We, the ordinary mortals, who spend like rich people during Christmas, and then become debt-riddled in January, should reflect on what unique traits and characters distinguish the truly wealthy ones.
Both the Forbes Magazine and Wikipedia listed Jeff Bezos, with net worth of $96.billion, as the richest worldwide. He was the founder of Amazon, the global e-commerce colossus in 1994, inside his small garage in Seattle, Washington. He and his wife Mackenzie are divorcing after 25 years. He will give her 4% of Amazon after the divorce, making her one of the richest women in the world. In 2018 alone, Amazon amassed $230 billion in revenue and raked in $10 billion net profit, up from $3 billion in 2017. Second is Bill Gates with $96B net worth. He co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975. He and his wife, Melinda, pledged to give away all their wealth to charity via their foundation, the world's largest private charitable foundation.
Third is Warren Buffet, with a net worth of $82.5B. He is the world's most successful investor. He started buying stocks at age 11 and paid taxes at age 13. He now runs the Berkshire Hathaway which owns more than 60 companies, including Dairy Queen, Duracell, and Geico. He promised to give away 99% of his fortune to charity. In 2018, he donated $3.4B mostly to the foundation of Bill and Melinda Gates. Fourth richest is French Bernard Arnault, with $76B. He oversees a global empire of brands including Louie Vuitton, Sephora, and Christian Dior.
Fifth is Carlos Slim, Mexico's richest man, with a net worth of $64B. He controls Movil, Latin America's biggest mobile telecom firm. He also owns large conglomerates in construction, mining, real estate, and consumer goods. Sixth is Amancio Ortega of Spain, with a net worth of $62.7B, one of the world's wealthiest retailers. He co-founded Inditex that owns brands like Zara, Massimo Dutti, Paul, and Bear. Seventh is Larry Ellison with net worth of $62.5B. Co-founder of Oracle, he pledged $200M to the University of Southern California for a cancer treatment center. He launched in 2018 a wellness company called Sensei whose first project is a hydroponic farming in Lanai, Hawaii.
Eighth is Mark Zuckerberg, with a net worth of $62.5B. At age 19, he founded Facebook just for fun among his classmates, to match names with faces. Now it is a multi-billion global business empire. He and his wife, Priscilla, pledged to give away 99% of their stakes in Facebook to charity over their lifetime. Ninth is Michael Bloomberg, with a net worth of $55B. He founded and owns Bloomberg, a financial and media company. He has donated $5B to gun control and climate change and many other causes. He plans to spend $500M to defeat run against Donald Trump this year. Tenth is Larry Page, with $50.8B, he heads Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, which he co- founded with fellow Stanford graduate student Sergev Brin.
What makes them different? They are all bold, daring, and creative. They have vision and passion. They think hard and act harder. They never spend all their years as employees. They founded their own companies, created their own products, and were never afraid to jump into unexplored areas. They are fighters and survivors of all forms of odds and pressures. They hitched their wagons to the stars and worked hard to achieve their goals. Best of all, they give away a lot to charity. But they don’t spend all their money during Christmas.