by Duncan Greenberg, Friday, October 9, 2009 by Fobes
Want to become a tech titan or hedge fund tycoon? Up your chances by dropping out of college or going to Harvard and working at Goldman Sachs.
Are billionaires born or made? What are the common attributes among the uber-wealthy? Are there any true secrets of the self-made?
We get these questions a lot, and decided it was time to go beyond the broad answers of smarts, ambition and luck by sorting through our database of wealthy individuals in search of bona fide trends. We analyzed everything from entrepreneurs' parents' professions to where they went to school, their track records in the early stages of their careers and other experiences that may have set them on the path to extreme wealth.
Our admittedly unscientific study of the self-made members of the Forbes 400 yielded some interesting results.
First, a significant percentage of them had parents with a high aptitude for math. The ability to crunch numbers is crucial to becoming a billionaire, and mathematical prowess is hereditary. Some of the most common professions among the parents of Forbes 400 members (for whom we could find the information) were engineer, accountant and small-business owner.
Consistent with the rest of the population, more American billionaires and near-billionaires were born in the fall than in any other season. However, relatively few of them were born in December, historically the month with the eighth-highest birth rate.
Of the 274 self-made tycoons on the Forbes 400, 14% either never started or never completed college. The number of precocious college dropouts is highest among those who forged careers as technology entrepreneurs: Bill Gates of Microsoft (MSFT), Steve Jobs of Apple (AAPL), Michael Dell of Dell (DELL), Larry Ellison of Oracle (ORCL) and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.
Forbes 400 members who derive their fortunes from finance make up one of the most highly educated sub-groups: half of them have graduate degrees. Roughly 70% of those with M.B.A.s obtained their master's degrees from one of three Ivy League schools: Harvard, Columbia or the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.
Goldman Sachs (GS) has attracted a large share of hungry minds that went on to garner 10-figure fortunes. At least 11 current and recent billionaire financiers worked at Goldman or one of it subsidiaries early in their careers, including Edward Lampert, David Tepper, Daniel Och and Leon Cooperman.
Several Forbes 400 members suffered bitter professional setbacks early in their careers that heightened their fear of failure. Pharmaceutical tycoon R.J. Kirk's first venture was a flop--an experience he regrets but appreciates. "Failure early on is a necessary condition for success, though not a sufficient one," he told Forbes in 2007.
According to a statement read by Phil Falcone during a congressional hearing in November 2008, his botched buyout of a company in Newark, N.J., in the early 1990s taught him "several valuable lessons that have had a profound impact upon my success as a hedge fund manager."
Several current and former billionaires rounded out their Yale careers as members of Skull and Bones, the secret society portrayed with enigmatic relish by Hollywood in movies like The Skulls and W. Among those who were inducted: investor Edward Lampert, Blackstone co-founder Stephen Schwarzman, and FedEx (FDX) founder Frederick Smith.
Source:http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/107927/a-recipe-for-riches.html?mod=career-leadership
Monday, October 12, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Secrets Of The Self-Made 2009
Melanie Lindner, Forbes.com
Business tips are a penny a dozen. A billionaire's playbook for success: priceless.
We asked eight of the wealthiest self-made members of the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans to weigh in on 22 topics, from universal health care to the right amount of vacation. These guys have horrendous schedules and a lot on their minds, but for the most part, they were willing to share.
One lesson is clear: If you want to make serious cake, start a business. Of the 400 titans on our list, 274 are self-made--up from 270 last year. Six of the top 10 spots on the Forbes 400 belong to entrepreneurs (as opposed to those born into wealth). Their combined net worth: $166.5 billion.
In Pictures: Learn The Secrets Of Eight Self-made Members Of The 2009 Forbes List of the 400 Richest Americans
To be sure, some of their wallets lost weight in the Great Recession: Five of our eight moguls shed a combined $2.65 billion in the last 12 months, while only two increased their net worth. In 2008, you needed a cool $1.3 billion to crack the Forbes 400. This year, $950 million sufficed.
Our tycoons told us who helped them most in getting where there are today (fathers played big roles), the biggest business blunders they ever made (such as buying a yacht and "investing with the wrong people") and one valuable piece of advice for first-time entrepreneurs (hint: be prepared for rejection).
John Paul DeJoria was one of the few who came out rosier in the recession. The Austin, Texas, entrepreneur saw his net worth jump 12%, to $4 billion, helped in part by a 10% surge in sales at his Patrón tequila unit. (DeJoria also owns the Paul Mitchell line of hair care products.) When asked if money still motivates him, DeJoria says: "Yes, I can do more things with it to create more jobs and lend a helping hand. It goes back to the saying of give a man a fish, and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime."
Views were mixed on health care reform, specifically as to whether the government should implement a public option to cover all Americans. Pharmaceutical magnate R.J. Kirk predicts the public option will prevail, though he believes the government should support universal health care "no more than it should offer universal food, universal housing, universal transportation or any other communistic provisioning," he says. "The history of private enterprise and state enterprise convincingly demonstrates the folly of such state run initiatives."
While the eight entrepreneurs made their fortunes in a variety of industries, five worry that government regulations are the greatest threat to their industries. The ever-animated Donald Trump pointed to a more pernicious bogeyman: fear. "People sometimes don't realize that real estate runs in cycles," he says. "That's normal." Leon Charney, another real estate titan, fears "a shut down of lending by banks" may continue to hobble the economy.
Steven Schonfeld, newcomer to the Forbes 400, amassed his $1 billion fortune investing his own money in the capital markets. Schonfeld, along with leveraged buyout king Wilbur Ross and DeJoria, believes the stock market is in a sucker's rally. Trump and Kirk think there's a reasonable chance that's true, while grocery-chain giant John Catsimatidis and Charney think the market is fairly valued.
Dow 10,000 may still have to wait awhile.
In Pictures: Learn The Secrets Of Eight Self-made Members Of The 2009 Forbes List of the 400 Richest Americans
Melanie Lindner, Forbes.com
Business tips are a penny a dozen. A billionaire's playbook for success: priceless.
We asked eight of the wealthiest self-made members of the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans to weigh in on 22 topics, from universal health care to the right amount of vacation. These guys have horrendous schedules and a lot on their minds, but for the most part, they were willing to share.
One lesson is clear: If you want to make serious cake, start a business. Of the 400 titans on our list, 274 are self-made--up from 270 last year. Six of the top 10 spots on the Forbes 400 belong to entrepreneurs (as opposed to those born into wealth). Their combined net worth: $166.5 billion.
In Pictures: Learn The Secrets Of Eight Self-made Members Of The 2009 Forbes List of the 400 Richest Americans
To be sure, some of their wallets lost weight in the Great Recession: Five of our eight moguls shed a combined $2.65 billion in the last 12 months, while only two increased their net worth. In 2008, you needed a cool $1.3 billion to crack the Forbes 400. This year, $950 million sufficed.
Our tycoons told us who helped them most in getting where there are today (fathers played big roles), the biggest business blunders they ever made (such as buying a yacht and "investing with the wrong people") and one valuable piece of advice for first-time entrepreneurs (hint: be prepared for rejection).
John Paul DeJoria was one of the few who came out rosier in the recession. The Austin, Texas, entrepreneur saw his net worth jump 12%, to $4 billion, helped in part by a 10% surge in sales at his Patrón tequila unit. (DeJoria also owns the Paul Mitchell line of hair care products.) When asked if money still motivates him, DeJoria says: "Yes, I can do more things with it to create more jobs and lend a helping hand. It goes back to the saying of give a man a fish, and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime."
Views were mixed on health care reform, specifically as to whether the government should implement a public option to cover all Americans. Pharmaceutical magnate R.J. Kirk predicts the public option will prevail, though he believes the government should support universal health care "no more than it should offer universal food, universal housing, universal transportation or any other communistic provisioning," he says. "The history of private enterprise and state enterprise convincingly demonstrates the folly of such state run initiatives."
While the eight entrepreneurs made their fortunes in a variety of industries, five worry that government regulations are the greatest threat to their industries. The ever-animated Donald Trump pointed to a more pernicious bogeyman: fear. "People sometimes don't realize that real estate runs in cycles," he says. "That's normal." Leon Charney, another real estate titan, fears "a shut down of lending by banks" may continue to hobble the economy.
Steven Schonfeld, newcomer to the Forbes 400, amassed his $1 billion fortune investing his own money in the capital markets. Schonfeld, along with leveraged buyout king Wilbur Ross and DeJoria, believes the stock market is in a sucker's rally. Trump and Kirk think there's a reasonable chance that's true, while grocery-chain giant John Catsimatidis and Charney think the market is fairly valued.
Dow 10,000 may still have to wait awhile.
In Pictures: Learn The Secrets Of Eight Self-made Members Of The 2009 Forbes List of the 400 Richest Americans
Melanie Lindner, Forbes.com
A little Gandhian club among Nobel peace laureates
New Delhi, Oct 9 (IANS) Mahatma Gandhi never won the Nobel Prize for Peace, but the apostle of truth and non-violence continues to inspire people around the globe who go on to win the coveted honour - US President Barack Obama being the latest among them.
Obama had called Gandhi the 'real hero of mine' and paid rich tributes to the great man's ideals only last week.
The committee that picks the winner has apologised for missing out in honouring Gandhi and, as if to compensate for it, has often chosen to bestow the prize on those inspired by the Mahatma.
When Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama was awarded the peace prize in 1989, the Nobel Committee chairman had said this was 'in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi'.
Before the Dalai Lama, of course, was Martin Luther King, Jr. The 1964 laureate had acknowledged Gandhi as one of his inspirations.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the resistance leader from Myanmar who won the prize in 1991, as well as Nelson Mandela of South Africa who shared the 1993 prize with Frederik Willem de Klerk, too found inspiration from the life and works of Gandhi -- to fight injustice and strive for a more equal society while abjuring violence.
On Friday, the Gandhian club among the Nobel laureates got one more member.
Obama has talked about how Gandhi's thoughts and his autobiography impressed him deeply.
On Oct 2, as the world celebrated the International Day of Non-Violence on Gandhi's birth anniversary, Obama said: 'Gandhi's teachings and ideals, shared with Martin Luther King Jr. on his 1959 pilgrimage to India, transformed American society through our civil rights movement.
'The America of today has its roots in the India of Mahatma Gandhi and the non-violent social action movement for Indian independence which he led. We must renew our commitment to live his ideals and to celebrate the dignity of all human beings.'
These remarks came a month after Obama told a gathering of pupils that Gandhi would be his ideal dinner guest.
When a student at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, asked him which person, alive or dead, he would like to dine with, the president said: 'I think it might be Gandhi, who's a real hero of mine. It would probably be a really small meal because he didn't eat a lot.'
The Nobel committee has acknowledged that Gandhi had been nominated several times - finally days before his murder in January 1948. The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee.
In 1948, the year of Gandhi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the ground that 'there was no suitable living candidate' that year.
Obama had called Gandhi the 'real hero of mine' and paid rich tributes to the great man's ideals only last week.
The committee that picks the winner has apologised for missing out in honouring Gandhi and, as if to compensate for it, has often chosen to bestow the prize on those inspired by the Mahatma.
When Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama was awarded the peace prize in 1989, the Nobel Committee chairman had said this was 'in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi'.
Before the Dalai Lama, of course, was Martin Luther King, Jr. The 1964 laureate had acknowledged Gandhi as one of his inspirations.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the resistance leader from Myanmar who won the prize in 1991, as well as Nelson Mandela of South Africa who shared the 1993 prize with Frederik Willem de Klerk, too found inspiration from the life and works of Gandhi -- to fight injustice and strive for a more equal society while abjuring violence.
On Friday, the Gandhian club among the Nobel laureates got one more member.
Obama has talked about how Gandhi's thoughts and his autobiography impressed him deeply.
On Oct 2, as the world celebrated the International Day of Non-Violence on Gandhi's birth anniversary, Obama said: 'Gandhi's teachings and ideals, shared with Martin Luther King Jr. on his 1959 pilgrimage to India, transformed American society through our civil rights movement.
'The America of today has its roots in the India of Mahatma Gandhi and the non-violent social action movement for Indian independence which he led. We must renew our commitment to live his ideals and to celebrate the dignity of all human beings.'
These remarks came a month after Obama told a gathering of pupils that Gandhi would be his ideal dinner guest.
When a student at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, asked him which person, alive or dead, he would like to dine with, the president said: 'I think it might be Gandhi, who's a real hero of mine. It would probably be a really small meal because he didn't eat a lot.'
The Nobel committee has acknowledged that Gandhi had been nominated several times - finally days before his murder in January 1948. The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee.
In 1948, the year of Gandhi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the ground that 'there was no suitable living candidate' that year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
