Meet Pakistan’s richest person, who once worked as dishwasher, no match for Mukesh Ambani, Adani, his net worth

Pakistan maybe considered a poor country and one with a huge debt nationally and internationally in trillions, it has something positively newsworthy too. Among many notable people, Pakistan gave birth to a man who is rich beyond billions.  

Shahid Khan is not any entrepreneur but a man who started from the poorest scenarios and saw the worst but eventually made a name for himself. His story is indeed remarkable, as he started from washing dishes to establishing an empire with his auto parts supplier, Flex-N-Gate, and owning the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham F.C. of the Premier League. 

Pakistan maybe considered a poor country and one with a huge debt nationally and internationally in trillions, it has something positively newsworthy too. Among many notable people, Pakistan gave birth to a man who is rich beyond billions.  

Shahid Khan is not any entrepreneur but a man who started from the poorest scenarios and saw the worst but eventually made a name for himself. His story is indeed remarkable, as he started from washing dishes to establishing an empire with his auto parts supplier, Flex-N-Gate, and owning the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham F.C. of the Premier League. 

Shahid Khan is the richest person 

Forbes has listed Shahid Khan as richest Pakistani-American person and as of February 2025 his net worth is USD 13.4 Billion (Rs 11,73,45,81,28,140). Forbes in 2012 designated him as the face of the American Dream, when he was featured in its cover page the same year. Last year, the magazine ranked him 55th in the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. Globally, he is the 174th richest person and the richest auto parts magnate. 

His wealth makes him richer than many Indian billionaires like Azim Premji. But compared to Mukesh Ambani, who is India’s richest business tycoon, his wealth is much smaller. Mukesh Ambani owns multiple businesses including Reliance Industries, Jio and Network 18. Ambani is Asia’s richest person and his net worth being USD 101.9 billion is ten times that of Shahid Khan.  

Shahid Khan’s success story 

But unlike Mukesh Ambani, Shahid Khan started from the scratch and is a self-made man. Shahid Khan’s success story and life journey is indeed inspiring. He told the University of Illinois about his migration from Pakistan to the US. He shared with the institute, the one from which he graduated, that he migrated from Lahore to the US at the age of 16 after he completed high school.  His mother was a professor of mathematics, and his father owned a shop that sold survey and drawing equipment. 

A man from a middle-class background recounted his harrowing experience arriving in the US in 1993. He had to walk in a snowstorm after failing to negotiate a higher bus fare, and his shoes filled with icy water. Despite the challenges, he considered himself fortunate to land a job as a dishwasher for USD 1.20 an hour, a wage higher than what 99.9% of people in Pakistan earned. 

"Yes, I had finished high school. My mother being a math professor, had good math skills, and I just applied to a number of universities and the first one that came was the University of Illinois. And you talk about fate, destiny, kismet. So I ended up in Champaign at 16 and I think the worst snowstorm they’d had," said Khan. 

"At night you get dropped off at a bus station, and you look for the best bargain, so I walked to the YMCA. They had so much snow that my shoes literally melted; Pakistani shoes aren’t used to snow and water and you learn about quality control very quickly. But the next morning I was up, and they were hiring dishwashers, and I started working there, and it was like, What a country. Here I am making $1.20 an hour—more than 99.9 per cent of the people in Pakistan," he further told the University. 

The host inquired if the man found it challenging to adapt as a Pakistani kid in the United States. He replied, “It was a lot to learn, so it really puts you in a mindset where…frankly, it’s a great mindset because you’re more flexible, you had people who had more life experiences than certainly I’d had, I can learn more from them, and immediately here’s a world I’ve never experienced. You had a bunch of guys who were accomplished or great athletes or driving convertibles, dating these beautiful girls, and oh my god, it cannot get better than this. How do I get a piece of this? They’re reading the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. So that was another experience certainly I would have never gotten.” 

Forbes has listed Shahid Khan as richest Pakistani-American person and as of February 2025 his net worth is USD 13.4 Billion (Rs 11,73,45,81,28,140). Forbes in 2012 designated him as the face of the American Dream, when he was featured in its cover page the same year. Last year, the magazine ranked him 55th in the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. Globally, he is the 174th richest person and the richest auto parts magnate. 

His wealth makes him richer than many Indian billionaires like Azim Premji. But compared to Mukesh Ambani, who is India’s richest business tycoon, his wealth is much smaller. Mukesh Ambani owns multiple businesses including Reliance Industries, Jio and Network 18. Ambani is Asia’s richest person and his net worth being USD 101.9 billion is ten times that of Shahid Khan.  

Shahid Khan’s success story 

But unlike Mukesh Ambani, Shahid Khan started from the scratch and is a self-made man. Shahid Khan’s success story and life journey is indeed inspiring. He told the University of Illinois about his migration from Pakistan to the US. He shared with the institute, the one from which he graduated, that he migrated from Lahore to the US at the age of 16 after he completed high school.  His mother was a professor of mathematics, and his father owned a shop that sold survey and drawing equipment. 

A man from a middle-class background recounted his harrowing experience arriving in the US in 1993. He had to walk in a snowstorm after failing to negotiate a higher bus fare, and his shoes filled with icy water. Despite the challenges, he considered himself fortunate to land a job as a dishwasher for USD 1.20 an hour, a wage higher than what 99.9% of people in Pakistan earned. 

"Yes, I had finished high school. My mother being a math professor, had good math skills, and I just applied to a number of universities and the first one that came was the University of Illinois. And you talk about fate, destiny, kismet. So I ended up in Champaign at 16 and I think the worst snowstorm they’d had," said Khan. 

"At night you get dropped off at a bus station, and you look for the best bargain, so I walked to the YMCA. They had so much snow that my shoes literally melted; Pakistani shoes aren’t used to snow and water and you learn about quality control very quickly. But the next morning I was up, and they were hiring dishwashers, and I started working there, and it was like, What a country. Here I am making $1.20 an hour—more than 99.9 per cent of the people in Pakistan," he further told the University. 

The host inquired if the man found it challenging to adapt as a Pakistani kid in the United States. He replied, “It was a lot to learn, so it really puts you in a mindset where…frankly, it’s a great mindset because you’re more flexible, you had people who had more life experiences than certainly I’d had, I can learn more from them, and immediately here’s a world I’ve never experienced. You had a bunch of guys who were accomplished or great athletes or driving convertibles, dating these beautiful girls, and oh my god, it cannot get better than this. How do I get a piece of this? They’re reading the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. So that was another experience certainly I would have never gotten.”