Richest man

Chapter 2 Introduction: The Origin of Species of "The Richest Man" Wu Xiaobo (2)
In the past 500 years, the booming of the IT industry has triggered an unprecedented industrial revolution, which is changing our lives at a dizzying speed.However, what is surprising is that among the richest people in 6 countries and regions, only three and a half are mainly IT-based, one is the most famous Bill Gates; the other is the founder of Vipro India. Azim Hasham Premji, whose wealth this year was overtaken by compatriot Mittal, remains India's best-known software firm, with dozens of clients on his list. There are many companies including one of the world's top 1760 companies; there is also Guo Taiming from Taiwan, China. The Hon Hai Group led by him is the world's most profitable electronics professional manufacturing service provider. After the "real estate king" and "insurance king" Cai Wanlin passed away After that, his assets surpassed Wang Yongqing and ranked first in the whole island; the other half was the richest man in Mexico, Carlos Salim. The company, the development of the IT industry has led to the prosperity of the telecommunications industry, and now the company has dramatically increased its value to 200 billion US dollars, accounting for 40% of the total capital of the Mexican Stock Exchange.

Today in the 1901st century, the substantial impact of the richest man on the national economy is no longer comparable to that of the past.In 14, the richest man in the United States at the time was Andrew Carnegie. The capital of the U.S. Steel Corporation under his leadership reached [-] billion U.S. dollars, equivalent to two-thirds of the U.S. currency in circulation at that time.Today, except for some extremely poor countries, it is very difficult for the kind of "absolutely rich" who can monopolize the lifeline of the country's economy to appear.In the past few years, the desperate struggle between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the "Seven Oligarchs" headed by Khodorkovsky is an instinctive response to this by a state regime with a rudimentary business system. resist.

Upstarts in "The Richest Tribe"

How long it takes to become the richest man is a concern of many people.

After studying the richest people in [-] countries and regions, we have come to a conclusion that is enough to give everyone full confidence: none of the parents of these [-] people is the richest man!Less than [-]% of wealthy families have more than three generations, and their family industries are diamonds, beer, clothing, and media; about [-]% are second-generation entrepreneurship. ; In addition, about [-]% of middle-class people are from middle-class backgrounds, and they are models of personal struggle; while another [-]% are from extremely humble backgrounds, such as miners, shopkeepers, immigrants, penniless "poor princes", and even smugglers.

That is to say, if the chance is right and the sky is a genius, anyone can become the richest man in a country from now on.

Often in some developing or transitional countries, some dramatic wealth surges are prone to occur.Mou Qizhong, who was the first to be printed with the logo of the richest man in mainland China, was in a sense a trader who wandered on the edge of the law. He sold Sichuan's unsalable canned food to Russia in exchange for several planes that fell down one by one. airplane.But at that time, only gray business activities like his could quickly accumulate considerable personal wealth in China.

Abramovich, who is now the richest man in Britain, was still a smuggler at the Moscow airport in 1989. "His bag was full of contraband such as Marlboro cigarettes and Chanel perfume. In order to bring these things on the plane, he It really took a lot of effort, and it took a desperate battle with the police and security personnel for a long time to break through the barrier."

Such a story is too crude, but it happens in all countries with system transition.The appearance of these richest men has injected a strange atmosphere into the list of richest men who are generally on the high side.

In fact, in the 2005 "Forbes" list of the world's richest people, in addition to the young Russian oligarchs, there are some new faces.Their appearance seems to indicate that new wealth concepts are faintly emerging, and new wealth creation channels are quietly opening.

In Europe, no rich man is more charming than the 40-year-old Swiss richest man Ernesto Bertarelli.

He was born in a wealthy family. His grandfather’s company was founded in the early 20th century and became the most prestigious biopharmaceutical company in Europe early on. He began to follow his father in the business world at the age of 10, and was considered by the people around him to have a bright future. At the age of 17, he helped The company makes an annual budget. At the age of 31, he officially succeeded his father and became the CEO of the entire family-owned international company. He is not only rich, but also talented, young, handsome, and personable. He has obtained a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School and a bachelor's degree in science from Boston University. degree, a European Wall Street Journal dubbed him "the crown prince of the Swiss industrial dynasty"; he led the inland country's sailing team to participate in the world's most famous America's Cup sailing competition for the first time and won the championship, not only making the event in 150 Returning to Europe for the first time after many years and pulling it out of a money-eating pit and transforming it into a lucrative event...

If Ernesto Bertarelli's story is too flashy and lacks drama, Saudi Arabia's current richest man, 48-year-old Alwaleed bin Talal, is another very unexpected "Arab story".

Talal is one of the thousands of "princes of the sheikhs" in Saudi Arabia.When he started his business at 23, he had just $1.5 to start with.He first started a trade agency and contracting business by using his own connections and limited capital.After that, he used the accumulated capital in his hands to establish several companies one after another, and established joint ventures with foreign companies in Saudi Arabia.Then, he predicted in time that the high welfare policy implemented by the government relying on petrodollars would greatly stimulate the domestic real estate market, so he bought two large pieces of real estate in the capital Riyadh.These lands became the beginning of his journey to real estate, and today, he has become the largest private real estate owner in the capital of Saudi Arabia.

At the age of 29, Talal, who had successive successes, extended his tentacles to the financial world and became the largest shareholder of the United Bank of Saudi Arabia, which has been losing money for years, and made it the most profitable commercial bank in Saudi Arabia a few years later.His shares cover all business fields, and the companies he has participated in include Citibank, News Corporation, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald's, Disney, Apple, Motorola, AOL-Time Warner, Ford, Amazon, EBay, Kodak, Xerox, etc. Internationally renowned enterprises.At present, Talal's assets are as high as 237 billion US dollars, ranking fifth in the 2005 "Forbes" list of the world's richest people.

Today's Talal, apart from his Arabian attire, can hardly smell the smell of the desert.Even the "stock god" Buffett said humbly in a letter: "Sometimes, they call me the 'Talal' of Wall Street."

Guo Taiming, who has just become the richest man in Taiwan, is the hope of the rich Chinese.On the new list of the world's richest people, his assets have surpassed that of the 87-year-old Taiwan "God of Business" Wang Yongqing and jumped to the top.Prior to this, the growth of the Chinese tycoons was characterized by too much land hype, power-money transactions, and resource monopoly. However, Guo Taiming, by himself, stood out in the IT field surrounded by big powers, making Taiwan today a global representative of information technology products. The center of the processing industry.He, along with Talal of Saudi Arabia, Carlos Salem of Mexico, and of course Bill Gates, who reached the top [-] years ago, have become the technology and capital upstarts among the richest people.

"It's a disgrace to be dead rich."

When the wealth has gone far beyond personal consumption and enjoyment, how will its owners dispose of it is a more difficult issue than creating these wealth.

No one is ever long remembered for being rich for a while, but rather his attitude and details about his wealth are often mentioned.Dr. George Gallup, the founder of the contemporary business research company, once said: "People can't forget some historical figures, sometimes not because of their achievements in politics, military exploits, or wealth, but because of some of their personalities. subtle features."

The 50 richest people we are looking up to now are indeed very like a coin in character: low-key, hard, round, and seemingly unreasonable.Among them, only one (Israel's richest woman) has had three marriage experiences, five have had two, and the rest have had one.The stability and harmony of the family seems to have always been the prerequisite for the gradual advancement of wealth.Liliane, the richest woman in France who owns L'Oreal, often tells her friends that her [-]-year happy marriage is the greatest wealth in her life. Compared with wealth, marriage is more meaningful to a woman. "In addition to silence, what this family pursues is simplicity and wisdom in life." This comment is suitable for Liliana, and it is also suitable for many richest families.

Among the 2001 richest men, there are no scientists, writers, artists, or even famous art connoisseurs.If one must be counted, it is Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, the rich man and president who sold and sang on music boats when he was a teenager. In [-], he released an album of his love songs.The richest man is rarely an expert in a certain field. The former Duke of Westminster, the richest man in the United Kingdom, has a "best description" of himself: miscellaneous but not proficient, knowing a little about everything, and not proficient in anything.Perhaps, this miscellaneous professional attitude allows the richest people to concentrate more energy on wealth itself.Some of them don't even shy away from being contemptuous of culture and taste.Australia's richest man, Parker Kerry, is a media tycoon as famous as Murdoch. He frankly admitted that he "likes movies and sports, and despises artistic and elegant things. He hates literature and art, and thinks that going to the Sydney Opera House Concerts are pure suffering. I never read because I have dyslexia since I was a child, and there are a lot of movie videos in the study.”

If we must find a common spiritual characteristic for these rich people, it is that they without exception combine wealth and charity together, whether it is from the heart or for the world to see.

More than half of the richest people are the largest charitable givers in their countries.Bill Gates has announced that he will donate all his assets to charitable funds after his death, leaving only 1000 million US dollars for each of his three children.There is an unproven story about his conversion to charity: after Gates became the richest man at the age of 40, letters asking for donations came like a snowflake, but Gates ignored him, which made his parents very embarrassed.Gates Sr. later recalled that his mother and I had been advising him that as a good citizen, he must do more for the society.But Gates couldn't listen, and sometimes his mother's nagging made him impatient, so he retorted: "Mom, I have a company to manage. The best thing I can do for society is to make this company successful." What promoted Gates' fundamental transformation was the fall of 1993 when he traveled to Africa with his wife Melinda and others. The extreme poverty of the local people aroused Gates' heart tremor.After returning to China, Gates immediately established a foundation to carry out charitable work. The "stingy man" who was ridiculed in the past began to donate large sums of money.

Someone once used Maslow's theory of life needs to explain the charitable actions of the rich.In "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism", Max Weber believed that in countries where the middle class was still very backward, there was once a distinctive feature, that is, the prevalence of making money for personal gain by any means, which was almost an insurmountable stage .The sign of a mature commercial society is that people break away from the pursuit of material things and start to discover other abstract and metaphysical values ​​in life.This is true of a country, and no individual is an exception.

In Weber's not-so-structured but extremely influential book, he revealed for the first time the relationship between the "ascetic" Protestant ethics and business spirit. He demonstrated why many entrepreneurs struggled to accumulate wealth all their lives, but They are not interested in spending this wealth.Weber believed that the concept of life derived from Darwin's predestination theory made those people thrifty, self-disciplined, honest, and clean. This is the spiritual origin of modern Western economic success.

These expositions of Weber have been most vividly and accurately reflected in these richest men.If Karl Marx's words are to be used, then these richest men have spent their lives practicing his famous saying: "Labor is the essence of man, the true essence." In fact, since the Industrial Revolution, the material world has become It is becoming more and more abundant and inconceivable, while the needs of human beings on the spiritual level are facing more and more urgent and severe questions. For more than 100 years, almost all wealth owners have been forced to face this dilemma.

In the early [-]th century, Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the United States, grew up from a poor boy of a textile worker to a generation of steel magnate. In his later years, he devoted most of his time to charity and religious causes.Today, you can see libraries and museums donated by Carnegie everywhere in the United States.American financier J. P．Morgan bought a large number of artworks for donation in his later years, leaving only tens of millions of dollars after his death. When Rockefeller learned of this figure, he said: "Morgan is not even considered a rich man." A stingy, ruthless person, but in his later years, he also donated most of his property. In his will, he said: "It is a shame to die rich."

Carnegie, Morgan and Rockefeller were lucky. They were addicted to the money game all their lives and enjoyed the excitement, thrill and pleasure. However, before they died, they finally found the answer to the game.

What is wealth? What can we buy with wealth? Is there anything more important in life than money?
These problems lie in front of everyone, and no one can get around them in their whole life.At this point, you, me and the richest man are on the same answer line.

(End of this chapter)