Every time a global crisis occurs, it hits the main areas of human life. As a rule, companies collapse with a crash, production facilities are closed with a bang. But in the general chaos there are entrepreneurs who not only do not pay attention to such shocks, but also benefit from them. And for some, such conditions become prerequisites for the development of their own multi-million dollar business.

Of course, if we talk about successful people from other countries, especially distant ones, the example looks uninspiring. After all, these great successful people developed in different conditions than ours. Therefore, we will not shake the air in vain, but we will talk about several entrepreneurs in Russia who today have millions of dollars of capital.

Domestic entrepreneurs

The most famous example throughout the country is Russian young entrepreneurs who created social network In contact with. Almost all the founders and ideologists today have sold their shares in the business. The reason for this, as one of the main founders Pavel Durov admitted, is the impossible conditions within Russia for the development of honest private business. He complained that the service is constantly trying to seize, divide, change, and then sell. After all, he has a huge impact on the public. But Durov did not fight the pressure, but simply emigrated abroad and travels around the world, not staying anywhere for a long time. And gradually develops a new project with his team.

But we are more interested in the very fact that, despite the difficult economic period, it was possible to create such a powerful commercial project. For example, one of Durov's partners, Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, invested $30,000 in his business at the start of his business, and six years later became Russia's dollar billionaire, and the youngest at that.

But these are not the only well-known domestic entrepreneurs today who have reached amazing heights in business in difficult economic times. Let's talk about a few more below.

Maxim Nogotkov

Even during the crisis period, Nogotkov stated that the Russian market is favorable for the development of his business: there are many unfilled niches and a low level of competition. He did not throw words into the wind, and four years after such a statement, he was included in the rating of the 200 richest entrepreneurs in Russia thanks to the creation and management of the Svyaznoy group of companies.

Ilya Shershnev

Not all well-known businessmen in Russia started their business in their student years, but Ilya is one of those. As a student, he worked for the real estate company Penny Lane Realty. Having gained the necessary experience there, he founded his own Swiss Realty Group. By the beginning of the crisis, the company's annual turnover was $ 10 billion. But Shershnev had no experience in keeping his offspring afloat in difficult conditions, so it had to be closed. But the entrepreneur did not retire, remaining to work in this area as an expert, evaluating and managing the real estate of three shareholders.

Dmitry Salikhov

Before founding his business, Dmitry changed three various works. With the latter, he was fired due to a reduction in staff in connection with the impending crisis. But this did not disappoint him. Like many other entrepreneurs, he used this opportunity to start his own business.

It consisted in the provision of transfer transportation. He began with cooperation with several drivers in their cars, who, by agreement, met passengers at airports and delivered them to the specified addresses. When enough funds were raised to open his own office, Salikhov began to cooperate with the best taxi services. This gave I’way the status of an organization and led corporate clients. Now the company had two offices - one in each of the capitals of Russia.

But Dmitry did not stop there. Today, the services of his company can be used in 65 countries in 200 cities. At the same time, Salikov himself admits that he did not expect such a scale of business. His only desire was to occupy a free niche.

Andrey Guzairov

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Andrei worked in the West, where he spied on the idea for his own business in Russia. Having accumulated for three years a suitable start-up capital, he opened the company CreditCardsOnline. The purpose of the project was to form a database of offers from all Russian banks to open credit cards. Today, 25% of the company's shares belong to the Finam Global fund, and the entrepreneur himself has a couple more Internet projects related to finance.

Andrey Romanenko

Before implementing a successful idea, Andrey sold computer games, then made polyethylene
packages, and the start-up capital was earned on the production of plastic cards. It was quite a profitable business, but Romanenko felt that something more universal could be created. Thinking about options, he came up with the idea of ​​​​creating Qiwi payment terminals. Initially, he did not make big bets on the project, but it turned out to be surprisingly successful. Already in 2013, it had more than 65 million users every month and a billion dollars of capitalization.

Vsevolod Starkh

Perhaps we lied, saying that Shershnev is one of the few who started a business while studying at a university. Vsevolod Fear surpassed him, starting entrepreneurial activity while being a high school senior. Even then, he was acutely aware of the need to earn his money, and the Internet provided the best opportunities for this. He started simply: he created his own website, bought a thousand USB cables in bulk and resold them online through his resource. When the enterprise began to develop successfully, he named the Sotmarket online store and began selling various accessories for mobile phones. Having accumulated enough funds, he further expanded his assortment with telephones themselves, then with small inexpensive equipment.

In 2012, he sold a controlling stake to the IQ One Holdings fund, and the online store grew in value to $ 100 million. The ideologue and founder himself continues to independently monitor the comments that customers leave on the resource. And there are up to 5 thousand buyers per day.

Dmitry Kibkalo

The formation of this entrepreneur is a confluence of various successful accidents. Although there is a whole category of people who believe that there are no accidents. And in a way they are right. And the case began with the fact that an employee of the production center Dmitry Kibkalo decided to give his father a board game "Jackal" for his birthday. The difficulty was that this pirated game was invented back in the 70s, and today it was not on sale.

Then Dmitry recreated it and turned to the manufacturers for a seal. It is strange why he did not turn to the popular online printing centers, where they make such things from one copy and more. In any case, this complexity played an important role in Dmitry's further viability. He found a company that agreed to print the minimum batch of such a game - 100 copies. He gave one to his father, as planned. The remaining 99 were gradually sold out via the Internet, literally returning the invested money in just a month. Dmitry liked it and he created the Mosigra company, which began selling board games, but already in an offline format. Today, the chain of stores unites 17 own points of sale and 71 franchising projects. And they work not only in Russia. In total, Dmitry receives about 450 million rubles from the project.

Gevorg Sargsyan

It is difficult to describe Sargsyan's success. He did a fairly simple thing - he removed from the status of "pirated" products the adaptation of foreign games to Russian realities. True, such a step only looks simple from the outside. Before him was the need to sign a contract with foreign game manufacturers. To achieve this, I had to include all available communication skills and embellish my abilities and achievements a little. However, the contracts were awarded, Innova was established and successful business today brings Gevork one and a half billion rubles. The company is engaged in game projects in the amount of more than ten pieces, the most famous of which are Planet Side II, Lineage II, Aion and others. (11 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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On Tuesday, September 19, the results of their special study, which highlights the world's 100 greatest business minds.

When creating the list, Forbes experts selected people who had a strong influence on the processes taking place in the business world, or who inspired the development of entrepreneurship.

Here is what the top 10 most prominent businessmen of our time according to Forbes looks like. All of them are listed alphabetically, not in order of "highest to lowest".

The man who founded Salesforce started his business at the age of 15. It was at this age that he created the company Liberty Software, which creates games for the Atari 800 computer. By the age of 16, the young man was earning $ 1,500 a month, enough to pay for his studies at the University of Southern California.

Benioff spent a summer at Apple, working as a programmer in the Macintosh division under Steve Jobs. This experience was useful to him later, as he realized that revolutionary ideas could be encouraged by entrepreneurs.

Currently, Benioff is the head of a company that develops a cloud-based CRM system of the same name. This longtime Oracle rival is valued at $40 billion. The specific idea behind Salesforce was to move away from selling software that companies had to install on their servers. Salesforce allowed people to access business applications from a web browser. And even if you don’t surprise anyone with this now, in the late nineties it was a revolutionary idea.

Owns Amazon, one of the world's largest online retailers.

Now it is hard to imagine that the office of such a successful company was located in the garage of the future billionaire, where, along with several employees, he began to develop software for an online bookstore. Subsequently, the office expanded into a two-room house. In 1995, the entrepreneur opened Amazon.com, named after a winding South American river.

The businessman, through large retail partnerships, constantly expanded the range of products that Amazon was ready to offer. Books were joined by CDs, and later clothing, electronics, toys, and more. Although many of the dot-coms went bankrupt in the early 90s, Amazon prospered, and its annual sales soared from $510,000 in 1995 to over $17 billion in 2011.

Bezos is currently worth $72.8 billion.

Like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett donates billions of dollars to charitable causes, refuting the stereotype of the greed and heartlessness of the "sharks of capitalism." He tops the list of billionaire philanthropists, having donated more than $46 billion to various causes since 2000. This makes up about 71% of his fortune. By comparison, Bill Gates has donated $18 billion since 2000, or 22% of his fortune.

This French businessman is one of the owners of luxury conglomerate LVMH and one of the richest people on the ground. According to Forbes, Arno's fortune reaches 34 billion dollars.

Arnault earned the nickname "the wolf in cashmere" by acquiring numerous fashion and beauty brands including Givenchy, Guerlain, Sephora, Fendi and Loro Piana, as well as numerous jewelry brands including TAG Heuer, De Beers and Bulgari. . Many did not believe in the expediency of gathering "under one roof" a variety of brands, as this does not allow focusing on one direction, moreover, some of the companies acquired by Arno were direct competitors.

However, Arno, as a true brilliant entrepreneur, did not pay attention to critics. He changed the pricing policy of the conglomerate, making branded products affordable not only for very wealthy buyers, but also for people with average incomes. And those who are dissatisfied with such “averaging” can always buy things from expensive limited editions of clothes and accessories.

The founder of Armani is a visible proof of the theory that a beautiful person ages gracefully. During his life, he tried many jobs: from assistant photographer to window dresser, but Armani's fame and fortune came from creating fashion models. Initially, he did this for various Italian brands, and then in 1974 he introduced clothes under his own name. A year later, succumbing to the persuasion of a friend of the architect Sergio Galeotti, Armani created his own company.

This Italian fashion designer was hired to design costumes for iconic films such as The Matrix, American Gigolo and The Untouchables.

The American businessman, despite his multi-billion dollar fortune ($12.5 billion), leads a fairly modest lifestyle and is not too keen on publicity. He very rarely gives interviews to the press (he gave the last detailed interview already in 1974). However, it is known that Anschutz is the head of one of the largest oil companies in the United States, owns several football clubs and cinemas, a railway and a huge number of farms. Anschutz also owns the telecommunications company Qwest Communications, one of the industry leaders in America.

Paul Allen first made his mark on the business world when he co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. This happened in 1975, and since then Allen has been one of the main innovators in the field of entrepreneurship and technology. He is the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc., which oversees the businessman's philanthropic and business interests, from sports teams like the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers to heritage preservation projects like the Seattle Cinerama and the Museum of Pop Culture.

Through his commercial and philanthropic investments, the Microsoft co-founder has spearheaded important developments and innovations in science, technology, space, education, and the arts. For example, since 2003 he has invested more than $500 million in fundamental research brain by founding the Allen Institute for Brain Sciences. He also created the Allen Institute for Cellular Science and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

For 21 years, Eisner was the permanent head of The Walt Disney Company. Under him, a division of Walt Disney Television Animation appeared, releasing cartoons for TV. Children love cartoons in the morning and the ratings from this decision were very good. In addition, Eisner allowed television companies to sell the rights to show old Disney cartoons and films. These steps have significantly strengthened financial position companies. However, Disney veterans criticized Eisner's actions, reproaching him that he was only focused on making a profit and the studio's new products had lost the proverbial Disney spirit. In 2005, the boss of the Disney Company resigned from his post.

Aikan made his fortune as one of the notorious Wall Street Raiders in the 1980s. He owned large stakes in corporations such as RJR Nabisco, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum and Viacom. In addition to raiding, he was engaged in the so-called "greenmail": the repurchase of company shares at an inflated price. Aikan's success was such that he inspired the scriptwriters in many ways when creating the image of the famous Gordon Gekko from the movie "Wall Street".

Currently, 81-year-old Aikan is ranked 43rd in the Forbes richest people ranking.

On the first line in the selection of the best business minds of our time is one of the leaders of the world gaming business, founder of Las Vegas Sands Corp. and an influential sponsor of Republicans in the US.

The source of Adelson's wealth and current investments was the COMDEX computer exhibition designed for the computer industry. It was an innovative solution that had incredible popularity. The first event took place in 1979, and in 1995 the businessman sold COMDEX to the Japanese telecommunications corporation SoftBank Japan for $862 million. After that, in 1988, the businessman acquired the popular gambling establishment The Sands Hotel & Casino. Celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin played there, and Ocean's 11 in 1960 was filmed.

However, later Adelson personally blew up The Sands Hotel & Casino in order to build in its place the luxurious Venetian hotel-casino, decorated in the Venetian style (up to canals and gondoliers). And then he entered the international arena, building luxury hotel-casino complexes in a number of countries.

Throughout his career, Sheldon Adelson has created over 50 diverse companies.

Russia was represented in the list of outstanding entrepreneurs of the century by Yuri Milner (55th place). He participated in the creation of Mail.Ru Group and international venture fund DST Global.

It has always been difficult to do business in Russia, but success stories still happen. Sometimes former serfs turned into magnates due to their tenacity and entrepreneurial streak. "Secret" tells about five entrepreneurs from the time of the Russian Empire, who managed to build a big business.

Alexander Chichkin

The merchant of the first guild Alexander Chichkin changed the dairy market of his time. Before he opened the Moloko store on Bolshaya Dmitrovka, the product was sold exclusively on the streets and markets. In a few years, he managed to build a network. In 1914, he had 91 stores, two dairy plants and a curd and sour cream branch, 40 butter stations. The plant processed 100-150 tons of milk per day. In the firm "A.V. Chichkin" employed 3,000 people.

The entrepreneur paid a lot of attention to marketing: all the shops were lined with snow-white tiles, the clerks were dressed in snow-white uniforms, the hall was filled with never-before-seen cash registers, which guarantee an honest attitude towards customers. Every evening, fresh milk in cans was ceremonially brought into the stores, and yesterday's product was publicly poured into the sewer in the street in the morning.

By 1917, the fixed capital of the enterprise was more than 10 million rubles. After the revolution, Chichikov's entire business was nationalized. He could not avoid exile: he had to spend two years in northern Kazakhstan until he was rescued from there by Molotov and Mikoyan. Then Chichkin became an ordinary Soviet pensioner, but still participated in the development of plans and projects for the development of the dairy industry in the USSR.

Stepan Abrikosov

The ancestor of the surname Stepan Abrikosov was a serf, his family supplied sweets to the master's table - marshmallow and apricot jam (hence the surname). In 1804, the 64-year-old Stepan received his freedom and soon opened an artel family production in Moscow. Sweets were bought here for parties and weddings, and soon they managed to open a fruit and confectionery shop. The popularity of the Apricots grew.

In 1820, after the death of Stepan, the production was transferred to his sons Ivan and Vasily. But the pace set by the father, they failed to maintain. After 20 years, they lost their production due to debts. It seemed that the well-known family business ceased to exist, but by that time Stepan's grandson, Alexei, had grown up. He was a capable young man, with a particular interest in bookkeeping. He decided to revive the family business and organized home production: The Abrikosovs again made jam, made sweets and baked gingerbread. To reduce the cost of production, he began to buy fruits in the Crimea, and later he was the first to establish year-round fruit supplies to Moscow. His goal was to make the production really big. As a result, after 30 years, by 1872? Alexei had 40 confectionery workshops, which employed 120 workers. In total, 512 tons of sweets were produced per year.

The sons of Alexei continued the work. They formed a partnership and built a factory. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Abrikosov business had become one of the leaders in the country's confectionery market. Its annual turnover was 2.5 million rubles.

After the revolution, the family's enterprises were nationalized. In 1922, the factory was named after the Bolshevik Pyotr Babaev, but for several years the name of the Abrikosovs remained on the labels to attract attention. Some family members managed to escape abroad, but others failed to escape arrest.

Pyotr Smirnov

Pyotr Smirnov was from a family of serfs who brewed and sold wine on holidays. Having received freedom, father and uncle Petra decided to make the wine business their main business. Peter worked in this area since childhood: first he became a clerk for his father, and then he founded a small winery.

The business of Peter Smirnov developed rapidly: the number of cellars, factories, warehouses, shops increased, brand awareness grew. The secret of success lay in the impeccable reputation of the entrepreneur and his good connections in the trade sector. He worked with relatives who did not dare to let him down or deceive him, and used only high-quality raw materials: spring water, alcohol from cereal grains (not from beets), good fruits and berries.

Peter himself looked for the latter: he traveled to regional farms, extracting unknown varieties. The Smirnov firm produced wine, liqueurs, tinctures, vodka and liqueurs - more than 400 items in total. The technical equipment of its factories was constantly updated, the enterprise quickly became the largest in the world and received international recognition. Smirnov became a supplier to the imperial court and received the right to place the coat of arms of the Russian Empire on labels (now the quality of his products was guaranteed by the state). He also supplied alcohol to the court of the King of Sweden, opened branches in London, Paris and New York.

At the end of the 19th century, Smirnov's income fell sharply: the state decided to take alcohol market under control and introduced a "wine monopoly". He was still a very rich man, his fortune was estimated at almost 9 million rubles, but difficulties in business crippled his health, and in 1898 he died. Peter's son, Vladimir, fled the country after the revolution and created the Smirnoff brand. In Russia, the brand was revived only after the collapse of the USSR.

Grigory Eliseev

Grigory Eliseev was born into a wealthy family. His great-grandfather also sold expensive foreign goods in Russia: wines, tropical fruits, oysters and truffles. For their delivery, the company had its own merchant fleet: four sailboats and a steamer. At 32, he inherited a trading empire with a fixed capital of 3 million rubles. He established the Eliseev Brothers Trade Association and began to manage the business at his own discretion. In the first year of operation, the company's turnover amounted to 64 million rubles.

One day, Eliseev came up with a bold idea: to arrange an exhibition of vintage wines in Paris. It is difficult to surprise the French with wine, but the young entrepreneur succeeded. He was even awarded him the Order of the Legion of Honor. The furore strengthened Eliseev's position in the market.

Two more years later, the entrepreneur bought a house on Tverskaya and instructed the best specialists to turn it into a miracle of architecture. The work was completed by 1901, when the "Eliseev's Store and cellars of Russian and foreign wines" were solemnly opened. Gastronomic luxury was sold here: wines, fruits, sweets, colonial groceries, crystal. Everything was fresh, clean, High Quality. It was the country's first general food store.

The most famous product of "Bure" was gift watches, which the emperor gave to diplomats, officials and cultural figures. It is known that during the reign Alexander III 3,477 gift watches worth 277,472 rubles were handed over, the vast majority of them were from the Bure company.

In addition, the company produced prize products for the officers of the Russian army, as well as simple watches: they could be bought in a store at a reasonable price. The brand has become very recognizable. In the writings of Chekhov alone, the expression "watch "Bure"" occurs more than 20 times. To maintain recognition at the same level, Pavel Bure and his descendants put a lot of effort into participating in exhibitions, where their products won medals many times. By the beginning of the 20th century, the company occupied 20% of the Russian watch market.

Business did not cease to exist with the revolution. He was saved by the fact that the production was in Switzerland. The company "Bure" still exists.

Cover photo: Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky public domain, Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress

Today I decided to tell you the stories of billionaires who did not give up and found their place in life: billionaires without education, the youngest billionaires, billionaires after 40

We all want to succeed, but many of us need those who, with their experience and example, can infect with the desire to reach the same heights. Sometimes, at moments when hands give up, when it seems that nothing will work out and everything is lost, when patience and determination run out, it is enough to look at those who were in the same situation, but did not give up and still managed to realize their dream and find your place in life. In this review, you will learn about the lives of billionaires who were able to reach their goal without getting an education, who were able to earn capital only after 40 years, about the youngest billionaires and philanthropists.

Everyone dreams of becoming successful and finding their place in life, but not everyone succeeds. Someone underestimates the risks and loses money, someone lacks patience, someone chooses the wrong path. There are many reasons for failure, but there is one interesting fact: many people tend to blame circumstances and others for their failures, but not themselves. But it is precisely the analysis of one's own mistakes that is the key to success. Examples of those who were able to achieve success are clear proof of this.

ten billionaires without higher education;

the ten youngest entrepreneurial investors who made a billion on their own;

"It's never too late to start" - investors who became billionaires after 40 years;

the most generous philanthropist investors.

Each of them deserves special attention and each of them is unique in its own way.

Part I - Ten Non-Collegiate Billionaires

Each of the participants in this rating has its own special unique destiny. Someone thought that studying is boring and dreamed of creating their own business. Someone had a difficult moneyless childhood and had to forget about education in principle. Someone left the university in the middle of the way, and someone did not even finish school (not to mention higher education). According to statistics, about 37% of billionaires did not graduate from a university, about 24% do not have any educational documents at all. However, this did not prevent them from realizing their dream and breaking into the TOP of the richest people in the world. Agree good example to emulate.

1. Joe Lewis (born 1937) ($5 billion)

Can you call Lewis lazy? Interest Ask. After all, at the age of 15 he left school, preferring the family business. At that time, his father was engaged in catering and Lewis began to help him. When the business completely passed into his hands, it no longer made sense to get an education - he already had a very good practical entrepreneurial experience. He would later sell the business and move into foreign exchange and investing. And he will even be forced to flee from tax prosecution in the Bahamas. Today he owns more than 120 restaurants and the Tottenham Hotspur football club. The billionaire is also known for being a partner with George Soros in an attack on the Bank of England.

2. Richard Branson (born 1950) ($5.1 billion)

Until the age of 8, the most famous billionaire in the UK could neither read nor write, suffering from dyslexia. Already in childhood, Branson showed with all his actions that he was not eager to learn. Almost finished his studies, at the age of 16 he leaves school. The director of the school then looked into the water: "You will either become a rich man, or you will go to prison." After dropping out of school, he founds his first business, Student magazine. To interest readers, he began publishing free articles by John Lennon, Mick Jagger and other stars. He then opened a record company, calling it Virgin. Today, Virgin is a brand that brings together about 400 companies of various profiles, ranging from air travel and telecommunications to space tourism and the creation of video games.

By the way, here it would be worth mentioning another rich resident of the UK, Roman Abramovich, with a fortune of about 9 billion pounds. He also does not have a higher education due to a lack of desire to study. But he owes his fortune more to connections with Russian oligarchs and politicians, as well as gray business schemes.

3. Paul Allen (b. 1953) (net worth $20.1 billion)

Allen was born into a family of a teacher and a military man, and since elementary school became interested in technology and electronics. He began to study programming from the 6th grade and later this will become a decisive factor - after studying for 2 years at the University of Washington, he leaves the university and becomes one of the co-founders of Microsoft.

He began to show his first entrepreneurial abilities at the age of 12. Working during the holidays at the post office, he realized that new residents of the area were more willing to subscribe to newspapers, after which he created a kind of network of informants - friends who informed him about new arrivals. After entering the University of Texas, he planned to become a doctor, but left it and founded a small computer assembly company. Today, the Dell corporation he created is one of the largest in the world in this segment.

5. Li Ka-shing (born 1928) ($33 billion)

In March 2018, the 89-year-old billionaire, one of the richest people in Asia, announced that he was leaving the business, sort of ending his career. And he has much to be proud of. Born into a poor teacher's family, he lost his father at the age of 14 due to tuberculosis and was forced to drop out of school. Working at a factory for the production of plastic flowers, in 7 years he was able to save money, which was enough to open a similar small production. Success was brought to him by transactions with real estate that fell in price against the backdrop of political instability in Hong Kong. Today, the two main companies of the billionaire account for about 15% of the capitalization stock market Hong Kong. Kashin also invests in logistics, retail, biotechnology, engineering, and telecommunications.

6. Francois Pinault (born 1936) ($33.8 billion)

All that the French billionaire has from his education documents is a driver's license. He did not like studying since childhood, besides, he was forced to endure the bullying of classmates because of his low birth. His father was a timber merchant, an idea that Pino took over. At the age of 27, successfully married, he founds his first company (although the marriage did not last long). Then he met Jacques Chirac, who would later help him. In addition to wood and paper production, Pino was involved in the supply of cars and medicines to Africa. Today he also owns auction house Christie's and Rennes Football Club.

7. Larry Ellison (born 1944) ($57.4 billion)

Ellison tried twice to graduate and failed both times. First, he was forced to drop out of the University of Illinois after 2 years of study. Then he studied for a semester at the University of Chicago. Both times he was forced to leave the university by circumstances. However, this did not stop him from founding a software and database development company, which today we know as Oracle.

8. Mark Zuckerberg (born 1984) ($77.6 billion)

After the advent of the Internet era in the early 2000s, hundreds of technology startups began to appear. True, apart from a beautiful cover, they could not offer anything, and in 2000 most of them ceased to exist after the collapse of dot-com. Zuckerberg didn't stop. The idea of ​​creating a social network has become a kind of dream of a future billionaire. And even if for the sake of its implementation I had to quit Harvard University, after 2 years the network became available to every Internet user.

9. Amancio Ortega (born 1936) ($96.4 billion)

The childhood of the future billionaire was not easy. His father worked on the railroad, his mother was a servant and the family was sorely lacking money. At the age of 13, Ortega was forced to say goodbye to school and look for work. Having settled down as a messenger in a shirt shop, he gradually began to adopt the experience of tailoring and selling clothes. Later, he opens a factory for sewing bathrobes and lingerie, but almost goes bankrupt after a large customer refuses a batch of goods. Then Ortega decided to sell clothes in his own chain of stores, creating what we know today as the Zara brand. Today, Amancio also invests in real estate.

10. Bill Gates (born 1955) ($93.3 billion)

Like Paul Allen, Bill chose to forego his studies at Harvard University in order to devote himself full-time to Microsoft. Some subjects were definitely not given to him, and after 2 years he was expelled from the university. And as it turned out, it was only for the best.

Also, the billionaire from the United States of Armenian origin Kirk Kerkonian (1917-2015) should be added to this list. Born into an immigrant family, after the 8th grade he was forced to drop out of school and become an auto mechanic. During the war, he ferried bombers from Canada to the British Isles, earning start-up capital. First big business was the trade in aircraft and the opening of charter flights, which at that time were rare.

Part II - It's Never Too Late to Start - Billionaire Investors After 40

We continue our motivational rating with a list of people who have earned their first billion after 40 years. Not everything is given at once, often it is patience, perseverance and determination that bring the very result, which turns out to be almost the meaning of life. Someone from today's rating only by the age of 40 found his place in life, catching a wave of success. And someone persistently built a business empire for more than half of his life, systematically bringing ideas to life. The example of these people shows that it is never too late to find yourself and start doing what you love.

1. Ray Kroc (1902-1984).

The father of the future billionaire died early enough, according to one version, without experiencing a nervous shock after bankruptcy during the Great Depression. And Ray himself hardly thought that he would become famous. By the age of 50, he had diabetes and arthritis, partially removed the thyroid gland and gallbladder, and the work of a traveling salesman (selling paper cups and mixers) did not bode well. In 1952, he met two brothers who ran a fast food restaurant and got the idea to develop this direction. In 1955, he opens the first McDonald's restaurant, in 1961 he fully buys the rights to it and creates a whole network.

2. Henry Ford (1863-1947).

The company of the same name founded by him at the dawn of the automotive industry produced the cheapest cars. Ford was one of the first to launch an assembly line at his plant in 1913, becoming an innovator in this industry. But it all started hard. In 1879, Ford proposed a design for a car that was never built. In 1903, a copyright infringement lawsuit was initiated against Ford, which lasted 8 years, but ended in Ford's victory. Only in 1908 with the release of the Ford T model did success come to the company.

3. Michael Bloomberg (b. 1942).

At 24, the future billionaire and mayor of New York gets a job at Solomon Brothers, where he worked as a trader for 15 years. After the company acquired a new owner, it was reduced, but did not give up. In 1981, he created the Bloomberg news agency, which analyzed the state of financial markets online. The "chip" of the agency was in the use of computer technology, which few people heard about at that time, which made it possible to occupy a niche in this sector.

4. Sam Walton (1918-1982).

It is unlikely that Walton suspected that he would be engaged in entrepreneurship. Until 1942, he worked in small positions: selling magazine mailings, raising rabbits for sale, working as a manager. In 1942, he enters the US Army and after the end of the war he realizes that he needs to live somehow, and the system of the world has already fundamentally changed. He tries himself in retail renting a shop in a small town. Here he begins to apply own technologies sales: wholesale direct (without intermediaries) purchase of goods, promotional discounts, work on weekends. Walton opened his first store in 1962 at the age of 44. In 1979, there were already more than 220 stores, and today this network is known to us as Wal-Mart.

5. Reid Hoffman (b. 1967).

He dreamed of the Internet for a long time and even at its first appearance he created SicialNet.com at the age of 30 - an analogue, a prototype of social networks, a dating site. The project turned out to be unprofitable and in 1999 Hoffman left it. But he didn't stop. Until 2002, he worked at PayPal, being a director before the takeover of eBay. Only in 2002, he was able to realize his idea of ​​​​a social network, literally 2 years ahead of Mark Zuckerberg, but later becoming one of Facebook's investors in its early stages of development. Today we know this project as one of the first business social networks LinkedIn.

6. George Soros (b. 1930).

You can criticize this person for as long as you like, but this does not detract from the fact that he was able to achieve a lot. And in what way (remember the same attack on the Bank of England) is the second question. George got into the sphere of investment relatively late - at the age of 26, but even then he was able to offer interesting idea earnings on international arbitration. Only at the age of 39 did Soros become a fund manager, and only in 1973 did he create his own Quantum Fund. Today he is one of the richest people in the world.

7. "Colonel" Garland Sanders (1890-1980).

As a child, this man had everything, but he chose to become a volunteer in the army. Until the age of 40, Sanders worked in many areas: a fireman on the railroad, a farmer, a miner. It wasn't until he was 40 that he started making chicken dishes, which he sold to those who stopped at his local gas station. A unique recipe that allows you to cook chicken faster than in a frying pan becomes Sanders' ticket to the big financial world. In 1950, he begins to form the famous image: Aristocratic white suit, signature mustache and goatee. This image will become the face of his company KFC, which was waiting for serious tests and which it passed with honor.

8. Momofuku Ando (1910-2007).

According to one version, a survey was conducted in Japan in 2000: respondents were asked to name the main Japanese invention of the 20th century. Strange as it may seem, but the 1st place in the poll was taken by... Instant noodles! And it was Ando, ​​at the age of 48, who was able to offer the technology for its production.

9. Amancio Ortega (b. 1936).

The billionaire already participating in the previous rating earned the first big capital only after 40 years. His childhood was difficult, because it was not easy to find start-up capital. Being engaged in the production of knitwear, Amancio did not have competitive advantage and therefore could not increase production. His first factory appeared when he was 37 years old (in 1972). And only in 1975 did he succeed with the creation of his own sales network, which at that time was an innovation.

10. Mary Katherine Wagner (Ash) (1918-2001).

One of the few female entrepreneurs who was able to build an entire business empire. In 1939, she became a sales manager (sales representative), seeking to increase sales of household goods through presentations. At 45, tired of wage labor, she begins to create own business by buying a recipe for skin care lotions. Her customer-centric business philosophy, sampler idea, and interesting marketing gimmicks allow the business to grow into an entire corporation. Today Mary Kay has more than 200 cosmetic products and more than 1,200 people at the company's headquarters alone.

Part III - The 10 youngest self-made billionaire entrepreneurs

Many billionaires have become so thanks to their parents, who left them money by will or gave them a share in the business. These people basically continue the business started by their parents with rare exceptions (for example, Tom Persson, who chose the career of an actor, or DJ Julio Mario Santo Domingo III). But there are also those who managed to earn their first billion on their own before the age of 40. And their experience deserves respect.

Back in 2015, Theranos was valued at $4.5 billion. USA. Elizabeth Holmes was 31 at the time. Mastermind, she was involved in the development medicines. It is not known how long her company would have continued to exist if it were not for an unfortunate incident, as a result of which it turned out that most of the test results were lies. The SEC immediately removed Holmes from management, and Theranos is now virtually on the verge of bankruptcy. The rest of the participants in our rating are more successful.

1. John Collison (age 28, $1.1 billion)

"Irish genius" - this is the name of Collison, who at the age of 17 earned $ 5 million. USA on the sale of Auctomatic, which develops tools for eBay. In 2010, with the support of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, he founded Stripe, a company developing solutions for receiving and processing electronic transactions. In 2016, Collison was recognized as the youngest billionaire in the world to earn a billion dollars. USA myself.

2. Bobby Murphy (age 30, $3 billion)

Another young billionaire who has taken the path of a technological breakthrough. After gaining experience while studying at the university in relation to the creation of small projects, he, together with Evan Spiegel (net worth about 2.1 billion US dollars), creates the Snapchat messenger. It is intended for the exchange of photo and video information, but its trick is that the information is available to the recipient for a short time, after which it is deleted automatically. The idea quickly caught on.

3. Drew Houston (age 35, $3.2 billion)

And again, a person becomes a billionaire who, at the peak of the popularity of platforms, services and applications, creates unique product which is instantly in demand. In 2007, Houston developed Dropbox, a workspace for storing and processing data that allows you to organize your work and quickly find the files you need.

4. Nathan Blecharczyk (33), Joe Gebbia (36) and Brian Chesky (36) - $3.8 billion USA for everyone.

But these guys can be safely called the exception of this rating. In 2008, they offered the world a platform to connect tenants and landlords around the world with Airbnb. The idea was immediately appreciated by travelers and those who are forced to urgently look for housing in other cities and countries. For 10 years, billionaires have attracted about 3.4 billion dollars. USA investments, during the same time the site was visited by about 150 million people, about 30 million used its services, the database contains about 1.5 million offers of houses, apartments for both long-term and short-term rent.

5. Jack Dorsey (41, $4.8 billion).

The idea of ​​creating Twitter came to him while studying at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Working as a programmer in the dispatch service, he realized the need for instant messaging. In 2000, Dorsey created a platform for sending couriers and taxis over the Internet. And in 2008, his main service, Twitter, was launched. It is noteworthy that initially Dorsey dreamed of launching his line of jeans and in his youth was considered an irresponsible and frivolous person.

6. Robert Pera (age 40, $5.1 billion).

Comparing Apple to his ambitions, Pera said that Apple is an outstanding company, but he would like to do better faster. Experience in the corporation allowed him to quickly understand the prospects wireless technologies. In 2009, the sale of his model of autonomous systems for organizing wireless communications begins. Today, his company Ubiquiti is one of the leaders in the production of wireless equipment, which differs in its approach to organizing the process of selling goods. Robert's goal is to be as successful as Cisco and Huawei.

7. Travis Kalanick (41, $6.3 billion).

Having sacrificed his studies, in 1998 Kalanick created the Scour file hosting service. In 2000, under pressure from lawsuits regarding copyright infringement, he declares the project bankrupt. In 2001, he makes a second attempt to create a peer-to-peer file-sharing network, which he successfully sells in 2007. In 2009, he creates the third serious project - Uber, which brings him fame. True, due to a series of internal conflicts in 2017, Kalanick is forced to leave the post of head, but the task has already been completed: he is a billionaire.

8. Jan Koum (42, $7.5 billion).

The future billionaire was born in Kyiv and emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1992. He never graduated from university, preferring to work at Yahoo, where he worked from 2000 to 2007. In 2009, he creates one of the most popular instant messengers WhatsApp, which for $ 19 billion. US buys Facebook in 2014. Until April 2018, Jan Kum continued to develop the messenger, but after that he was forced to leave due to disagreements with the management.

9. Dustin Moskowitz (age 34, $15.6 billion).

His fortune brought him participation in the development of the social network Facebook, where until 2008 he played the role of a second person. The desire to create his own working project prompted him to leave Facebook (though retaining a small share of the shares) and create Asana, a company operating in the technology and innovation market (creating applications for project management in small companies).

10. Mark Zuckerberg (age 34, $77.6 billion).

This person has already been briefly discussed in a previous article. By betting on the development of social networks and sacrificing his studies for this, Zuckerberg did not lose. Although Facebook is in a fever in 2018 and competitors are on the heels, Mark remains a billionaire.

Part IV - The Most Generous Philanthropist Investors

What does a person who has everything he wants need? What does a person who already has billions, real estate, yachts, islands and even free time need? For people managing their billion-dollar fortune, it makes no fundamental difference whether they have 5 billion more or less, they need fame, recognition and respect. Every person wants people to remember his good deeds, every person wants to be useful to society.

1. Gordon and Betty Moore(289 million US dollars).

The co-founder of Intel and his wife have been supporting various areas of science for several years, investing approximately the same amount annually (adjusted for inflation) for more than 15 years. According to the total amount of donations, the Moore couple is in the TOP-10 of the most generous investors in the world. Most of the money is allocated to science, environmental protection, and staff training. Also, at their expense, the largest telescope in the world is being built.

2. James Simons(293 million US dollars).

Mathematician, academic, trader who made his money managing hedge funds - in his 80s he continues to invest in educational and medical projects different countries. He rarely gets into the TOP, giving preference to individual interesting projects.

3. Paul Allen(341 million US dollars).

The co-founder of Microsoft has been a top philanthropist in the world since 2011. Priority direction of financing - Scientific research and especially neuroscience. He created an institute for the study of the brain, where he invested about 500 million dollars. USA only at the time of creation.

4. Walton family(454 million US dollars).

The Wal-Mart founder family opted for a narrow funding profile. In 2011, thanks to them, the Museum of American Art appeared, where about 1.3 billion dollars were invested at the start alone. USA.

5. Charles (Chuck) Feeney(482 million US dollars).

"A billionaire without a billion" - that's what the founder is called duty free Shoppers, one of the few who gave money to charity while still alive. He continues to receive passive income, but immediately gives it away. According to him, he only needs as much money as he can spend. He travels all over the world to select charitable objects, getting personally acquainted with each project that requires a grant.

6. George Soros(531 million US dollars).

His Open Society Foundation, for the most part, is engaged in supporting education, issuing grants to scientists, students, and researchers. Another direction of the fund is the financing of organizations that defend the rights of people. Soros is often criticized for supporting the media under the guise of protecting free speech and transparency, but in fact buying them.

7. Michael Bloomberg(600 million US dollars).

Former Mayor of New York and owner news agency donated money to more than 850 organizations, with a focus on health and environmental projects.

8. Bill and Melinda Gates(2.142 billion US dollars).

In 1999, thanks to Gates, a charitable foundation appeared, which at an early stage supported various kinds of technological developments (platforms, startups). Later, the fund will finance medical developments, help third world countries cope with hunger (humanitarian aid), etc. In 2010, together with Buffett, he created a kind of “Giving Pledge” club, whose members undertake to give at least 50% of their money to charity.

9. Warren Buffett(2.861 billion US dollars).

Has friendships and partnerships with the Gates family, supporting their foundation. Already transferred in the amount of more than 30 billion dollars. United States and wrote a will in which he promised to give charitable foundations 99% of his fortune.

Interesting fact. Not all billionaires and millionaires are eager to join the “Giving Oath”, not everyone wants to part with their money. Mark Zuckerberg, Carlos Slim also periodically got into the rating of the most generous philanthropists, but almost every year the list of the most generous billionaires does not change.

In conclusion, I want to say a well-known truth: Millionaires and billionaires are not born - they are made. So keep it up :)

Although it will not be easy to break through to the top of Olympus without an entrepreneurial streak, determination, flexibility and the ability to establish contacts remain decisive factors. It happens that it takes more than a dozen years to find your place in life. But what one person started, his children can continue. A family business eventually grows into huge corporations, but there is another way. It is enough to be a few steps ahead: to see promising directions, not be afraid to take risks within reasonable limits and be able to find something that will be interesting to people. I sincerely wish you to find your place in life, to find favorite hobby that will bring you profit. And if you've already achieved some success, share your experience in the comments!

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A small rating of well-known Russian and foreign entrepreneurs represents businessmen who have made a fortune from scratch. All of them are distinguished by their originality of thinking: an interesting project helped one of them to get rich, others - "loans-for-loans auctions".

Technomessia

This is how Elon Musk is often called for his ability to predict trends in the development of new technologies. He is one of the most famous modern entrepreneurs, owns companies in the sector high technology SpaceX and Tesla Motors, co-founder of SolarCity and PayPal. With a net worth of $20.9 billion, he is ranked 53rd on the 2018 list of the richest people in the world. And in the ranking of the most influential people on the planet - in 21st place. The main projects that Musk is currently engaged in are the creation of artificial intelligence, the Hyperloop transport system (high-speed train in a pipe), design spaceships and the creation of a human colony on Mars.

He opened his first business while studying at the University of Pennsylvania, organizing an underground nightclub. In 1995, Elon and his brother opened the Zip2 yellow pages website. Four years later, they sold the business for $307 million, Musk earned $22 million, because he owned only 7% of the company. Of these, 12 - invested in the payment project electronic system PayPal. In 2002, the company was sold, and Elon earned $180 million.

In 2002, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies, known worldwide as SpaceX. He himself invested $ 100 million, and also attracted investments from private investors and the US Department of Defense DARPA agency. In 2006, NASA signed a contract to ship 12 shipments worth $1.6 billion. In 2008, the first docking of the Falcon-1 spacecraft with space station.

Chinese Ali Baba

Jack Ma is China's most famous entrepreneur, ranked 20th on the Forbes world list with a net worth of $43.1 billion. His family was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, so Jack struggled to get a higher education. For a long time he worked as a teacher and translator from English.

In 1999, Ma created the Alibaba Internet portal, which sold Chinese goods. In 2003, the auction resource Taobao was organized. Through two platforms, the group controls up to 80% of China's e-commerce. In 2014, she held an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, the Ali Baba Internet portal raised $ 25 billion, becoming the most successful in the world.

Best Japanese Investor

The richest Korean in the world and the richest man in Japan in 2017, Masayoshi Son, ranked 88th in the Forbes Entrepreneurship Index with $15 billion in assets.

He was born on the island of Kyushu into a poor Korean family of a moonshine fisherman. As a child, when they found out that he was Korean, according to Son, sometimes stones were thrown at him. Like all his relatives, he bore the surname Yasumoto, but upon obtaining citizenship in the 90s, he decided to return to his family name. Officials did not register him for a long time, citing the fact that there is no such surname in Japan. Then his wife, a Japanese citizen, changed her surname to Son, and he took advantage of this.

He earned his first serious money in 1979, when he studied at the University of Berkeley. Son suggested that a physics professor develop an electronic voice translator, which he then sold to Sharp for $423,000. He was the world's richest man for three days and also holds the record for instant bankruptcy - about $70 billion was lost in 2000 when dot-coms collapsed.

Son founded one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world - Softbank. He also invested in about 600 companies. The most successful and well-known of them are Alibaba, Yahoo, the Japanese cellular operator SoftBank Mobile, the US cellular operator Sprint Nextel. Son is one of the most famous entrepreneurs in the information technology sector.

One of Softbank's latest investments was in the development of the world's first emotion-sensing robot PEPPER. These bots are now used in almost all developed countries of the world. In 2017, he bought leading dynamic robot developers Boston Dynamics and Schaft.

From Chukotka to Chelsea

Roman Abramovich is in 12th place on the Forbes list with a fortune of $9.1 billion. For 8 years he was the governor of Chukotka and made a good contribution to the economy of the region. He is now Russia's most famous entrepreneur thanks to the Chelsea football team, which he bought in 2003. At the end of May 2018, he received Israeli citizenship.

He lost his parents at the age of four, grew up in an uncle's family in Ukhta. In 1974 he moved to another uncle in Moscow. Since the 90s, he has been engaged in mediation and commercial activities. In 1993, Abramovich worked with Boris Berezovsky, becoming a trader for Noyabrskneftegaz. Due to their closeness to the Yeltsin family, in 1995 they established the Siberian Oil Company. In 2005, Roman Abramovich sold 73% of the company's shares to Gazprom for $13 billion and was the richest man in Russia for a whole year.

From beer to can

Many probably do not remember Tinkoff beer, but everyone knows the largest online bank of the same name. One of the most famous entrepreneurs in Russia, Oleg Tinkov, is ranked 43rd in the Russian Forbes rating with a fortune of $2.2 billion.

He earned his first money by selling scarce goods bought from foreigners. From 1993 to 1997, his company "Technoshock" was engaged in the sale of electronics. Having sold the company for $7 million, he invested it in the production of dumplings under the brand name Daria. The business was sold for $14 billion in revenue. The businessman earned about 200 million from beer. Since 2005, his main project is Tinkoff Bank. This is the first and largest online bank specializing in remote banking. Net profit in 2017 reached 19 billion rubles, revenue growth was 73%.

Dear contact

youngest successful entrepreneur Russian Pavel Durov takes 56th place in the Forbes rating in the section "200 richest businessmen in Russia". His fortune is 1.7 billion dollars.

During his studies, he led a forum for students. In 2006, using his own developments and taking Facebook as a model, he created the social network VKontakte. The brand is now valued at around $1.5 billion. By several tranches by 2014, the network was completely sold to Mail.Ru Group. Durov's only asset today is the Telegram messenger, whose monthly audience is 200 million people. In 2013, the businessman emigrated from Russia. Together with the development team, Pavel travels the world, working on Telegram and not staying more than 1-2 weeks in one country.

Russia's last oligarch

Mikhail Khodorkovsky was born in Moscow into a family of chemical engineers who worked all their lives at the Moscow Kalibr plant. This is probably why he also decided to enter the Moscow Chemical-Technological Institute named after D. I. Mendeleev. He graduated from the Institute with honors, worked there for some time.

In 1987, he earned his first money by organizing an entrepreneurial structure under the district committee of the Komsomol, which was engaged in the sale of computers and alcohol. The main business was the cashing of budget money. In 1989, Khodorkovsky and his partners created the Menatep Bank. He, along with another top manager of the bank, Nevzlin, becomes an adviser to Russian Prime Minister Ivan Silaev. And he meets Chernomyrdin, who became the chairman of the Russian government in 1992.

In 1996, as a result of loans-for-shares auctions, Menatep acquired a 45% stake in Yukos, the second largest oil company and the first in terms of oil reserves. Competitors were not allowed to bid for formal reasons, the bank paid 159 million dollars, only 9 million more than the starting price. Further, another 33% of the shares were bought out at auction, an additional issue was carried out and the state block of shares was diluted. As a result, Menatep received a 90% stake in Yukos.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky optimized the management system of an oil company and put into practice numerous methods of "tax optimization": from direct understatement of the tax base, transfer prices to the sale of oil under the guise of "well fluid". Almost all of these methods were used by all Russian oil companies. However, only Yukos was punished for this.

As many experts believe, Khodorkovsky's political activities became the reason for the criminal prosecution. Khodorkovsky financed the opposition parties of the State Duma - the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Union of Right Forces, Yabloko. In 2014, in an interview with the Financial Times, he said that he negotiated with various factions to carry out constitutional reform. The powers of the president were to be reduced, and Khodorkovsky planned to become prime minister.

Second young

Alexander Romanenko has not yet been included in the Forbes lists - his greatest achievement is getting into the first places in the ratings of young Russian famous entrepreneurs. His fortune is estimated at 185 million dollars. Now he is engaged in venture investments, the founder of the ITech Capital and AddVenture II funds.

The first successful business was the sale of express payment cards for communication services. Having occupied 60-80% of the Moscow market, he earned the first few million dollars. In 2003, Alexander initiated a project - Qiwi terminal payment service. Currently, it is a company with a turnover of 10.6 billion rubles.

pharmaceutical king

Thundering all over the country in the 90s, one of the richest Russians of that time - Vladimir Alekseevich Bryntsalov, has long gone from shocking. The fortune, which in the best years was estimated at 2 billion dollars, by 2007 shrank to 100-250 million and continued to decrease. The last known business project is the reconstruction of the Caucasian Riviera complex for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

In 1987, he created the Pchelka cooperative, which was engaged in the production of honey. Together with the Moscow Chemical and Pharmaceutical Plant named after Karpov, he began to produce medicines based on honey. He bought the initial 12% stake for 500 million rubles, paying in cash. After that, he bought shares from the workers, acquiring control of the largest pharmaceutical company in the country. On the basis of the plant, the Ferein company was created, which in those years produced up to 30% of medicines. After numerous scandals, the company was liquidated in 2008.

Vladimir Alekseevich Bryntsalov was a deputy of the State Duma of two convocations, a candidate for the presidency of Russia in 1996.