Famous Entrepreneurs

Famous Entrepreneurs

Howard Hughes - “Play off everyone against each other so that you have more avenues of action open to you.”

Was an aviator, movie producer, the world’s first billionaire and chronic hypochondriac. Howard Hughes was born in Houston, Texas in 1905. His father owned the Hughes Tool Company and invented a drill bit which made him fortunes. Howard never graduated from high school, instead after both his parents died, he bought out his relatives and inherited the family estate.

Thanks to his position as one of Hollywood’s foremost producers and owner of his own studio, Hughes was able to live the life of a playboy and date some of the most famous actresses in the world including Catherine Hepburn.

He also owned TWA (Trans World Airlines) and rose to fame in 1935 by lying at 325 milies per hour and breaking the air speed record. He then became a national hero by cutting Charles Linbergh’s Paris to New York record in half and also circumnavigating the world in 3 days and 19 hours.

During World War II he built military aircraft for the United States military. Hughes built the ‘Spruce Goose’, a flying boat which only flew once and caused a lot of controversy [expand]. In the 1950s Hughes made satellites to spy on the Soviet Union and it is rumoured that he was behingd the assassination attempt to Cuba’s President, Fidel Castro.

In 1966 he sold TWA and moved to Las Vegas where he became a recluse and died in 1976 [expand]. His he was in such an emaciated state that his body could only be identified by finger prints. Howard Hughes left an estate worth $2 billion [expand]

Ted Turner - “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise”

Was born in 1938 and is known as a media mogul and philanthropist. He founded the CNN news network, TCM movie channel, the Cartoon Network. Married Jane Fonda and once gave $1 billion dollars to the UN.

He started out in the world of business as a young man of 24 by taking over his father’s billboard business after his father committed suicide. His next step was to buy a T.V. Station in 1970. Then to compliment this, in 1978 he purchased a small basketball team (Atlanta Hawks) which he guided to success, often taking a hands-on role in team matters. Due the success and popularity of the team he was able to command large advertising revenues from companies wishing to advertise on his TV channel. He followed this up by buying the failing baseball team, the Atlanta Braves.

In the 1980s and 1990s his news channel, CNN revolutionized news media when it captured live coverage of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986 and the Gulf War in 1991.

Turner’s life has been that of a true maverick. He was expelled from university [expand]. He won the Americas Cup in 1980 which elevated him to a social standing he had previously never attained. From this moment his friends and acquaintances became princes and billionaires.

He created WCW Wrestling [expand on this phenomenon] which was sold to WWF. In 1995 he merged his empire with the media behemoth, Time Warner . In 2001 this company expanded even further to become Aol Time Warner [expand]. Ted Turner is America’s largest private landowner and also owns the world’s largest bison herd in the world making him…[expand] [how much is he worth?]

Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) - “I have found out one thing and that is, if you have an idea, and it is a good idea, if you only stick to it you will come out all right.”

was a British businessman and statesman. He is the founder of Rhodesia which is now modern day Zambia and Zimbabwe. Rhodes also founded the Rhodes Scolarship which [expand] and has had such illustrious recipients as Bill Clinton, former President of the United States.

Rhodes arrived in South Africa aged in 1870, aged 17 with GBP 3,000 which he invested in diamond claims in the newly discovered Kimberly diamond mine. [expand]. He formed DeBeers diamond company which today still holds a monopoly on the supply of diamonds worldwide.

In 1872 he trekked north to prospect for gold and in 1873 he sailed back to England to complete his studies at Oxford.

On his return to South Africa he invested in more claims. In 1874 and 1875 the mines were in depression and many itinerant prospector who had come to South Africa seeking fortune were left broken, bankrupt and empty handed. Rhodes however, took advantage of this adverse situation and continued to buy up more and more claims. [expand on Hard Blue rock]. He then won the contract to pump the water out of the three main mines. By 1880 he owned most of the mines and even hid thousands of newly discovered in concrete at his home in order to restrict the supply in Europe and thus keep the price of diamonds artificially inflated.

Now that Rhodes was financially independent he made his move into politics. He became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony [explain what that is] and he used his money to start a war with the Boers.

Vision for a railway from cape Town to Cairo. Column of British influence and trading area.

George Soros - “Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.”

was born in 1930 in Budapest. Soros rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s as a currency speculator and has been later recognized a philanthropist. The son of an Esperanto writer Tvidar Soros, during the war George traded currencies on the black market then in 1947 he seized his chance and emigrated to England, escaping the Soviet occupation of Hungary. [selling sea shells & postcards] Soros graduated from the London School of economics in 1952.

In 1956 he moved to the United States because he wanted to earn money on Wall Street and become a writer and philosopher. These days it is rumoured that he is worth around $11 billion.

Soros Fund Management. In 1970 he founded the Quantum Fund which returned 4000 per cent in 10 years.

1992 Black Wednesday. He sold short GBP 10bn. In response the UK had to pull out of the ERM, devalue the Pound and raise interest rates to 15 per cent. Soros earned $1.1 billion from the transaction and known from then on as “the man who broke the bank of England”.

1997 Asian Financial Crisis, broke the Malaysian Ringgit

1988 Fined $2 million for insider trading in France.

John D Rockefeller - “If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.”

“A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.”

Was an American capitalist who founded the Standard Oil Company which is known these days as ExxonMobil and is still the largest oil company in the world. Rockefeller was known for his ruthless business tactics which enabled him to become the richest man in the US. In his later he years he also became a philanthropist funding [what?]

In 1862 he invested in an oil refinery and by 1880 he had a monopoly on oil production in America. This monopoly was garnered by buying up of opposing interests [expand with some appropriate words]. Rockefeller also owned iron ore mines and ships. He had a controlling stake in Chase Manhattan Bank and by 1901 he was worth $900 which is around $200 billion by today’s standards.

In 1911 the US Government broke up Standard Oil into 37 new companies in order to loosen Rockefeller’s stranglehold on the economy. He died in 1937 aged 97 years old. In his will he left a trust for the founding of the University of Chicago and gave away the rest of his fortune to his family.

Andrew Carnegie – “Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.”

Donald Trump -“As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.”

J.P Morgan - “When you expect things to happen - strangely enough - they do happen.”

Henry Ford -“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do”.

“A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.”

Thomas Edison -“Opportunity is missed by most people because it dressed in overalls and looks like work”.

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. A genius is merely a talented person who has done their homework”.

“Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Victor Sassoon

Sir Richard Branson -“Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.”

“A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.”

“I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn't really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.”

Roman Abramovich – “I have no Napoleonic dream. I'm just hard-working and pragmatic.”

Bill Gates - “Life is not fair, get used to it”.

“Your time is your most valuable resource”.

tycoon

Chinese ones?

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