Billions Not Millions
Currently with a net worth of approximately $191.2 billion (Nov 2022), Elon Musk is still the richest person in the world. He didn’t achieve this by mere luck as some may think – Musk is a smart, aggressive business minded individual who was never afraid to take risks in his drive to reach his desired goals. During his childhood, he started programming computer games.
Young Billionaires
Elon Musk was paid a substantial amount of money upon selling PayPal, he invested this in Tesla and founded SpaceX. Musk is a visionary entrepreneur on a mission to transform the world and make progress for humanity.
Mark Zuckerberg started from scratch and went on to become the youngest billionaire in the world, all in just a space of five years. He is currently on the list of the richest dropout billionaires, and he definitely deserved his current status.
Many people would think that Mark Zuckerberg emerged from the blues and became a billionaire; thinking he developed Facebook with just a snap of his fingers. The fact is they are wrong because he was not an overnight success. His journey to fortune and fame began as a dream; a desire he was willing to make sacrifices for. While his friends envisioned Facebook as a mere college project; he envisioned Facebook as a worldwide project that will cause change to the entire phase of communication and how people stay in touch.
Most success stories of billionaires around the world are almost alike, it all started as a dream, and they all choose to dream big, making wise decisions with determination they were able to rise to the position they occupy today.
Billionaires Created By The Internet Revolution
Nick Hanauer, an early investor in Internet retail giant Amazon, states like many of his fellow one-percenters, he owns multiple homes, his own yacht and private. He says he acquired all his wealth by seeing the potential of the internet and working on it.
The internet is seen to have created some of the world’s youngest billionaires, probably in the shortest possible time frame, ever.
The richest are Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both set up Google in the late 1990s. They moved from Ph.D. students to being billionaires in approximately five years.
There are many young billionaires in the world today. Alexandr Wang with a net worth of just over $1 billion is one of the youngest self-made billionaires at 25 years of age.
Billionaires From India And China
On the newly published 2022 Forbes Billionaires List the Asia-Pacific, supported by China and India, had a total of over 1,000 billionaires, compared with 720 for the United States. China struck many new billionaires last year, keeping it in second place, just after than US the Hurun Report announced. While India continued to hold third place on the list.
Since 2013, China has witnessed its number of billionaires grow by 80%, while India added many new billionaires locking it into third place. In addition to Beijing, four other Chinese cities made it to the top 10 list of most billionaires: Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hangzhou.
Top US Billionaires And Their Current Net Worth
- Elon Musk (net worth $251 billion)
- Jeff Bezos (net worth $151 billion)
- Bill Gates (net worth $106 billion)
- Larry Ellison (net worth $101 billion)
- Warren Buffett (net worth $97 billion)
- Larry Page (net worth $93 billion)
- Sergey Brin (net worth $89 billion)
- Steve Balmer (net worth $83 billion)
- Michael Bloomberg (net worth $76.8 billion)
- Jim Walton (net worth $57.9 billion)
The combined net worth of US’s Top 10 billionaire is $1.1057 trillion.
Mark Zuckerberg has moved to 11th place with a net wort of $57.7 billion.
Top Indians Billionaires And Their Current Net Worth
- Gautam Adani (net worth $150 billion)
- Mukesh Ambani (net worth $88 billion)
- Radhakishan Damani (net worth $27.6 billion)
- Cyrus Poonawalla (net worth $21.5 billion)
- Shiv Nadar (net worth $21.4 billion)
- Savitri Jindal (net worth $16.4 billion)
- Dilip Shanghvi (net worth $15.5 billion)
- Hinduja Brothers (net worth $15.2 billion)
- Kumar Birla (net worth $15 billion)
- Bajaj Family (net worth $14.6 billion)
The combined net worth of India’s Top 10 billionaire is $385.2 billion.
Top China Billionaires And Their Current Net Worth
- Zhong Shanshan (net worth $65.7 billion)
- Zhang Yiming (net worth $50 billion)
- Ma Huateng (net worth $37.2 billion)
- He Xiangjian (net worth $28.3 billion)
- William Lei Ding (net worth $25.2 billion)
- Wang Wei (net worth $24.3 billion)
- Qin Yinglin (net worth $24.1 billion)
- Li Shufu (net worth $23.7 billion)
- Jack Ma (net worth $22.8 billion)
- Huang Shilin (net worth $20.3 billion)
The combined net worth of China’s Top 10 billionaire is $324.6 billion.
Future Growth Sectors
Technology still remains a growth sector for the future. There are many opportunities to build wealth within this sector.
Another growth sector is transportation of goods from the supplier to the end customer. There have been many trials carried out using drones to delivers products to customers.
Electric Vehicles still remain a massive growth sector. The product, sales and maintenance of these vehicles will open up many opportunities for building wealth.
Food product is also a massive growth sector, people have not stopped eating yet. The world is full of GM foods and foods grown using unconventional dangerous methods.
There are many toxins in the food that is consumed by the masses. There will be many people turning back to organic food and food that is distributed in no toxic packaging.
Travel will always remain a growth sector, as most people are packed like sardines in high-rise apartment blocks. People need to experience nature and get way from the hustle and bustle of modern society.
There is opportunity available in setting up of eco-friendly resorts that enable people to commune with nature. Not everyone will want to take holidays to a jungle of glass and steel, people want to get way from the skyscrapers and the crowds.
There will be many opportunities open to people who are willing to work with people to reduce stress and create a positive mind frame.
Renewable energy production will also offer many opportunities. There are many people already installing solar panel on their roofs. Energy efficient homes will become a growth sector.
Is A Billion Dollars Worth A Billion Dollars?
The number of billionaires in the world is increasing rapidly. When the first Forbes 400 list was published back in 1982, there were only 15 billionaires listed on it.
The Forbes list published in 2022 listed 2,668 billionaires. This would suggest that it is much easier to become a billionaire today than it was back in the 80’s.
Having a billion dollar net worth back in the 80’s placed you in wealth bracket that really made you one in a billion.
Taking inflation into account, $1 billion in 1980 would be equivalent to approximately $3.6 billon today. Not many people had a net worth of $1 billion back in 1980. Today there are many people worldwide with a net worth of over $3.6 billion.
I would say that a billion dollars back in the 80’s is actually worth over $50 billion dollars in todays money. Inflation mainly accounts for daily spend related to the non wealthy majority. The price of property and luxury goods has increased rapidly.
