In recent times, there has been a shift in the position of the big boys that move the financial world. A lot has been expected from these proactive technocrats and business experts. Taking a close look at the early lives of these business giants will guide techies, companies, and entrepreneurs on their path to a successful future. In this article, we shall look at the start of some known billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. I bet you it will be worth your time and promises to be an exciting venture. Without wasting much time let’s dive in.
1. Elon Musk
Rated the second world’s wealthiest man according to facts from Forbes at the beginning of 2023. Musk started writing computer programs between 10 to 12 years. He was relentless and stayed up all night to perfect the art of computer programs. He merged with Kouri and Kimbal his sister and brother to build the software city guide Zip2, which was later sold to Compaq computer. Elon made his first million dollars from the deal, a breakthrough for him.
Elon took no time off building software for companies. Immediately after the creation and selling of the city guide software he created X.com which is a website that provides financial crawling of accounts for the banks in the united states. X.com later became PayPal which was then later sold to eBay.
In 2002, Elon ventured into rockets production and started SpaceX. It wasn’t an easy venture to take for musk who was determined to make his breakthrough in space rocket creation and travels. After hitting bankruptcy due to failed attempts of rockets launched by the company. In 2008, there was a successful launch that set the breakthrough for SpaceX and Elon also took a step and started a satellite-producing company Starlink. Steering up the ladder of uncertainties and failures, he was able to reach his goals. Between 2020 to 2022, SpaceX and Starlink have been able to launch their first crew members and satellites into space.
2. Jeff Besoz
Jeff Besoz, real name Jeffery Peterson is the founder of amazon and Blue Origin. In 1995 Besoz started a new book rental store in his garage, this was a tough period for him. He decided to build a website for this rental store and he had a name for the site and called it Amazon. He was able to employ a team that worked together in actualizing this dream.
Amazon was a fast-growing site that created a medium for clients to purchase books online, between 1998 to 2000 amazon had more retailers of other brands such as electronics, blockchain, music, and video sales. Besoz wanted to expand the stereoscope of amazon to other brands and created the Amazon Web Services that allows multiple users and retailers all over the world to interact and exchange products at the same time. It was not an easy venture for Besoz, there were a lot of challenges he faced while striving to make amazon one of the most patronized online stores.
Amongst these setbacks were accusations of salary draw-backs on workers of amazon and also failure to pay sales taxes. Amazon workers’ minimum wage was increased. Amid this crisis Besoz never for once took a bowl or gave up on his role as CEO of Amazon. Besoz would always put a solid appearance and face, especially when questioned about this crisis. Amazon is now one of the world’s biggest online stores and made a lot of achievements, especially during 2020 (COVID-19). Besoz announced later in 2021 he’s stepping down as CEO to Chairman of Amazon, to enable him the time to actualize other goals.
Besoz started Blue origin in the early 2000s. He had high hopes of starting a space exploration expedition ever since his school days. This dream took quite some time but he wasn’t a quitter. After much resilience, the first space vessel was launched in 2011 at a property that he purchased back in 2006. Although the flight failed to reach the expected orbit and crashed this was not seen as a drawback by Bezos. At this time, he was more dedicated to the activities carried out in the company and made special appearances to talk about the latest developments in the company.
At the later end of 2017 the New Shepard, Blue origin’s space orbital vehicle was launched into space just to circle the orbits and come back down to Earth. This was a successful venture and marked the start of a new dawn for the company and its owner Jeff Bezos. It was a welcomed development by the world at large and Bezos as an interesting businessman gave exclusive access to the media to take photographs and discuss the activities and the benefits of space exploration and colonization of some planets in the solar system.
Bezos wanted to see humans venture into space easily without high-cost tickets and to meet this demand extraterrestrial spaceflight tickets were given at $300,000 per ticket. Later in 2021, Jeff, his brother Mark, and Wally an American aviator and a Dutch space tourist launched into space. The flight lasted for about 10 to 12 minutes. When asked about this personal tour, he admitted to being flight shy and that he would like to experience it again.
3. Bernard Arnault
The French businessman is the world’s richest man according to Forbes 2023. Bernard Arnault was a proactive business-oriented go-getter. I started his business career by being the successor of the Boussac Saint-Frères empire in France in 1984. He was able to win the bid of Boussac Saint- Frères companies including the Christian Dior and was able to purchase the Financière Agache. Arnault had an impeccable character that made him thrive in his early start as a business magnate. He showed zero tolerance for failure and faults.
He was critically decisive when dealing with employees and was even tagged the Terminator, due to his manner of getting rid of employees. Arnault was on a venture of expansion and growth. A relentless business propeller that magnets any transform any business that matches his. Later on, Arnault partnered with the CEOs of Moet and Hennessey and Loius Vuitton which was known as LVMH.
Bernard had the highest stocks in both companies and was able to acquire more assets for the company. In 1990, Arnault ousted Racamier the former part CEO of LVMH, and became the CEO of LVMH.
