Bin Sulayem's first job after graduating from college in the late 1970s was as a customs inspector at Dubai's port. He told Fortune Magazine in 2008 that his future career was set when a man mistakenly came into his office one day and in the course of chatting suggested that Dubai could serve as an entrepot for the tea trade if it created a tax-free zone at the port. That chance meeting encouraged him to travel the world studying tax-free trading zones. When he returned home he approached Dubai's future ruler and family friend Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum with a proposal to build a free trade zone at the port. "If you really believe in it, you go run it." Bin Sulayem said Sheikh Mohammed told him. "I was 30."