Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa May 2013 | Page 74

LESSONS

Oprah Winfrey

BY ANGIE REDMOND

Pierre Omidyar

Karl Albrecht

Mukesh Dhirubhai

Michael Bloomberg

10 Life Lessons
From 10 Billionaires

T

he 2013 Forbes Billionaire list now has
an impressive 1, 426 names on it. The
net worth of which is estimated at $5.4
trillion. The United States has 442 billionaires;
Asia-Pacific has 386, Europe 366, The Americas
129 and the Middle East and Africa 103
billionaires. So what can you learn from them?
Here are some key lessons from ten billionaires
on earning money.
1. “You become what you believe. You are where
you are today in your life based on everything
you have believed.” —Oprah Winfrey, net
worth of $2.7 billion. Oprah was a true rags to
riches story, starting with nothing she worked
her way to being ranked the richest AfricanAmerican in the 20th century. She went
from co-anchoring the local evening news to
launching her own production company and
creating the Oprah brand.
2. “What we say here every day is that our
success is really based on our members’ success,
our community’s success.” —Pierre Omidyar,
net worth of $6.7 billion. In 1995, at the age
of 28, Omidyar began to write the original
computer code for an online venue to enable the
listing of a direct person-to-person auction for
collectible items. On Labour Day, September
4 1995 he launched an online service called
Auction Web, which would eventually become
the auction site eBay.
3. “ The t y pical human life seems to be
quite unplanned, undirected, unlived, and
unsavored. Only those who consciously think
about the adventure of living as a matter of

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud

72

Michael Dell

May 2013 SA Real Estate Investor

making choices among options, which they
have found for themselves, ever establish
real self-control and live their lives fully.” —
Karl Albrecht, net worth of $25.4 billion.
Karl Albrecht was born and raised in modest
circumstances in Essen, Germany. He founded
the discount supermarket chain Aldi with his
brother Theo in 1961.
4. “I think that our fundamental belief is that
for us growth is a way of life and we have to
grow at all times.” —Mukesh Ambani, net
worth of $22.3 billion. Mukesh Dhirubhai
Ambani (born on 19 April 1957) is an Indian
business magnate who is the chairman and
CEO of the Indian conglomerate Reliance
Industries Limited (RIL), a Fortune Global 500
company and India’s most valuable company by
market value.
5. “Getting the job done has been the basis
for the success my company has achieved.” —
Michael Bloomberg, net worth of $22 billion.
Bloomberg began his career at the securities
brokerage Salomon Brothers before forming his
company in 1981 and spending the next twenty
years as its Chairman and CEO.
6. “If I’m going to do something, I do it
spectacularly or I don’t do it at all.” —Prince
Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, net worth of $18
billion. He is a Saudi Arabian businessman and
investor and a member of the Saudi royal family.
He is also the founder, CEO, and 95%-owner
of the Kingdom Holding Company. Arabian
Business ranked him as the most inf luential
Arab in the world.

Charles Koch

7. “It’s through curiosit y and looking at
opportunities in new ways that we’ve always
mapped our path at Dell. There’s always an
opportunity to make a difference.” —Michael
Dell, net worth of $15.9 billion. Michael is an
American business magnate, philanthropist,
and author. He is known as the founder and
CEO of Dell Inc., one of the world’s leading
sellers of personal computers (PCs).
8. “The role of business is to produce goods
and services that make people’s lives better.”
—Charles Koch, net worth of $25 billion.
He is co-owner, chairman of the board, and
chief executive officer of Koch Industries Inc.,
the second largest privately held company by
revenue in the United States.
9. “No person will make a great business who
wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.” —
Andrew Carnegie, net worth of $298.3 billion.
Andrew was a Scottish-American industrialist
who led the enormous expansion of the
American steel industry in the late 19th century.
10. “The ultimate definition of success is: you
could lose everything that you have and truly
be okay with it. Your happiness isn’t based on
external factors.” —Tony Hsieh, net worth of
$840 million. Tony is an American Internet
entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is the
CEO of the online shoe and clothing shop
Zappos.com.

RESOURCES
Forbes

Andrew Carnegie

Tony Hsieh

www.reimag.co.za