Biography of successful people and businessmen. hobby business

16.02.2016

Greetings, followers of successful businessmen! Today, especially for you, I will tell you popular business success stories from scratch. After all, other people's luck is contagious. In addition, examples of effective business ideas can be very useful for you.

Billion dollar ideas

Many of the world's richest people started from scratch, without huge financial investments, rich parents and winning the big lottery. They just invented an amazing business idea, knew how to work "by the sweat of their brow" and go towards their goal, no matter what! And, of course, these people were distinguished by an extraordinary mind, non-standard views on life.

I hope you are one of those people who, after reading business success stories from scratch, will reconsider their lives and take action! After all, if you just think that where are you up to such accomplishments and give up, it will not work. So read short biographies famous billionaires peace and absorb the energy of wealth.

Biographies of the richest people

So, now I turn directly to the success stories of millionaires and billionaires. By the way, learn interesting internet profession and earn your first million you can here.

Sheldon Adelson

This man was born in Boston in the family of an ordinary taxi driver. From the age of twelve he began a small entrepreneurial activity selling newspapers. After that followed various works– financial advisor, mortgage broker, court reporter, tour salesman. However, all this was only a difficult path to future success. 1979 was a landmark year for Adelson. He organized COMDEX - an exhibition-fair of computer topics, which for 20 years was the most famous event dedicated to computer technology.

9 years after the creation of the fair, Sheldon buys a hotel, a casino in the largest gaming city of Las Vegas and instantly increases his material wealth, which, according to general estimates, is $ 26 billion.

Roman Abramovich

An example of a billionaire comes from Saratov. The childhood of this famous oilman passed under the upbringing of close relatives, since the boy's parents died. In his youth, Abramovich had excellent organizational skills. 1980-90 - the year when he created a small business for the manufacture of polymers, toys.

This was followed by trading, intermediary activities, developing into oil raiders. Then, after establishing useful ties with B. Berezovsky, B. Yeltsin's family, Roman Arkadyevich noticeably improved his financial situation. They say that it was thanks to them that he took possession of Sibneft. Further career Abramovich - the post of deputy, governor, contributing to the expansion of the oil business. The next step to enrichment is the purchase of the Chelsea football club. The approximate amount of the entrepreneur's income is 23.5 billion dollars.

Li Ka-shing

Chinese businessman who earned about $26.5 billion. He began his career at the age of fourteen. In order to earn a living after the death of his father, the boy dropped out of school. At first he worked as a trader in plastic products. A few years later he was able to open his own business - the company Cheung Kong Industries, which later became a major investment corporation in Hong Kong, and Ka-Shing - the richest person in China.

Maxim Nogotkov

This is the youngest Russian businessman who has earned more than one billion. Nogotkov started working as a schoolboy, selling copies of PC programs. Already 2 years later, without finishing higher education, he, together with his comrades, opened his own business - the Maxus company, in order to engage in a wholesale type of trade in equipment on the radio markets. The organization then became a distributor of Siemens radiotelephones.

Start trading mobile phones did not bring success. But the purchase of salons cellular communication allowed to reach a new horizon, as a result of which the Svyaznoy brand appeared. Today's turnover of the company is more than five hundred billion rubles.

Fred De Luca

An American entrepreneur, along with a friend, started their business by opening a regular diner. Then Fred was only 17 years old. The original plan was to open 32 eateries over a ten-year period. Thanks to further franchising, the chain of stores has expanded significantly. Now outlets SUBWAY brand have become popular all over the world. Their number exceeds 21 thousand in different countries world, which exceeds the number of other popular fast food brand McDonald's.

It's just 5 stories successful business from scratch. But there are actually a lot of them. Re-read the biographies of the most famous rich people in order to trace the patterns of ascent from poverty to prosperity, to be inspired by other people's successes. It will definitely work if you are determined to start your own business and think like a millionaire.

Sincerely, Ivan Balashov!

It is believed that in order to develop a business, it is required to have initial capital. In reality, there are examples when successful businessmen today started their journey from the very bottom. Consider the top stories of creating a successful business from scratch.

KFC, David Sanders

KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is a famous American fast food chain. Specializes in the preparation of chicken meat. The brand was founded by David Sanders. He was born on September 9, 1890. While still a boy, he left home. At the age of 16, he went to serve in the American army, forging documents. Then began a period of vagrancy, during which he learned a lot, including cooking.

Way to success

  • When David was 40, he opened filling station. On it, he treated visitors to fried chicken according to his own recipe, adding special spices and herbs. As a result, customers began to come to him, primarily to feast on chicken, and not just fill up the car.
  • Sanders improved the recipe by pressure frying the chicken and rented a larger space. In 1950, the governor of Kentucky personally presented him with the title of Colonel. A few years later, Sanders saved up some money and began to introduce a franchise.
  • When the Colonel was 74 years old, he sold the company to Kentucky businessmen for a couple of million dollars, but retained his right to Canadian franchises. By that time, the total number of restaurants was 600.

Sanders left this world in 1980 at the age of 90. He was buried in the famous white suit - the personification of the image of the founder of KFC.

Today, the menu at KFC includes many different dishes based on chicken meat. In total, several tens of thousands of restaurants are open in countries around the world, including Russia.

Whatsapp, Jan Koum

WhatsApp is a free messenger through which about 50 million messages are sent daily. The founder of the messenger is Jan Kum. He is originally from Ukraine and today is the second most influential person on Facebook after Zuckerberg, but this was not always the case.

Childhood

Jan was born into a poor family in the winter of 1976, in the town of Fastov. His father was a construction worker and his mother was a housewife. Sometimes there was not enough money even for electricity and heating. The family emigrated to the United States and received a small apartment with the help of a social program, but poverty continued to dominate their lives. Kum tried to study and work as a cleaner in a store at the same time. Later, his mother developed cancer and the family began to live on her disability allowance.

Student years

By the time he came of age, one of Jan's hobbies was programming. He studied discipline from textbooks, borrowing them . Later, Koum joined a large group of hackers who hacked into the servers of well-known companies.

As a university student, Ian met Brian Acton, who later became his co-founder via WhatsApp. Brian got Ian a job at Yahoo, seeing potential in him. To devote himself to work, Koum dropped out of the university. When Yahoo began to experience difficult times, Jan and Brian left the company and set off on a free voyage.

Idea

Yang tried to get a job at Facebook, but he was immediately rejected. After a while, he bought himself an iPhone and came up with an interesting idea - to create a mobile messenger application. It appeared in 2009 and did not arouse the slightest interest among users. Brian persuaded Ian not to abandon his idea, but to wait a bit.

When the pop-up messages feature appeared on the iPhone, the WhatsApp messenger immediately became popular. In the winter of 2014, Facebook, the company that had once upset Yang so much by denying him a job, bought the app from Yang for $16 billion.

At the moment, Jan Koum is the chief executive officer of Facebook, is on the board of directors of the company. He has a fortune of $ 9 billion, but continues to spend all his time at work.

Alibaba, Jack Ma

Jack Ma is the founder and chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba. He owns a fortune of $ 25 billion, but for a long time he was accompanied only by failure.

Jack Ma (Ma Yun - real name) was born in the fall of 1964 in the Chinese city of Hangzhou and was the third child in their poor family.

Education and job search

AT school age he moonlighted as a guide, offering tourists a free walk around the city - so he wanted to master English. One of the tourists with whom Ma developed friendships came up with the nickname Jack for him.

Jack really wanted to break into people and on the third attempt he was able to enter the Pedagogical Institute in his city. In 1988, he received his diploma, after which the job search began.

Jack got rejected everywhere, even at KFC. Finally he got lucky and became an English teacher. At a local university, he received only $12 a month. Despite this, teaching unexpectedly came to his liking.

Idea

During a trip to the US in 1995, Jack first learned what a computer and programming are. He was an interpreter for a business delegation from China. His first search query was "Beer". Jack was surprised that beer from his country didn't show up in the search results, so he decided to start an Internet company at home.

His first ideas were not successful, but after 4 years, Jack convinced his friends to invest in his new online marketplace Alibaba. On it, suppliers could display product offers, and consumers could order products directly. In 1999, Aliaba received significant investments from telecommunications investment company SoftBank (Japan) and Goldman Cash Bank. In total, investments amounted to $25 million. In 2005, Yahoo invested $1 billion in the company, acquiring a 40% stake from the latter. Subsequently, this brought significant profits to Yahoo.

In 2013, Jack became chairman of the board of directors, transferring his duties as CEO. Alibaba went public with an IPO the following fall, making Jack the richest man in all of China.

lifestyle now

Despite his huge fortune, Jack continues to lead a modest lifestyle. His hobbies are meditation, health exercises, poker, reading and writing kung fu stories. . He also advocates environment and singled out cash for the creation of a natural Chinese reserve of 10,000 hectares of land.

Jack is married to Zhang Ying, whom he met while teaching, and has a son and a daughter.

Starbucks, Howard Schultz

Howard Schultz is a well-known American businessman, is the executive director of a large chain of StarBucks cafes (today it is a real symbol of modern America). Thanks to his personal qualities and perseverance, Howard became a great businessman.

Childhood

The boy was born in the summer of 1953 in Brooklyn. His parents worked constantly, but there were no excesses in their family. Mom and dad dreamed that their son would get a good education and be able to provide for his family in the future. Howard lived in a government-issued low-income home. The only entertainment for local poor kids is the basketball court.

The boy began to work from the age of 12. At first he sold newspapers, and then worked as a cashier at a local cafe. At 16, Howard was stretching hides, a job that was physically demanding and low-paid.

After receiving his bachelor's degree in 1975, Howard worked for several years in sales at Xerox, after which he moved to the Hamamaplast representative office. This Swedish company sold coffee grinders and other household appliances to Starbucks and other similar organizations.

How did the idea come about

Once Howard tried Starbucks coffee, and since then his life has changed. He loved the drink and the company. For a whole year, Howard pestered the director with calls asking him to hire him. . Finally, he gave up and offered the young man the position of marketing director with earnings 2 times less than he received at Hamamaplast. This was the starting point for the rapid development of Starbucks.

Thanks to Howard, Starbucks introduced new types of coffee - latte and espresso. A concept was developed to create cozy establishments where connoisseurs of good coffee would gather, and the first cafe-shop instantly gained popularity. Cafes began to appear in other cities, and then even at airports and airplanes. Later, Starbucks began to conquer the world market, after which - the Internet space.

At the moment, there are 17,000 Starbucks coffee shops around the world open in the world, and Howard's fortune is estimated at $ 1.5 billion. Schultz loves to travel with children, writes books, telling in them the story of his life and the peculiarities of doing business. Success came to Howard thanks to his business model, which takes into account the psychology of modern people.

GoPro, Nick Woodman

Nick Woodman is the founder and CEO of GoPro. He is a living example of how obsession with your favorite hobby can bring you a fortune without investment.

One day while on holiday in Australia, while watching surfers, Nick was struck by the idea: to make an inexpensive and convenient camera that would allow you to create high-quality pictures in motion. First camera gopro was presented at the Action Sports Retailer Show in 2004. After him, Nick received an order for the manufacture of the first hundred of the same cameras. During the year of sales, Woodman became the owner of $350,000.

This was just the beginning. Nick always dreamed of becoming a race car driver and decided to develop a camera that could easily be mounted in the car. Users were also attracted by the affordable price of the camera - only two to four hundred dollars for high-quality video recording. In 2011, Nick attracted investors and received $ 88 million to develop his business. .

Today, Nick is called a crazy billionaire. Despite his busy schedule, he always finds time for his extreme pastime.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that the article discusses different types of business, their founders have several things in common:

  1. lack of initial capital and influential connections;
  2. original and unusual idea;
  3. perseverance;
  4. Believe in yourself;
  5. diligence.

The experience of David Sanders, Jan Koum, Jack Ma, Howard Schultz and Nick Woodman proves that anyone can become a millionaire, the main thing is to offer people an original and elegant solution that will improve their lives.

In every disaster, in every failure, there is a breakthrough, a seed of success, new opportunity but we just don't know about it. We just weren't taught it. We perceive every failure as a blow of fate, as a slap in the face, as a bandwagon, as bad luck, as a catastrophe. But only through the struggle with failure can you achieve something worthwhile if you stubbornly continue your work.

All over the world, successful, rich, healthy people treat life's trials and blows of fate in the same way. Their motto is: "Whatever doesn't kill makes me stronger." A strong person perceives any test and failure as a stage of growth.

The weak and the poor also have the same attitude towards failure. Failure for them is God's punishment, bad luck. Born at the wrong time, in the wrong country, received the wrong upbringing. In short, any pain kills them. A weak person, weak in all respects - spiritual, physical, moral, mental - any failure makes even weaker. Faced with adversity, he feels only fear.

We invite you to be inspired by the fates of people who, it would seem, from the deepest bottom, from the deepest abyss, flew up, turning into beautiful, great princes and queens.

Michael Jordan

I have missed more than nine thousand times in my sports career. I have lost over 300 matches. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the final shot for the team to win, and I've missed. I fail again and again. That's why I'm the Champion!

These words belong to the greatest athlete of our time, the legendary man Michael Jordan. The great basketball player who earned about five hundred million dollars during his sports career. The man who became the idol of the youth of the whole world.

In America and Europe, Michael Jordan is a megastar. Moreover, this person is not just an excellent athlete, but also an exemplary father, an exemplary family man, teacher, and thinker. And it is his words that perfectly describe the attitude of outstanding people to failure.

Michael Jordan didn't get picked on the high school basketball team as a kid because the coach decided he didn't have the talent. It was a test. And what did the black boy do? Filled with tears, dismissed nurses and forever abandoned your favorite sport? By no means! He just started working out more. Much more than his peers, the happy members of the school team! So, from defeat to defeat, from misunderstanding to misunderstanding, from test to test, he became an outstanding athlete and champion.

Each failure carries a huge charge of success. No wonder the Chinese and Japanese characters for "catastrophe" have two meanings. The first meaning is failure, catastrophe, and the second meaning is new opportunities. If you ask any businessman, entrepreneur, what caused him to take off, you are sure to get to the bottom of the true starting point. It will be nothing but failure.
V. Dovgan

Michael Bloomberg

Hear the life story of the mayor of the world's financial capital, New York City, Michael Bloomberg. The multi-billionaire created a unique company with a multi-billion dollar turnover and became a vivid embodiment of the Cinderella story or the great American dream. A young man from a poor family, almost accidentally entered college, after graduation he began to work in a brokerage company. He gave this company many years of his life, but he was fired. Disaster, failure, fiasco. Why did they fire him, and not some other employee? Because he is the weakest of all? Because he's a loser? After all, he gave this company so much time and heart, treated it like a family!

It would seem a complete failure, a complete disaster. But it was at this moment that Bloomberg's great empire was born. None today financial institution the world is not complete without TV channels and information systems that he created. He achieved not only tremendous success in business, but also in politics, becoming one of the brightest mayors of New York, and this is a very complex city with large debts, high crime, and huge problems - all of which he inherited from previous mayors .

When he was elected mayor, he discovered that the city budget was in a catastrophic state: it was bursting at all seams, New York had been living beyond its means for many years. But Bloomberg didn't mind. He said he would work for one dollar a year to make up the shortfall more quickly. He, like all ordinary New Yorkers, rides the subway, and when the subway workers put forward demands that were impossible for the city and went on strike, he calmly went to the store in front of all the townspeople, bought a bicycle and rode to work on a bicycle.

Surprisingly bright person, bright destiny! But it would not have taken place if Michael had not been fired. He would not become a multibillionaire, he would not become a famous politician.

Walt Disney

Another loss story. Walt Disney is a man who left an indelible mark on the earth. Young Walt was fired from the newspaper with the degrading, shameful wording "for lack of ideas." Some small newspaper, some insignificant Chief Editor expels Disney with a verdict that he is mediocre, that he is a fool. And it was this pain, this tragedy in his fate that led to the birth of a great empire, the great world of Walt Disney.

The second failure was waiting for Disney for a very short time - having drawn his first cartoon character Oswald the donkey, he tied himself up with a partnership with an extremely dishonorable person who secretly redid all the contracts behind his back. One fine day, when Disney came to work, he heard: "All cartoons, all contracts with film distributors belong to me, and even the donkey Oswald, who has already become famous, also belongs to me. Here, dear Disney, you have a salary, work for a pittance You are no longer the owner or author, just nobody!"

A vile stab in the back, a vile betrayal. But it was this that was the impetus for the birth of the famous Mickey Mouse character. Who knows, if it were not for this betrayal, the history of world animation could have gone in a completely different way, and you and I would never have had the opportunity to laugh and grieve with this wonderful character, there would not have been such an unusual attraction in the world as Disneyland. At the moment of the betrayal, Disney was killed, he received a colossal nervous breakdown. But he found the strength to say to this scoundrel: "Take this freak! In the world with which I am friends, there are a huge number of new heroes!" And on the way home, he drew the famous Mickey Mouse.

Don King

An interesting story of the rise of the famous boxing producer Don King. Black boy grew up in the backyard big city- in the Negro ghetto, where alcohol, drugs, and crime reigned. What fate could await him ahead? Prison or death.

At first, that's how it happened. As a gambling guy, Don King held an illegal sweepstakes. After a fight with a debtor whom he killed, he ended up in jail for a long time. And this is where the miracle happens. He starts from morning to night to read smart books, begins to completely change his life, his worldview. The prison administration, seeing positive changes in the prisoner, filed a petition for early release.

A completely different person came out of prison. A highly educated, well-read person who constantly quotes Dostoevsky, Socrates, Plato, Einstein. He took up producing in professional boxing, took it to a whole new level and became his legend. Don King went down in history as the man who first organized the fight between Muhammad Ali and Furman with a prize fund of the then unthinkable amount of $ 10 million. Who knows, if a tragedy hadn't happened in his life, if he hadn't gone to jail, maybe he would have simply become a drug addict, drunk himself, turned into a homeless person.



Soichiro Honda

Every failure brings new opportunities.

These words are quite applicable to the fate of one of the entrepreneurs - Soichiro Honda. An illiterate locksmith from a small Japanese village dreamed of starting his own business. Having collected all the money, even selling his wife's jewelry, he set up the production of piston rings for the Toyota automobile company. His fellow villagers were puzzled and surprised - how could an illiterate person open a business? In addition to making piston rings, Honda was constantly working on his technical inventions. For a long time he did nothing.

Colleagues laughed at him, they believed that we should just continue to produce these rings and not invent anything new, otherwise he would soon go bankrupt. They mocked him, and it always happens, because little people who are afraid to take risks, afraid to take a step, in general, to do something themselves, enthusiastically accept any of your defeats. They are glad that you didn't succeed either. This is an excuse for their gray, boring, beggarly life. This is an internal guarantee that they live correctly, do not stick out, do not take risks and do not suffer.

Imagine how Soichiro Honda felt when he heard those taunts. But it was at this moment that a miracle happened. Soichiro figured out how to ride a bike without expending effort. He attached a small motor to his wife's bicycle and made his first moped. If at that moment he had listened to the "well-wishers" and refused to continue inventing, maybe all his life he would have been just one of the thousands of Toyota suppliers. Nobody knows, but quite wealthy person.

It was out of failure that the great Honda empire was born, which is now one of the five largest automotive giants and produces 75 percent of all motorcycles in the world and a huge amount of necessary household appliances. Remember Soichiro Honda's formula for success: "99 losses equals one victory!"

Akio Morita

Let's look at how Sony was born. Designer Akio Morita's first product was rice cookers, which worked horribly, burned rice, and often broke down. It was a defeat. The product was extremely unsuccessful. But it was precisely this failure that prompted Akio Morita to create the first tape recorder, the first transistor.

The first failures of the Sony company changed its face, determined a completely different path of development. And it was this path that turned out to be fantastically successful, and it was he who brought Morita wealth and fame (in the 70s, Akio Morita was the richest man in the world).


Pietro Ferrero

All of you are well aware of such wonderful sweets as "Roche", "Raffaello", "Kinder Surprise" - chocolate eggs with amazing toys. But few people know how the Ferrero empire was born. Today it is a company with a turnover of more than 10 billion dollars and a worldwide reputation.

It was after the war in a small provincial Italian town. Pietro Ferrero decided to make a homemade candy business and bought cocoa, milk powder, butter, sugar, investing all his savings in them. The family prepared for the city holiday for several days and made sweets, hoping to sell them profitably. And just a day before the holiday, a tragedy occurred. The day was very hot and all the sweets melted. Ferrero's wife, having entered a makeshift warehouse, saw instead of sweets a spreading sweet mass. The tragedy was so strong that her legs buckled, and Ferrero himself, looking at this catastrophe, simply turned gray.

But a way out was found. They cut the bread and spread it with this sweet paste, making sweet sandwiches. The next day, Ferrero and his wife not only saved themselves from complete ruin, but also earned good money, because these sweet sandwiches flew away "like hot cakes on a frosty day." Thus, an amazing product was born - Nutella chocolate-nut spread.

Later, when the Ferrero company experienced financial difficulties, Ferrero proudly said: "Saint Nutella will help us!" Indeed, this product has always given the Ferrero company super profits and has been popular with children around the world for decades.

on the picture : Michele Ferrero, son of the founder of the company, who contributed to the development and success of the Ferrero Group

Joanne Rowling

We all admire the amazing literary hero Harry Potter. But few people know that the miracles that happen to this amazing boy and his friends are nothing compared to the miracle that happened to his literary mother, writer Joan Kathleen Rowling, or Jo, as she was called from childhood in the family.

This amazing woman was born on July 31, 1965 in England, in the small town of Chepingrodtree. She spent a typical childhood of a girl from a small town without any troubles and upheavals. After graduating from school, Joan enters the University of Exeter, where she chooses the specialization "Philology", studying in depth French, Latin and ancient Greek.

Joan began writing her first Harry Potter book back in 1990, when she was twenty-five years old and worked as a secretary in a London publishing house. She did not have a computer, she wrote her bestseller on pieces of paper and put them in a shoe box.

At the age of 26, Joan goes to Portugal to teach English language and soon meets Jorge Arantes, a journalist and playboy, and marries him a year later. The ambitious husband could not find a job for a long time, and therefore Joan, in order to support her family, had to teach English almost until the birth of her daughter Jessica. And already in October, Joan, family life which did not work out, with a three-month-old Jessica in her arms, she went to the only relative and close person - to her sister in Edinburgh. She became a semi-poor single mother and lived on public assistance on the outskirts of the city in a gloomy slum. Rowling received only 70 pounds a week, which was completely spent on food and some clothes for Jessie. She was very ashamed of her plight, literally words turned into a beggar.

The death of her beloved mother, the constant lack of money, the difficult separation from her husband, who literally pushed her out of the house with a small child in her arms, contributed to the development of severe depression. Sometimes on rainy evenings, when her daughter was sleeping, it seemed to Joan that this black streak of life would never end. From the terrible reality, Joan escaped only at the desk.

Joan wrote her first book for almost five years. Joan sent the manuscript of the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" retyped on an old typewriter to various publishers, from where the standard replies came: "Too difficult for children. Children will not be interested."

But in 1995, the streak of terrible failures finally ended - the manuscript ended up in the Bloombury publishing house, which specialized in publishing children's books. From this moment on, an amazing turn takes place in the fate of JK Rowling - ugly duck turns into a beautiful swan.

The first book was published in July 1997, the same year Joan received a grant of 12 thousand dollars and finally bought a computer. Further more. The Americans bought the rights to The Philosopher's Stone from her for $110,000, and by the summer of 2000, the first three books had sold thirty-five million copies and were translated into 36 languages. Harry Potter books literally conquered the whole world. And Rowling herself has become a superstar, a cult writer of our time. What about our time! All times!

Oprah Winfrey

The number one star in show business, TV presenter Oprah Winfrey has broken all records in the field of making money and in popularity on television. Today, tens of millions of viewers look with admiration at this full African-American woman. She is an idol for millions of people on the planet. Imagine what this means in America, where two hundred years ago black people were slaves, and a hundred years ago they were refused even to ride in the same bus or buy goods in the same store.

But Oprah did not come quickly to her victory. In childhood and adolescence, Oprah's fate was not the most in the best way. She was born in the slums of one of the poor quarters, where prostitution, violence, drugs, crimes were almost the main occupation of young people. She left home very early, wandered, took alcohol and drugs, and was promiscuous. At 16, she gave birth to a dead child, not even knowing from whom. As a child, it was only by chance that she was not sent to a juvenile prison for theft - she was saved by the fact that the prison was overcrowded.

A tramp, thief and drug addict, Oprah naturally skipped classes for months and wrote with a lot of errors. Most people with her fate would have laid down their hands long ago and never dreamed of millions of dollars, of fame, of fame. But Oprah had a hope, a dream to achieve the best in life. And fate smiled at her: she managed to find a job at some small provincial radio station. At first she did all kinds of auxiliary work in the office, then she was entrusted - for the first time in her life - to go on the air.

And the star lit up! Today she is the owner of more than a billion dollars, a giant world megastar!

Believe in yourself, you too can achieve great success if you really want to! Good luck to you! We know YOU CAN!

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Shorten the path to your Dream!!

Today I want to tell you the stories of some of the the richest people of our planet who have been able to earn more than a billion dollars thanks to their brilliant ideas, hard work and desire to get rich. What is most interesting, all these people did not inherit a huge fortune and did not win the lottery, they all started their business 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 work. His first job was in a plastic products trading company and he had to spend 16 hours there.
The first ten years, plus thrift, led to the opportunity to open his own business, Cheung Kong Industries. Like previous place Ka-shing's works, here they were 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 career at the age of 12 by selling newspapers. After that, he was a court reporter, mortgage broker, investment advisor and financial advisor. There was a period when he tried to sell toiletries and charter tours.
But the organization of the computer exhibition-fair COMDEX in 1979 became a serious success. For the next 2 decades, it was the leading exhibition in the computer field in the United States.
And in 1988, together with partners, he acquires a casino and a hotel in Las Vegas (Sands Hotel & Casino), after which he quickly begins to get rich.

Sergey Brin - $24.9 billion

It's already new wave billionaires who began to earn in the age of computerization and the Internet. Sergey Brin, a 40-year-old Google owner and former Russian, was born in Moscow and then moved to the United States with his family of mathematicians. Engaged in search engines (this is how Google.com itself is called correctly) began at Stanford with 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 spoken during one of the project's presentations.
Brin and Page were included in the list of billionaires in 2004, when they were 30 years old. Today, Brin is mainly engaged in the development of new projects and directions, such as augmented reality glasses and an unmanned vehicle.

Larry Page - $24.9 billion

Co-founder and co-owner Google has been in charge of the company itself since 2011 and is actually responsible for its strategic development. In addition to Google, he is actively engaged 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

A well-known personality in narrow circles, Roman Abramovich, a billionaire orphan, who was raised by his grandparents. He went into business while still a student, creating a cooperative for the production of toys and various polymers. After that, there were many other companies and cooperatives, both in production and in trade.
But, as some sharp tongues say, Abramovich's main talent is that he knows how to be at the right time in 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 Zara then many things will fall into place.
He started sewing his first suits in his living room with the help of $25 and his wife. The first clothing store opened 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. AT total amount Ortega has over 3,000 stores in 64 countries.

Mark Zuckerberg - $19 billion

29-year-old Mark Zuckenberg is an icon modern world. Young, lazy, creative and rich. Creator of the largest social network Facebook, which created a system for its university - Harvard - and in the end could not finish it, 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, founder of PayPal.
Now Facebook is a public company, which first lost a lot in price, and then (in 2013) began to rise in price. Zuckenberg now has a 17% stake, making him the youngest billionaire in history.

Kirk Kerkorian - $16 billion

The now elderly uncle of the age of 96 left 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 Amateur Boxing Championship. After the Second World War, he left the ring and went to the airfield and began to fly the plane, but in 1944 he ended up in Las Vegas, where he got stuck for 3 years. After losing a lot of money, he nevertheless said goodbye to gambling and bought the airline 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 took up Hollywood - he earned 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 capture the market with their brains, hands and business acumen. First big deal at age 12 - wrote a program that I sold for $500 (at that age I only spent pocket money on ice cream and buns). At the age of 25, together with his brother, he created a company dealing with software for news companies, and 4 years later he was able to sell it for a price of 307 million. He invested this money in the creation of PayPal, which, in turn, he sold to eBay for $1.5 billion.
Today he is engaged in the Space X space program and has contracts from NASA. Also engaged in the aforementioned Tesla Motors.

Dustin Moskowitz - $5.2 billion

You can also say about this young man, he was at the right time in the right place. Dustin Moskowitz is Mark Zuckenberg's roommate and helped him build Facebook. At the moment, he owns 5% of the shares and this is the basis of his fortune. Facebook is not his main project now - now he is working on the Asana project. This is a web application for efficient project collaboration. Of 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' fortune goes to charity.

Ken Griffin - $4.4 billion

Billions are made not only on computers. Ken Griffin is the owner of Citadel hedge funds. He got 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 price, but are now gradually recovering.

John Arnold - $2.8 billion

Another successful stock player, John Arnold, started at Enron, now deceased. At the age of 27, he earned $1 billion for the company and received his bonus of $8 million. It was this money that he used to invest for himself and leave the annoying company.
In 2012, he surprised the whole world by announcing that he was retiring from trading after 17 years of successful experience. Now he and his wife charitable foundation with a budget of 1.4 billion dollars, and he is also a member of the Giving Pledge project, which 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 all the possibilities. 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 a job at a radio station. At the age of 19, she already hosted local news, then daytime talk shows. The next major 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 the property of the nation. Since 1994, it has become so popular that the check for the year exceeded 9 figures. Oprah Winfrey became the first African American woman to be featured on the Forbes list.
Today, once on the air with Oprah, you can become a celebrity in 1 day. For example, this was done with Robert Kiyosaki in 1997 (of course, we will not belittle the achievements of Robert himself).

Mikey Jagtiani - $2.5 billion

Mikey Jagtiani, a Middle Eastern representative on our list of billionaires, was going to be an accountant, but his studies didn't work out. living in London was too expensive, plus the exams were also not going smoothly. To survive, I had to work as a taxi driver and a cleaner.
At the age of 21, Mikey Jagtian 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 in 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 today's billionaires is Michael Rubin, CEO of Kynetic. He began his career as an entrepreneur as a child and sold seeds to his neighbors. At the age of 10, he already hired 5 guys to remove snow from neighboring lawns for money. At the age of 14, this future billionaire had already opened the first store, persuading his father to sign a lease. At 23, he was already a director in a company with $50 million in sales.
But he saw his destiny in ecommerce which is 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, which bought the company from Rubin for 2.4 billion. The price is much higher than the real cost of this project, but eBay was behind in the race with Amazon, so they shelled out this money.
Today, Rubin is engaged in Fanatics clothing stores and websites different orientation, 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 commercial director young project. But while Saverin was in New York on practice, Zuckenberg attracted new investors and artificially lowered his equity stake from 34% to 0.03%. Eduardo sued and got his share back up to 5%.
These 5% allowed him to get into the list of billionaires. In addition, the man turned out to be reasonable and, before Facebook filed for an IPO, he renounced his US citizenship and became a citizen of Brazil, which allowed him not to pay US taxes. And although he has a Brazilian passport, 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 credit card payments 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 Napster Internet resource, through which it was possible to exchange music. It was a kind of breakthrough, albeit closed for "some" friction with the law. At 24, he meets Zuckenberg and is the president of Facebook. True, then he is removed, which, however, does not prevent him from keeping 3% of the shares and becoming a billionaire.
Today he is engaged in his startups.

Richard Desmond - $2 billion

The life of Richard Desmond also did not indulge at the beginning: his parents divorced, lived together in a small apartment, left school at the age of 14 to play drums and help his mother earn money.
His first real job was at the Thomson Newspaper, but by the age of 21 he owned two record stores. But the experience of the media also received its continuation - in 1974, Desmond became the publisher of the International Musician and Recording World magazine.

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Many examples of successful business in world practice have already been described, whose owners are millions, billions of dollars. Nothing surprising, you say, a minimum of bureaucracy, a normal legal field, a loyal tax system. Is it possible to raise a million-dollar business from scratch in Russia in an honest way? Can. And they prove it real stories. There is only one thing that connects them: the owners of these companies are young people who showed their perseverance, were ready to learn and believed in their success.

Starting a business is not for everyone. On the one hand, it attracts not only thought, but also independence, the opportunity to reveal oneself, to become successful. Many stop already at what they think is what to start profitable business only possible if you have a good start-up capital. Another category of people believes that they do not have the necessary skills, abilities or ambitions to start a new business. And the majority, with all the factors of a successful businessman, just think too long, at a time when someone is already taking the first steps to realize their idea.

From 2011 to 2013, VK was seriously developing, acquiring new functions, including the possibility of making money online. At the same time, the FSB began a series of actions against Durov, demanding to close individual groups disloyal to the authorities. Pavel refuses and ends up on the appropriate lists with all the ensuing consequences.

As a result, Pavel Durov resigns in 2014 CEO and leaves the country.

Oleg Tinkov: from a beer shop to Tinkoff-Bank

Like many of today's businessmen, Oleg Tinkov's entrepreneurial vein began to appear even at the Mining Institute. He bought perfumes and jeans from foreign students and resold them for more. Having visited relatives of his future wife in Poland, he drew attention to the fact that Appliances there is much more expensive than in Russia. This is how the trade in Russian television sets began in Warsaw. Business flourished, and Tinkov decided to drop out of school. The goal - to become the director of a mine in his native city with a salary of a thousand rubles, ceased to interest him.

In search of new ones, Oleg even had to deal with the repurchase of cars, which he drove from Siberia to St. Petersburg. This session raised $30,000. This became starting capital to start selling equipment from Singapore, where it was much cheaper than in Russia. Deciding to reach high speeds, Tinkov begins wholesale technology, creating for this the company "Petrosib".

After some time, he opens several more stores and organizes a network of electrical engineering stores "Technoshock", in which all domestic standards trade. Thanks to the European style of the chain, the queues in stores did not stop, despite the prices, which were sometimes higher than those of competitors.

Further, a network of music stores "Music Shock" and a recording studio "SHOK-records" were created. Life goes on, goals change, so the sale of all networks gave way to the development of the new Tinkov. And the bottom line was that he began to develop it and sell it. These companies were:

  • Production of dumplings "Daria"
  • Beerhouse of live beer "Tinkoff"
  • Beer factory "Tinkoff"

Admitting that selling a business gives him the pleasure of completing the process and closing deals, Oleg Tinkov says: “Selling a business is cool.”

In 2005, having become a business-free billionaire, he creates new project"Tinkoff Credit Systems", which fully uses Internet technologies. Work with clients is carried out using the telephone and the Internet. In the crisis of 2008-2009, Tinkov's bank only increased its momentum. In Russia today it is the only banking Internet project.

Ilya Sachkov: cyber agency "Group-IB"

One of the young Russian entrepreneurs, at the age of 29 he was included in the Forbes lists in the intellectual field. Entrepreneurial skills were manifested as early as the 9th grade, and fame and money brought Ilya Sachkov not only great interest in the chosen industry, but also specialized education, a constant thirst for knowledge and a tendency to think over every step.

The idea came after reading a book about cybercrime. Having borrowed 150,000 rubles from his older brother, he organized an agency to investigate cybercrime. It was completely in Russia. The Group-IB company is engaged in:

  • detection and suppression of cybercrime
  • investigation of major thefts and hacks in the network
  • investigation of hacker attacks on IT companies
  • fight against cyber terrorism
  • preventing unfair competition

In 2016, the company entered the international level and began working on the project international protection from cyberterrorism. Group-IB is now one of the world's leading cybersecurity companies.

Sergei Galitsky: Magnit retail chain

The creator of the unprecedented leader in Russia in the product segment of TM Magnit, billionaire Sergey Galitsky, is one of those who, in childhood, except for football, did not show much interest in anything. Moreover, he was not famous for great success in his studies.

He entered the institute after the army, in absentia. Here, Sergei's extraordinary abilities and his potential were manifested. In his third year, the Finance and Credit magazine publishes his article, which impressed the head of one of the banks so much that he offered him a job as a post. Banking career will end as Deputy Chief of Staff and continue as Member supervisory board VTB.

“If work does not give pleasure, there is nothing to do with it” Sergey Galitsky.

The business started with a $30,000 loan. This money was spent on the purchase of a wholesale batch of cosmetics for subsequent retail distribution company TransAsia, of which he became a co-owner in 1993. After 5 years, Sergey decides to start an independent business and opens a one-of-a-kind store in Krasnodar that operates in the Cash & Carry format.

A good idea soon allowed to open a whole chain of stores. The success was that Sergey opened stores in small towns where there was not much competition.

The chain of stores began to specialize in the grocery and cosmetics segment and changed its profile to discounters selling goods below the retail price. So, in 2007, the first Magnit hypermarket appeared.

Today Sergey Galitsky is included in the list of 300 richest people on the planet. In 2016, he single-handedly held a 35.3% stake in Magnit. Heading the Magnit network for 25 years, in 2018 he decides to say goodbye to him by selling VTB a 29.1% stake. It was very ambiguous, which Sergey Galitsky commented as follows: “... something needs to be changed in my life ... Shareholders and I have different views on the development of the company ... Then Magnit will go on without me.”

Different people, different stories, and even if the story ends, it means that a new project has appeared on the horizon. These entrepreneurs, who were able to start a business from scratch in Russia, are united by the desire to follow their dreams, crazy hard work and the ability to correctly build a strategy for business development. Their stories show that even when there is a crisis in the country, it is necessary to strive to improve life in it.

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Discussion: there is 1 comment

    There are quite varied stories regarding the rise of the businessmen who are on this list. And not all of the options say that the guys really had nothing at the beginning except talent and ambition.

    Reply