John Arnold was raised in Dallas, earned a degree from Vanderbilt University in 3 years, and eventually became a trader at Enron in 1995. This alone was impressive, as getting a job at Enron in 1995 was no simple task. Back then the firm only recruited about four economics majors from Vanderbilt each year.
Arnold then rose the ranks of Enron quickly, moving from Crude Oil to Natural Gas, and later became the head of natural gas derivatives trading. At the age of 26, he eventually [Read more...]
Marcos Galperin graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994, later finding a job as a Futures and Options associate managing YPF’s currency and oil derivatives program (YPF is an integrated oil company in Buenos Aires). After YPF, he worked in the fixed income department of J.P. Morgan in New York. Marcos then attended Stanford Business School, where his idea for MercadoLibre.com was born, and his rise to wealth began.
During the late 90′s while Galperin was getting his MBA, he noticed internet start-ups blossoming up all around him. Shortly thereafter, one of Galperin’s professors, Jack McDonald, inspired him to take a shot at [Read more...]
Below a great hour long video in which Tim Ferriss, the author of The New York Times best selling book The 4- Hour Work Week, describes the ways he built his business and his subsequent rise to wealth.
Most notably, Ferriss stresses testing one’s market before creating a product, and the specific ways he did this (one of which was testing various book titles on Google Adwords). He also goes into depth about which business model worked for him, and the timeline he used for marketing his site. After marketing and launching his book and corresponding website, Tim then illustrates the value and importance [Read more...]
His name may not sound familiar but the brands he owns are internationally known. Pinault is the majority shareholder of luxury goods group, PPR, which owns brands like Gucci, Samsonite, Converse and many popular French brands. Having dropped out of high school, Francois’s rise to wealth is most astounding. His rise was a mix of high risk taking and successful restructuring of companies he purchased during distress. He started out as a regional timber merchant, and eventually owned his own timber business, taking it public. He also took big risks, such as making a reported $2 million on a $60K investment through speculation in commodities, and another deal that netted him $5 million in just one year. Pinault did this second deal by anticipating the effects of the oil embargo, selling his business for $6 million dollars, and buying it back a year later for $1 million. Deals like this allowed Pinault to begin buying other companies. Pinault’s next strategy was to seek companies with strong growth potential, and in various sectors to diversifying his holdings. He now owns everything from television stations to retailers.
There is an great article from The Independent, which details Pinault’s childhood, subsequent rise to wealth, legal allegations, and corporate takeovers.
you can read it HERE. Another great article on Pinault’s past and various business ventures can be found HERE.
These two very different businessmen have created enterprises in similar ways. They speak about their early careers, entrepreneurial interests, and specific moments and mentors that made them successful.
Buffett breaks down some of his fundamentals on value investing, which he learned from his mentor Ben Graham, and when he decided to changed his investing perspective. Buffett also describes how one can apply the “habits of success”, while Jay describes how he “broke out of the pack”, and narrowly avoided being sent to prison.
Both agree on the importance of knowing how to identify emotional responses that occur in business, whether it’s industry trends or the stock market. Buffett and Jay also discuss how much “luck” has to play in business, and other intangible aspects one cannot quantify. Both have risen to wealth and attained huge recognition. They detail what gaining wealth meant for them, namely independence and the opportunity for philanthropy, and [Read more...]
NBA Basketball season is right around the corner and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the new owner of the New Jersey Nets, has much to prove with his new franchise. Prokhorov however is a veteran in turning struggling franchises into winners.
Below is a fantastic video from 60 Minutes profiling Prokhorov’s extraordinary lifestyle and previous struggles as a young businessman in Russia. Prohkorov studied at the Moscow Financial Institute, and later bought Norilsk Nickel, a huge mining and metals operation, from Kremlin leaders. Through hard work Prokorov managed to make his new company Norilsk Nickel more profitable, and sold his shares for 10 billion dollars, two months before stock market crisis. Prokhorov thus became the wealthiest individual living in Russia. Hopefully Prokhorov can apply his proven business skills to the basketball court as the Nets take on The Lakers, and the new dream team in Miami.
With the film The Social Network being released recently, everyone has heard of Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, the youngest billionaire in the world. However, some may not yet have heard of Yoshikazu Tanaka, the second wealthiest billionaire in the world under the age of 35.
Yoshikazu is the only self made billionaire in Asia, of three, under the age of 35. His wealth comes from founding Japan’s second-largest social networking site Gree.jp. The site’s popularity raised the company’s stock considerably, making him worth 1.6 billion. (he owns 51% of the company).
Despite his site being the second-biggest social networking site in Japan as far as registered users, his savvy business skills allowed the site to actually earn more than Japan’s top social networking site Mixi.jp. He did this by focusing on mobile games and making partnerships with major internet service providers (KDDI owns 7 % of the site). Through these partnerships, his site earns greater profits [Read more...]
Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad is a massively successful personal finance book. If you have already read his book you will enjoy this candid interview by TIME. To anyone who has not read his book, he describes in this interview his childhood passions, living in his car, joining the military and the principles of his book. Robert persevered through many hardships on his rise to wealth.
Even though WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE was probably the worst movie I have ever seen, Spike Jonze’s rise to wealth is truly remarkable (and he HAS made some great films like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION etc). This video below gives a comprehensive look at his talents and entrepreneurial career. Most interesting to note is [...]
NBA Basketball season is right around the corner and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the new owner of the New Jersey Nets, has much to prove with his new franchise. Prokhorov however is a veteran in turning struggling franchises into winners. Below is a fantastic video from 60 Minutes profiling Prokhorov’s extraordinary lifestyle and previous struggles [...]
If you missed it previously, below I have posted the 60 Minutes Piece on Jobs.
John Johnson was the first African-American to appear on the Forbes 400 list, having amassed immense wealth from his successful magazine, EBONY. Johnson succeeded as an African-American entrepreneur during the 1940’s, thus his story is worth sharing and most remarkable. Johnson came from a very poor family but his leadership skills were exemplified early on, [...]
Wanted to share this interesting video from WSJ’s new segment “WSJ Money,” which details the worlds most cash rich city: Singapore. The stability of the city-state attracts many tastemakers. Looks like DUBAI is now a thing of the past
A stock I have been following for a while, simply because of the HUGE dividend (32%) is YPF, the large Argentinean energy company. YPF has a very interesting back story, as the government of Argentina recently took over the company. The Argentinean government is basically demanding YPF to use its earnings to develop the country [...]
This is a great speech by Steve Jobs (arguably one of the best even though his Ipad demonstrations are pretty entertaining). He explains his rise to wealth, and the important lessons in his life. He speaks about his time in college and the odd classes he took. His rise to wealth is very peculiar, but [...]
