Starting your own business is a huge gamble, though for some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs it was certainly a gamble worth making! For some of the globe’s billionaire businessmen, having their finger in just one pie just wasn’t enough apparently and have pursued multiple ideas since finding success.
It doesn’t come easy however, and succeeding as an entrepreneur takes a lot of hard work and dedication, as there’s no one to fall back on, but yourself.
So how did they get where they are today and what qualities do the top entrepreneurs possess?
This infographic by Anna Vital looks at 5 of the world’s self-made billionaires.
A brief look at the world’s billionaires…
- In 2014 there were 1426 billionaires…
- Of these, 960 were self-made;
- 830 made their money from multiple businesses;
- and 130 made money from one business.
How did the top entrepreneurs achieve their success?
Richard Branson:
- Started selling Christmas trees at the age of 12.
- In his youth he also went on to start a student magazine called Student and sell mail order records.
- This later resulted in opening his own record store, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores.
- As his empire grew new business ventures expanded to films, video games, an airline (Virgin Atlantic), trains (Virgin Trains), mobile phones (Virgin Mobile) and the list goes on!
- His latest endeavour? Space tourism! In September 2014, Branson announced his investment in drone company 3D Robotics.
Mark Cuban:
- Started selling garbage bags at the 12 years old and went on to start chain letters while at school.
- In his early career he ran his own pub.
- He later started his own computer consulting firm (MicroSolutions).
- He purchased a majority stake of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
- His business has now expanded to films (Magnolia Pictures), satellite TV (HDTV; AXS TV) and movie theatres (Landmark Theatres).
Sheldon Adelson:
- Sheldon was also a young starter, selling newspapers at 12 years old.
- He started out his career operating vending machines and selling toiletries to hotels.
- He has since gone on to become the owner of casinos (Sands), hotels and newspapers (Israel Hayom, Maariv and Makor Rishon).
Eric Levkowsky:
- Eric started out at the age of 18, when he sold carpets for a living.
- He then went on to start his own clothing line and started a marketplace for promo products (Starbelly).
- He gained the most success from his advertising software firm (Mediabank) and group coupon site (Groupon).
Elon Musk:
- Elon began writing video games at just 12 years old.
- He co-founded Paypal.
- He is the largest shareholder in Solar City – the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States.
- His most recent business ventures are a high-speed transportation system called Hyperloop.
