Over the course of his 56 years, billionaire Gautam Adani has survived a terror attack and an alleged kidnapping.
He dropped out of high school only to forge one of India's most successful businesses and become one of the subcontinent's wealthiest men.
Now the self-made man can say he has weathered the mother of political storms, with his proposed mammoth Australian coal mine on the cusp of becoming reality.
The mining magnate's Carmichael mine received the final tick of approval from Queensland's environment bureaucrats last Thursday.
Mr Adani's victory comes after the facility's approval has been hobbled by environmental protests for nine years.
If everything goes to plan, the coal mine is projected to be Australia's largest - and possibly the world's.
The company claims the huge mine will produce 2.3 billion tonnes of the black rock over the next 60 years.
But there is something more extraordinary than the scale of Mr Adani's ambitions in Australia: the sensational secrets he has hidden behind his bushy moustache.
School dropout Gautam Adani, 56, is behind Australia's controversial new mine. He is pictured with his wife Priti at the wedding of Akash Ambani - from India's richest family
Mr Adani's son Karan (pictured left) married Paridhi Shroff (pictured right). Their wedding had thousands of guests, VIPs and private jets
Not long ago, Mr Adani and his dentist wife, Priti, beamed as the eldest of his two sons, Karan, married the woman of his dreams in a glitzy ceremony.
The lavish nuptials - featuring private jets, VIP guests and thousands of attendees - spoke to Mr Adani's extreme wealth.
The businessman has predicted his enterprise will be worth an eyewatering $20 billion by 2020.
But with wealth and success comes the jealousy of others, and in 1997, kidnappers purportedly sought to take advantage of Mr Adani's riches.
The future billionaire was held for ransom and local media reports claim he was not released until $AUD3 million was paid to his kidnappers.
Details are scant. Eight men accused of involvement in Mr Adani's abduction have been acquitted by Indian courts, local media reports said.
And Mr Adani has been shy about speaking publicly about the no doubt terrifying incident.
Asked about the incident by London's Financial Times, Mr Adani would only say: 'Two or three very unfortunate incidents happened in my life, that is one of them'.
It wasn't the first time the billionaire has came perilously close to death.
On November 26, 2008, Mr Adani was having dinner at Mumbai's iconic Taj hotel when it came under attack by terrorists.
Mr Adani hid in the basement as armed men killed more than 160 people inside. He only escaped when commandos took the fight to the killers.
'I saw death at a distance of just 15 feet,' he
