The world has seen many great entrepreneurs over the years. Some were born into wealth, others had to struggle for everything they got. But no matter how they started, these people went on to become successful in business.
In this article, we are going to explore the lives of some of the most famous entrepreneurs of all time. We will take a look at their backgrounds, what they did to become successful, and their legacy.
Steve Jobs:
Steve Jobs was one of the most famous and influential entrepreneurs of the 20th century. He is considered to be a visionary, who shaped the way we live, communicate and do business. He is best known for being the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc.
After graduating from high school in 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College but dropped out after one semester. He then spent 18 months on a spiritual quest in India before returning to America where he became a Buddhist monk for some time. In 1976 he founded Apple with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne.
Steve founded other companies such as Next and Pixar. He was also the chairman of Walt Disney Company from 2006 to 2009, after Disney acquired Pixar in 2006.
He died on October 5, 2011, due to complications from pancreatic cancer.
Elon Musk:
Elon Musk is a famous entrepreneur and a visionary. He is famous for his achievements in different fields.
He was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, Transvaal (now Gauteng), South Africa to engineer parents who had immigrated from Canada to South Africa in order to help build a hydroelectric plant. His father was an engineer and his mother had studied physics as well as being a model for fashion companies before getting married and having children.
He moved to Canada when he was 17 years old with little money and no friends or family members to support him there.
He then went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in physics and economics in 1995. After graduation, he started Zip2 Corporation which he sold for $307 million. He then co-founded X.com which merged with Paypal in 2000.
Elon is known for his achievements such as creating Tesla, SpaceX, PayPal, and Solar City. He is also famous for being the CEO of these companies and for his investments in other projects such as Hyperloop, OpenAI, Neuralink, and The Boring Company.
Bill Gates:
Bill Gates is an American business magnate, philanthropist, and computer programmer. He was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington.
Bill co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen, who had been working on MITS’s “Altair” project since 1970. Gates helped develop the company’s early products, which included programs such as BASIC and MS-DOS. In 1980, he became a billionaire when Microsoft went public and his share of the company was worth $1 billion; he then became one of the wealthiest people in history after his holdings grew to $10 billion by 1995.
He is also a well-known philanthropist and has donated billions to various charities through his foundation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Mark Zuckerberg:
Mark Zuckerberg is the founder and CEO of Facebook. He is one of the youngest people to become a billionaire and has been ranked among the world’s richest people, with an estimated net worth of US$97 billion in 2021.
He was born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York, to Karen (née Koch) and Edward Zuckerberg. His father was a dentist while his mother studied at Fordham University before she ended up working as a psychiatrist.
In his early years, he had an interest in programming and hacking but his father thought that he should not pursue it because there were no jobs available for him in this field. So he enrolled himself in Phillips Exeter Academy where he studied for two years before moving on to Harvard University.
In his sophomore year at Harvard University, he created a site called “FaceMash” which was a social media platform where users could compare two different pictures of women and vote on which one they thought was more attractive. He developed Facebook as an outgrowth of this site while at university. He started Facebook in 2004 with his college roommates Eduardo Saverin and Dustin Moskovitz while they were still students.
Oprah Winfrey:
Oprah Winfrey is a famous American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and entrepreneur. She is famous for her talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011 in the United States.
In 1993, she launched her own production company, Harpo Productions, which co-produced her talk show until 2011.
Walt Disney:
Walt Disney was an American entrepreneur, famous for founding and developing The Walt Disney Company. He is often called the “visionary” and the “father” of modern-day Disney. Disney is one of the most celebrated figures in American history.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 5, 1901, to Elias and Flora Disney. His father worked as a carpenter and his mother as a midwife and later a doctor’s assistant. He had four siblings: Roy O., Ruth, Raymond (who died at four), and Dorothy.
Henry Ford:
Henry Ford was a famous American entrepreneur and visionary who was best known for his success in the automotive industry. He was born on July 30, 1863, in Greenfield Township, Michigan.
Ford is considered to be one of the most influential and famous entrepreneurs of all time. His introduction of the assembly line method of production enabled him to produce a car faster and with reduced costs. He also introduced the idea of paying workers an hourly wage rather than a salary which created greater demand for his cars.
John D. Rockefeller:
John D. Rockefeller was an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was a visionary, famous, and successful businessman who helped shape modern-day capitalism.
John D. Rockefeller is one of the most famous businessmen in history. He is known as a pioneer of Standard Oil Company and its successor Exxon Mobil Corporation, which he founded with his brother William Rockefeller in 1870. He is also well-known for his philanthropy and his part in the establishment of the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University in New York City.
John D. Rockefeller achieved international fame as one of the world’s wealthiest individuals ever to live, with a peak net worth of around $340 billion (in current dollars).
Andrew Carnegie:
Andrew Carnegie was an American industrialist and one of the wealthiest people in history. He built the Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J.P. Morgan, making him one of the richest men in America at that time.
He was born in Scotland on November 25, 1835. He left his homeland to immigrate to America with his family when he was 13 years old.
In addition to being a famous entrepreneur, Carnegie was a well-known philanthropist and peace activist.
Thomas Edison:
Thomas Edison is a famous inventor and entrepreneur. He is best known for his invention of the lightbulb, which he invented in 1879. He also invented many other things like the phonograph, motion pictures, and the alkaline battery. Edison held over 1000 patents in his lifetime.
Although Edison had far more patents than he did corporate ties, he founded General Electric, a world leader in the Energy industry.
This concludes the list of the most famous entrepreneurs of all time.