive. He went into depression for a while, which affected him both mentally and physically, but eventually he was able to get back up and start finding a new, more stable employment.

Next, he bought a company that published various magazines. One of those magazines that had caught his eye was a computer publication called “Data Communications User”. While attending a trade show for his condo business, he realized that if the computer industry was big enough to necessitate its own devoted magazine, could it also benefit from a trade show of its very own? With this thought in mind, Sheldon gathered some partners in 1973 to create the world’s first computer related trade show. The event was mediocre but Sheldon Adelson truly believed this was the future for both computers and trade shows. He quickly liquidated his entire condo business and publishing company to establish the trade show business.

Sheldon Adelson launched the Computer Dealers Expo (COMDEX) in 1979 which was held at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. This time, Adelson’s business initiatives took flight without crashing. Not only was the public interest in personal computers beginning to take off, but Las Vegas was becoming a more fun and popular city—many computer enthusiasts would take the weekend off work to party, and was thus exposed to these expos. At this period in time, IBM, Apple, and Microsoft were rapidly growing, and Adelson gave them a crucial early forum to announce their products and releases to both consumers and companies. Over the next decade, COMDEX grew into one of the largest computer trade shows in the world, grossing $20 million per year. These expos were all the rage and as popular as today’s Comic Con.

Having already owned a travel company, an infamous tradeshow and a private jet, Adelson and his partners bought the legendary Sands Hotel and Casino in 1988 for $128 million. Adelson renovated the property and added a shopping mall and convention center which hosted the annual COMDEX trade show.

In 1995, Adelson sold COMDEX for $862 million. He wanted to start something new. He was inspired by his trip to Venice to build the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino with a convention center. He built his dream resort which opened in 1999. This resort appealed to many tourists and business visitors. The Venetian Resort Hotel was the first all-suites hotel in Las Vegas. Within a few years, Adelson and the Las Vegas Sands corp were operating six casinos around the world including a location in Macau which is one of the largest buildings in the world.

Today, the Las Vegas Sands corp is the largest casino company in the world with annual revenues of more than $11 billion. Adelson has a net worth of $35 billion and is the 14th richest person in the world. He remains the company’s chief executive officer and chairman.

But like most of Adelson’s business ventures, even the Las Vegas Sands corp has experienced its share of ups and downs. When the economy tanked in 2008, Las Vegas tourism and trade show industry reached a low point—so much that Adelson saw his wealth plunge from $40 billion to less than $2 billion. Sheldon Adelson was nearly forced into bankruptcy but as a last resort, invested $1 billion of his own personal cash to help the company get through the financial crisis. This was ultimately worth the risk because the gamble succeeded and LVS recovered.

Sheldon Adelson lost large chunks of his fortune multiple times due to unpredictable changes in the economy but with positive thinking and focusing on the next new business adventure, Adelson was able to get through it all and prosper.