Bahlia Lahadalia was born in Maluku, Indonesia in 1976. He is the current Minister of Investment/ Investment Coordinating Board. He is the son of a father who is a construction worker and a mother who’s a cake seller. The limitations he had since childhood made him an independent and a tough man. When he was in elementary school at SDN 1 Seram Timur, Maluku, he helped his family by selling cakes. When he entered junior high school at SMPN 1 Seram Timur, Maluku, he once became a angkot conductor, selling fishes, helping as an excavator helper to fill his needs, then at SMEA YAPIS Fakfak, Papua (voffice.co.id; telisik.id), he became an angkot driver by working part-time. Even though life is hard and working while attending school, he still has good grades and became the student council president (OSIS). He then went to Jayapura, Papua to find a university to enrol but rejected and without money, Bahlil then stayed in a boarding school, and was encouraged by the head of the boarding school who then would be the Deputy Governor of West Papua later on to study at a university, with unlimited enthusiasm and encouragement from the head of the boarding school, he enrolled himself for undergraduate studies at the Port Numbay School of Economics, Jayapura, Papua. While enrolling he also became a cart pusher at the nearby market, and a newspaper seller.

During his 3rd semester he became a chairman of the senate, and was once jailed during the 1997-1998 political crisis because of leading an activist movement. During his 6th semester, he realized he needed to stop poverty because he once did not have enough to eat and in the end became malnourished, later because of this reality he wanted to become an entrepreneur and started working as an insurance seller.