RAGS TO BILLIONAIRE STATUS – HOW LIKELY HOW FAST
It is a fact that out of a world population of 7.1 billion people on the planet and just over 300 Million in the U.S, there are 1,645 billionaires in the world today; 442 of which from the US (2014, Wikipedia) and about 2/3 or just under 1,100 of them self-made.
Now this means that unless you happen to fall into a rather sizable inheritance, all other things being equal you have a 0.00001549295% chance of becoming a billionaire. If you live in the U.S. your odds are 0.00014733333%, which is actually an order of magnitude better (now we’re getting somewhere).
Can never say never though …
Robert J. Pera, founder of Ubiquiti Networks and owner of the Memphis Grizzlies became a Billionaire in 6 years. At 34 he was listed on the Forbes 10 youngest billionaire’s in the world. He has a B.S. in electrical engineering from UCSD and went to work for Apple. He left Apple and with accumulated $30,000 in savings and credit cards to start his company Ubiquiti networks. He says ‘success is a matter of identifying opportunities and putting in clear and concise efforts in the right direction’.
Jay Walker set a DiMaggian record by attaining a $1 billion net worth (liquid or illiquid assets) within one year of founding Priceline. He had broken a mark set a year earlier by Global Crossing’s Gary Winnick.
Here’s a chart that sums it up all very distinctly …
Some names/durations not shown in the chart above are : Steve Jobs (19 years); Michael Dell (12); Dustin Moskovitz (6); Eduardo Saverin (6); Mark Cuban (4) , David Filo and Jerry Yang (4) and Pierre Omidyar (3).
With technology accelerating there has even been discussion of start-ups selling for a billion dollars within a month from their conception as soon as the year 2015.
Just for the record, Billionaires rarely thought of becoming billionaires. They just focused their passion in the right direction consistently and exponentially and when they became billionaires stayed in business because that’s where their passion is.
It is a fact that strategizing to become a billionaire is asinine. If it weren’t, there would be a lot more billionaires.
Becoming a billionaire is a positive externality of having an amazing idea, exceptionally rare work ethic, excellent vision, and, to some extent, outstanding luck.
The time you spend wondering about how to become a billionaire will get you no closer to your goal…. It’s all about real action.
Now that you’ve read this and see the possibilities, share your thoughts.
