7 Richest People in the World and some interesting facts

1. Bill Gates

Net Worth – $86 B

Cofounder – Microsoft
Cofounder – Bill and Melina Gates Foundation

Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point. Its utility is entirely in building an organization and getting the resources out to the poorest in the world -Bill Gates

Facts:

• The private school he attended as a child was one of the only schools in the US with a computer. The first program he used was a version of tic-tac-toe where you could play against the machine
• Gates scored 1590/1600 on his SATs
• Bill Gates doesn’t believe in leaving children a ton of money as inheritance; his three kids (daughters Jennifer and Phoebe and son Rory) are set to inherit just $10 million each of his multi-billion dollar fortune
• When Bill was a kid, he spent so much time reading that his parents finally forbid him to bring books to the dinner table
• Bill Gates has a Mcdonals gold card for unlimited fast food

2. Warren Buffett

Net Worth – $75.6 B

CEO – Berkshire Hathway

The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history… For 240 years it’s been a terrible mistake to bet against America, and now is no time to start – Warren Buffett

Facts:

• Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time.
• He runs Berkshire Hathaway, which owns more than 60 companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen.
• The son of a U.S. congressman, he first bought a stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13.
• He has committed to giving more than 99% of his fortune to charity. So far he has given nearly $32 billion.
• With friend Bill Gates he launched The Giving Pledge in 2010, asking billionaires to donate half their wealth to charitable causes.
• He still lives in the same Omaha, Nebraska home he purchased in 1958 for $31,500

3. Jeff Bezos

Net Worth – $72.8 B

CEO and Founder – Amazon.com

I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all – Jeff Bezos.

Facts:

• Jeff Bezos was able to show his mechanical aptitude, as a toddler, when he dismantled his baby crib with a screwdriver.
• One year after Amazon’s IPO, Bezos still lived in a rented apartment and used a desk he made from an old door
• Bezos’ biological father was, at one point, a circus performer. Bezo’s mother told him to stay out of their lives when he was four. When Brad Stone interviewed his father, the man had no idea who his son had become.
• Jeff Bezos believes in the “Two Pizza Rule’: if a team cannot be fed with two pizzas, it’s too large.
• His other passion is space travel: His aerospace company, Blue Origin, is developing a reusable rocket that Bezos says will carry passengers.
• Jeff Bezos is also one of the financial backers of Twitter

4: Amancio Ortega

Net Worth – $71.3 B

Co-founder of Inditex Group

In the street, I only want to be recognized by my family, my friends and people I work with – Amancio Ortega

Facts:

• Ortega is the wealthiest retailer in the world, as his company Inditex operates over 7000 stores including the brands Zara, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Zara Home, Kiddy’s Class, Tempe, Stradivarius, Pull and Bear and Bershka
• Ortega first began his career manufacturing textiles through a small family company in 1963
• He is the owner of Spanish soccer team Deportivo La Coruna
• At the age of 14, Ortega reportedly left his home to earn more money for his family and started working for a shirt-maker called Gala, by learning to make clothes by hand
• Ortega reportedly eats lunch with his employees in the company cafeteria. He is said to visit the same coffee shop every day in La Coruña, the Galician city on the North Atlantic’s windy coast, where he has spent most of his life

5. Mark Zuckerberg

Net Worth – $56 B

Cofounder, Chairman, and CEO – Facebook

We may not have the power to create the world we want immediately, but we can all start working on the long term today – Mark Zuckerberg

Facts:

• Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard for students to match names with faces in class
• Zuckerberg and his wife are spending $3 billion in an attempt to end, cure or manage all disease by the year 2100
• Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook stake over their lifetimes
• Zuckerberg’s marriage to longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan was quite the surprise for friends and family–guests were told they were being invited over to celebrate Chan’s medical school graduation, but in reality, they ended up attending the pair’s wedding
• Similar to Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg has a $1 annual salary as CEO of Facebook
• He wears the same gray Facebook T-shirt almost every day because he is busy and it saves him time in the morning

6. Carlos Slim

Net Worth – $54.5 B

Honorary Chairman – América Móvil

When you live for others’ opinions, you are dead. I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be remembered – Carlos Slim

Facts:

• Before going into business, Slim taught algebra at UNAM, a university in Mexico City
• Mexico’s richest man, Carlos Slim and his family control America Movil, Latin America’s biggest mobile telecom firm.

• Nearly All Mexicans Have Bought Something From Him

• His son-in-law Fernando Romero designed the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, home to Slim’s extensive, eclectic art collection
• Despite being a super-rich billionaire, Slim doesn’t use a private driver and navigates the crazy Mexico City traffic without hesitation

7. Larry Ellison

Net worth – $52.2 B

CTO and Founder – Oracle

When people start telling you that you’re crazy, you just might be on to the most important innovation in your life – Larry Ellison

Facts:

• Born to an unwed mother in New York City, he contracted pneumonia at just nine months of age and was given to his great-aunt and uncle for adoption. He wouldn’t see his biological mother again for almost five decades
• Ellison never finished college. He started out building databases for the CIA.
• In 2016, Ellison pledged to give $200 million to the University of Southern California for a cancer treatment center.
• One of his favorite mottos is from Genghis Khan – ‘It’s not sufficient I succeed. Everyone else must fail’
• He’s got 50,000 followers on Twitter but has only tweeted once
• He was allegedly the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark

 

Who do you think is going to make it through top 7 in 2018? Let us know in comments!