There are many entrepreneurs who have changed the world and caused a business revolution.
In this article, we have listed the 15 most famous entrepreneurs in the world. Here we will discuss these entrepreneurs and their journey.
15 Famous Entrepreneurs in the World
- Elon Musk
- Jeff Bezos
- Bill Gates
- Gautam Adani
- Mark Zuckerburg
- Larry Ellison
- Jack Ma
- Mukesh Ambani
- Larry Page
- Richard Branson
- N. R. Narayana Murthy
- Oprah Winfrey
- Falguni Nayar
- Ritesh Agarwal
- Warren Buffett
That’s our list of famous entrepreneurs. Let us look at their journeys.
#1. Elon Musk
Source – NBC News
Basic Information about Elon Musk
Full Name – Elon Reeve Musk
Date & Place of Birth – June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa.
Citizenship – United States
Education – Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics and a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics.
Learn More about Elon Musk
- Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, defeating Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with a net worth of USD 242 billion (as of July 2022).
- He is the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer of the American aerospace company SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation). This company sends rockets into space. It is also worth noting that Elon does not have a formal education in aeronautical engineering, and yet he was able to establish and lead this company.
- He is also the CEO of the automotive and clean energy company Tesla Inc. From a layman’s understanding of the company; it manufactures electric vehicles that have driverless technology.
- Elon recently hit the headlines for buying Twitter for 44 billion dollars but then backing out of the deal by saying 5% of Twitter’s daily active users were spam bots. Twitter has taken Musk to court for breaching the legal agreement.
Apart from being the lead head of SpaceX and Tesla Inc., Elon has also founded The Boring Company (a tunnel building firm), X.Com (now PayPal), Zip2 (city guide web software), OpenAI (an AI research laboratory), and Neuralink (a neurotechnology company).
Elon was born to Errol and Mayo Musk. His father is an engineer, and his mother is a model and dietitian. Despite having an abusive childhood, Elon reached where he needed to, breaking all the barriers.
At the USC Commencement Speech in 2014, Elon encouraged the students and said, “Do something bold. You will not regret it. ”
2. Jeff Bezos
Source – Content Fortune
Basic Information about Jeff Bezos
Full Name – Jeffrey Preston Bezos
Date & Place of Birth – January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Citizenship – United States
Education – Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Learn More about Jeff Bezos
- Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon, the giant eCommerce company. From 2018 to 2021, Jeff was the richest man until Elon Must dethroned him. Jeff is now the second richest person in the world, having a net worth of $135.3 billion as of July 2022.
- After graduation, Jeff worked at Fitel, a fintech start-up, and was promoted to development head and customer service director. He later joined D. E. Shaw & Co., which was newly launched, and made his way to become the fourth senior vice-president at D. E. Shaw & Co.
- Jeff saw the internet’s 2,300% growth in 1993 and decided to participate in this revolution. He established an online bookstore named Cadabra, which was later changed to Amazon.
- He expanded his bookstore to be able to sell other products and services, and it became the leading eCommerce platform. He also extended its branches to become one of the largest technology companies providing digital streaming, cloud computing, and AI services.
- Along with Elon, Jeff is also passionate about space. Jeff founded his human spaceflight company in 2000, Blue Origin. He, along with three other crew members, rocketed into space on July 21, 2021, and returned to the Earth safely after completing a mission duration of 10 minutes and 10 seconds.
Jeff was born to Jacklyn and Theodore Jorgensen. His mother was just 17 years old and in high school when she gave birth to him.
After two years of marriage, the couple separated, and his mother married Miguel “Mike” Bezos, who legally adopted Jeff and gave him his name.
Fact: Until 2014, Jeff’s biological father, Theodore, who died in 2015, did not know that the billionaire Jeff Bezos was his son.
At age 16, Jeff worked at McDonald’s for 2.69 USD per hour. He learned the basics of customer service and automation there, which later helped him on his journey.
#3. Bill Gates
Source – Heraldo USA
Basic Information about Bill Gates
Full Name – William (Bill) Henry Gates III
Date & Place of Birth – October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Citizenship – United States
Education – After graduating from Lakeside School, Bill became a National Merit Scholar, scoring 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Tests), and enrolled at Harvard College, pursuing pre-law under his father’s influence.
He later opted for computer science and mathematics. He had to leave college to focus on creating Microsoft.
Learn More about Bill Gates
- William Henry Gates III, known as Bill Gates, was crowned the richest person in the world from 1997 to 2007, 2009, and again from 2014 to 2017, before Jeff Bezos took the spot. Bill Gates is still in the billionaire top 10 list, securing the 4th position with a net worth of 129 billion USD as of July 2022.
- Bill Gates has always been passionate about technology. At the age of 13, he wrote his first computer program, which was a game called Tic-Tac-Toe, where players play against the computer.
- Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft, which he established along with Paul Allen in 1975. He never looked back after building the world’s largest computer network.
Bill Gates was born to William Henry Gates II (a lawyer) and Mary Maxwell Gates (a businesswoman and teacher). Like his father, Bill Gates is a generous philanthropist.
In 2000, Bill and his wife at the time, Melinda French, founded one of the wealthiest charitable foundations, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
Along with being a business magnate, he has authored some books like “The Road Ahead,” “Business @ the Speed of Thought,” “How to Prevent the Next Pandemic,” and more.
A quote from Bill Gates gives us a look inside his brain: “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve. “
4. Gautam Adani
Source – Moneycontrol
Basic Information about Gautam Adani
Full Name – Gautam Shantilal Adani
Date & Place of Birth – June 24, 1962, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Citizenship – India
Education – Pursued a Bachelor’s degree in commerce but did not complete it.
Learn More about Gautam Adani
- Gautam Adani is the founder and chairman of the Adani Group and is currently the wealthiest man in India and Asia, with a net worth of 126.6 billion USD, surpassing Mukesh Ambani as of July 2022. Given his net worth, he is also the fourth richest man in the world.
- Adani wanted to start his own business. In pursuing his ideal business career, Gautam started his professional life as a diamond sorter at 16, far from his hometown. He did not want to join his father’s textile business.
- In 1981, Adani joined his brother’s new plastics unit venture in Ahmedabad. Soon after, he moved on to importing and exporting. Then, he started Adani Exports, Adani Ports & SEZ, and Adani Power, and the expansion never stopped, just like his fortune.
Adani was born to Shantilal (a small textile merchant) and Shanti Adani in a small town in the Gujarat state of India.
His journey started with dropping out of college and wanting to do business to be the richest business tycoon in Asia. Adani’s journey is worth learning about.
In his SRCC Business Conclave speech in 2018, he said, “It will probably get harder before it gets easier.”
#5. Mark Zuckerburg
Source: Flickr
Basic Information about Mark Zuckerberg
Full Name – Mark Elliot Zuckerberg
Date & Place of Birth – May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York, U.S.
Citizenship – United States
Education – Pursued psychology and computer science at Harvard College but later dropped out to complete his Facebook project.
Learn More about Mark Zuckerberg
- Mark is the co-founder of the popular social network Facebook and has a net worth of 58 billion USD as of July 2022.
- Mark was curious about computer programming from an early age. During high school, he developed a music recommendation player called Synapse.
- At Harvard, he created a website called FACEMASH that allowed students to choose the best-looking face from given options. The site was shut down by the college, but it later became the basis for the idea of creating TheFacebook, which Mark launched in 2004 with his Harvard friends.
- In 2022, Facebook, the technology company that has changed its name to Meta, acquired the popular video and image sharing platform Instagram and the messaging application WhatsApp.
Mark was born to Edward (a dentist) and Karen Zuckerberg (a psychiatrist). One of his first endeavors was at the age of 12, when he developed Zucknet, a messaging network for his father’s clinic.
Mark and his wife Priscilla Chan founded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative on December 1, 2015, their daughter Maxima Chan Zuckerberg’s birthday.
The initiative is a well-funded charitable organization as it has been provided with an investment of 99% of Mark and Priscilla’s wealth from their Facebook shares.
The initiative promotes equality in education, science, justice, and opportunity.
At one of Facebook’s events, he said, “Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected. ”
#6. Larry Ellison
Source – CA Times
Basic Information about Larry Ellison
Full Name – Lawrence Joseph Ellison
Date & Place of Birth – August 17, 1944, in New York City, U.S.
Citizenship – United States
Education – He attended college and studied physics and mathematics but has no degree.
Learn More about Larry Ellison
- Larry Ellison is one name you can see in the top 10 billionaires list from 2009 to 2022. His current net worth is 107.6 billion USD as of July 2022.
- Larry co-founded Oracle, the database software monster, in 1977 and led the company as CEO from its incorporation until 2014. The formation of the company was inspired by Edgar F. Codd’s research paper on relational databases done for IBM.
Larry was born to a single Jewish mother, and when he was diagnosed with pneumonitis at the age of nine, his aunt and uncle adopted him. While his adoptive mother was kind to him, his adoptive father did not care much for him.
In one of Larry Ellison’s interviews, he said, “I am addicted to winning. The more you win, the more you want to win. “
#7. Jack Ma
Source – Wikimedia
Basic Information about Jack Ma
Full Name – Jack Ma Yun
Date & Place of Birth – September 10, 1964, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Citizenship – China
Education – Bachelor of Arts (English)
Learn More about Jack Ma
- Jack Ma is a well-known figure not only in China but also throughout the world.
- Given that the founder of Alibaba started from scratch to build his 36.4 billion USD empire, his journey could make for an interesting movie plot.
- When tourism swept through the city in 1972, Jack saw it as an opportunity to learn English from foreign visitors. This later helped him when he was facing trouble finding employment and led him to become an English teacher and later start his translator service business. He was given the name Jack by his tourist pals because his real name was difficult for them to pronounce.
- He was exposed to the internet during his visit to the USA in 1995 as a translator. He noticed that nothing related to China was available on the World Wide Web, and he saw the opportunity to bridge the gap. He started a website in China called ChinaPages that listed Chinese products.
- The ChinaPages website was forced to close due to a lack of funding, following which Jack started working for the government at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Corporation. There, he developed connections with powerful people that later aided in founding his most successful company, Alibaba Group.
Jack’s parents were traditional musicians in China. Jack has seen a lot of failures in his life. He failed his school entrance exams twice and university entrance exams thrice. Jack even applied to Harvard 10 times and was rejected each time.
He once applied for 31 different odd jobs and was rejected by all. Jack Ma once shared a story: “I even went to KFC when it came to my city. Twenty-four people went for the job. Twenty-three were accepted. I was the only guy rejected. “
#8. Mukesh Ambani
Source – Addicted2Success
Basic Information about Mukesh Ambani
Full Name – Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani
Date & Place of Birth – April 19, 1957, Aden, Colony of Aden.
Citizenship – India
Education – BE degree in chemical engineering
Learn More about Mukesh Ambani
With a net worth of 94 billion dollars as of July 2022, Mukesh Ambani is the second richest man in Asia.
- Mukesh was studying for his MBA degree at Stanford University in 1980 when his father called him back to help with his business and learn from practical experience rather than classroom teaching.
- As the owner of the Mumbai Indians (a cricket team) and the founder of the Indian Super League (a football league), he is considered one of the world’s richest sports owners.
- Mukesh Ambani destroyed the Indian telecom competition (including his brother’s telecom company, Reliance Communications) with the launch of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, better known as Reliance Jio, in September 2016. The company offered free data and voice services until December 31st, 2016, which was extended to March 31st, 2017.
In 83 days, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio acquired 50 million subscribers in India.
Mukesh Ambani is the son of Reliance Industries founder Dhirubhai Ambani and his wife, Kokilaben Ambani. He was born into a wealthy family. Mukesh’s home Antila Mansion in Mumbai is the most expensive private home in the world, worth over a billion dollars.
There was no will created before Dhirubhai died to divide his wealth among his children. In 2005, Mukesh and Anil Ambani were given equal inheritances by Ambani’s mother, Kokilaben. Fast forward to 2022: Mukesh Ambani is the second richest man in the country, and his brother is bankrupt.
#9. Larry Page
Source – The New York Times
Basic Information about Larry Page
Full Name – Lawrence Edward Page
Date & Place of Birth – March 26, 1973, in Lansing, Michigan, U.S.
Citizenship – United States
Education – Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and a Master’s degree in computer science.
Learn More about Larry Page
- He is the man who changed the way we search for information online. Larry is one of the founders of Google. Larry has a net worth of 108 billion USD as of July 2022.
- Larry and the co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, met at Stanford University. Together, they created a search engine for a research project and named it Googol after the mathematics term Googol, 1 following hundreds of zeros.
- To incorporate Google, Larry and Sergey raised money from friends, family, and investors. The company was established in 1998 and has since continued to grow.
Larry’s father, Carl Victor Page Sr., was a computer science and artificial intelligence genius, and his mother, Gloria, was a teacher who taught computer programming.
From early childhood, Larry always experienced a scientific, technological, and innovative atmosphere at home, which sparked his interest in innovation.
Larry was interested in music as well as technology. He says that he understood the importance of speed from playing musical instruments.
“Always deliver more than expected” is one of Larry’s best quotes.
#10. Richard Branson
Source – CNBC
Basic Information about Richard Branson
Full Name – Richard Charles Nicholas Branson
Date & Place of Birth – July 18, 1950, in London, England.
Citizenship – United Kingdom
Education: He left school when he was 16 years old.
Learn More about Richard Branson
- Richard struggled in school because he has dyslexia, a reading disorder. His teacher told him he would end up in jail or become a millionaire.
Guess what happened? Instead of being neither, he became a multi-billionaire with a net worth of 5.7 billion dollars as of July 2022. - Richard is the founder of Virgin Group, a venture capital conglomerate company of 400+ businesses worldwide.
- He started his business journey by starting a magazine called Student. The magazine was a success and earned him a revenue of 8,000 USD.
- He was later involved in the music recording business and started a recording studio called Virgin Records, and soon it became one of the best in its domain.
- In 1992, he sold Virgin Group to Thorn EMI for 1 billion USD to get rid of debts. After the deal, he was devastated and distressed before he bounced back in the music business with V2Records, as well as Virgin Trains, Virgin Radio, Virgin Airlines, and then the Virgin Galactic spaceflight company.
Branson was born to Eve and Edward James Branson. His mother was a ballet dancer and an air hostess, and his father was a lawyer. He also established Virgin Unite, a charitable trust that works to improve people’s lives.
One of Branson’s best quotes says, “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity, but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!”
#11. N. R. Narayana Murthy
Source – Times of India
Basic Information about N.R. Narayana Murthy
Full Name – Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy
Date & Place of Birth – August 20, 1946, in Mysore, Karnataka, India.
Citizenship – India
Education – A Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a Master’s degree from IIT Kanpur.
Learn More about N. R. Narayana Murthy
- One of the most well-known IT companies, Infosys, was founded by Mr. Narayan Murthy, an Indian business magnate with a net worth of 4.4 billion USD. He is referred to as “the father of the Indian IT sector” by Time magazine and CNBC.
- Murthy has been awarded Padma Vibhushan (the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India) and Padma Shri (the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India), CBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), and LH (The National Order of the Legion of Honour). Before Infosys, he founded a company called Softronics, but the company did not perform well and closed.
- Murthy began his professional career at IIMA, one of India’s top management business schools, where he worked as a research associate and the chief systems programmer.
Murthy was born into a middle-class family and unlocked his fortune through hard work and dedication. Mr. Murthy’s son-in-law is the British politician Rishi Sunak, who is vying to become the next prime minister of the United Kingdom.
One of Murthy’s famous quotes goes, “It is better to underpromise and overdeliver than vice versa. For this, one need not break the law of the land. “
#12. Oprah Winfrey
Source – GSB Stanford
Basic Information about Oprah Winfrey
Full Name – Orpah Gail Winfrey
Date & Place of Birth – January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, U.S.
Citizenship – United States
Education – Bachelor’s degree in communication
Learn More about Oprah Winfrey
- Talk show legend Oprah Winfrey was born into an extremely poor family. Her mother, Vernita Lee, was unmarried and a housemaid and Oprah spent most of her childhood and teenage years in poverty. Oprah’s current net worth is 2.6 billion dollars as of July 2022.
- Her actual name was Orpah, which was taken from a biblical character. People mistakenly misidentified Orpah as Oprah, and it became her identity.
- Oprah’s life began to change when she won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant title and was hired by a local black radio station, WVOL, while she was still in high school.
- She later moved to Nashville and joined a local news reporting channel, where she became the youngest news anchor and first black TV reporter.
- It was 1984 when she moved to Chicago to host a WLS-TV morning show called AM Chicago, whose ratings improved when Winfrey joined and became a huge success. Later, the show was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show; the rest is history.
From a turbulent childhood to becoming a billionaire, Oprah has changed her destiny through consistency, patience, and hard work.
Oprah believes, “Anything you can imagine, you can create.”
#13. Falguni Nayar
Source – TheVCStories
Basic Information about Falguni Nayar
Full Name – Falguni Nayar
Date & Place of Birth – February 19, 1963, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Citizenship – India
Education – MBA Finance
Learn More about Falguni Nayar
- Falguni Nayar is a multi-billionaire businesswoman who started her entrepreneurial career after her retirement at 50. Her net worth as of July 2022 is 4.5 billion dollars.
- After serving 19 years in the Kotak Mahindra Group (banking and financial services groups), she retired in 2012 to start her own eCommerce business for cosmetics and beauty products, Nykaa. She invested 2 million dollars of her savings in setting up the business, which now has a valuation of several billion, making Falguni one of the richest entrepreneurs in India.
She was born into a Gujarati family. Her father used to run a small business, assisted by her mother.
The self-made billionaire says: “I wanted to stand for those women who want to be beautiful for themselves, not for men or other women.”
#14. Ritesh Agarwal
Source – INC42
Basic Information about Ritesh Agarwal
Full Name – Ritesh Agarwal
Date & Place of Birth – November 16, 1993, in Bissam Cuttack, Odisha, India.
Citizenship – India
Education – College drop-out
Learn More about Ritesh Agarwal
- The 28-year-old billionaire is one of the popular names that emerged as the talk of every friend group when he was recognized for his successful business, OYO Rooms.
- OYO shook the hotel industry in India and brought a wave of change in how we search for hotels.
- Ritesh has a net worth of $1.1 billion as of July 2022 and has been awarded the Business World Young Entrepreneur Award.
Ritesh was born into an Indian middle-class family. His father was the owner of a small shop. In one of his interviews, Ritesh said, “I was a small town boy with big dreams.”
#15. Warren Buffett
Source – Insider
Basic Information about Warren Buffett
Full Name – Warren Edward Buffett
Date & Place of Birth – August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Citizenship – United States
Education – Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Master of Science in Economics.
Learn More about Warren Buffett
- With a net worth of 104.4 billion USD as of July 2022, Warren Buffett is one name you will always see on the top 10 billionaires list.
- This 91-year-old billionaire is a businessman, an investor, a financial advisor, and a philanthropist.
- From early childhood, Warren was inclined to do business and invest rather than complete school. But due to his father’s insistence, he was made to finish his education.
- From selling Coca-Cola bottles, chewing gum, and delivering newspapers door to door in his childhood to becoming a multi-billionaire and owning a fortune, Warren Buffett is truly an inspiration.
Warren Buffett was born to a US politician, businessman, and investor, Howard Buffett, who forced him to complete his studies. Warren believes in a simple life and lives in the same house he bought in 1957.
He is also a firm believer in extending help to the needy. He is a consistent donor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He, along with Bill Gates, founded an initiative called the Giving Pledge, asking billionaires to donate half of their fortune.
One of his best quotes is, “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
Conclusion
That concludes our list of the 15 Famous Entrepreneurs in the World. Since our upbringing affects how we choose to live our lives, I made an effort to include background information on each of these 15 entrepreneurs.
Though these 15 entrepreneurs pursued their dreams regardless of their upbringing, some began their entrepreneurial journeys at a young age, some after retiring; some had supportive parents and others did not. However, they did what they had to do despite being bound by limitations and facing obstacles.
Each of the 15 entrepreneurs on the list has contributed to improving the quality of human existence, earning them fame and fortune. Let us know in the comments section whose journey has inspired you the most.
