Duke Professor's China Millions

A story about how a Duke professor named Lisa Keister went from being mocked for her Mandarin degree to becoming wealthy through US-China business dealings and smart investments.

"One of the most influential people in my life was this teacher named Lisa Keister at Duke University. She taught this class called 'Getting Rich.' She tells her story that she graduated from Duke with a degree in Mandarin. At the time, everybody made fun of her. Her friends were saying 'Good luck with that, how's that Mandarin degree gonna help you get a job?'

She bought a one-way ticket to China and started being a bridge between companies in China and America. If an American company wanted to do business in China, they would do it through her because she could translate not just the language, but knew who to talk to. She became the local expert there.

She made a killing doing that because it was really valuable - companies in China really wanted to do business with companies in the West. Then she invested all of it in the tech stock market. Right before the bubble burst, she pulled it all out to invest in real estate. She invested in real estate from 2000 to 2008, and right before the real estate crash, she took it out again.

By 32, she was retired with probably $5-7 million. She decided she wanted to teach and show kids what she wished she knew back then. She created this personal finance class teaching things like compound interest, mortgages, and would bring in successful people to share different paths to wealth."