Billionaires … they are admired, envied, hated. Someone considers them to be criminals who robbed the people, someone - successful people, role models. But their life, their fate is always interesting.
A billionaire is a person whose fortune is more than a billion US dollars. The American financial magazine Forbes publishes lists of such people every year, and every reader can get acquainted with them.
The very first billionaire
The first person to make such a huge fortune was the American John Davison Rockefeller (1839-1937). The fate of this man is the true embodiment of the American dream. As the son of poor parents, he earned money as a child digging potatoes for neighbors and raising turkeys for sale. The money accumulated thanks to this for 6 years, he loaned to the farmer at interest.
At the turn of 50-60. XIX century. he appreciated a new lighting medium - kerosene - and founded an oil refinery company. Thanks to smart business management, Rockefeller was in control of 95% of the US oil business.
Modern billionaires
Today, the richest man on the planet is considered not an American, but a Mexican of Arab origin, Carlos Slim Elu. This man's wealth accounts for approximately 8% of Mexico's gross domestic product.
This man also began his path to wealth in childhood, when, on the advice of his father, he wrote down all his income and expenses in a notebook. At the age of 12, he opened his first account to buy shares.
Carlos Slim Elu is the main owner of the holding company Grupo Carso. In addition, he owns 62% of America Movil, the largest cellular operator in Mexico.
The second place in the list of modern billionaires is occupied by William Henry Gates, known to the general public as Bill Gates, the creator, the largest shareholder, and until 2008 - the head of Microsoft.
This man had quite good starting opportunities. Bill Gates comes from a fairly wealthy family. His father was a corporate lawyer, and his mother was a member of the board of directors of two companies, which allowed Bill to attend a privileged school. It was there that he learned computer programming, and at the age of 13 he first wrote his own program.
Gates created a software company in 1975 with partner Allen. The biggest success of the company called Microsoft was the creation of the Windows operating system in 1985. It was this operating system that brought fabulous profits to the company and enriched Bill Gates himself.
