Your Favorite Billionaire

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Andrew

Andrew

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Jun 24, 2006
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Mine is Richard Branson. Really good interview in the latest business 2.0, here are a few quotes:

"There is a very, very thin dividing line between survival and failure."

"Most businesses fail, so if you're going to succeed it has to be about more than making money."

Good stuff. And some people think its just luck :action-smiley-052:
 


Mine would have to be Carl Icahn.
He made most of his $8.5 billion fortune with leveraged buyouts financed by junk bonds. I think "corporate raider" is the greatest job title you can ever have.
 
Bill Gates for sure.
I read a great biography on him a few years back:
Hard Drive: Bill Gates and The Making of the Microsoft Empire

The book has a surpising amount of detail about his childhood life and quite a number of interviews from people that knew him.

Oh yeah, and Chris is right. Biggest philanthropist on the planet. :)

I also admire Donald Trump and how he can hype up anything with his name on it, and never takes no for an answer. He's always getting into some deep financial trouble, but ALWAYS comes back bigger than ever...
 
Andrew said:
Mine is Richard Branson. Really good interview in the latest business 2.0, here are a few quotes
Click to expand...

Read his autobiography - Losing my Virginity. It's an enjoyable book.
 
I'll say Richard Branson as well, although Mark Cuban comes close. Both are "weird" and unconventional.

Branson:
His trademark is outlandish publicity stunts. He will do almost anything to promote the Virgin brand: driving a tank down Fifth Avenue in New York to introduce Virgin Cola to the United States, risking his life in high-profile hot-air balloon adventures or portraying a drowning victim on television's "Baywatch."
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http://www.strategy-business.com/press/16635507/13416

Cuban:
With the Yahoo! transaction complete, Cuban decided to pursue his love of basketball, and bought the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million from a group led by H. Ross Perot, Jr. According to legend, Cuban bought the team after an incident in which he and some friends were watching a Mavericks game and Cuban remarked that he could do a better job of managing the team than whoever was doing it at the time. His friends then told him to put his money where his mouth is and purchase the team. The sale was finalized on February 14, 2000.
Click to expand...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cuban
 
Richard Branson was on my favourite TV Show (Rove Live - Aussie/New Zealanders would know this show) and Rove (the host) was saying, "Don't you own an island?" and Branson was like "Yea.....but it's only a small one" - that made me chuckle.

Bill Gates is a champ tho, liked how he helped with the Live8 charity thingy.
 
Edward Lampert.
He was the architect behind the Kmart Sears merger - the man set a world record for the highest salary ever earned in a year, $1 billion.
 
Ditto for Larry Elison.

I read "SOFTWAR" and I loved how all of the takeovers he said he was going to do in the book happened.

He is kind of a dick. I like that too.
 
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