Jan Koum, head and founder of WhatsApp, I once received food using cards. However, after selling his application to Facebook, his life changed dramatically. According to Forbes, his net worth is currently estimated at $7.7 billion.
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When he was 16 years old, he moved from Ukraine to the USA. Kuma's family struggled to make ends meet, but in 2009 he and company co-founder Brian Acton launched a real-time communication app to connect people around the world. WhatsApp, which has more than 600 million users worldwide, was sold for $19 billion to Facebook in 2014. As a result of this transaction, Koum became a billionaire. The second lucky billionaire who started from scratch is Jack Ma. He is a former English teacher. In 1999 Ma founded Alibaba, and now it's net worth is $20.2 billion.
Ma was born in Hangzhou, China, and grew up in poverty. He failed to get a job at a local KFC fast food restaurant and failed his college entrance exams twice, but eventually graduated and became an English teacher. In 1995, Ma visited the United States for the first time and saw the Internet, after which he founded China Pages, a directory that became China's first web startup. This project failed, after which Jack founded Alibaba. Today this online store is the most popular in China. Elizabeth Holmes, one of the richest women in the world, founded her own blood diagnostics company. The revolutionary technology she pioneered requires a microscopic drop of blood and is faster, more accurate and less expensive than standard laboratory tests. She's 30 now and her fortune is estimated at $4.5 billion. Founder of IKEA, whose net worth is estimated at $3.9 billion, Ingvar Kamprad grew up on a farm in Sweden. When he was seven years old, he sold matches to his neighbors. Kamprad soon moved on to pencils, greeting cards, and Christmas decorations. By the age of 17, he founded the IKEA company. Today it has stores in 42 countries. There are 340 of them in total. They bring him 36 billion dollars annually. Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz grew up in a poor neighborhood, but now he fortune is estimated at $2.1 billion. "When I was growing up, I always felt like I lived on one side of the road. I knew that the people who live on the other side of the road have more resources, more money, they have happier families. And I don't know why and why I wanted to achieve something more. Now I have a tie and a suit, but I remember where I come from and who I am,” Schultz said.
He won a scholarship to Northern Michigan University and worked for Xerox after graduation. And after that, Schultz opened a small coffee shop called Starbucks. He became chairman of the company's board of directors in 1987, and the coffee shop grew into a network of more than 16 thousand outlets around the world.
Ecology of life. If you want to become a millionaire, you must follow certain commandments, says Daniel Alley - businessman, millionaire
If you want to become a millionaire, you must follow certain commandments, says Daniel Alley, a businessman, millionaire and participant in Entrepreneur magazine's Young Millionaires project. And he tells how exactly.
People from all over the world ask me for advice on how to become a millionaire. These are people from a wide range of backgrounds, ages, religious beliefs and skin colours. They see money as a resource that will help them achieve their main goals.
However, most people don't want earn money million dollars. They want to spend a million dollars. They think that money itself will make them happier, and do not understand that real joy and satisfaction comes from the path itself, the movement towards becoming a millionaire.
I get asked very often: “Do you have any advice for a person who is starting their journey to a million?” Yes! If you follow these 10 laws, they will lead you on the right path.
1. Don't work for money
If you work only for money, money will not work for you. It would be better to work on developing your skills. Making money is just a by-product of developing these skills. The more professional you are, the higher you can climb the economic ladder(unless, of course, your profession has a very low ceiling).
Those who work for money become slaves of money. Those who work to develop their skills will also learn to control money, because handling money is also a skill. If you focus on developing your skills, you will be able to pay the bills. And if you're only focused on paying the bills, you won't have time to learn the skills. Skills are the first thing. “I fear not the one who has practiced ten thousand blows, but the one who has practiced one blow ten thousand times,” said Bruce Lee.
2. Stay a learner
In my understanding, an educated person is one who knows how to manage what he has. There are many people who have accumulated a wealth of knowledge, but cannot do anything with it, because they lack education in this very understanding. Each day, fill your notebook or journal with what you have learned. Over the course of a week, I accumulate dozens of pages of notes. At the end of the week I study them and ask myself: “What have I learned this week?” I've spoken at conferences about 1,200 times and noticed that only three percent of people bother to take notes.
3. Focus on 3%
There are only 3 percent of people in the world who actually need what you offer. If you focus on that 3 percent, you can become a truly rich person. The layout is as follows: If you approach 100 people, 70 of them may be interested, 30 will ask questions, 10 will want something more, but only 3% will actually fall in love with you. These are your real fans. And your job is to serve them in the best possible way.
Think about all the people who love you for who you are. There are more such people than you think. 3% are ready to follow you for life. They will promote your brand and tell everyone they know about it. And over time, this 3 percent will grow to incredible proportions.
4. Absorb feedback
It doesn't matter who gives this feedback - those 3 percent (your true fans) or the other 97%. Listen to these lessons. Often, your results can only be scaled up and strengthened when you absorb all the feedback. Use it to test and polish your product. This the pursuit of excellence is what makes people millionaires.
Most people are okay with hack work. They send letters without editing them properly, walk around with their shoes untied, and forget about kindness. Not finishing things is the worst way to do things. But if you start really absorbing feedback - even from your haters - you can completely rebuild your brand.
5. Get into your comfort zone
Failure is an extremely uncomfortable thing, but many people tolerate it. They agree to live in a house they don't really want to live in, they buy cars they don't like to drive, they agree to a salary they don't really like. It is better to strive for success: it is easy, pleasant and extremely comfortable.
Everything I do is quite comfortable. But it started when I started inspiring people for free. This is the only way to step into your comfort zone and do what you love - doing something for free. Stop working for money, start developing your skills and do what you love - even if no one pays you for it. Soon enough, you'll find a way to make a living doing it. And this is the only way to enjoy life.
6. Be everywhere
In the new millennium we have Internet. More precisely, social networks, which allow us to be everywhere, including in other people's pockets (I mean smartphones). But you must learn how to attract fans on all these platforms by managing your content properly. You can start with something more general and widespread, but then you need to look for and define your niche and be as specific as possible.
By spending two hours a day on social media, the average person can reach thousands of people in a few weeks. If you want to become a millionaire, you must find a way to reach millions of people. Today, social networks are the fastest way to convey your message to them.
7. Don't delay success
We hear people say all the time: I'll wait until I pay my taxes. I'll wait until the kids finish school. I'll wait until I get promoted. There are a whole lot of such excuses - and all this is only because people cannot overcome their fear of success. They allow themselves to be distracted and their plans ruined.
A success does not tolerate being distracted from it. You need to grab hold of success today. Don't wait for next week, next month, next year. Success cannot wait. A millionaire knows what he wants and will do everything to achieve it, regardless of the circumstances. Remove obstacles and excuses and do what you need to do to overcome your deepest fears.
8. Adjust your intentions
Only people who have the right intentions become millionaires. As I said before, setting your sights on making money for the sake of making money means burying your success. This mindset often blinds people to other possibilities. If you are focused on the wrong things, it will prevent you from achieving the success you want.
And other people pay attention to your intentions. They want to know what you are aiming for and what you want from them. This natural mechanism protects them from trouble and helps them be safe. When you connect with people, share your intentions and build relationships based on reciprocity. When you share your goals, it clarifies what you want to say, and thanks to this, people can give you a helping hand.
“If you cannot explain something in simple words, then you do not understand it well enough,” said Einstein.
9. Train your originality
Many people are scared of competition. They know their field is full of experts, so they don't try too hard themselves. But if you look closely at these markets, where there are so many experts, you will see that most of them are just duplicates, who often only copy the industry leader.
Before I started my business, I was a little doubtful that I would succeed. After all, so many people were already doing what I was doing! These thoughts affected my work and blocked my talents. Eventually I realized what my originality was, and everything changed. Remember that no one is exactly like you. No one can do everything you can. So .
10. Make people's lives easier
To become a millionaire, you need to make other people's lives as easy as possible. Don't overcomplicate what you want to convey to them - present everything in a way that makes it easy for people to understand. Often, if a person doesn’t understand something, he simply won’t do business with you. When I write my articles, I want eighth graders to understand them. I also want to reach millions of people who don't usually read articles like this. A few months ago, a woman who usually only reads news on Yahoo found my texts and couldn’t tear herself away from them. In a few days, she read more than a hundred of my tips, and then quit her job. Today she has That's what happens when you make people's lives easier.
If you apply these rules systematically, you will achieve results. But for this you need believe in yourself- and take the necessary risks. published
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The TOP 10 richest people in the world in 2016 were determined by Forbes magazine.
TOP 10 richest people on the planet in 2017
On March 1, Forbes published its ranking of dollar billionaires. In total, there were 1810 people on the list of names; the size of their capital was estimated by the volume of assets as of January 2017.
- Bill Gates, net worth: $75 billion.
- Amanisio Ortega, his assets are $67 billion.
- Warren Buffett, owner of $60.8 billion.
- Carlos Slim Helu, with $50 billion in personal property.
- Jeff Bezos, owner of $45.2 billion.
- Mark Zuckerberg with a capital of $44.6 billion.
- Larry Ellison, worth $43.6 billion.
- Michael Bloomberg, owner of $40 billion.
- Charles Koch with $39.6 billion.
- David Koch, brother of Charles Koch, with a similar capital of $39.6 billion.
What do people who handle billions and invest tens of millions in the development of new projects do?
Rating leader - Bill Gates
Bill Gates heads the TOP 10 richest people in the world this year. His income increases not only thanks to the activities of the Microsoft company he founded, which once made a revolutionary breakthrough in the software market, but also thanks to investing in developing projects, such as:
- mechanical engineering;
- railway companies;
- development and disposal of industrial waste.
The biography of Bill Gates is one of the stories of rich people who started from scratch. While still a student, he devoted a lot of time to studying and developing programming languages and writing programs for various tasks.
A kind of breakthrough in his career and in the fate of the Microsoft company he founded was the development of the MS-DOS operating system and a contract with IBM. Further expansion led to the development of the Windows OS, which allows the company to still dominate the software market.
Successful businessmen are always strong personalities, and the famous rules formulated by Gates confirm this. Here are the most valuable and meaningful of them:
- "Life is unfair - get used to it."
- “Change the way you think about failure and learn from your mistakes.”
- “Before you criticize your parents, start with yourself.”
- “You don’t become a chauffeur-driven vice president until you earn both.”
This year it turned out that among the TOP 10 richest people in the world there were several people who earned multi-billion dollar capital thanks to computer and network technologies.
In 5th place among the ten richest people on the planet was Jeff Bezos, head of the Amazon online store. He also owns the aerospace company Blue Origin and the publishing house The Washington Post.
Bezos, like many influential businessmen, actively invests funds without stopping at the achieved figures. He invests in projects such as Twitter, UBER, AirBNB, Rethink Robotics and promising startups.
Interesting facts about Amazon and Jeff Bezos himself (pictured):
- The company prohibits the use of color printers and all information is printed in black and white to save money.
- The size of the teams working on a project is determined using the “2-pizza rule.” If a group at lunchtime does not have enough 2 pizzas to eat lunch, then the group size is too large.
- Special robots are used to sort goods in Amazon warehouses.
- Bezos personally designed the boxes in which orders are packaged so that they can then be used in everyday life rather than thrown away.
- In 2015, the company was allowed to deliver goods by drone in some states.
Mark Zuckerberg has raised many eyebrows with his presence in 6th place among the 10 richest people in the world. The founder of the social network Facebook made it to the TOP of the rating for the first time. His interest in programming began with computer graphics and creating simple computer games. School friends brought him primitive pictures from which he copied future game characters.
At the moment, Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in the world (his age is 31 years old), and he can rightfully be called a businessman who is rapidly increasing his capital. While Bill Gates lost $4 billion over the past year, and Warren Buffett, who is in third place in the ranking, lost almost $12 billion, Zuckerberg increased his capital by $11 billion in 2015.
Brief biographies of the richest people in history
The most successful entrepreneurs in human history laid the foundations for doing business in modern civilization. Some of the names have become household names, and aspiring businessmen take their cues from the rich themselves. How did those whose biographies later become models of entrepreneurial thinking get rich? The capitals of prominent businessmen throughout history have been adjusted to modern levels to account for inflation.
- The most successful entrepreneurs in history are the Rothschild family, whose fortune is now estimated at $350 billion. Mining enterprises, winemaking, investing money in banks, agricultural land and private assets helped them accumulate such capital.
- John Rockefeller, who earned $340 billion (in today's dollars) during his lifetime. The areas of his business involved oil refining - he founded the Standart Oil company, and also invested in railways, steel mills, shipping companies and real estate companies.
- Andrew Carnegie is an industrialist with American and Irish roots, owner of the steel company Carnegie Steel, whose assets would now amount to $310 billion.
- Henry Ford, the American automaker, left his mark on history as a successful businessman and a wise man of his time. The company he founded, Ford Motor, which has many branches in various countries around the world, brought him billions. His capital would be $199 billion by today's standards.
- Cornelius Vanderbilt, who also founded a dynasty of entrepreneurs, actually changed the course of American history. His main profitable business was investing in the railway, which was actively developing at that time. In total, during his life he earned 185 billion dollars in terms of the level of our days.
How did rich people become rich? This question haunts many people and it is almost impossible to give a definite answer to it. A promising businessman who feels the so-called “vein” in himself acts simultaneously with cold calculation and relying on intuition in making important decisions.
One of the main features noticeable in many biographies of rich people is the ability and desire to take risks. The Rockefeller quote, “Whoever works all day has no time to make money,” reflects the state of mind of a successful entrepreneur - at a certain point, you need to be able to quit one activity and switch to another in order to achieve success in it.
Successful people and charity
Many of the success stories of wealthy people include lines about charitable donations and sponsorship of organizations that do not generate significant profits. Charity as an activity for successful people deserves special attention. What makes rich people donate their capital and for what purposes?
- educational programs;
- vaccine development and vaccination in developing countries;
- AIDS research;
- assistance to refugees;
- fight against polio.
Michael Bloomberg, who is in 8th place in the Forbes top ten, has currently donated about $4 billion to charity. The main areas of his assistance are contributions to the development of art, educational goals and medical research, in particular, cancer therapy and diagnosis.
The Koch brothers, co-owners of the Koch Industries holding, actively donate funds to the development of education in the United States, and in 2014, one of the areas of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was named after David Koch in gratitude for the funds allocated for its reconstruction.
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OUTSTANDING AMERICAN
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Jim Rohn's philosophy has helped millions of people change their lives for the better. Find out what it can give you!
Jim Rohn: Let's have a heart-to-heart talk
At the age of 25 I was very poor, I had nothing, and at 31 I became a millionaire. How did I do this? Several things played a decisive role in turning my fate around.
First of all, I did not refuse the offered chance, but took advantage of it. Usually before this I was cautious, avoided making a decision, answered: “I’ll think about it,” and left. The absurdity was that, of course, I didn’t think about anything, because on the second day I forgot about the chance offered yesterday to change my life.
I had no goal in life, I didn’t know what I needed, and I went with the flow.
But when I began to consciously look for a chance, I found it.
If you haven't discovered your chance yet, keep looking and you will find it. And then your life will definitely change, your income level will change.
Next thing: I found a teacher, a person who taught me how to do it. A good mentor will show you what your problem is and how to solve it. One day he asked me why I haven't achieved success yet?
I read out to him a whole list of reasons why I couldn't succeed. You need to understand what kind of person I was at 25 years old.
I'm used to blaming my environment for everything. I started working at 19, but after six years I had nothing, I was poor.
I blamed everyone but myself for my poverty.
I blamed the authorities and the government for coming up with laws that did not allow me to get rich.
I was used to blaming everything on the tax system, I argued that taxes were prohibitively high.
I constantly complained that the prices were exorbitant, but that was not the case. The truth was that they were not available to me.
The problem was me.
I complained about low wages: “How can you live on this money?”
I'm used to blaming circumstances.
I am used to blaming my family for being too picky and unfair to me.
I used to accuse my “cynical” neighbors of being selfish because they wouldn’t lend me money.
I blamed the weather, the economic situation, society, the times I was living in, politics, etc.
When I had read the entire list, my mentor shook his head reproachfully and said: “This list does not include the most important reason for your failure... It lacks you!”
I blamed everyone but myself for the fact that I achieved nothing and was poor, and that was a mistake. The mistake was in me.
And then I tore up my list of “reasons why you can’t succeed.” Then I took a blank sheet of paper and wrote one word on top: “I.”
I was the reason that nothing worked out for me...
Understand that you cannot blame anyone but yourself for not achieving what you wanted, not achieving the income you wanted, not living where you would like, and not dressing the way you like.
And when I was 25 years old, my teacher told me that the next six years would be the same as the previous six years unless I changed myself. When I realized this, I immediately changed my life.
Over the next six years, authorities, taxes, laws, economics, and relatives changed little. Circumstances and neighbors also have not changed much over these six years. So how did I get rich before I turned 31?
I CHANGED MYSELF!
It is better to stop blaming the government and relatives, and start looking for the real culprit.
For the next six years of your life, allow me to give you the best advice I have at my disposal.
CIRCUMSTANCES WILL NOT CHANGE UNLESS YOU CHANGE!
It won't be anyone's fault if six years from now you still haven't bought a car, or are driving an old, rusty car, wearing clothes that were fashionable ten years ago, living in the dirtiest area of town, earning a pitiful salary, or being unemployed. .
It won't be anyone's fault if in six years you become someone you don't want to be.
So where to start? How to change your life?
YOU NEED TO CHANGE YOURSELF!
How to change the world around us?
YOU NEED TO CHANGE YOURSELF!
If you change, the world will change for you.
You are for the better, the world is for the better.
You are for the worse, the world is for the worse.
The greatest discovery of the last century is that people can change their lives:
- simply by changing the state of your mind;
- simply by changing your attitude towards yourself and the world around you;
- simply by changing your consciousness;
- just by changing yourself.
Simply put, if you believe that something is possible, you will definitely achieve it someday.
If you don't believe something is possible, you will never achieve it.
The main reason that you don’t have everything you would like is putting it off “for tomorrow.” How many times, when you were offered a chance, were you cautious and said: “I’ll think about it.”
Still don't understand why you haven't succeeded yet?
If you are still reading these lines, it means that not everything is in order in your life, it means that you have problems. Perhaps you have failed in life.
Do not despair. Defeat is the best time to start over. Someone said: “Do not wish for easy roads, but wish for great obstacles and obstacles, for they shape a person’s character and his desire for success."
Almost every success story I know began with a person lying on his back, defeated by failure. In these conditions, people usually give all their talents, abilities, desires and determination - these are the main components of success.
Under these conditions, a person, disgusted with his current situation, eager and determined to change his life, steps forward to the barrier, as if he were in a courtroom, and shouts for everyone to hear: “I have had enough of failures and humiliations, I am not I’m going to continue to endure them!!!”
And then time, fate and circumstances become powerless in the face of such determination. And they step aside so as not to interfere.
Your role in the current failure is a temporary role. You will survive your misfortune the same way you got into it. And no matter how naive it may sound, be grateful to Providence for your current defeats or failures, since they are the starting point from where almost all success stories began.
From the moment where you are now, you can go where you want, do what you want, become who you want. It was from this place, called defeat, that many great personalities began their victorious path.
So be grateful for your adversities. But for the sake of your better future, let them work for you and not against you.
The world around you doesn’t care whether you break down and die or rise up and go towards your goal.
The world around you doesn’t care what choice you make. So take risks and set your sights firmly on success rather than simply existing and feeling sorry for yourself.
From now until the end of your life, commit yourself to success. After all, you only have one life! Let's do something outstanding!
First, let's provide ourselves and our family with a normal, decent life.
After all, you deserve it!
So where to start?
Here's the key.
Listen carefully to the person who suggested this article to you and take his program very seriously.
I wish you success!
Perhaps every person at least once in his life has thought about how to create a business that will allow him to become filthy rich. For the most part, such thoughts remain thoughts, but some people still decide to bring them to life. Have you ever wondered how others got rich? How was their life? How did the smiling millionaires on television make themselves so?
Ralph Lauren
Successful business, fame, worldwide recognition - all this is about Ralph Lauren. But a millionaire was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a movie star. Ralph successfully completed school, but dropped out of college to join the army. After service, he began working as a tie salesman. And at the age of 28, he convinced his boss to let him design and launch his own line of these men's accessories.
Leonardo Del Vecchio
Today, 83-year-old Leonardo owns a multi-billion dollar company, but success did not come to him immediately. The guy was born into a poor family. His mother could not take care of him, so the boy was taken to an orphanage. At a young age, Leonardo found work at a factory - by the way, here he lost part of his finger.
But later, a young, ambitious man opened his own enterprise producing high-quality eyeglass frames. Sun protection, sports, medical - today almost ¾ of all glasses in the world are produced by the Luxottica Group corporation, created by Del Vecchio.
Richard Branson
Due to problems with his studies, Richard left school at the age of 16 (he suffered from dyslexia). The guy wanted to succeed so much that he said more than once that he would either get rich or end his days in prison. At 22, he opened a recording studio and created the Virgin Records label. Of course, the businessman has faced failures more than once, but today he is the owner of 500 small companies (he even has his own airlines) and one of the richest people in the world.
Steve Jobs
Perhaps everyone knows this story. Steve Jobs dropped out of college to travel around India and find spiritual enlightenment. At the age of 21, he returned to the States and opened the Apple store with Steve Wozniak. Who would have thought that the billionaires running one of the most famous companies in the world started their business in a garage.
Howard Schultz
Howard grew up in a poor neighborhood, so he didn't have much prospects for creating a career. For several years he worked as a sales representative for Xerox. The guy was so inspired by the Italian culture and attitude towards coffee that he decided to open his own coffee shop and then acquired Starbucks. Today there are these coffee shops in almost every major city in the world (there are more than 25 thousand of them).
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark showed an interest in programming as a child, so his parents hired him a tutor. At the age of 12, he wrote a messaging program specifically for his father’s office (his father worked as a dentist).
The talented guy was accepted into Harvard without any problems, but soon Mark dropped out of school in order to devote his time entirely to creating Facebook. Is it worth reminding that this is the most popular social network today?
Oprah Winfrey
If you follow Oprah's work, you've probably heard that she was a victim of violence and harassment more than once as a child. That is why at the age of 13 the girl ran away from home. She did well in school and put all her efforts into going to college. But, having received a job offer from a famous TV channel, she refused higher education. Today, Oprah Winfrey is a true legend and is included in the list of the richest people in the world.
Jack Ma
The guy was born into a poor family. After graduating from high school, he applied to colleges but failed the exams twice. Harvard turned him down ten times. One can only envy Jack’s perseverance as he continued to apply. The same story happened with his job search - he received several dozen refusals. But this is probably for the best, because otherwise he would never have created the Alibaba Group company. Today, Jack Ma is China's richest man and the first Chinese businessman (from the mainland) to be featured on the cover of Forbes magazine.
Larry Ellison
The mother could not provide the boy with a good childhood, so she transferred custody of Larry to his uncle and aunt. After the death of his adoptive mother, the guy dropped out of college and moved to California, where he collaborated with various companies as a freelancer. Then he was invited by the FBI to work on the new Oracle system. Today, Larry owns his own company and is one of the richest men in the world.
Doo Won Cheng
Du Won Cheng moved with his wife to the United States in hopes of creating a better life. At first he had to work three jobs - in a coffee shop in the mornings, at a gas station in the evenings, and in his free time (yes, it turns out he had it) he managed to do cleaning. Today he is the owner of a company that makes billions from creating and selling inexpensive clothing.
As you can see, the path to success was not easy. But this did not stop them from believing to open their own business and achieve prosperity.