He worked four blue-collar jobs in his teens to stay afloat. Today, his fintech startup is worth $8 billion

The connection "burnout" isn't successful the dictionary of Jack Zhang, co-founder and CEO of fintech institution Airwallex.

"I ne'er recognize that terminology to beryllium honest. I've worked 100 hours a week from [the] property of 16 for 20 positive years," Zhang told CNBC Make It.

For Zhang, hard enactment meant survival. At property 15, helium moved distant from his hometown of Qingdao, China to Melbourne, Australia alone, to prosecute amended opportunities. He hardly spoke English and stayed with an Australian big family.

Shortly aft arriving, helium learned that his parents had recovered themselves successful fiscal blistery h2o backmost successful China, and that helium would person to enactment himself done university.

"I [had] 2 choices: either I conscionable instrumentality to China and effort to spell backmost to the acquisition strategy there, oregon I proceed to enactment in Australia and fig retired however to wage [for my] tuition and surviving [expenses] connected my own," said Zhang. He decided to instrumentality with the second and took immoderate enactment helium could find to marque ends meet.

To wage for his machine subject grade astatine the University of Melbourne, Zhang juggled 4 blue-collar jobs: washing dishes astatine a edifice during the day, bartending successful the evening, moving the overnight displacement astatine a petrol presumption and packing lemons successful a mill implicit the summer.

Some weeks, helium says, helium clocked 80 to 100 hours of enactment connected apical of his coursework.

"When you're ... successful that pugnacious concern [where] you request to survive, you're not truly [thinking] astir burnout. I mean, either you past oregon not, right?" helium said.

Not overmuch has changed since then. Now successful his 40s, Zhang inactive clocks 80 hours a week "easily," helium said, astatine his ain fintech firm. As of December 2025, the institution is valued astatine $8 billion.

After graduating from assemblage successful 2007, Zhang went into the firm world. His archetypal occupation was astatine an security institution called Aviva, earlier helium entered the banking industry.

At the aforesaid time, helium besides built a fewer broadside businesses, from a shipping institution wherever helium exported olive oils and reddish wines from Australia to parts of Asia, to a existent property improvement firm.

His broadside hustles proved lucrative. By the clip helium reached his 20s, wealth was nary longer an issue. However, though helium had accumulated millions done his businesses and banking career, Zhang said helium had yet to find his existent passion.

Everything changed erstwhile helium had his girl astatine property 30.

"I retrieve I conscionable looked astatine her, I [felt] like, I hadn't done thing [to] marque her consciousness proud. And I deliberation that's the infinitesimal I [decided] I request to halt conscionable doing these broadside hustles, and I request to discontinue from my afloat clip occupation and bash thing big, properly," said Zhang.

"I realized that portion I ever wanted money, wealth unsocial doesn't bring [me] the highest level of happiness," helium added. Instead, helium said helium wanted to physique thing that helium was highly passionate about.

"I ever wanted to find thing [where] nary 1 needs to ever aftermath maine up and ... each time I consciousness highly passionate, obligated, and consenting to give my full endurance towards," said Zhang. So, successful December 2015, helium discontinue his banking occupation and started the adjacent section of his life.

The thought for Airwallex stemmed from 1 of Zhang's broadside hustles, a Melbourne-based java store that helium ran alongside his co-founder and assemblage friend, Max Li.

As portion of moving that business, the 2 would often import java beans and supplies from places similar China and Brazil, which required them to ligament wealth overseas. Through this process, they realized however costly and inefficient cross-border payments and transfers were done the accepted SWIFT system.

"We thought, wherefore can't we physique a ... outgo strategy successful parallel to SWIFT and fundamentally alteration however wealth moves astir the world?" said Zhang. They wanted to make a solution to streamline cross-border payments, and thus, the archetypal thought for Airwallex was born.

Zhang and Li went connected to bring unneurotic different friends from their assemblage web to assistance enactment connected the idea: Lucy Liu, Jacob Dai and Ki-lok Wong. Liu played a cardinal relation aboriginal connected and invested the archetypal $1 cardinal into the startup.

By precocious 2015, the radical officially founded Airwallex. After astir a decennary of much 80-hour enactment weeks, arsenic of extremity past year, the institution crossed $1 billion successful annualized tally complaint gross (ARR), which estimates a company's aboriginal yearly net based connected a shorter play of fiscal data.

"I'm inactive precise excited astir what's up of us," said Zhang. "I deliberation there's tons of opportunities up of america ... we deliberation we tin make [at least] $10 cardinal [in] gross by 2030 truthful that is our adjacent extremity post."

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