Dr. Tei-Fu Chen embodies the “American Dream” of building a successful business despite being born to humble circumstances in a foreign region. As a sickly boy, Dr. Chen ate and learned about herbs from his paternal grandfather to improve his health. He then studied his grandfather’s ancient manuscripts on herbs and graduated with a degree in Pharmacy from Kaohsiung Medical College. 

During college, he married Dr. Oi-Lin Chen, a licensed medical doctor, and they immigrated to the United States. Dr. Chen sometimes worked three jobs at the same time to make barely enough money. In 1982, after doing research and development for another company, Dr. Chen seized the opportunity to buy that company and start Sunrider. He says, “When I was a poor student and dating my wife, I told her I was going to be a millionaire some day. However, I knew that the traditional ways of making money would never help me reach my optimal goal. One very hard year, I lived on eating hamburgers I bought from a restaurant. It made me wonder how a simple hamburger could make someone so much money. I realized the power of franchising to make big money quickly. Unfortunately, starting a franchise required a lot more money than a struggling immigrant like me had. My mission with Sunrider was to make a franchise-like opportunity available to anyone without needing to invest millions of dollars.”