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Entrepreneur
Owning a business requires a lot. There are more requirements to starting and maintaining a business today. A business owner is a person who organizes and manages a business undertaking and partaking a risk for the sake of profit. They also show improvement on a daily basis in how they serve customers, manage employees, and try hard to improve their operations. In other words, they should utilize the four crucial functions in management. The first step is planning. Starting a business doesn't happen overnight. Bill Gates, on the other hand, is a different story. He made it big overnight in 1979, when he created "Windows Â?, an interactive desktop interface. But business owners aren't as fortunate as Bill Gates, so business owners have to plan. The first decision a business owner must make is what type of business he or she wants to start. The decision should be based on the amount of knowledge and skill that they have in the field that they are considering. "Sister CEOs have discovered that
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starting their own businesses can be spiritually and financially therapeutic. Many set out intitially in search of happiness, not money. But many learn that doing what they love can make them prosperous, tooand, ultimately, financially secure. Â? The more knowledge the business owner attains, the more the potential they will gain. They should also consider the location. Location is a key to help their business to make money. When you first start your business, first try to locate your ideal site, and then figure out how close you can come to it. Familiarize the owner to the environment. For example, a business owner might want to know where their supplier and distributors are located and their competitors. Then they should decide how much space they will need after finding a building. Another important decision is the legal forms of business they want. Today's entrepreneur is often a selfstarter, a hard worker and likes to compete. Many people have these traits but aren't entrepreneurs. So what makes a person an entrepreneur?
Over the years, research and expert opinion suggest that entrepreneurs share a number of common characteristics. A good deal is known about what is required to be a successful entrepreneur. The most interesting aspect about this is what characteristics and traits make an entrepreneur successful. These characteristics and traits determine what an entrepreneur is, why people decide to become entrepreneurs, and skills that make an entrepreneur successful. Webster's dictionary states that the entrepreneur is one who assumes the responsibility and the risk for a business operation with the expectation of making a profit (Guralnik 205). The entrepreneur generally decides on the product, acquires the facilities, and brings together the labour force, capital, and production materials. If the business succeeds, the entrepreneur reaps the rewards of profits; if it fails, he takes the loss. Being a selfstarter often means being the prime mover for getting things done on a daily basis. They're patient, experienced, and self-controlled,
and they have great integrity. You can always rely on an entrepreneur to do what he says (Ginsberg 13). Many believe that this is the single most important characteristic of an entrepreneur. A business owner must have drive and initiative in order to succeed in their market. Most important is a single-minded drive to be successful. Money is important but only used as a way of keeping score. Being your own boss is a major desire for being in business fro yourself. The most persuasive characteristic of entrepreneurs is that they don't like to work for someone else.
9 Steps to Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur
1. Love what you do. Passion is key to keeping a business strategy moving. Half-heartedness in an entrepreneurial endeavor will chip away at your drive to succeed. Perseverance is the one thing that’s guaranteed to move anything over time, whether it’s a person, a job or an entire company. Abraham Lincoln failed at most of his efforts until late in his life, but he never gave up. 2. Take baby steps. Jumping all in is rarely ever successful. There are success stories about people who invested everything once and came out winners after six months or a couple years, but those are rare. Risk management is an essential factor in any startup, and balance is vital. You can absorb losses more easily if you take smaller risks in the beginning. Those will provide essential and productive lessons. 3. Learn from others. Successful entrepreneurs often worked for others in their field of choice before striking out on their own. Spending a few years in the industry under an excellent mentor will provide a good launching pad. Learn from your predecessors’ mistakes and brainstorm about how to improve upon their model. Find someone willing to teach, and think about starting your business elsewhere when you leave.
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any company experiences comes from its founder. Spend time learning how to share your vision without coming across as “salesy.” Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale, but remember: the client is always the focus. 5. Constantly take action. Entrepreneurs are movers and shakers. They can’t afford to analyze every detail or they’d never get anywhere. There is no place for procrastination in a startup. It’s a 24/7, no-vacation-or-sick-days kind of job that demands constant forward momentum. Make a brief assessment at every step and move on it. Trust your instincts. 6. Make a plan. Read about successful businesses. Take in the wealth of knowledge that’s been provided by successful entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and the personalities from Shark Tank. A successful business plan does not have to be a book. A 10-page plan is digestible yet long enough to include everything you need to start. 7. Build a reputation. According to Brandi Bennett at HostGator.com, maintaining a blog on a well-hosted website, or volunteering your time and skills, shows instead of tells the community, and thereby builds expertise and trust. 8. It’s never too late to start. Many successful entrepreneurs started later in life. J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter author), Julia Child (chef), and Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) all started their wildly successful brands after they were comfortably along in their lives. Having the experience that comes with age can give you a unique outlook on your business. Life experiences bring depth that the most educated young adult, by his or her nature, is less able to foresee. 9. Build your "A team". Finding the skill sets and attitudes that support the culture of the brand you want to promote will foster innovation and enhance your reputation. Include folks from outside the company for the people you rely on. That will start a free marketing chain reaction that can build confidence and revenue.
The 15 richest people on earth Alene N. Tulay The wealthiest 50 people in the world control a staggering portion of the world economy: $1.46 trillion — more than the annual GDP of Australia, Spain, or Mexico. That's according to new data provided to Business Insider by Wealth-X, which conducts research on the super-wealthy. Wealth-X maintains a database of dossiers on more than 110,000 ultra-high-networth people, using a proprietary valuation model that takes into account each person's assets, then adjusts estimated net worth to account for currency-exchange rates, local taxes, savings rates, investment performance, and other factors. Its latest ranking of the world's billionaires found that 29 of the top 50 hail from the US and nearly a quarter made their fortunes in tech. To crack this list, you'd need to have a net worth of at least $14.3 billion. And for the most part these people weren't born with a silver spoon. More than twothirds are completely self-made, having built some of the world's most powerful companies, including Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Google, Nike, and Oracle.
Name: Aliko Dangote Net worth: $14.3 billion Age: 58 Country: Nigeria Industry: Diversified investments Source of wealth: Self-made; Dangote Group At 20, Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote borrowed money from his uncle to start a business that dealt in commodities trading, cement, and building materials. He quickly expanded to import cars during the country's economic boom. Four years later, in 1981, he formed Dangote Group, an international conglomerate that now holds diversified interests that include food and beverages, plastics manufacturing, real estate, logistics, telecommunications, steel, oil, and gas. At $14.3 billion, Dangote's fortune is the largest in Africa and equal to 2.5% of Nigeria's GDP. The majority of Dangote's wealth stems from his stake in Dangote Cement, which is publicly traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. He owns cement plants in Zambia, Senegal, Tanzania, and South Africa, and in 2011 invested $4 billion to build a facility on the Ivory Coast. Dangote bought back a majority stake in Dangote Flour Mills — which had grown unprofitable after he sold a large stake to South African food company Tiger Brands three years ago for $190 million — in December for just $1. He is also chairman of The Dangote Foundation, which focuses on education and health initiatives, including a $12,000-per-day feeding program.
From tech moguls and retail giants to heirs and heiresses, here are the billionaires with the deepest pockets around the globe.
Name: James Simons Net worth: $14.3 billion Age: 77 Country: US Industry: Hedge funds Source of wealth: Self-made;
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Before revolutionizing the hedge fund industry with his mathematics-based approach, "Quant King" James Simons worked as a code breaker for the US Department of Defense during the Vietnam War, but was fired after criticizing the war in the press. He chaired the math department at Stony Brook University for a decade until leaving in 1978 to start a quantitative-trading firm. That firm, now called Renaissance Technologies, has more than $65 billion in assets under management among its many funds. Simons has always dreamed big. About 10 years ago, he announced that he was starting a fund that he claimed would be able to handle $100 billion, about 10% of all assets managed by hedge funds at the time. That fund, Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund, never quite reached his aspirations — it currently handles about $10.5 billion — but his flagship Medallion fund is among the best-performing ever: It has generated a nearly 80% annualized return before fees since its inception in 1988.
husband, Jobs has had a career of her own. She worked on Wall Street for Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs before earning her MBA at Stanford in 1991, after which she married her late husband and started organic-foods company Terravera. But she's been primarily preoccupied with philanthropic ventures, with a particular focus on education. In 1997, she founded College Track, an after-school program that helps low-income students prepare for and enroll in college, and in September she committed $50 million to a new project called XQ: The Super School Project, which aims to revamp the high-school curriculum and experience. Last October, Jobs spoke out against "Steve Jobs," Aaron Sorkin's movie about her late husband that portrays him in a harsh light, calling it "fiction." Jobs had been against the project from the get-go, reportedly calling Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale to ask them to decline roles in the film.
In October, Renaissance shut down a $1 billion fund — one of its smaller ones — "due to a lack of investor interest." The firm's other funds, however, have been up and climbing. Simons retired in 2009, but remains chairman of the company.
Name: Laurene Powell Jobs Net worth: $14.4 billion Age: 52 Country: US Industry: Media Source of wealth: Inheritance; Disney The widow of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs inherited his wealth and assets, which included 5.5 million shares of Apple stock and a 7.3% stake in The Walt Disney Co., upon his death. Jobs' stake in Disney — which has nearly tripled in value since her husband's death in 2011 and comprises more than $12 billion of her net worth — makes her the company's largest individual shareholder. Though she's best recognized through her iconic
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Name: Lei Jun Net worth: $14.4 billion Age: 45 Country: China Industry: Tech Source of wealth: Self-made; Xiaomi Like several of his fellow 21st-century Chinese billionaires, Lei Jun earned his $14.4 billion fortune in tech. His smartphone maker, Xiaomi, became the fourth-largest smartphone vendor in the world, and the largest in China, within about three years of its founding. Lei got his start in tech shortly after college when he joined Kingsoft, a Chinese software company similar to Microsoft, as an engineer. During his tenure at Kingsoft, Lei served as chief technology officer, president, and CEO, succeeding in taking the company public in 2007 before resigning. In 2010, after spending a few years as a venture capitalist, the already-wealthy Chinese entrepreneur founded Xiaomi with a former Google China executive. Lei was appointed chairman of Kingsoft in 2011 and forged a partnership between the two companies
to provide cloud-storage capabilities for his phones. Xiaomi, often referred to as "the Apple of China," is now the second most valuable private-tech company in the world, with a $46 billion valuation. But as sales growth has slowed, experts are contemplating the sustainability of Xiaomi's business model in overseas markets.
Name: Charlie Ergen Net worth: $14.5 billion Age: 62 Country: US Industry: Media Source of wealth: Self-made; Dish Network After four years away from satellite TV provider Dish Network, the company he founded in 1980, Charlie Ergen returned to his position as CEO last spring. But Ergen's reunion came amid difficult times for Dish, as the company has been striving to stem its slipping number of subscribers. But one of the network's newest services might be its saving grace. Last January, the company launched Sling TV, a streaming service that allows subscribers to watch their favorite channels, such as ESPN and Food Network, online for only $20 per month. Though Sling is a 180-degree pivot from Dish's signature product, it has caught on with customers, inspiring copycat services and potentially providing the struggling company with the leg up it needed. Despite not offering wireless plans to subscribers, Ergen also bought up nearly $10 billion worth of wireless-spectrum licenses at an auction last year. But the purchase incited significant backlash against Dish, which through two controlled affiliates had secured a 25% small-business discount that was subsequently revoked by the FCC. The company was forced to pay penalties exceeding $500 million to the FCC and surrender some of the licenses. Controversy surrounding Ergen's leadership is
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nothing new, however. His reputation for cutthroat business tactics in the past led The Hollywood Reporter to dub him the "the most hated man in Hollywood."
Name: Ray Dalio Net worth: $16.3 billion Age: 66 Country: US Industry: Hedge funds Source of wealth: Self-made; Bridgewater Associates Ray Dalio's hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, is the biggest in the world, managing a portfolio of around $154 billion in global investments. At the top of his industry and having amassed an enormous fortune, Dalio has more recently focused on giving away money and advice. He's taken the Giving Pledge, committing to donate the majority of his wealth to charity. And last year he shared his highly coveted "investment secrets," albeit in an unorthodox manner for a hedge funder, in a 30-minute YouTube video, which has been watched more than 2 million times. His 123-page, self-published manual on his principles of money management and leadership is also seen as somewhat of a bible among the investment world. Dalio has always taken a radical approach to management, making everything he and his fund does completely transparent to employees. And it's worked well for him: Bridgewater, while sometimes viewed as "cultish," is one of the most coveted places to work in finance. Dalio has said that he attributes his success, in part, to reminding himself that history repeats itself and keeping track of the decisions he's made that didn't work.
Name: Dilip Shanghvi Net worth: $16.4 billion Age: 60 Country: India Industry: Pharmaceuticals Source of wealth: Self-made; Sun Pharmaceutical Industries After graduating from the University of Calcutta in 1982, Dilip Shanghvi started working at his father's wholesale generic-drugs business, where he saw an opportunity to manufacture Lithosun, a drug that treated manic-depressive disorders and was unavailable in much of eastern India. That was the genesis of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, which Shangvi founded in 1983 with a $1,000 investment from his father. In its first year of business, Sun Pharma generated more than $100,000 in sales, and in 1994 the company went public on the Bombay Stock Exchange. It began expanding shortly thereafter, entering the global generic-drug market by acquiring Michiganbased Caraco Pharmaceuticals Laboratories in 1997, the first of many international acquisitions. In 2012, Shanghvi stepped down as chairman and now serves as managing director of the company, which generates $4.5 billion in sales. Early in 2015, Shanghvi became the richest man in India for a period of time after his company's stocks surged. No matter the number, Shanghvi remains devoted to philanthropy as founder and chairman of the Shantilal Shanghvi Foundation, which donates to education, social-welfare, and communitydevelopment causes.
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Name: Azim Premji Net worth: $16.5 billion Age: 70 Country: India Industry: Technology Source of wealth: Inheritance/self-made; Wipro In 1966, 21-year-old Azim Premji dropped out of Stanford in the wake of his father's death to take the helm of his father's company Western India Vegetable Products — later renamed Wipro. It was under Premji's leadership that the company diversified into toiletries and bath products and, eventually, IT, and the company grew exponentially. Now India's third-largest IT giant, Wipro generated revenues of $7.6 billion in its most recent fiscal year. Just days into the new year, Premji named Abidali Neemuchwala, a Dallas-based consultancy executive, the new CEO of Wipro, citing him as the best leader to take Wipro into "its next phase of growth." Neemuchwala had been brought on to Wipro as chief operating officer last April after years of working for rival Tata Consultancy Services. Premji is known for his generosity. He signed the Giving Pledge, committing to donate at least half of his wealth to charity, and in 2015 was named "the most generous Indian" on the Hurun India Philanthropy list for the third year in a row.
Name: Len Blavatnik Net worth: $16.7 billion Age: 58 Country: US Industry: Diversified investments Source of wealth: Self-made; Access Industries After earning degrees at Columbia University and Harvard Business School, Len Blavatnik — a Ukraine-born American — founded Access Industries, a privately held industrial company, in 1986. The company began with only Russian investments, but it now boasts a diverse portfolio that includes natural resources, chemicals, media and telecommunications, and real estate. Blavatnik built his fortune through business savvy and a knack for making well-timed investments. In 2004, his company purchased a 20% stake in Tory Burch, becoming the first and largest outside investor in the fashion house, which has since blossomed into a powerhouse retailer worth over $3 billion. He's credited with one of the greatest investments of all time in his risky buyout of petrochemicals maker LyondellBasell, which he purchased out of bankruptcy amid the financial crisis for north of $2 billion. The value of his stake had jumped to more than $10 billion in 2014. He incurred a comparatively measly fine of $656,000 from the Federal Trade Commission in October for failing to properly report his investments in the company. Recently he's tried his hand as a music mogul, purchasing Warner Music Group in 2011 for $3.3 billion. Two years later, he bought British label Parlophone for $742 million, giving him an expanded roster of musical acts that includes Coldplay, Blur, Metallica, and Bruno Mars. His music holdings also include investments in emerging-technology companies such as Spotify and Beats Electronics.
Name: Donald Bren Net worth: $17 billion
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Age: 83 Country: US Industry: Real estate Source of wealth: Self-made; Irvine Company Donald Bren, the wealthiest real-estate mogul in America, is the sole owner of The Irvine Co., a private real-estate developer with properties primarily in Orange County and along the California coast. After serving three years as an officer in the US Marine Corps, the then 26-year-old founded Bren Co. in 1958 and built his first property in Newport Beach, California, with a $10,000 bank loan. In 1977, Bren and his business partners purchased The Irvine Co. — named for one of Orange County’s earliest developers — for $337 million. Bren held a 34% stake in the company and served as the vice chairman before buying out five stockholders, which increased his stake in the company to 86%. By 1996, he became the sole owner of the company, whose portfolio of properties — collectively known as the Irvine Master Plan — exceeds 110 million square feet and includes 500 office buildings, 41 retail centers, 130 apartment communities, three hotels, five marinas, and three golf clubs. The Irvine Co. also owns 50,000 acres of permanently preserved land in Orange County. Bren is reportedly eyeing Silicon Valley as his next venture. Through his Donald Bren Foundation, which focuses on education and conservation, Bren has donated more than $1.3 billion to charitable causes.
Name: Ma Huateng Net worth: $17.1 billion Age: 44 Country: China Industry: Technology Source of wealth: Self-made; Tencent Holdings
Softward engineer Ma Huateng founded China's largest internet portal, Tencent Holdings, in 1998. He was 26. Ma's company has a number of successful and widely used platforms in its portfolio, including QQ, its instant-messaging service, which is one of the world's 10 largest websites; a mobile-texting service (WeChat) with 600 million users; a mobilecommerce product (WeChat Wallet); and an onlinegaming community (Tencent Games), the largest in China. Last year Ma made two big deals. In April, he bought a $400 million stake in Chinese classified-listings platform 58.com, of which Tencent already owned a 25% share. That same month he also bought a 15% stake in mobile-game maker Glu Mobile for $126 million.
Name: Paul Allen Net worth: $18.3 billion Age: 62 Country: US Industry: Diversified investments Source of wealth: Self-made; Microsoft Alongside his cofounder Bill Gates, Paul Allen credits Microsoft for his fortune. Although Allen left the company before it went public in 1986, he remained a board member until 2000 and today holds a less than 5% stake. The college dropout went on to found Vulcan, his private-investment vehicle, shortly after leaving the software giant. With lifetime donations exceeding $2 billion, Allen's philanthropic efforts make him one of the most generous people in the world. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation gives to global health causes, including $5 million to Seattle BioMed, $4 million to Global FinPrin
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project focused on the preservation of sharks worldwide — and $7 million in grants to Alzheimer's research. During West Africa's Ebola pandemic in 2014, Allen gave more than $100 million to develop solutions to stem the outbreak. In October 2015, the foundation announced seven new grants totaling $11 million to prevent future widespread Ebola outbreaks. The self-made billionaire also counts an extravagant lineup of cars, World War II fighter jets, real estate, and two sports teams — the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trailblazers — among his luxurious array of assets.
Name: Lee Shau Kee Net worth: $18.5 billion Age: 87 Country: Hong Kong Industry: Real estate Source of wealth: Self-made; Henderson Land Development Lee Shau Kee fled China for Hong Kong before the Communist takeover in 1948, working in commodities like gold and currency exchange before founding Henderson Land Development in 1973. Over the last 43 years, Henderson has become a top real-estate developer in Hong Kong and China, generating annual sales of more than $3 billion and making Lee one of the richest men in Asia. An active philanthropist, Lee has donated more than $100 million over the years to causes ranging from education to affordable housing to farmer-training programs. In October, he honored the birth of his seventh grandchild by giving away HK$15 million — about US$1.9 million — to his friends and employees.
Name: Carl Icahn Net worth: $18.7 billion Age: 79 Country: US Industry: Diversified investments Source of wealth: Self-made; Icahn Enterprises
Name: Michael Dell Net worth: $18.9 billion Age: 50 Country: US Industry: Technology Source of wealth: Self-made; Dell
Carl Icahn has made a lifelong habit and lucrative career out of agitating undervalued and poorly managed companies to change their ways. Since founding his own investment firm in 1968, Icahn has become one of the most powerful people in finance, investing in scores of high-profile companies, including RJR Nabisco, Philips Petroleum, Viacom, Marvel, Time Warner, Netflix, and Herbalife.
While he was a premed student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, Michael Dell started a company called PC Ltd., the predecessor to Dell Inc., with a seed fund of $1,000. Dell soon dropped out of college to build computers full-time and found himself at the helm of one of the fastest-growing companies in the country, with $6 million in sales in its first year of business.
And he usually gets his way. When Icahn revealed that he held a stake in Apple worth more than $1 billion in 2013, the company's stock shot up and CEO Tim Cook responded to Icahn's critique of the company. Cook has even come around to some of Icahn's views, and Icahn said in the fall that he may buy an even larger stake.
By the time he was 23, the company went public and raised $30 million — $18 million of it going to Dell personally. Four years later, the CEO became the youngest man to ever lead a Fortune 500 company. Aside from a brief hiatus as CEO between 2004 and 2007, Dell has been the chairman and CEO of Dell Inc. since its inception. After a furious battle with Carl Icahn, Dell took his computer company private again in 2013 in a deal valued at nearly $25 billion.
Now Icahn's leading the charge against AIG, publishing an open letter in January calling for the insurance giant to break up into a "smaller, simpler company." Icahn has said that he has no plans of retiring from pestering corporate executives, but a career shift may nonetheless be in the works. Donald Trump has said that if elected US president, he would bring Icahn in as Treasury secretary — a position which Icahn said he would accept despite some disagreements with the combative real-estate mogul's positions.
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Despite spending millions on fancy toys and impressive real estate, Dell is generous. He's given more than $1.1 billion through the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, which primarily supports education, social- and human-services, arts and culture, and community-development causes. A year ago, the foundation pledged $25 million to fund the construction of a new teaching hospital, set to open in Austin in 2017.