Twenty Billionaires Who Started With Nothing
 

I found this article I thought others could find interesting to read too...

How some people start with nothing, to amassing wealth to rival Fort Knox!

Twenty Billionaires Who Started With Nothing
http://images.businessweek.com/slide...d-with-nothing

It still is possible to be a big success, even if you're starting with little...

More on this soon...

Best wishes!

Dien

A piece of wisdom befitting a wizard...
 

Here's an informative piece of wisdom from the story of Carl Berg...

http://images.businessweek.com/slide...thing/slides/3


What I find amazing here was that Berg took a job purely in order to meet the people he wanted to meet - that would help him become a big money-making success. It's a piece of wisdom befitting a wizard...

Many people become successes just this way... They plan to meet a certain person, or a certain type of person, who can help them get to where they want to get - then "strategize" so that this meeting is more likely to happen.

Why not you, too?

- Dien

Know your business...
 

Here's another interesting story... from the life of John Paul DeJoria...

http://images.businessweek.com/slide...thing/slides/6


The key thing here is - he started in hair care and cosmetics, and worked in that field. Eventually, I'm sure the business was as familiar to him as the face he saw every day in the mirror. When he launched a company, it was in that same field.

He built on what he knew... It always helps to build a house on solid ground that you're familiar with - and not on unfamiliar ground, which could be quicksand!

- Dien

Thanks Dien -- I also noticed...
 

...that, after clicking on "read the [rest of the] story" link at the bottom of the 1st page, it led to an UNavoidable advertising video (commercial) -- which the visitor is *forced* to view, before proceeding. That is, the rest of the article is held hostage -- the "ransom" being one's eyeballs AND a bunch of seconds worth of attention paid.

"You VIL votch zee ads, UNT you vil LUFF votching zee ads!!"

Cheers.

-- TW

Maybe... Not on the Same level(s)... But a clean Tongue! JV'ing etc., Specialized...
 

Products and ideas...

More Food for thought with a different connection...

All Starts with a Clean Tongue of course... :)

Good ol' Bad Breath niche and a few Smart mixed Aged entrepreneurial Thinking and Action takers... ;)

Studying & Learning their Exact marketing plans and Structuring with some Nice added Creativity...

Will give your business in Marketing Specialized products throughout the Web similar Opportunities and Successes...

Especially! ... By Spinning... Testing, Testing, ongoing Testing with YouTube and other Social networking related ideas...

Quick info on The Orabrush Success story...

Definitely worth Studying and Applying into your own business model(s)...
http://www.google.com/search?q=orabr...N&hl=en&tab=wn
http://www.google.com/search?q=orabr...ient=firefox-a
http://www.orabrush.com/free/

Phil

Re: Twenty Billionaires Who Started With Nothing
 

I love where this forum thread is at as I myself am reading a lot of business books and can't get enough ideas as to how and where to start. Hopefully, all the readers of this thread will have what is takes to be a millionaire or even billionaire someday. I have one tip though if one wants to go to the retail industry and that is a Columbus self storage or something similar. Makes you save on storage fees.

Re: Twenty Billionaires Who Started With Nothing
 

If you're interested in the Huge $$$$ making Storage related industry...

Give the following idea(s) some Food for thought into another Up and coming Fresh one... ;)
http://www.springwise.com/life_hacks/storagebymail/

Phil

Re: Twenty Billionaires Who Started With Nothing
 

From what I've read, aside from he knows what he is doing, he loves what he is doing. I think he made it clear to his self of what he wants in his life.

Re: Maybe... Not on the Same level(s)... But a clean Tongue! JV'ing etc., Specialized...
 

Thanks Phil!

That's a great link... It shows there is still opportunity - even in relatively "simple" tools, such as this one...

Tongue scrapers existed before - but they have a different design... E.g. see here



http://www.google.com/images?q=tongue+scraper

However, the Orabrush people created a new - perhaps improved - patented design!



Patent protection is part of the "toll position" concept that Harvey Brody talks about, along with the trademark too (though it can be more sophisticated than these concepts too)...

That toll position makes it hard for others to copy them - and to "steal" their profits...

Great stuff - thanks Phil!

Best wishes,

Dien

Sometimes it helps to be able to sell sand in a desert, or ice to the Eskimos…
 

Here are a couple more...

http://images.businessweek.com/slide...hing/slides/13

Actually, in the above one, I want to highlight Ross Perot more than Ken Langone...

http://images.businessweek.com/slide...hing/slides/14

Many rich people have a good experience in sales. Such as Ross Perot and Ralph Lauren (among many others).

Not every sales person gets rich - but sales knowhow can help, especially when mixed with a little entrepreneurial spirit - since nothing happens until a sale is made!

"Selling" is not only selling the products to customers, but also selling the idea of your business to investors as well, plus to suppliers, distributors, ...

By the way, another guy connected to Ken Langone is Arthur Blank - one of the other co-founders of Home Depot...

From Wikipedia's entry on him - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Blank

Probably the day Arthur Blank got fired was the best day of his life (with hindsight)! Getting fired enabled him to pursue the opportunity to co-found Home Depot.

If Arthur Blank hadn't been fired - would he be a billionaire today?

Maybe not!

One thing which is good to do is to "Solve Problems In the Direction Of your Goals" (SPIDOG), that's a concept that Harvey Brody teaches. Getting fired - and using that new opportunity to create an unbelievable company like Home Depot - that's a great example of that...

- Dien

Re: Thanks Dien -- I also noticed...
 

Hi TW,

On the other hand, it's probably ads like that helping to keep the magazine afloat... After all, they've gotta pay the bills too!

If it's a choice of it existing with ads, or not existing without the ads - I'd choose the ads...

I think many of these online ads are generally more entertaining anyway - they know that you have a lot of possible distractions online, so they have to keep it entertaining to make people watch!

Cheers, Dien

I *DO* advocate the ads!!...
 

Sorry if I gave the wrong impression.

I am on the side of the ads! Remember, I am the big believer in intrusive ads. I believe intrusive ads are the (very) cornerstone of capitalism itself!

My sparring partner on this topic has always been Ankesh (who advocates the permission-based model).

So, yes, bring on the ads AND the forced keeping-the-audience's-eyes-OPEN, A-Clockwork-Orange style machines, that go with them!
(see attached image)

Minority Report style intrusiveness cannot be avoided. The intended audience cannot be PERMITTED to ignore the ads!

I'm totally there, man.

Cheers.

-- TW

Re: Twenty Billionaires Who Started With Nothing
 

Success stories of Billionaires are always a great read! Thanks for posting that link.

Re: Twenty Billionaires Who Started With Nothing
 

Just to add:

For all of your aspiring young entrepreneurs who are trying to make millions online, Michael Dunlop from Retire at 21 put together a list of the top 30 internet millionaires who are under 30 years of age.

Holding down the number one spot is Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook. He’s only 23 years old, has an annual turnover of $700 million, and is only getting started!

Here is the complete list:

Rank – Name – Company – Age – Annual Turnover

1 – Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook – 23 – $700 Million
2 – Andrew Gower – Runescape – 28 – $650 Million
3 – Blake Ross and David Hyatt – Mozilla – 22 – $120 Million
4 – Chad Hurley – Youtube – 30 – $85 Million
5 – Angelo Sotira – Deviant ART – 26 – $75 Million
6 – John Vechey – PopCap Games – 28 – $60 Million
7 – Alexander Levin – WordPress – 23 – $57 Million
8 – Alexander Levin – Image Shack – 23 – $56 Million
9 – Jake Nickell – Threadless – 28 – $50 Million
10 – Sean Belnick – Biz Chair – 20 – $42 Million
11 – Kevin Rose – Digg – 30 – $31 Million
12 – Robert Small – MiniClips – 24 – $23 Million
13 – Ryan Block – Engadget – 25 – $20 Million
14 – Aodhan Cullen – Stat Counter – 24 – $18 Million
15 – Tom Fulp – Newgrounds – 29 – $15 Million
16 – Rishi Kacker and Matt Pauker – Voltage – 24 – $12 Million
17 – Markus Frind – Plenty Of Fish – 29 – $10 Million
18 – Catherine and David Cook – My Year Book – 17 & 19 – $10 Million
19 – Fredrik Neij – The Pirate Bay – 28 – $10 Million
20 – DAVID LEVICH – Iced Out Gear – 25 – $10 Million
21 – David Hauser & Siamak Taghaddos – GotvMail – 24 – $8 Million
22 – Jermaine Griggs – Hear and Play – 23 – $5 Million
23 – Jay Westerdal – Domain Tools – 29 – $5 Million
24 – Ashley Qualls – What Ever Life – 17 – $3 Million
25 – Mario Lavandeira – Perez Hilton – 29 – $3 Million
26 – Ben Way – Rain Makers – 27 – $2.2 Million
27 – Lauris Liberts – Frype – 25 – $2 Million
28 – Alex Tew – Million Dollar Homepage – 22 – $1.6 Million
29 – Rob Benwell – Blogging to the Bank – 23 – $1.2 Million
30 – Matt Wegrzyn – Bodis – 19 – $1 Million

When will be my name on this list?