The story of successful people who started from scratch. Start-up billionaires: there are more of them than you think. Kirk Kerkorian: from boxer to film producer
In this section we have collected biographies of the richest and most successful people in the world. The goal is to understand what helped them earn millions and billions of dollars, what skills and abilities they possess, what qualities they develop in themselves and what values they are guided by.
As one of them said, to become a millionaire, you must first become a millionaire. And we will add on our own behalf, in order to become a million-dollar person, you need to study the stories of successful individuals, try to get into their heads and learn to think like them. We hope our materials will help you with this. We wrote them primarily for ourselves.
The section is constantly updated, so add the page to bookmarks or subscribe to the site news to learn about the release of new biographies.
Bill Gates is the legendary founder of Windows, which owns the most popular operating system in the world. He is also the richest man on the planet for more than a decade, he is also a charismatic business leader, innovator, knight of Great Britain and father of three children. What events from Gates' biography and qualities of his character helped him become who he is?
Warren Buffett is a genius of the financial world, the most successful and unrivaled investor in the world, and also one of the richest people on the planet. Want to know the secrets of his success?
Steve Jobs, co-founder of the company, as well as several other companies, including the animation studio Pixar, is an innovative businessman who gave the world many interesting, intelligent toys such as iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc.
Henry Ford
Ray Kroc - American entrepreneur, founder of McDonald's, a restaurant chain fast food. For the businessman’s contribution to the formation and development of the public catering industry, Time magazine in 1998 included him in the TOP 100 most significant people XX century.
Thomas Edison is a famous American inventor and businessman, co-founder of General Electric Corporation. During his professional career, Thomas received 1,093 patents at home and about 3,000 outside the United States. He improved the telegraph and telephone, and designed the phonograph. Thanks to his persistence, millions of incandescent light bulbs lit up the world.
Coco Chanel is an outstanding female fashion designer, founder of a fashion house, who proved that elegance is impossible without convenience. Her designer imagination includes a little black dress, a women's trouser suit, a handbag on a chain and other signature items that create a sophisticated style.
Walt Disney is a legendary American artist, producer and director. The creator of the first musical and feature-length cartoons in the history of cinema, he produced about 700 cartoons, won 29 Oscars and 4 Emmys, received honorary degrees from Yale and Harvard universities, and was awarded the highest civilian government award in the United States - the Medal of Freedom. On the Hollywood Walk of Fame, two stars are dedicated to Disney, one for the development of television, the other for his contribution to the art of cinema.
Richard Branson is one of the most brilliant and talented businessmen in the world, a billionaire, the founder of the international corporation Virgin, a record holder in aeronautics, and the owner of his own island.
Donald Trump is an American construction magnate, owner of the Trump Organization, who later became President of the United States. He is also known as the owner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant and the host and executive producer of the reality show The Candidate. Time magazine named him Person of the Year in 2016.
Madonna is one of the most successful women in the world who was able to work her way up from poverty. There was a period in Madonna's life when she spent the night in attics, and sometimes even checked the contents of garbage cans in search of food. But it didn't break her. What helped our heroine get to the very top and become one of the most influential women on the planet?
Elon Musk is an American entrepreneur, inventor, co-founder of PayPal, founder and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, and member of the Board of Directors of SolarCity. The Model S electric car released by Tesla accelerates to 96 km/h in 2.28 seconds. For his contribution to the commercialization of space, Elon Musk was awarded the Heinlein Prize and received $0.5 million (2011). Fortune awarded him the title of "Businessman of the Year" (2013), and The Wall Street Journal - "CEO of the Year" (2013).
Mark Zuckerberg
Pavel Durov is a Russian businessman, programmer, developer and co-founder social network"VKontakte", led VKontakte as CEO from 2006 to 2014, currently the founder and head (CEO) of the Telegram messenger.
Phil Knight is an American businessman, co-founder of Nike, whose annual revenue is $20 billion. He is the richest resident of his native state of Oregon, and in 2015 he was in the TOP 20 richest people planets.
Mary Kay is an American entrepreneur, the creator of Mary Kay Inc., specializing in the production and sale of cosmetics and skin care products.
George Soros is an influential investor, financial guru, founder of charitable foundations in 25 countries, father of five children, as well as the man “who collapsed the Bank of England,” a supporter of the legalization of marijuana, and a master of market speculation.
Robert Kiyosaki is an investor, entrepreneur, financial advisor and author of a series of best-selling books about rich dads and poor dads. He is not one of the richest people on the planet, but at the same time his fortune will seem fabulous to many. We are primarily interested not in his condition, but in what helped him become financially free and independent.
Carlos Slim Helu - what is the secret of success of the richest man in the world? What needs to be done to achieve such heights? What skills and qualities do you need to develop in yourself in order to ascend to the pedestal of wealth and fame?
In a time when inequality is rising and the economy is growing at a very slow pace, it is rare to find people who have made their fortunes by rising from the bottom. Indeed, most of the world's richest people were already born into wealthy families.
That is why it is necessary to keep in mind those people who started from scratch and with the help of hard work, talent and luck were able to rise very high. These 20 stories will remind us that there are opportunities to overcome many things in life, including poverty.
1. Maria das Grazas Silva Foster rose from the Brazilian slums to become the first female head of Petrobras.
The current head of Brazilian oil giant Petrobras spent her childhood in the extremely poor Morro do Adeus area, which became a slum. Her mother worked constantly, and her father was an alcoholic. Foster collected aluminum cans and scrap paper to earn some money.
She began working as a trainee at Petrobras in 1978 and broke barriers to become the first woman to head the field development division. According to Bloomberg, Foster's hard work earned her the nickname Caveirao, Brazilian slang for an armored police car that keeps order in the slums. In February, Foster became the first woman to lead Petrobras.
2. Do Won Chang worked three jobs to make ends meet before launching Forever 21.
Doo Won Cheng and his wife Jin Sook came to America from Korea in 1981. When they arrived, Cheng had to work three jobs to support his family. He worked as a janitor, a gas station operator, and worked part-time in a cafeteria. It so happened that they were able to open their first clothing store in 1984.
That first store grew into the 480-store Forever 21 empire, which generates annual revenues of about $3 billion. It is a family business, with daughters Linda and Esther helping their parents run the company.
3. Harold Simmons grew up in a shack with no electricity and became a billionaire.
Multi-billionaire Harold Simmons grew up in Golden, Texas; he lived in a shack that didn't even have electricity. However, he managed to get into the University of Texas, he managed to get into the privileged society of college students and graduates, receiving a master's degree in economics.
Simmons's first venture was a chain of pharmacies, the first of which he founded almost entirely with loans. As a result, a network of 100 pharmacies was formed. Simmons sold it to Eckerd for $50 million. After that, he became an expert in the field of buying companies. He now owns six companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange, including the world's largest titanium producer, Titanium Metals Corporation.
4. Zdenek Bakala left communist Czechoslovakia with $50 in his pocket and became a coal magnate.
In 1980, at the age of 19, Bakala fled communist Czechoslovakia with a $50 bill hidden in a sandwich. He fled to Lake Tahoe, where he began washing dishes in one of the casinos.
He was lucky enough to get a bachelor's degree from the University of California and an MBA from Dartmouth. He started working in banking sector and by chance returned to work for a company in his homeland, opening the first office of Credit Suisse First Boston in Prague after the fall of the Wall. He now chairs a coal company with a market capitalization of $2.52 billion and eight production sites in Central Europe.
5. George Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary and became one of the world's most successful investors.
George Soros was able to survive the Nazi occupation of Hungary because his father paid a government employee so he could pose as his godson. After the war in 1947, Soros left communist Hungary and went to live with relatives in London. He began studying at the London School of Economics, working as a waiter and porter. After graduating, Soros worked as a salesman in a gift shop, he wrote to bank directors in London, and was eventually given a job. This was just the beginning of a long and successful career in finance. In 1992, Soros successfully shorted the pound, earning more than $1 billion.
6. Guy Laliberte earned his living from street performances, drinking fire, before introducing Cirque du Soleil to the world.
The Canadian native began his circus career with street performances: he played the accordion, walked on stilts and swallowed fire. He took a chance when he brought a successful troupe from Quebec to the Los Angeles Arts Festival in 1987 on a one-way ticket. The risk turned out to be justified, and the circus group was transported to Las Vegas, where it became the famous Cirque du Soleil that we know today.
Laliberte is currently the head of Cirque du Soleil, a professional poker player and a space tourist with a net worth of $2.5 billion.
7. John Paul DeJoria lived in his car before John Paul Mitchell Systems took off in business.
DeJoria had a hard time in the beginning. His parents divorced when he was two, and he sold newspapers and Christmas cards to support the family until he was 10. He was then sent to be raised in Los Angeles. For some time in Los Angeles he was a member of a gang, and then went to serve. He then tried working for Redken Laboratories, after which he took out a $700 loan and founded John Paul Mitchell Systems. He distributed the shampoo produced by the company, moving from house to house in a car, he lived in his car. But the quality of the product prevailed, and the company now makes more than $900 million annually. He also created Patron Tequila and works in various industries - from diamonds to music.
8. Ursula Burns grew up in apartment building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and is now run by Xerox.
The Lower East Side was a haven for gangs before it became good area. Ursula Burns was raised by her mother alone in a housing project in the area. She ironed shirts to earn money for her daughter's Catholic school. Burns then went to New York University and became an engineering intern at Xerox.
She is now the company's chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors. Burns is the first African-American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company.
9. Howard Schultz spent his childhood in public housing in Brooklyn before becoming the head of Starbucks.
During his difficult childhood, Schultz always wanted to rise above and escape the lifestyle provided by his father as a truck driver. Despite his poverty, Schultz excelled in sports and managed to attend Northern Michigan University. After receiving a degree in communications, Schultz went to work at Xerox, and then he discovered a small Starbucks coffee shop. Being in love with coffee, Schultz left Xerox to become head of Starbucks in 1987. The chain began with 60 stores, and now includes more than 16 thousand retail outlets around the world. Schultz's fortune grew to $1.5 billion.
10. Li Ka-shing dropped out of school at 15 to work in a plastics factory and is now East Asia's richest man..
Li Ka-shing's family fled mainland China to Hong Kong in 1940; Li Ka-shing's father died of tuberculosis. Then the boy was only 15 years old. He dropped out of school and began working at a plastics factory to help support his family. By 1950, Lee was able to open his own company, Cheung Kong Industries. Initially, she was engaged in the production of plastics, and then changed her activity profile to real estate. Lee then increased his holdings in various companies, and today he owns shares in companies of various profiles: banks, mobile phones, satellite television, cement production, retail stores, hotels, transport, airports, electricity, steel production, ports, etc.
11. Francois Pinault is a man without a complete secondary education who now heads the PPR group.
Pino left high school in 1947 to work in the family lumber business. In 1970, he began buying small companies. He earned the nickname "The Predator" because of his ruthless business tactics, which saw him cut jobs and sell his lumber business, only to buy it back later at a lower price. His personal qualities helped him start the PPR business, a company that sells luxury goods like Gucci and Stella McCartney. Pinault is the richest man in France: his and his family's fortune is estimated at $13 billion.
12. Leonardo Del Vecchio is a factory worker who today owns an eyewear production empire.
Del Vecchio was one of five children whom his widowed mother found difficult to support. He went to work in a factory making molds for auto parts and eyeglass frames, where he lost part of his finger. At 23, he opened his first store, which later grew to become the world's largest manufacturer of sunglasses and medical glasses. Luxottica produces the Ray-Ban and Oakley brands, the company has 6 thousand retail outlets, Del Vecchio’s fortune is estimated at $11.5 billion.
13. Kirk Kerkorian rose from RAF pilot to owner of an entertainment complex in Las Vegas.
Kerkorian, who learned English on the streets, had to leave school in the 8th grade. His family fell victim to the Great Depression, and Kerkorian looked for part-time work to support the family. He became an RAF pilot during World War II, flying supplies across the Atlantic on routes where one in four aircraft was shot down. With the money he earned, he became a gambler and real estate tycoon in Las Vegas. His fortune is estimated at several billion dollars.
14. Sheldon Adelson is another Las Vegas tycoon who has tried his luck in several areas.
Adelson grew up in a poor area of Massachusetts, where he shared a room with his parents and three brothers. His father was Lithuanian and worked as a taxi driver, and his mother owned a knitwear store. At age 12, he began selling newspapers and a few years later operated a vending machine. Adelson has dabbled in several industries, from hotel toiletry packaging to mortgage brokerage. His breakthrough came with the founding of the computer exhibition. He used the money he earned to purchase the Sands Hotel & Casino.
15. Ingvar Kamprad was born in a small village in Sweden and created a business that eventually became IKEA.
Kamprad's childhood was spent in village life, but he always had the makings of a businessman. He bought matches in large quantities in Stockholm and sold them to his neighbors. He then moved on to fish, Christmas decorations and pens. Not content with a small business, he borrowed money from his father and founded a store that eventually grew into IKEA (the name consists of the first letters of his first and last name, the name of his village and his parents' farm). He rose to the title of the richest man in the world, but recently his wealth fell to $3 billion.
16. Roman Abramovich is an orphan who turned an expensive wedding gift into an oil empire.
After his parents died when he was just 4 years old, he was taken in by his uncle and grandmother. Abramovich's first breakthrough came thanks to an expensive wedding gift from relatives on my wife's side. He dropped out of school and went into business. In 1995, he managed to acquire ownership of the Sibneft company. He continued to invest in various projects, including RusAl and Evraz. He now owns the largest private yacht in the world, as well as other expensive property. He also owns Chelsea Football Club.
17. Richard Desmond lived on the roof of a garage and was able to found an empire publishing magazines like Penthouse.
Desmond was raised by his mother after his parents divorced. They lived on the roof of the garage. Desmond describes himself at the time as "very fat and very lonely." He left school at 14, deciding to become a drummer. Worked as a cloakroom attendant to help pay the bills. His musical talents never made him rich, but he later opened a number of music stores. He was able to publish the first magazine, International Musician and Recording World, which later grew to Penthouse and Ok!. Now he owns a number of publications around the world.
18. JK Rowling lived on social security benefits before creating Harry Potter.
In the early 90s. Rowling was divorced and living on benefits with her child. She wrote most of Harry Potter in a cafe. “Harry Potter” gained worldwide fame and brought success to Rowling, whose net worth is now estimated at $1 billion.
19. Before Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart, he milked cows and sold magazines in Oklahoma.
The Walton family lived on a farm in Oklahoma during the Great Depression. To make ends meet, he helped his family milk cows and deliver milk to customers. He also delivered newspapers and sold magazine subscriptions. By age 26, after graduating from the University of Missouri with a bachelor's degree in economics, he was managing a store. He received a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law and bought a Ben Franklin store in Arkansas. He expanded the chain and then founded Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. He died in 1992, leaving the company to his wife and children.
20. Oprah Winfrey turned a life of hardship into inspiration for the founding of a multibillion-dollar empire.
Oprah lived with her grandmother for six years and wore dresses made from burlap. After being harassed by relatives and a family friend, she fled home. She was 13 years old at the time. When she was 14 years old, she became pregnant and gave birth to a child who died shortly after birth. Then her upset mother sent her to live in Nashville (Tennessee) with her father.
Oprah was in college, and when she won a beauty contest, that's when she found her first fame on the radio station. This fame remained with her. Oprah Winfrey's net worth, according to Forbes, is estimated at $2.7 billion.
This is a true and encouraging story about billionaires who started their businesses without starting capital and the help of rich relatives, but managed to rise to the heights of the Forbes world ranking of billionaires.
The nominees for the rating of the most prestigious business publication in the world are usually the lucky ones who were lucky enough to be born among wealth and luxury, to receive a prestigious education and an enviable inheritance, which they were able to preserve and increase.
But some participants in the Forbes rating, before becoming billionaires, managed to experience all the hardships of life on the way to the heights of wealth and success. They faced many political, psychological and social obstacles. However, this did not stop them from achieving their goal.
What meaning do we put into the concept of “starting a business from scratch”? Yes, there is no start-up capital, perhaps there is not enough education, probably there is no entrepreneurial experience.
But the heroes of our story are distinguished from the list of many others by something more than the presence or absence of money at the start - it is an undoubted talent and a great desire to work, which were often and many times strengthened by the poverty and instability behind them, where they do not want to return.
The story of the wealth of George Soros is very instructive and has already become a landmark.
1. George Soros
- State: $24 billion
- A country: USA
To survive the Nazi occupation of Hungary, young Soros was forced to pose as the godson of a Hungarian Ministry employee. Agriculture. In 1947, he fled the country to his London relatives. There he attended the London School of Economics, while at the same time working as a waiter and porter at the station.
After graduating from university, George worked in a gift shop, and only a few years later received a position at a bank in New York. And only back in 1992, his legendary game against the pound allowed Soros to become a billionaire.
2. Roman Abramovich
- State: $9.1 billion
- A country: Russia
The most successful Russian billionaire became an orphan at the age of four, and was raised by close relatives. Abramovich was unable to go to college and joined the army. After finishing his service, he opened his first business related to the trade... of toys. It took a long time for the businessman to become rich thanks to oil-related transactions. Abramovich owes much of his success to Boris Berezovsky, whose business partner he became in 1995. Together they very cheaply acquired Sibneft, which later became the main asset of Roman Abramovich.
3. Jack Ma
- State: $20.2 billion
- A country: China
Ma was born in Hangzhou. He grew up in poverty; even small companies did not want to hire him. Ma failed the government college entrance exam twice, but was still able to qualify as an English teacher.
In 1995, he visited the United States for the first time and learned about the existence of the Internet. Wanting to fill the web with Chinese content, Ma created the website "Chinese Pages", which is widely considered to be the first Chinese startup. However, the project never became successful.
But already in 1999, Ma founded Alibaba. Now this online store receives twice as many orders as Amazon, and the businessman himself has become the richest person in China.
4. Moed Altrad
- State: $1 billion
- A country: France
A dramatic film could be made based on the life of a 67-year-old billionaire from France. He was born into a Bedouin family in the Syrian desert. When Moed was four years old, his mother died. Then the child was taken in by his grandmother. She was very superstitious, so she forbade the boy to attend school. As a result, he was forced to obtain knowledge secretly. Moed was such a diligent student that he even received a scholarship to study in France.
Altrad finally moved to France at the age of 46, barely knowing the language and not having a penny in his pocket. At first he could only afford to eat once a day, and even then the cheapest food. However, his mathematical abilities helped him overcome hunger and poverty. Moed earned a degree in information technology and began interning with technology and oil companies.
In 1985, Altrad opened his first business by purchasing a construction company. Although he lacked experience in the industry, Moed quickly learned the ropes of the business. He was able to make his company profitable and began to systematically expand it.
Today his Altrad Group is one of the main producers of cement and building materials in the world. The company has 92 divisions in 100 countries. It has more than 7,000 employees and annual revenues of $1 billion. The company's profit has doubled every year over the past five years.
In addition to business, Altrad owns the Montpellier Hérault rugby team and writes autobiographical books in which he talks about his rich and dramatic life experiences.
5. Leonardo Del Vecchio
- State: $20.4 billion
- A country: Italy
At the age of seven, Leonardo fell into Orphanage due to the fact that his parents did not have enough money to raise a child. Feeling the injustice of life in the orphanage, at the age of 14 Del Vecchio went to work as an apprentice in a factory that produced auto parts and eyeglass frames. Having gained experience, 11 years later Leonardo founded his company Luxxotica. It is now the market leader sunglasses and glasses with diopters. She owns brands such as Ray Ban and Oakley. The company produces products for Armani, Bulgari, Burberry, Chanel, DKNY, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Prada, Tiffany, Versace and other well-known companies. In Italy, Del Vecchio received the title of "king of glasses".
6. Li Ka-shing
- State: $33.3 billion
- A country: Hong Kong
Li Ka-shing is Asia's richest man today, but he clearly remembers life on the brink of poverty. At the age of 12, in order to feed his family, he was forced to leave school and get a job in a factory. In 1950, he accumulated enough savings to start his own business selling plastic toys. Then Li Ka-shing bought the factory, after which his business began to develop much faster. On the site of a small factory, a huge diversified holding has grown up, which deals with technology, real estate, ports and other projects. Li Ka-shing's company employs 270 thousand people from 52 countries.
7. Sheldon Adelson
- State: $31.4 billion
- A country: USA
Sheldon Aadelson grew up in a small apartment on the outskirts of Boston in the family of a simple taxi driver. Due to lack of space, the boy was forced to sleep on the floor, and his grandmother became his main teacher. Sheldon already demonstrated his entrepreneurial talent as a child: at the age of 12, he borrowed $200 from his uncle and began selling newspapers and magazines.
Later, his business began to develop by leaps and bounds. Adelson has proven himself in various fields - consulting services, advertising publications, vending machines, conference organizing services, etc. As a result, he found himself in the gambling business, receiving the title of “King of Las Vegas.” The businessman is the owner of Las Vegas Sands, whose casinos can be found not only in the USA, but also in Macau, China.
8. Jan Koum
David suffered from dyslexia (impaired ability to master reading and writing skills), which is why he failed to complete his studies at school and adolescence started working at a gas station. In 1943, he joined the army and managed to take part in the Second World War. After graduation, Murdoch borrowed $1,800 from friends and opened a restaurant. Thus began the fantastic growth of his business. Murdoch now runs Dole Food Corporation, the largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world.
10. Oprah Winfrey
- State: $3 billion
- A country: USA
A famous television presenter, producer and women's rights activist, Oprah was born when her mother was not yet 18 years old. The grandmother took care of raising the girl. Oprah's debut on television took place in Nashville. After that, she moved to Chicago, where her talent allowed her to turn an inconspicuous morning program into the country's main talk show. Although Winfrey has now stopped her television career, she has created a huge business empire. Today Oprah manages many projects - from publishing books to producing Hollywood films.
found that the majority used their own funds, accumulated or earned in their youth, as starting capital. Here are the brightest cases.
Earned
Andrey ROMANENKO
Payment system Qiwi
The first capital was earned in 1998 thanks to a friend who got a job selling scratch cards (payment cards mobile phone) one of the cellular operators. To improve their performance, friends put up cards on the flea market Ropnet.ru, a popular buying and selling resource at that time. The first buyer, the owner of a communication store, called five minutes later. This is how Romanenko got his first business, with the proceeds from which Qiwi was subsequently created.
Vladislav KRISHTOPP
Konstruktor company
He took up entrepreneurship at the age of 11, starting to buy small wholesale calculators in Moscow and resell them in his hometown of Uralsk. Later he began to play on the difference in exchange rates and shares. I graduated from school with a capital of several thousand dollars - a lot of money in the mid-90s. During his student years, Krishtop continued to sell office equipment and opened a video rental store. At the beginning of the 2000s, his company began to provide a variety of IT services, and this is where Konstruktor began.
Gabriel LEVI
Project "Dnevnik.ru"
Before launching Dnevnik.ru, Gavriil Levi worked as general director in one of the representative offices of a large brokerage company, Capital Market Services LLC, in which he took part in the founding. The accumulated funds allowed us to invest in a new project. True, at a certain stage I had to borrow money from friends and relatives. Before the arrival of the first professional investor, Levi invested $500,000 in Dnevnik.ru.
Vsevolod
FEAR
Online store "Sotmarket"
Sotmarket's starting capital was 20,000 rubles. Vsevolod Strakh literally saved this money from school lunches - the founder of the business had just turned 17 in 2005. Then the company developed gradually, using only working capital. The first investor, the IQ One fund, entered the capital only in 2012.
Andrey MEDVEDEV, Alexander SALNIKOV
"Industrial power machines"
Medvedev and Salnikov worked as marketers at the Yaroslavl diesel engine plant. Young specialists did not like the rigid Soviet approach to business; they decided to make diesel production more custom and left the factory to create their own enterprise. Before leaving, we conducted reconnaissance in force. Since there was no starting capital, we had to take pre-orders with an advance payment. The plan worked.
Borrowed
Alexander AGAPITOV
Payment system Xsolla
Agapitov is from Perm. He quit studying at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics for the sake of his own projects. There were a lot of ideas, and so were my programmer friends. Agapitov figured out how to make money with the help of numerous online bookmakers: the algorithm he invented allowed him to find opposite odds and make guaranteed successful bets. The online payment system for games was a by-product, but in the end it was the one that succeeded. In order to quickly implement all his planned projects, Agapitov borrowed 700,000 rubles from the Perm cooperative Obereg, secured by a one-room apartment. He returned it a year later with extortionate interest rates.
Fedor OVCHINNIKOV
Dodo Pizza chain
Ovchinnikov created his first business, the Book by Book chain, at the age of 25. He took out a consumer loan from the bank to renovate his apartment and borrowed money from friends and relatives at interest. It turned out to be 500,000 rubles, which was enough to rent a small room and make the first purchase of goods. Then Fedor allowed a shareholder into the company, to whom he eventually sold his share in the business for 600,000 rubles. The Dodo Pizza pizzeria also had to borrow - about 1 million rubles from a private person.
Sold a share
Today I want to tell you the stories of some of the richest people on our planet who were able to earn more than a billion dollars thanks to their brilliant ideas, hard work and desire to get rich. What’s most interesting is that all these people did not inherit a huge fortune or win the lottery; they all started their business practically from scratch. Very interesting, read on.
Li Ka-shing – $26.5 billion
Li Ka-shing was born and lived in China until he left the country in 1940 and moved to Hong Kong. Due to the death of his father, he had to leave school at the age of 14 and go to earn money. His first job was in a company selling plastic products and he had to spend 16 hours there.
The first ten years, plus frugality, led to the opportunity to open my own business, Cheung Kong Industries. Like Ka-shing's previous place of work, it was engaged in plastics, but over time, it turned into the largest investment corporation in Hong Kong. Li Ka-shing himself is considered one of the richest Chinese.
Sheldon Adelson – $26 billion
Sheldon Adelson, the son of a taxi driver from Boston, began his entrepreneurial journey at age 12 by selling newspapers. After that, he was a court reporter, mortgage broker, investment advisor and financial consultant. There was a period when he tried to sell toiletries and charter tours.
But the organization of the computer exhibition COMDEX in 1979 was a serious success. In the next 2 decades, it was the leading exhibition in the computer field in the USA.
And in 1988, he and his partners acquired a casino and hotel in Las Vegas (Sands Hotel & Casino), after which he quickly began to get rich.
Sergey Brin – $24.9 billion
This is a new wave of billionaires who began to earn money in the age of computerization and the Internet. Sergey Brin, the 40-year-old owner of Google and a former Russian, was born in Moscow, and then moved to the USA with a family of mathematicians. He started working on search engines (that's the correct name for Google.com itself) at Stanford together with his classmate Larry Page. The system was tested at the university, and then they began to look for investors. The name Google is a mispronunciation of gugol, a word said during one of the project's presentations.
Brin and Page entered the list of billionaires in 2004, when they were 30 years old. Today, Brin is mainly involved in the development of new projects and areas, such as augmented reality glasses and an unmanned vehicle.
Larry Page – $24.9 billion
The co-founder and co-owner of Google has been leading the company itself since 2011 and is actually responsible for its strategic development. In addition to Google, he is actively involved in the development of the clean energy sector, in particular, together with Brin, he invested in Tesla Motors, which produces electric cars. high level(this is a normal machine that is powered by batteries).
Roman Abramovich – $23.5 billion
Widely known in narrow circles personality, Roman Abramovich, a billionaire orphan who was raised by his grandparents. I went into business while still a student, creating a cooperative for the production of toys and various polymers. After this there were many other companies and cooperatives, both in production and trade.
But, as some sharp tongues say, Abramovich’s main talent is that he knows how to find himself in right time in the right place - thus, he was able to gain control of Sibneft, which allowed him to become a billionaire.
Amancio Ortega – $20.2 billion
Until I read who it was, the name meant absolutely nothing to me - Amancio Ortega. If we say that this is the founder and owner of Zara, then a lot will fall into place.
He started sewing his first suits in his living room with the help of 25 dollars and his wife. He opened his first clothing store in 1975, and after a while became the owner of the popular clothing chain Zara. In addition to the Zara chain, he has chains of clothing stores for children, for young girls, lingerie stores, etc. In total, Ortega has more than 3 thousand stores in 64 countries.
Mark Zuckerberg – $19 billion
29-year-old Mark Zuckerberg is an icon modern world. Young, lazy, creative and rich. The creator of the largest social network Facebook, who created a system for his university - Harvard - and in the end could not graduate because... there was no time left. Helped in the creation of Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskowitz, plus Eduardo Saverin. The first major investment came from Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal.
Now Facebook is a public company, which at first lost a lot in value, and then (in 2013) began to rise in price. Zuckerberg now has a 17% stake, making him the youngest billionaire in history.
Kirk Kerkorian – $16 billion
Now an elderly man aged 96 years old, he dropped out of school in the 8th grade for the sake of boxing. At that time, he achieved great success and even became the welterweight champion in the Pacific Non-Professional Boxing Championship. After the Second World War, he retired from the ring to the airfield and began flying airplanes, but in 1944 he ended up in Las Vegas, where he was stuck for 3 years. Having squandered a lot of money, he finally said goodbye to gambling and bought the air transportation company Trans International Airlines for 60 thousand dollars. After some time, he was able to sell it for $104 million to Transamerica.
And since 1968, he went into Hollywood - he made money at MGM, United Artists, Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox.
Elon Musk – $6.7 billion
Elon Musk is one of those new rich people who are capturing the market with their brains, hands and business acumen. My first big deal was at the age of 12 - I wrote a program that I sold for $500 (at that age I only spent my pocket money on ice cream and buns). At the age of 25, together with his brother, he created a company dealing software for news companies, and after 4 years he was able to sell it at a price of 307 million. He invested this money in the creation of PayPal, which, in turn, sold to eBay for $1.5 billion.
Today he is involved in the Space X space program and has contracts from NASA. The aforementioned Tesla Motors is also involved.
Dustin Moskowitz – $5.2 billion
About this young man You could also say that he was in the right place at the right time. Dustin Moskowitz is Mark Zuckerberg's roommate and helped him create Facebook. On this moment he owns 5% of the shares and this is the basis of his fortune. Facebook is not his main project now - he is currently working on the Asana project. This is a web application for effective collaboration on projects. Among the interesting things - he rides a bicycle to work and participates in the Giving Pledge project (a philanthropic project from Bill Gates and Warren Buffett). The essence of the project is that half of the members’ wealth goes to charity.
Ken Griffin – $4.4 billion
It's not just computers that make billions. Ken Griffin is the owner of Citadel hedge funds. He had his first positive experience of playing on the stock exchange at the age of 18 and has not stopped working since then. He became one of the most famous specialists in his field. After 2008, the funds lost half their value, but are now gradually recovering.
John Arnold – $2.8 billion
Another successful stock market player, John Arnold, got his start at the now-deceased Enron. At age 27, he earned $1 billion for the company and received his $8 million bonus. It was this money that I used to invest for myself and leave the boring company.
In 2012, he surprised the whole world by announcing that he was leaving trading after 17 years of successful experience. Now he and his wife have a $1.4 billion charitable foundation and are also part of the Giving Pledge project we mentioned above.
Oprah Winfrey – $2.5 billion
Oprah Winfrey is a whole layer of American culture. This is the Cinderella of our days, who did not drop her shoe on the stairs, but plowed like a horse and used every opportunity. The beginning of life is harsh, you can’t say anything: a strict mother, she was first abused at the age of 9, at 14 she gave birth to a child who died in infancy. But when I was in school, I first got to work at a radio station. At the age of 19, she already hosted local news, then daytime talk shows. The next serious achievement is to promote a completely unpopular show so as to become a celebrity, and then, with experience and a name, create your own production company.
At 32, Oprah became a millionaire, and her show is a national treasure. Since 1994, it has become so popular that the check for the year exceeded 9-figure amounts. Oprah Winfrey became the first African-American woman to be included in Forbes list.
Today, if you get on air with Oprah, you can become a celebrity in 1 day. For example, they did this to Robert Kiyosaki in 1997 (of course, we will not belittle the achievements of Robert himself).
Mikey Jagtiani – $2.5 billion
Mikey Jagtiani, a representative of the Middle East on our list of billionaires, was going to become an accountant, but his studies didn’t work out because... living in London turned out to be too expensive, plus the exams were also not going smoothly. To survive, I had to work as a taxi driver and cleaner.
At the age of 21, Mikey Jagtiane ends up in Bahrain alone with 6 thousand dollars (that’s all the family had) and opens a children’s goods store with this money. And today it is a retail chain on the list of the most profitable in the Middle East.
A corporation called Landmark includes 280 stores throughout the Middle East and brings Mike Jagtiani up to 650 million in profit per year.
Michael Rubin – $2.3 billion
Another representative of modern billionaires, Michael Rubin, CEO of Kynetic. He began his journey as an entrepreneur as a child and sold seeds to neighbors. At the age of 10, he already hired 5 guys to remove snow from neighbors’ lawns for money. At the age of 14, this future billionaire had already opened his first store, persuading his father to sign a lease agreement. At 23, he was already a director in a company with sales of $50 million.
But he saw his destiny in e-commerce, which was just beginning to develop. He invested about 80 million in his online store, but, despite increasing sales, he could not make this business sustainable. However, eBay came to the rescue and bought the company from Rubin for 2.4 billion. The price is much higher than the actual cost of this project, but eBay was behind in the race with Amazon, so they shelled out the money.
Today Rubin is involved in Fanatics clothing stores and websites various directions, in which he has already invested 500 million.
Eduardo Saverin – $2.2 billion
Another person who made a fortune on Facebook. Saverin was Zuckenberg's first investor and was the commercial director of the young project. But while Saverin was in New York practicing, Zuckerberg attracted new investors and artificially lowered his stake from 34% to 0.03%. Eduardo sued and regained his share to 5%.
This 5% allowed him to get on the list of billionaires. In addition, the man turned out to be reasonable and, before Facebook filed for an IPO, renounced his US citizenship and became a citizen of Brazil, which allowed him not to pay American taxes. And although his passport is Brazilian, he lives in Singapore and invests in online projects: an application that scans the barcode of a product and offers it at the lowest price on the Internet or online payments with a credit card using a webcam.
Sean Parker – $2 billion
Another co-owner of Facebook, Sean Parker, started out as a talented programmer and hacker. Already at the age of 16, he was arrested for hacking the websites of companies that were on the Forbes list. He also had a hand in creating the Internet resource Napster, through which one could exchange music. It was a breakthrough of sorts, although closed due to “some” friction with the law. At 24, he meets Zuckerberg and is the president of Facebook. True, then he is removed, which, however, does not prevent him from retaining 3% of the shares and becoming a billionaire.
Today he is engaged in his own startups.
Richard Desmond – $2 billion
Richard Desmond's life was also not pampering at first: his parents divorced, they lived together in a small apartment, he dropped out of school at the age of 14 to play the drums and help his mother earn money.
His first real job was at Thomson Newspaper, but by the age of 21 he was the owner of two record stores. But the media experience also continued - in 1974, Desmond became the publisher of the International Musician and Recording World magazine.
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