10 Global Billionaires Who Started from Scratch
As the saying goes, “Where there is effort, there is success”, this is something that many Thai people are likely familiar with and have heard repeatedly. However, for some, this proverb represents something that is incredibly difficult to achieve in the real world, where numerous factors must be considered before one can succeed, including financial status, family business, social context, and pure luck.
Yet, if we look closely, this proverb has indeed come true for many individuals from various nationalities around the world who started from nothing and achieved billionaire status. Let’s explore what these individuals did in business and who they are.
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg
Today, it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t know Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, whether from his biographical film The Social Network or from the popular website you just clicked on 10 minutes ago, Facebook. Zuckerberg started creating Facebook while studying at the prestigious Harvard University.
He even received an offer from Yahoo to buy the company in 2006 for $1 billion, which he wisely declined. By 2012, Facebook was valued at $16 billion in the market, and today it has become a major communication platform for millions worldwide, including many in Thailand.
Howard Schultz
Schultz's story began in 1979 when he started working as a manager for a Swedish coffee maker company, Hammarplast, which led him to discover Starbucks.
Intrigued, Schultz flew to Seattle to learn more about Starbucks and met its founders, who had established the company in 1971. He proposed the idea of transforming a regular coffee shop into a community gathering place, inspired by coffee shops in Italy, but was initially rejected.
In 1985, Schultz opened his own coffee shop named Il Giornale, meaning “The Journey.” Later, the founders of Starbucks sold their first store to Schultz, allowing him to merge the two businesses and rename it Starbucks Coffee Company, which became immensely successful (source: walkingsuccess).
Today, the famous coffee chain Starbucks has over 17,000 locations in 49 countries. Schultz is known for his commitment to treating employees with dignity and respect, stemming from his own experiences of hardship in youth, earning him widespread admiration.
Ralph Lauren
Many may recognize the work of this man, who was inspired by his experience selling ties at Brooks Brothers, realizing that men desired more distinctive and vibrant clothing. He sold ties in 1967, generating a total of $500 billion.
He later founded his own company named after himself, Ralph Lauren, which has become a globally renowned clothing brand.
Kenneth Langone
Langone's life was filled with challenges, having worked as a plumber, restaurant worker, and golf caddy to help pay for his education and his parents' mortgage while studying at Bucknell University and later pursuing a business degree at New York University.
In 1970, he partnered with Bernard Marcus to establish Home Depot, which became a global success. He later donated $100 million to New York University twice, in 1999 and 2008.
Phil Knight
Today, the company co-founded by Phil Knight is valued at $91.2 billion and owns the famous athletic shoe brand that starts with the letter N. Of course, we are talking about Nike. Knight and his coach, Bill Bowerman, initially founded Nike under the name Blue Ribbon Sports.
Initially, Blue Ribbon Sports acted as a distributor for a famous Japanese shoe company, Onitsuka Tiger. The first Nike shoes were produced for athlete Otis Davis, who won two gold medals at the 1960 Olympics. Today, Nike has undeniably become a leading global shoe brand (source: Wikipedia).
Jack Ma
The name Jack Ma is now famous worldwide, including in Thailand. His journey began as an English teacher, but he recognized the vast business opportunities of the internet during a trip to the United States in 1995 and adapted this insight into his e-commerce business in 1999.
His most famous venture is the e-commerce website Alibaba, which set a record for the highest IPO in the New York Stock Exchange, valued at over $25 billion or approximately 800 billion baht. Today, Alibaba's subsidiaries include various types of businesses such as Alipay, Taobao, Etao, and Aliyun.
Lawrence Larry Page
It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t know the leading American company Google, which has become a trusted companion for students, professionals, and workers everywhere. The legend of Google began with Larry Page and his friend Sergey Brin, who started the project Blackrub in 1996 while studying at Stanford University.
Initially, their search system operated on the university's server before they dropped out of Stanford and founded Google, a play on the word “googol,” a mathematical term representing the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.
Today, Google has grown significantly, with achievements in advertising and operating systems like Android.
Ingvar Kamprad
Ingvar Kamprad founded the furniture company IKEA at the age of just 17 in 1943, using money he received from his father as a reward for graduating.
The name IKEA stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, combining his name, the name of his family farm, and the nearest village.
Initially, IKEA was just a mail-order company before it began selling furniture seriously five years later and opened its first official store in 1958, achieving success and expanding to many other countries, including Thailand.
Bill Gates
Gates began programming at the age of just 13. He and his childhood friend Paul Allen founded their first company in 1972, named Traf-O-Data, before officially establishing Microsoft three years later. The name was originally coined by Allen as Micro-Soft.
Microsoft has achieved great success with various products, including the Windows operating system, Xbox gaming console, and numerous software applications.
Bill Gates has also donated to many charitable organizations and pledged to give away at least half of his wealth to charity after his death.
Oprah Winfrey
When it comes to famous and successful hosts in America, the name Oprah Winfrey is undoubtedly among the top in every ranking.
However, Oprah Winfrey's early life was filled with hardships. She was born into a relatively poor family and faced numerous family issues, but these obstacles did not stop her from becoming the first African American television news anchor at just 19 years old.
In 1983, Winfrey moved to Chicago to host a talk show, which later became known as The Oprah Winfrey Show. This show achieved immense success.
It has been ranked among the greatest television shows of all time multiple times and is one of the longest-running morning talk shows, winning 47 Emmy Awards. Winfrey chose to stop submitting her name for nominations after 2000. The final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show aired on May 25, 2011, achieving the highest ratings in 17 years.
From the ten billionaires mentioned, it is clear that starting from scratch to becoming a billionaire is not impossible at all. It depends on our own efforts, as many of these billionaires not only started from zero but also faced difficult youth. However, they used their hardships, inspirations, or personal skills to turn them into business opportunities, leading to their eventual success.
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