By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Burlington-based businessman Michael Lee-Chin is a billionaire today, one who directs his wealth into public institutions like the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), McMaster University, and the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation. But once, he was a teenager from a working-class family in Port Antonio, Jamaica, who was attending high school on a scholarship and harbouring big dreams for the future. In his new memoir, he explains exactly how he got from point A to point B. There was actually a whole alphabet in between.
Michael Lee-Chin’s memoir, The Way of Wealth, was published by HarperCollins on October 27, 2026, in an era where people are more than ever invested in the mechanics and psychology of wealth. How do you reasonably manage and distribute wealth once you have it? How does having wealth fundamentally change you as a person? How do you stay the same? And how do you react when your wealth is in danger of shrinking?
When a wealthy family on his home island deliberately sabotaged his parents’ budding business venture, teenage Lee-Chin initially felt rage and a sense of injustice. But through the example of his hard-working and persevering mother and stepfather, he learned an alternative course of action, one that acknowledged emotion but didn’t act on it irrationally: strategic redirection.
At nighttime, when his parents thought he was either studying or sleeping, Lee-Chin eavesdropped on one of their private conversations. He detected dismay but not defeat in their tones. The dishonest rich family, too insecure to tolerate competition, had destroyed a struggling family’s assets. But they hadn’t destroyed Lee-Chin’s family’s ambitions. His parents, his role models, had other ideas to generate income, which they began to draw out like a battle plan. They would expand their other existing businesses. They would regroup. They would prevail. The revelation was life-changing for Lee-Chin.
“In that moment, I realized that my parents possessed a kind of grit that no tragedy could take away,” Lee-Chin writes. “They believed in working for a better future with such consistency that even a serious blow didn’t knock them out of the fight. They simply adjusted and sought the next angle, the next path.”
Lee-Chin’s The Way of Wealth is more than just a personal account of a successful entrepreneur’s linear journey from humble beginnings to high status. While it does follow a straight narrative timeline, the book also serves as an instructional guide to developing a healthy and grounded attitude toward work and money. Lee-Chin weaves his life experiences with philosophical self-reflections on the impact of education, common sense, gratitude, patience, and respect on reaching his milestones and gaining positions of privilege.
Lee-Chin’s writing voice is steeped in practicality and unfailing honesty. Without mincing his words, he expresses many truths throughout his story about wealth that may seem old-fashioned but are time-tested. In an age where people are bombarded with seductive stories on the news and social media about people who seemingly obtained their fortunes overnight, Lee-Chin’s rational prose reminds readers that hard work, discipline, long-term planning, and resilience through major crises like stock market crashes are the ingredients to sustainable success. Wealth is built over time.
“The stock wobbled around a dollar in the market, as stocks do. Some days it was up a few cents, other days down a few,” Lee-Chin writes on the anxiety of investing, which always poses risks and letdowns for those who want faster, more immediate returns. “If I had expected instant gratification, I would have been disappointed. But I kept reminding myself that this was long-term. I hadn’t invested for a quick trade. I’d invested because I wanted to be a part of this business as it grew over years.”
Lee-Chin also emphasizes in his book that as someone with extra resources, a person who has employed the right strategies to build wealth is also called upon to play a philanthropic role in their community. Secure wealth first, then give back. With good fortune comes great responsibility.
“Even as we expanded these opportunities, I always kept sight of the bigger picture: wealth creation should be about doing well and doing good simultaneously,” Lee-Chin writes.
The Way of Wealth is now available in stores throughout Canada.
