5 Self Made Billionaires and their philosophy in life

Bharat Sharma

04/10/2018



As you read this, there are more than 1000 billionaires in the world.

Yes, getting your millions converted into billions is by far the easiest definition of a billionaire but do you really know the amount of effort and risk it took for these people?

If you think going from millions to billions is challenging - think about how much the struggle of these self-made billionaires when they started with practically nothing! Through this article, we aim to share the journey of 5 self-made billionaires as well as their hobbies and philosophy in life.

These billionaires were not just born with a golden spoon – they have all worked super-hard and persisted in the toughest of times to be what they are today.

Apart from work, these self-made billionaires also make time for following their passion and interests in life.

If you are curious to know about their attitude towards life, living and success, keep on reading.

Elon Musk

His Net Worth: $24 billion

His Journey: Who would’ve thought that an ordinary South American born American student will have the extraordinary ability to create path-breaking milestones in his lifetime. After teaching himself to code at the age of 12, Elon went on to sell his first video game for a $500. When he first arrived in Canada, he did a series of odd jobs including tending vegetables and cleaning out gunk at mills.

Since his early entrepreneurial days, Elon Musk went on to form three multi-million dollar companies including – PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors. Today, he is a self-made billionaire with a vision to take humans to Mars!

His Hobbies: Elon Musk loves reading and books became his main source of knowledge as he literally learned how to build rockets from reading! Elon also likes to bake cookies and loves learning new stuff in his free time.

His Philosophy: “If something’s important enough, you should try. Even if the probable outcome is failure”

Jeff Bezos

His Net Worth: $110 billion

His Journey: After working with a financial services firm, Bezos quit his job to take advantage of the growing internet boom of the 90s. Starting out from a garage in 1994, he has grown Amazon from a small e-commerce portal to the world’s largest online retailer and cloud computing giant with a net income of $857 million per year.

His Hobbies: Bezos is a unique man and so are his hobbies. When he is not busy leading Amazon, he likes to hunt for old, discarded NASA rocket ships underwater and then works to retrieve and restore these historic relics! Here’s all you need to know about the amazing hobby of Jeff Bezos in detail.

His Philosophy: “I knew that if I failed, I wouldn’t regret that. But I knew the one thing, I might regret not trying”

Mark Zuckerberg

His Net Worth: $70 billion

His Journey: At age 11, young Mark started computer programming and built a program from his father’s office. Soon, he was making games out of his friends’ drawing while learning to read Latin, Greek and Hebrew. After launching Facebook in 2004 at Harvard University, Zuckerberg quickly went on to form his company and dropped out of college. Today, Facebook is world's biggest and most profitable social media platform.

His Hobbies: Mark Zuckerberg likes to code and learn new things. After marrying his college sweetheart, he also learned to speak Mandarin (Chinese). He now puts his passion for philanthropy above all with Zuckerberg-Chan initiative. Zuckerberg often likes to put emphasis on learning new things in life. In fact, he credited his success to his hobbies that ultimately, paved way for Facebook.

His Philosophy: “In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks”

Bill Gates

His Net Worth: $86 billion

His Journey: He started by building a computer in 1975. While studying at Harvard University, young Bill started programming and developed software for the Altair computer system. Soon, he dropped out of college and co-founded Microsoft in 1976 and went on to build the world’s most popular operating systems Windows.

His Hobbies: Bill Gates is a huge fan of learning new things. His hobby for writing and reading is well-known and he also likes to share his favorite books on his blog. Beyond reading and learning, Bill Gates is a philanthropist at heart who likes to support the cause of universal education, poverty eradication and healthcare through Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

His Philosophy: “It is fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure”

Related: Billionaire Bill Gates recommends reading these five books

Jack Ma

His Net Worth: $36 billion

His Journey: After graduating as an English teacher with a pay of 12$ a month, he tried applying to Harvard University ten times but was rejected each time. During his Bachelors’ education, Jack tried to get a job but he failed after getting rejected 30 times.

Finally at the age of 31, he started his company Alibaba Group which is now a conglomerate specializing in e-commerce, retail, internet and technology.

His Hobbies: Jack Ma is an enthusiastic live musician (his favorite genre is Mandopop). He has also performed live shows and music festivals. Not only that, Jack Ma is also a well-known Micheal Jackson fan and impersonator. In addition to music and dance, Ma also likes to practice oil painting and kung-fu as his hobbies.

His Philosophy: “Keep fighting, keep changing yourself. Never stop because you failed and never complain. Today is hard, tomorrow will be harder but they day after tomorrow will be sunshine”

Over To You

Who motivates you to learn and be better at life? If billionaires can make time for living a purpose driven life, so can you!

Have no time to learn something new? Learn to make time for things that matter with a simple three-step technique.