The path to creating a successful business may not be easy but these leading men in business have overcome all obstacles to become billionaires of the world. Their business revenues, luxurious lifestyle and massive bank balance may startle you but their success did not come overnight and they had to work their way up to reach the epitome of success.
Let’s take a look at how the world’s richest people earned their first paychecks before becoming billionaires of the world:
1. Elon Musk
The owner of Tesla, Elon Musk is the wealthiest man in the world at present, according to Forbes. Musk is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX, CTO and chairman of X Corp and Twitter, founder of the Boring Company, co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, and president of the philanthropic Musk Foundation. With a net worth of $234 billion, Musk took the top spot on the list of richest men in the world in June, 2023.
Before moving in to live with his cousin in Canada in 1989, the richest man in the world, was working odd jobs at a farm and lumber-mill.
2. Bernard Arnault
Bernard Arnault, CEO and Founder of LVMH is the second richest man in the world with a net worth of $228.8 billion, as reported by Forbes.
Bernard’s father owned a civil engineering company — Ferret-Savinel, which he took over after completing his engineering from École Polytechnique. He later took over as the President of the company in 1978.
3. Jeff Bezos
The former president and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has a net worth of $153 billion and ranks third among the richest people in the world. He owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin but holds his post as executive chairman of Amazon taking charge of side projects.
His first job was at Fitel, a fintech telecommunications start-up, which he joined after graduating from Princeton University. He was responsible for building a network for international trade. Bezos was also offered jobs at Intel, Bell Labs, and Andersen Consulting, among others.
4. Larry Ellison
According to Forbes report, the fourth richest man in the world, Lawrence Joseph Ellison is the co-founder, CTO and chairman of Oracle. He has a net worth of whopping $149 billion. He attended University of Chicago for one term and then moved to Berkeley, California to begin his career as a computer programmer for various companies. While working at Ampex, he got inspired and started Oracle in 1977.
5. Bill Gates
The college dropout who went on to build one of the most successful technology corporation, Microsoft, Bill Gates has a net worth of $134 billion. He is currently the co-chairperson of Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. He created his first software program at the age of 13.
He created Microsoft in 1975, and before that Bill Gates worked with his high school friend Paul Allen at Honeywell during the summer of 1974. He had worked with Allen before at Lakeside Programmers Club, where they were creating program to detect bugs in the software in exchange of extra computer time. At 17, Gates along with Allen created Traf-O-Data to make traffic counters.
6. Warren Buffett
Holding the sixth position with a net worth of $114 billion, is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet. He had a knack for business and investments at a very young age and one of his first ventures was selling chewing gums, Coca-Cola, and weekly magazines door to door. He worked in his grandfather’s grocery store. During high school, he made money through off jobs like delivering newspapers, selling golf balls and stamps.
7. Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer is the owner of Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association and ex-CEO of Microsoft from 2000-2014. He has a net worth of $104 billion. After graduation he worked as a worked as an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble for two years.
Indian business magnets Mukesh Ambani are also featured in the list at number 9 with a net worth of $83.4 billion making him the richest man in India, and Adani and family with a net worth of $47 billion at number 24 as reported by Forbes.
