Motorola was the first to reach out in 2003, followed by other mobile-phone companies. HTC, Nokia, Samsung and finally Apple in 2007 were all requesting touch screens, culminating in her current billion-dollar empire.
The self-proclaimed perfectionist admits that overseeing the business hasn’t been easy. In fact, she tells AFR that she works 18 hours some days and keeps living quarters in her office.
Her hard work has clearly paid off: Lens Technology has grown tremendously and now employs over 74,000 people across 32 factories in seven different locations.
In her interview with the Times, Zhou reflects on how far she’s come. In the area she grew up in, girls like her didn’t have the luxury of going to middle school, she says. Their only option was to get engaged or married and spend their whole life in the village. Zhou refused to take that route.
“I chose to be in business,” she says, “and I don’t regret it.”
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