Millionaire Street Sweeper: Yu Youzhen's Lesson

In 2013, news outlets around the world discovered something remarkable: a millionaire property owner in Wuhan, China was waking up at 3 AM six days a week to sweep streets for roughly $230 a month. Her name was Yu Youzhen, and she wasn't doing community service or fulfilling a court order—she was making a point.

Yu's journey started in the 1980s as a vegetable farmer in Donghu Village, working alongside her husband from dawn to dusk. Through sheer determination, they became the first family in their village to afford a three-story house. By 1998, she'd taken a job with the sanitation department, spending six hours daily cleaning a 3,000-meter stretch of road.

Then came the property boom. When the government acquired land for redevelopment starting in 2008, Yu and her family received compensation in the form of 21 apartments. She owned 17 of these properties, worth over 10 million yuan (roughly $1.5 million at the time). Suddenly, she was rich.

But She Kept Sweeping

Most people would retire. Yu Youzhen doubled down on her street-sweeping job. Her message to her children was crystal clear: "If you don't work, I'll donate the apartments to the country." She wanted to be a role model, refusing to "sit around idly and eat away my fortune."

The strategy worked. Her son took a job as a driver earning about 2,000 yuan monthly ($320), while her daughter worked in an office making 3,000 yuan ($480). Neither lived off their mother's wealth—they earned their own way.

A Different Kind of Inheritance

Yu's approach flips the script on traditional wealth transfer. Instead of leaving her children a fortune that might breed entitlement, she gave them something harder to quantify: a work ethic forged by example. By maintaining her grueling sanitation schedule despite her bank account, she sent an unmistakable message about the value of labor and self-reliance.

What makes her story particularly striking is the practicality. She didn't give speeches about hard work or post inspirational quotes—she lived it. Every morning at 3 AM, while her rental properties generated passive income, she was outside with a broom.

The Bigger Picture

Yu's story resonated globally because it touches on universal tensions around wealth, parenting, and purpose. In an era where "quiet quitting" and early retirement dominate headlines, here was someone doing the opposite—working a physically demanding job she didn't financially need.

Whether her children appreciated the lesson or found it excessive remains unclear from public records. What's certain is that Yu Youzhen created one of the most unusual parenting strategies ever documented: millionaire by night, street sweeper by dawn.

The last confirmed reports of Yu's street-sweeping work date to 2013. At 53 then, she'd already been at it for 15 years. Whether she continued into retirement age or finally hung up her broom remains unknown—but her legacy as the millionaire who refused to stop working has already been secured.