Eric Chen adheres to the concept of ‘creating social value’ to run his business: “Success is serving the community personally and professionally, and becoming the best version of oneself ”

At the tender age of 23, Eric successfully founded a biotechnology startup “Vitargent” and was awarded the Grand Prix at the 43rd Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions for his achievement in toxin detection technology. He jokes that his most meaningful start-up came earlier when he was a freshman in university, when he created the “Ming Yue Club” to offer free Cantonese lessons to his non-Cantonese classmates. He believes it was this good deed that led to his receipt of the Jockey Club Scholarship.

Everything has a positive cycle, Eric points out. His altruistic spirit and selfless help to others turned out to be a factor earning him the Scholarship, which in turn inspired him to give back to society. Today, he still sticks to the concept of 'creating social value' to run his business.

Eric's future life goals, in addition to serving the public, are to support and invest in other start-ups or companies with the same philosophy. “It wasn’t just a consideration of financial returns when the investors showed interest in my start-up. I hope I can help these companies contribute to society and create social value themselves.”

Once a member of the Chinese Youth Baseball Team, Eric has an important message to share with others, especially those who have encountered setbacks when starting a new business. “I learned from sports competition that success is never easy. We should learn from failure and turn it into a driving force.”

This story was originally published on The Hong Kong Jockey Club's "With You. Then. Now. Always." website.