Who doesn’t want to invest in the right industry to be a millionaire? I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t want to earn money, but there are very few people who know the art of investing in the right sector.
In one of his viral business vlogs, the famous Chinese-Canadian business educator, Dan Lok shared an inspiring story from his childhood that has a very good message for people looking to invest their resources.
He says, “While I was a kid, I used to go fishing with my father. My dad would always get on his little boat and we would take the boat to about 30 minutes away from the city. As a little kid, I always asked my father, “Dad, why do I have to get on a boat and go to this area? Why couldn’t we just fish where we are?” “Why would you have to make this trip?” My father would reply, “Well, son, that’s where the fish is”.
So, what the above example justifies is, it is important for an entrepreneur to choose the right industry. Also, choosing the right industry is the most critical decision that an entrepreneur has to make.
The common mistake that most entrepreneurs do is, they think they can step into any industry, sell any product, offer any service, and provide solutions and will become successful in the end, but this doesn’t stand true. Even the biggest investors of the world have faced failure for not investing wisely.
One of the world’s greatest investors, Warren Buffett has made several poor decisions despite having investing prowess. From acquiring companies to investing in certain stocks, he has lost multi-billion dollars over time.
Although you might not be investing in million-dollar companies but considering the mistakes made by the world’s biggest investors, you can make wise decisions to allocate your skills and resources accurately.
With the world dynamics changing at a higher pace, there are hundreds of industries to invest in, but here are the 9 top industries that can make you a millionaire.
Top Industries That Can Make You a Millionaire
The First Industry: Financial Sector
The Financial Services sector is the most important sector of the global economy. It comprises numerous financial firms including loan associations, banks, financial companies, insurance companies, investment houses, and brokerages. These financial institutions are the ultimate way through which individuals and businesses acquire finance.
Considering the importance of the financial services industry, one can understand how fruitful it would be for an entrepreneur to invest in this sector which leads the list of top industries.
As the financial industry is quite vast, you can consider the following financial products and services to begin your journey with:
- Money lending
- Management of assets
- High-yield saving accounts
- Certificates of Deposit
- Money Market Funds
- Individual/dividend stocks
- Insurance companies
- Brokerages
The very famous quote of Dan Lok reads, “There is a lot of money in the money”.
You can earn a lot simply by managing, handling and investing money and the popular saying we all must not forget is “The money is the money”.
Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York is the first example that comes to my mind, while I am talking about the financial industry. Michael Bloomberg became a billionaire by simply providing financial data to the financial industry.
In the years 2010-2020, more U.S billionaires have derived their wealth from the finance industry. Here are some more inspirational stories of Finance entrepreneurs who lead the race of the richest people in the world of finance.
- Warren Buffet
According to Forbes Billionaires Index, Warren Buffet stands at number 9, with a net worth of $100.1 billion.
The most successful investor of the finance world, Warren Buffet was born on the 30th of August 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska.
Bearing an interest in business and investment, Warren started working at a very young age. While he was just a child, Warren started selling Coca-cola bottles, chewing gums, and weekly magazines by going door to door.
When he reached high school, he began to sell daily newspapers, Golf balls, and stocks to earn money.
In the year 1945, Warren made his first investment, by purchasing a used pinball machine for $25 along with a friend. They placed the machine in a local barbershop and soon they were able to get more machines. Buffet later sold this business for $1200 to acquire a piece of land. As he finished his college years he already had saved $9800.
Buffet was highly inspired by Benjamin Graham as he followed graham’s book “The Intelligent Investor” to seek guidance for his investments.
In years 1951 to 1954, Warren worked at Buffett Falk & Co as an investment Salesman. Following his dream to work with his idol, Warren reached Graham-Newman Corp and worked as a securities analyst. Here, he got the opportunity to work with Benjamin Graham and he learned the techniques to identify undervalued companies and shares.
Using the techniques learned from Graham, Warren identified a textile company named Berkshire Hathaway and started collecting stock in the initial years of the 1960s. Soon in the year 1965, Warren got control of the whole company and started working on the development of Berkshire Hathaway leaving all of his other partnerships behind.
In the year, 1989, Warren became the director of Berkshire Hathaway Company. In the years between1989-2006, he also served as the director of Citigroup Global Markets Holdings, The Gillette Company, and Graham Holdings Company.
Warren is also counted among the biggest philanthropist in the world. He also holds the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Jim Simons
In our list of top billionaires in the finance world, Jim Simons comes at number three with a whopping $24.4 billion net worth. He is a mathematician billionaire from America who has founded Renaissance Technologies, a leading hedge fund based in East Setauket, New York.
Known as “Quant King” he is considered the greatest investor of all time. Simsons was born in Brookline, Mass in the year 1938. He discovered his love for mathematics at a very young age and started working as a stock boy at the age of 14.
Having a lack of memory of inventory location, he was demoted to the position of a sweeper. Simsons didn’t give up and strived even harder to achieve his goal of becoming a mathematician.
In the year 1955, he got accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which proved to be the turning point of his life.
After earning a degree in mathematics from MIT, he joined the University of California for a doctorate degree in mathematics. After several years of hardship, he finally earned a doctorate degree in Mathematics at the age of 23.
After excelling in his career in mathematics, Simsons joined The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) during the Vietnam War. He served a crucial role in breaking codes during the war but soon he left this job and joined MIT and Harvard University as a teacher.
He also excelled in his role as a teacher and eventually became the chair of the mathematics department at Stony Brook University. After 1978, he started indulging in the financial market. In this same year, he founded the hedge fund “Monemetrics”.
Simsons applied mathematical and statistical models to the financial data in order to predict future returns.
However, by the year 1988, Simsons appointed mathematicians, programmers, cryptographers, and physicists to the company. The company prospered using mathematical formulas especially designed by mathematicians.
Later, Renaissance Technologies was founded following its predecessor Monemetrics. Following this, the flagship fund of Renaissance Technologies, “Medallion fund” amassed over $100 billion in trading profits between the years 1994 – 2014.
Currently, Simsons ranks number one on the list of highest-earning hedge fund managers. Jim’s strategy of using quantitative analysis based on market inefficiencies to identify and enter the markets has made him what he is today.
Jim’s formula for success is, “Past performance is the best predictor of success.”
- Abigail Johnson
Another powerful woman who has made it to the list of top billionaires of male-dominated Financial Sector is Abigail Johnson. Abigail has a net worth of 23.8 billion, which makes her reach the list of richest personalities of the financial sector.
Abigail has emerged as the most powerful individual in the finance world after the year 2016. She is the granddaughter of Edward C. Johnson IIII, who is the founder of the Fidelity Management and Research (FMR) firm. Despite being from a family of investors and businessmen, Abigail Johnson has worked really hard to become what she is now.
Right after finishing high school, Abigail started serving Fidelity Investments as a customer support representative. Later, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Art & History but her interest in business and investment compelled her to pursue an MBA. She finished her MBA degree from Harvard Business School in the year 1988.
After earning an MBA degree, Abigail worked as a stock analyst at Fidelity Investments. Though the job assigned to her wasn’t exciting at all, she was committed to making a difference. Considering her hard work and skills, she was promoted to the position of a portfolio manager.
Abigail reached the position of Associate Director at Fidelity Investments by the year 1995 and soon in the year 1998 she became senior vice president of the company. Later in the year 2001, Ms. Johnson was promoted as the President of Fidelity’s Mutual Funds division making her the third powerful person in the company.
The year when Ms. Johnson was promoted to the position of president, Fidelity was facing severe market conditions and its competitor Vanguard Company was also taking a stronghold. However, following the American management style of expansion, Ms. Johnson got her company out of the crisis.
Currently, Abigail is serving Fidelity Investments as President and CEO. This makes her lead the list of very few women who are managing trillion-dollar businesses.
The Second Industry: Technology
With Technology getting advanced each day, it comes at number 2, among the most profitable industries that offer enormous opportunities for entrepreneurs. It is among the fastest-growing industries having a crucial impact on the overall economy.
Investing in technology doesn’t necessarily mean you have to invest in existing tech giants; you can rather come up with technological innovations in the existing traditional markets.
Within the tech industry, you must look for increasing trends like Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, or Automation. You can invest in producing these technology products or provide technology as a service.
This particular industry can help you earn billions of dollars. So, are you thinking to become a technology entrepreneur? If not read the stories of the richest tech industry giants in the following paragraphs.
The technology industry has produced the greatest billionaires over the last decade, increasing the number from 42 to 103. Here are the inspiring stories of top billionaires who used technology to build huge empires.
- Elon Musk
The well-known tech tycoon Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla Inc. and founder of SpaceX. With a staggering $201.2 Billion net worth, Elon leads the list of the world’s top billionaires.
Born on 28th June 1971 in South Africa, Elon migrated to Canada at the age of 17. Later, he joined the University of Pennsylvania USA as a transfer student.
After earning his Bachelor in Economics degree, he started pursuing his dream of becoming an entrepreneur and joined his brother Kimbal to inaugurate Zip2.
Zip2 was an IT company that licensed newspaper software for online city guides. Although, this venture remained a flop for the initial few years, later it got enough traction after local and domestic newspapers started using it.
Following this, Elon founded an Email payment firm “X.com”, which later joined American software corporation Confinity in the year 2000. Soon after acquiring enough funds, Elon moved towards the engineering business as an equity investor holding around $180 million shares.
After a few years of hard work, he finally came up with Tesla’s first electric car in 2004. In 2006, Musk launched another solar energy company named SolarCity.
The year 2008, proved to be the most difficult year for Elon as he faced crises in his personal and business life. In this same year, Tesla faced a financial crisis and the company reached the edge of bankruptcy. Musk came forward to save the company from bankruptcy by investing $40 million and by loaning another $40 million to it.
Musk describes 2008 as the worst year of his life as two of his companies were facing a serious crisis. Tesla was about to go bankrupt and SpaceX was having issues in launching its Falcon 1 rocket.
Finally, at the end of the year 2008, SpaceX signed a $1.5 billion contract and Tesla got some outside investors.
Surpassing the most crucial years, Elon Musk amassed successes over time and now stands as the second richest business tycoon.
- Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos the former CEO and founder of Amazon is the world’s second-richest man having a whopping net worth of $186.6 billion as of now. He began his professional journey after earning degrees in computer science and electrical engineering from Princeton.
Right after graduation, he launched a news-by-fax service company with Halsey Minor. The venture failed soon after its launch and Jeff joined a hedge fund named D. E. Shaw as the youngest senior vice president.
Jeff served the hedge fund for a few years and soon realized the importance of the fast-growing Internet. This was the time when the idea of Amazon was born.
Soon after coming up with the idea of Amazon, he started creating a list of products that can be sold initially.
The tech visionary entrepreneur Jeff Bezos started his journey by selling books. It all started from a garage, with a team of four including his wife, two programmers, and himself.
Right after its launch, Amazon sold books in around 45 countries and in each state of the United States. Shortly, in 1999, Amazon reported its highest sales of worth $1.64 billion, and the company emerged as the fastest-growing e-commerce platform.
Currently, the e-commerce giant Amazon has reached a worth of $1.7 trillion dollars.
Besides Amazon, Jeff Bezos owns 15 other companies including the prominent rocket company “Blue Origin”, the 140-year-old newspaper “The Washington Post” and the Robotics Company “Kiva Systems”.
- Bill Gates
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation is another business magnate of the tech industry. His net worth stands tall at $128.8 billion, making him amass the 4th spot among the world’s top billionaires.
Gates has worked hard to achieve what he has today. He had a passion for computers and programming from a very young age. At the age of 15, he developed a software that was sold for $20,000. Following this, he developed another software and amassed $30,000 from it. This was the point, from where his journey to becoming a successful tech entrepreneur began.
In the year 1975, Bill Gates co-founded a small software firm with his childhood friend Paul Allen. The company was named Micro-Soft initially. In the early days of Micro-Soft, the company used to deliver its software products to several firms. They were not financially sound to afford a sales manager; hence sales were handled by Gates’ mother Mary Maxwell.
Soon after Micro-Soft’s launch, Gates and Allen realized that the company was not affordable anymore. To meet their financial expenses, Gates and his friend created MS-BASIC, which helped them, earn a profit of $50,000.
Later in the year 1979, Micro-Soft got an offer to create a program for IBM. But, because of not having enough resources to develop their own Operating System they couldn’t complete the whole project solely.
Considering, the importance of having an OS, the duo bought an OS system named ’86-DOS’, which later became ‘MS-DOS’ after several enhancements.
After launching ‘MS-DOS’, Gates and Allen offered IBM to use their OS for IBM’s first PC.
IBM accepted the proposal and a contract between the companies was signed, that enabled Micro-Soft to become a Microsoft corporation within a year.
Following this contract, Gates’ company started earning back-to-back accomplishments. From launching the first PC mouse to a series of Windows, Microsoft emerged as the best software company in the world.
The Third Industry: Health Care
As the old saying goes, “Health is wealth”, health truly is wealth if you think about it from an entrepreneurial perspective.
The most attractive aspect of the health industry is, you don’t have to ask someone for spending on their healthcare, because people already are willing to spend a lot of money to live longer. This makes Health Care, the top third industry that bears the most opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Considering the growing trends within the health industry you can invest in the following areas for a higher return
- Assisted Living
- Senior Homes
- Pharmaceutical
- Biotechnology
- Medical equipment
- Health insurances
Besides the above sectors, entrepreneurs can also come up with products or services that will help people to live a longer life and stay healthier.
After witnessing the global Corona Pandemic, we cannot agree more with the fact that if the health industry faces crises, every other industry crumbles down. Hence, the health sector offers vast opportunities for entrepreneurs to begin their journey.
The global pandemic has been a boon for several companies that provide health services and products. The sky-rocketing demand for pharmaceuticals has boosted the fortune of several healthcare tycoons and they have ended up on the list of the World’s leading billionaires. Following are the healthcare moguls leading the list of health care billionaires.
- Jiang Rensheng
Jiang Rensheng is the chairman of the world’s fastest-growing pharma company, “Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products”. The company shares have surged 80% pushing the chairman Jiang Rensheng’s fortune to $22.3 Billion making him the richest healthcare provider.
Jiang Rensheng was born in Guanyang County, Guangxi in the year 1953. Being born to a poor family, Jiang has worked so hard to reach the position where he stands now.
Although he was even deprived of the basic necessities, Jiang never compromised on his studies and did his graduation from a local high school.
After doing his graduation, he started teaching in a private school located in his hometown. He kept teaching the school children until he got admission to the Guilin Medical College.
After clearing his junior college, he got an opportunity to work with a health and epidemic prevention station located in his hometown. He served the health and epidemic prevention station for more than 10 years during which he traveled to various backward areas of Guangxi to vaccinate children. Considering his hard work and honesty he was promoted as deputy chief of the Department of Immunization at the Health and Anti-epidemic Station.
After several years of hardship, Jiang came up with the idea of entering the vaccine industry hence he resigned from his previous position. Although Jiang had all the required skills to excel in the industry, he couldn’t acquire a license certificate essential for the commencement of a vaccine company. So, he came up with the idea of acquiring a biological products company that wasn’t performing well. Along with his partners, he bought the company “Chongqing” and started showing off his skills.
Meanwhile, it wasn’t easy to bear the cost of developing a vaccine. So, Jiang had to sell his house in order to meet the expenses. In the initial days of the company’s commencement Jiang didn’t even have a desk in his office. This wasn’t the only hurdle he faced, his partners also withdrew and he was left alone to manage a whole company.
Jiang kept working hard and soon he became successful in stabilizing his new company. The only factor that aided Jiang’s success was his prior experience in the epidemic prevention station.
Having foresight into the future of vaccines, Jiang developed a vaccine for a new type of meningitis that appeared in several countries. Bearing in mind that, the disease will shortly reach china, he prepared a vaccine for this disease. Within three years, the disease reached China, and Jiang’s company was the only company that had the vaccine. This was the phase when Chongqing emerged as a growing vaccine company.
The biggest secret for Jiang’s success is his focus on the vaccine industry only. After working for more than a decade, Jiang never thought of providing any other healthcare solutions rather he set all his efforts on the vaccine industry and emerged as the world’s leading healthcare provider.
- Li Xiting
Founder and chairman of “Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics”, Li Xiting is the second highest-earning billionaire of the healthcare industry with a net worth of $21.7. His net worth has doubled in this past year.
Due to the surge in the demand for medical equipment in recent years, the overall fortune of Li’s company has amplified by 19%.
Li was born in Dangshan, Anhui province of Eastern China in the year 1951 but in the year 2018, he became a citizen of Singapore. In his early years of life, Li had joined the Chinese army. But his passion for education compelled him to pursue his studies. Following his passion, he joined the University of Science and Technology of China to pursue his degree in cryogenic physics in the year 1973.
By 1976, he earned his bachelor’s degree in science and soon started working as a researcher in multiple academic institutions. After a few years of getting practical experience, Li started serving as visiting scholar at the University of Paris-Sud in France.
After serving the education sector for several years, in the year 1991, Li Xiting along with Xu Hang Co-founded “Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics” which made a huge contribution to the healthcare sector worldwide. In the year 2012, Li Xiting was appointed as the CEO of Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics after co-founder Xu Hang resigned.
Li handled the whole company singlehandedly and later in the year 2019, he became the chairman of the company.
“Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics” kept flourishing under the supervision of Li Xiting and now it has 17 subsidiaries in China and operates in more than 30 countries.
- Zhong Huijuan
Having over $10.9 billion net worth Zhong Huijuan ends at number three among the top billionaires of the health sector. She is the founder and chairperson of worldwide famous drugmaker Hansoh Pharmaceutical. Zhong is also among the most influential and richest self-made female billionaires in the world.
Huijuan started her career as a chemistry teacher but later founded a drug company with just 10 employees. Because of her dedication and hard work, the company grew up by leaps and bounds. In the first 2 years of its commencement, the company earned over $4.5 million.
In the year 2000, the company launched its first factory for oral formulations. After more than a decade of hardship, Hansoh Pharmaceuticals received financing from Asia’s prominent private equity firm, Hillhouse Capital Group. This was the turning point of Zhong’s fortune.
In the following years the company became so popular that even before its first public offering, it had already earned $344 million from nine prominent investors.
Later, on the first day of Hansoh Company’s trading, Zhong became the first woman in Asia to earn over US$10.5 billion fortune.
From a chemistry teacher to the wealthiest self-made woman, Zhong made history by following the dream she was deeply passionate about.
The Forth Industry: Real Estate and Construction
According to the forecast predictions of the United Nations, the world’s population is going to increase gigantically in the upcoming few years. As reported by the United Nations, the world’s population will climb up to 8.5 billion people by 2030, and by 2050, it will reach a staggering 9.7 billion people.
9.7 billion people on our small planet? What’s the opportunity behind it? Well, it is natural that an increased number of people will require an increased number of resources and infrastructure. What it means is, the future for the Real Estate and Construction industry is going to shine the brightest in the near future.
With the rise in the number of people on the planet, the value of the property is also soaring and so is the wealth of Real Estate And Construction investors. Here are the Top Three Richest Real Estate investors;
- Lee Shau Kee
Lee Shau Kee comes at number one in the list of top billionaires in the real estate sector with a staggering $31.1 Billion net worth. This 91-year-old experienced investor holds the second position in the list of richest billionaires in Hong Kong while he secures 44th rank in the list of the world’s richest billionaires.
Lee chairs the Henderson Land Development Company that has led him to amass the majority of his wealth.
Some of the prominent building projects established by Lee’s Henderson Land Development company are International Finance Center, The Grand Promenade, the International Commerce Center in Hong Kong, and the 39 Conduit Road.
Shau Kee was born to a poor family who could barely afford their living. Born in China’s southern province Guangdong on January 29, 1928, Lee had to leave his country after china came under the control of communists. Alongside his family, Lee moved to Hong Kong and started working as a clerk in a currency and gold trading company. Lee learned all essential business skills from this company and got good command of the English language.
Soon, his entrepreneurial instincts made him think about starting a company of his own. He founded his first real estate company in the year 1958. Lee didn’t settle on this, after earning bigger capital, he formed Sun Hung Kai Properties alongside Kwok Tak Seng and Fung King Hey.
In next to no time, the real estate stock prices in Hong Kong geared up and Lee became a self-made billionaire.
Later in 1973, he left Sun Hung Kai and founded his “Henderson Land Company” that made enormous profits.
During the financial crisis of 2008, Lee bought more land in response to the falling prices and became the largest landlord of the country. He is known as the “Buffett of Hong Kong” for all the profits he generated in the stock market.
- Yang Huiyan
Yang Huiyan, the owner of Country Garden Holdings, is the second wealthiest real estate investor in the world. Having a net worth of $27.7 Billion has made it to number 59 of Forbes world’s billionaire ranking. She is also the richest woman in Asia.
Yang inherited the majority of her wealth from her late billionaire father. After her father’s death, Yang has contributed a fair share to the growth of her company, “Country Garden Holdings”. She is leading the company from the very young age of 20.
Currently, Yang Huiyan’s Country Garden Holdings enjoys an international status and is working in multiple countries including Malaysia and Australia.
The year 2018 has been the luckiest year for Yang Huiyan as she earned over $2 billion within a week in response to an increase in the value of the company’s share.
Besides Country Garden Holdings, Yang also heads The Bright Scholar Education Holdings which is a leading Chinese training and development company.
- Hui Ka Yan
From a poor tractor driver to the leading real estate investor of China Hui Ka Yan has stunned the world with his investment skills. Hui currently chairs the Evergrande Group (the biggest real estate developer) and he has earned a fortune of $11.8 Billion. According to Forbes World’s Billionaire List, Hui Ka Yan holds 184th spot. He is further, the 10th richest investor in China.
After losing his mother at the age of 1, Hui Ka Yan spent a miserable life. After he graduated from high school, he started his career as a tractor driver in his hometown. Soon he left this job and started serving a restaurant as a security guard.
Deep inside Hui Ka Yan knew this wasn’t the place he was born for; hence he decided to join college again. But fate had planned differently for him; he couldn’t join the college so he went back to high school and continued his education. His hard work didn’t go in vain and he finally got selected at the college of Wuhan Institute of Metallurgy.
While he was still a student he took his first step in business and started selling lime powder. However, he had to bear a loss in this startup.
After completing his education, he worked as a Real Estate midwife for more than 4 years. Here, Hui Ka Yan came to know about the essential skills required for the real estate business. Later he left his job and founded Evergrade with small capital. The company prospered leaps and bounds under the guidance of Hui Ka Yan and it became a leading real estate company in China.
Hui Ka Yan’s story has given us a lesson that “There is no failure, only delayed success”.
The Fifth Industry: Education
With enormous technological advancements taking place, it becomes crucial to cope with the knowledge. To adapt to this rapidly evolving work dynamics, people are willing to invest in their skills and knowledge.
As the education industry itself is quite enormous, it offers multiple ways to earn wealth. You can think of products and services, within the education industry that can help people in many ways.
The services you will provide don’t need to be academic only; they could be based on alternative education systems outside the traditional school that will help people lead a better life.
So, invest in connecting people, help them learn the essential 21st-century skills, equip them will all the knowledge they would require to get better job opportunities, and in the end, you can earn huge wealth.
While thinking about earning billions of dollars, Education is the most ignored industry as people don’t find it worthy. However, leading billionaires like Bill Gates and Walton have their shares in several educational interests to increase their fortune.
Whether you believe it or not, the education industry can help you earn billions of dollars and the following people are its living example.
I. Lu Zhongfang
Lu Zhongfang has taken first place among the top billionaires of the education industry with a net worth of $4.3 Billion. After her retirement from a pesticide company in the year 1993, Lu Zhongfang made a wise decision to found a company to provide civil service test preparation services.
Along with her son Li Yongxin, Lu Zhongfang founded Offcn on 25th August 1999. They initially offered civil service test preparation services but Offcn Education Technology Co Ltd now also provides vocational education across mainland China.
The company operates study centers and schools in more than 300 countries across China and it enrolls over one million students.
Later in 2019, Offcn merged with a China-listed company named Yaxia, which provides offline and online civil service examination training.
In the year 2019, the fortune of Li Yongxin, Lu Zhongfang skyrocketed following the listing of Offcn in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Since then, the mother-son duo is enjoying the title of leading education industry billionaires.
II. Bertil Hult
With a net worth of $4.2 billion, Bertil Hault is a famous name in the education industry. From a college dropout to the list of top billionaires, Bertil’s story is truly inspirational.
Bertil was not a brilliant student in his early days; he suffered from dyslexia and study was the hardest thing for him to do. The most difficult thing he found to do in his childhood was to learn English.
Somehow he managed to reach high school but a year after his enrollment, he got dropped out. This was the turning point of his life. Instead of wasting his time, Bertil started working as an errand boy for a Swedish bank. Soon, the employer sent him to London considering his good performance.
After getting the opportunity to work in a different environment, Bertil became fluent in English in less than six months. Living in London and interacting with people from several backgrounds gave him a real-world experience that later helped him carve his business idea.
Bertil’s love for education compelled him to go back to Sweden and continue his education. Eventually, he completed high school and got enrolled in Lund University, yet again destiny was not in his favor. He got dropped out for a second time but this time he was prepared than before.
While sitting in his dormitory in the university, Bertil planned his first venture. He planned on organizing learning trips to Britain for Swedes who want to learn English. Considering the great potential in learning English, he invested all his savings for this venture in 1965.
Finally, Bertil founded the EF Education First that initially served young Swedes as a tour operator.
Considering his target market that mainly comprised of students, Bertil didn’t rely on luxurious options for stay and holiday-ing, instead, he started with cheaper options. In the initial days of the company’s launch, they conducted English classes in moving buses.
This out-of-classroom learning method worked really well and in a couple of years, EF became popular globally. Soon, he moved to Germany and extended his work operations to Japan. By the year 1983, he started organizing language tours for Americans as well.
From a dormitory startup to a company with branches in more than 54 countries, EF became a huge success.
After amassing huge success in teaching English skills, the company has now diversified its operations. The Hult International Business School (HIBS) and EF Learning Labs Shanghai are two prominent subsidiaries of Bertil’s company.
For his exceptional efforts in bringing change and creating an impact on society, World Entrepreneurship Forum named him a Laureate.
III. Sunny Varkey
From a single school to the largest educational group in Emirates, the Dubai-based non-resident Indian, Sunny Varkey is another self-made education entrepreneur. Having a net worth of $1.5 billion dollars, Sunny is one of the most influential education billionaires in the world.
Sunny Varkey owns a private school network “GEMS” that operates in more than 14 countries including the Middle East countries, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States.
The GEMS network initially got its start as “Our English High School” in Dubai in 1968. After migrating from India in 1959, Sunny Varkey’s parents, who were teachers in India, founded a school for the local Indian community. Young Sunny aided his parent’s venture by becoming the school bus driver.
In the late eighties and early nineties, GEMS Education witnessed tremendous growth. The number of schools increased and hundreds of new students joined their education network.
Upon being asked about the core values of GEMS Education, Sunny revealed that they follow five core pillars in the process of preparing future generations. These pillars include, “Advancement, care, care, respect, and an open mind”
Currently, GEMS Education is also providing training to teachers of the developing world. Under its teachers’ training program, GEMS Education has trained over 12,000 teachers in Uganda and the next training aims to train 250,000 more teachers.
This education foundation also owns an innovation unit that experiments on how technology can be used to improve the classroom experience for pupils.
After a long journey of 62 years, GEMS Education stands as one of the leading private school chains in the world. This global school network has also helped the founder & executive chairman of GEMS Education earn billions of dollars.
The Sixth Industry: Entertainment and Recreation
Having the lowest entry barriers, Entertainment and Recreation industry also offers enormous opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Following health and education, entertainment is something people demand. Just consider the example of Netflix alone, how much do you wait for the next season of your favorite Netflix series? That’s something you are waiting to pay for.
So, the entertainment industry offers hundreds and thousands of opportunities that can help you earn millions of dollars. The biggest examples of entertainment platforms amassing billions of dollars are Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, and many more.
Besides investing in entertainment platforms, you can think about the services used to facilitate this industry. The YouTubers and Instagrammers alone earn millions of dollars.
Another way to invest in the Entertainment and Recreation industry is, to create a company, service, or products that may serve this particular industry.
The top three entertainment entrepreneurs who have earned huge fortunes in the media and entertainment industry are as follows:
- David Thomson
David Thomson is the wealthiest media magnate with a staggering net worth of $50.8 billion. He chairs “Thomson Reuters”, a Canadian multinational media company. David ranks at number 64 in the Forbes list of the world’s top billionaires.
In the year 2006, David Thomson became the chairman of Thomson Corporation, a company started by his grandfather.
Shortly after becoming the chairman of Thomson Corporation, David merged the company with Reuters which was a leading international news organization at that time. After the merger “Thomson Reuters”, emerged as a fast-growing company and earned a huge fortune.
The Thomson Corporation was founded by Roy Thomson, David Thomson’s grandfather; it is now serving the founder’s third generation.
- Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch is another influential personality in the world of the media industry. He is an Australian-born American media tycoon holding a whopping $23.5 billion fortune.
Rupert was born in Melbourne, Victoria on the 11th of March 1931. He is the son of Keith Murdoch, who was a prominent journalist, businessman, and the founder of ‘News Limited’.
Although Rupert was the heir of his father’s well-established company, he didn’t join the company initially, instead, he took a daily apprenticeship role at Daily Express London after graduating from Oxford University. Later in 1952, Rupert became the managing director of ‘News Limited’ following his father’s sudden demise.
At the age of 22, Rupert lead a chain of Australian Newspapers, and soon the “Adelaide News” one of the newspaper chains, became the most read newspaper in the country. Under Rupert’s leadership, the newspaper chains flourished by leaps and bounds.
After increasing his stake hold on all media companies across the country, Rupert ventured into the British market in the year 1968. In the same year, he acquired ‘News of the World’ and ‘The Sun’ respectively. To cut the costs of newly acquired ventures, Rupert shortened the formats to tabloid format and the printing process was also kept the same. He is also known as the inventor of “Modern Tabloid”.
In the year 1973, Rupert moved to the United States and he acquired a series of new ventures including San Antonio News, Star, New York magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, and The Times of London.
The acquisition of ventures continued for the next whole decade and Rupert garnered several portfolios of newspapers holding $50 million net worth.
In the year 1981, Rupert purchased the FOX Film Corporation and some other independent TV stations and formed the Fox Broadcasting Company. After a few years, Murdoch launched a Television Network named “Sky News” in the UK. However, this television network was financed with debt, Rupert merged “Sky News” with “British Satellite Broadcasting” and formed BSkyB to mitigate the losses. BSkyB now Sky UK became the largest subscription television company in the UK. Rupert has now sold his Sky Uk shares to Comcast.
Rupert made his most prominent purchase in the year 2007, by acquiring the Wall Street Journal for $6 billion. Under Rupert’s leadership, the journal shifted from an exclusive magazine to a general-interest publication.
Murdoch has remained a strong player in the world of media. The majority of his fortune is amassed by strategic acquisitions all around the world.
- Su Hua
The owner of a Chinese video-streaming company has also made it our list of wealthiest magnates of the media and entertainment industry. Hua holds a staggering $5.2 billion net worth.
The visionary Chinese entrepreneur Su Hua founded a GIF-making app named “Kuaishou” in the year 2011. It was later transformed into a video-sharing platform that is mainly popular in rural China.
Kuaishou is the second most used video-sharing platform in China with over one billion users. It is available outside China as “Kwai”. The app is present in several countries including the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand Russia, Vietnam, Brazil, America, India, the Middle East, and many other countries. This same mobile application is also present as Snack Video and Zaynn in many other countries.
Hailing from a poor family living in the west of Hunan Province, Su Hua managed to complete his studies under severe financial crisis. After graduating from Tsinghua University, Su Hua has worked in various prominent tech companies including, Google and Baidu.
Later in the year 2011, Su Hua co-founded the mobile app “Kuaishou” with the cofounder Cheng Yixiao. After gaining enough popularity among the audience, Su Hua was on the verge to acquire a company (which is now TikTok) in the year 2017. But ByteDance Ltd. plunged in with a better deal and Su Hua was left disappointed. However, Su Hua didn’t give up and expanded the app’s presence to many other countries reaching millions of new users.
Although its rival company (TikTok) holds a larger share, Kuaishou is growing at a rapid speed.
In one of his interviews, Su Hua said “Kuaishou’s philosophy is quite different from our peers, and that’s built upon my personal experiences and values”.
The Seventh Industry: Transportation
As the internet has made the world, a global village, human beings are investing in exploring new places that they come across virtually. Nobody likes to be stuck in a single house for years, everyone desires of going out and exploring things. Bearing this in mind, air transportation, aerospace, and other similar fields have multiple opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Besides traveling, the next opportunity you must think of, is handling, shipping, and packaging of goods.
As people are shifting towards online shopping, there are numerous opportunities for people to invest in delivery services. But it is also important to come up with an innovative idea like “Uber Eats”, to be successful.
People also love having goods at their doorsteps, so, why don’t you come up with a product or service that will address the needs of online shoppers in terms of shopping and delivery? Well, transportation surely is a multi-dollar business for those who have skills. Here are some livening examples of multi-dollar transport companies.
- UPS
United Parcel Service is a global logistic leader, having a whopping net worth of $164.7 billion. The company was founded in 1907, by two young teens Claude Ryan and Jim Casey.
UPS started its operations in a hotel basement with a single bicycle and a starting capital of $100 that the founders burrowed from one of their friends. The company initially dealt in delivering telegrams but later it expanded its operations and started delivering all the goods that could be delivered by foot or a bicycle.
Soon after its startup, the company merged with its only rival company “Merchant’s Parcel Delivery”. After the merger, Claude Ryan and Jim Casey adopted the name of their rival and bought some delivery cars and motorcycles. By this time, mobile phones had become common so, the company started working with retail stores to deliver consumer purchases.
Later the company expanded its operations globally and adopted the name “United Parcel Service.
The key strategies that made UPS a huge success
1. UPS developed software to track the routes of their trucks. It helped them to be fuel-efficient.
2. The company used the “Center Inside Planning and Execution System” an application platform, to enhance their package and delivery operations.
3. Hired bike rider workers in several cities for speed deliveries.
4. Extensive mobile marketing campaigns.
5. Replaced the old technologies and switched to cloud for the smooth flow of their work activities.
After years of strategic planning and hard work, UPS now delivers and manages over 1 million packages each day with its 543000 employees in several countries of the world.
- FedEx
FedEx is the fastest-growing global company that provides transportation and Air Freight services to customers worldwide. It also works on some other portfolios including e-commerce and business services. As of September 2021, FedEx has a net worth of $66.76B and is one of the richest logistics companies in the world.
FedEx was established in the year 1971 by Frederick W. Smith as the practical implementation of a thesis paper he wrote at his graduation. He got very average marks for this thesis paper as his teacher perceived it to lack economic implication.
Frederick W. Smith, who now holds a fortune of $5.5 billion, started Federal Express official now FedEx with 389 staff members. The company didn’t earn any profits until the next two years of its commencement but it became successful in creating its image as the fastest courier service. Soon it made to the list of top courier providers of the era.
Within 10 years of startup, the Federal Express official became the first US Company to amass $1 billion revenue without any mergers or acquisitions. 1983, was the year when FedEx reported its highest revenue.
After establishing its image within the US, Federal Express Official started working on its strategies of going global. In 1984, it started providing its services in Europe and Asia as well. With the initiation of its global operations, the golden era of Federal Express Official began. Soon in 1994, it adopted its global brand name “FedEx”.
Currently, FedEx is serving its customers in more than 220 countries globally. It has also diversified its business and owns over 400 aircraft and 425,000 employees.
- UBER
UBER is just another transportation giant that revolutionized the way of traveling. With a net worth of $45.48 billion, UBER is among the richest transport companies in the world.
In the year 2008, the founders of Uber Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp were attending a conference in Paris. One night while returning from the conference they looked for a cab but failed to find one. This made them think of using technology to ease the problems revolving around travel.
After returning from the conference, the duo came up with the idea of The Uber Cab. By 2009, Oscar Salazar made a prototype of UberCab.
Finally, in early 2010, UBERcab was founded with an aim to change the way people travel. It initially focused on a very basic need of people “Traveling” and provided a range of solutions for a hassle-free travel experience. UBER was first tested in New York with 3 cabs only. The company became fully operational in May 2010.
Within a decade of its startup, the company acquired a market share of 67% in the United States. And soon the company started penetrating different global markets following a locale-by-locale approach. Currently, this ride-hailing application is providing its services in over 600 cities across 65 countries.
Besides its cab service, Uber has now expanded its services by entering into the logistic market with Uber Freight and food delivery with Uber Eats. It has also acquired 13 different prominent companies including Careem, Jump Bikes, Swipe Labs, deCarta, and some other ventures in different countries.
The Eighth Industry: Energy
Going beyond gas and oil, renewable energy sources bear numerous opportunities making it the 8th largest industry that can make you a millionaire.
With the world’s population increasing by leaps and bounds, people are going to require more energy resources.
Increasing technology, the growing industries, in fact, every little small gadget is going to require energy, so we are in need of more and more power.
However, to be successful in this particular industry, it is essential to have a team that will help you meet certain demands that are vital to cope with.
Here, it is important to note that you must also need to be able to work with the government and other related sectors to be successful.
Some of the successful entrepreneurs who have proved their skills in the energy sector are as follows.
- Leonid Mikhelson
Leonid Mikhelson is one of the most influential energy entrepreneurs with a net worth of $30.4 Billion. According to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaire List, he stands at number 48 among the world’s richest billionaires. A huge part of Leonid Mikhelson comes from his gas company named “Novatek”.
From a minor employee in a gas project to the founder of a multi-billion worth Gas Company, Leonid has worked really hard to get the position he has acquired now.
After earning a degree in Civil Engineering from the Samara Institute of Civil Engineering, Leonid started working with a Gas pipeline project “Urengoi-Chelyabinsk”. With consistent hard work and dedication, Leonid climbed the stairs of success really fast and became the chief engineer for the same project.
In the year 1987, Mikhelson became the General Director of Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy, which was later renamed as NOVA. After being appointed as the General Director of NOVA, Leonid played a vital role in the development of the company. Under his leadership, the company became a major player in the energy sector inside Russia and also globally.
In the year 1994, Leonid founded his first company OAO FIK Novafininves, which is now known as Novatek. After acquiring all the necessary licenses, Leonid stepped into the lucrative gas market.
Right after a few years of its launch, Novetek became one of the largest gas-producing companies in Russia. Soon, the company went public and its value kept soaring.
Mikhelson also acquired Sibur from Gazprom in the year 2010. Both the companies prospered over time and currently, Mikhelson owns 25% and 57.5% interest in Novatek and Sibur simultaneously.
Following all his wise decisions and hard work, Mikhelson now stands among the richest Russian business magnates.
- Vagit Alekperov
Vagit Alekperove is another Russian Energy entrepreneur who has earned a whopping net worth of $28.0 Billion. He stands at number 57 according to the Forbes Billionaire Index and his majority of wealth comes from his oil company Lukoil.
From a drill operator to founding his own multi-billion dollar company, Vagit’s success story is truly inspirational.
Vagit was born on 1st September 1950 in Baku, Azerbaijan. His father was an oilman so, Vagit got his inspiration from his father.
He has earned his Ph.D. degree in the year 1974 from Azerbaijan Oil and Gas Institute.
Before founding his own company, Alekperov has served various oil companies in different capacities. He started his career with Kaspmorneft as a drill operator in the year 1972. In the year 1974, he left his job at Kaspmorneft and joined West Siberian oil production as team leader. Considering his skills and hard work, Vagit was later promoted to the position of deputy chief and then director-general of the company.
He has also led the Kogalymneftegaz Oil company as Director-General. Besides working with some prominent oil companies, Vagit has also served the Soviet Union as Director-General. Alekperov has also got the opportunity to be part of the Russian Government in the year 1990. He has provided his services as deputy minister of oil and gas from the year 1990-1991.
After getting all the expertise required to lead an energy company, Vagit finally founded “Lukoil” in 1991. By deploying capitalist management techniques and socialist industrial practices, Vagit made the Lukoil company a major player in the oil industry.
The Lukoil Company now owns several refineries and gas stations worldwide.
- Harold Hamm
Harold Hamm comes at number three among the most influential billionaires of the energy industry. He has a staggering net worth of $15.2 Billion. Harold chairs one of the biggest oil companies “Continental Resources” and the majority of his wealth comes from this company. He is also known as the oil discoverer of the United States.
Over the years, Harold has made billions of dollars by finding oil but his journey wasn’t as simple as it sounds to many of us.
Harold was born to a family of sharecroppers therefore he started working as a cotton picker in his childhood. Later, to support his family, he started working at a gas station at the very young age of 16. This was the time when Harold witnessed the rapidly growing energy industry and his interest in the energy sector developed.
To get into the energy industry, he initially started a trucking company that used to take water to and from the oilfields. Eventually, in the year 1971, Harold took out a loan to drill his first well. Luckily, he became successful in drilling out oil from a wildcat well in Oklahoma struck oil. Following this discovery, he found many other oil wells including the Oswego Oakdale Field.
Soon, he built his own oil empire and acquired many gas and oil companies. His horizontal drilling technique accompanied by fracture stimulation, helped him reach one of the biggest oil reserves that changed the history of the US oil industry.
The Ninth Industry: Food
We are required to feed billions of mouths in the near future as the population is increasing drastically.
Currently, we are not producing enough food to be able to feed 9.7 billion people, so, with the rising demand for food; we are going to have enormous opportunities to produce it.
To be able to become successful in the food and beverage industry, you must look for more cost-effective ways to produce food. It is also important to invest in healthier choices as people are ready to invest more in organic food.
Several entrepreneurs belonging to, Fruit and drink industry, Snack industry, food processing plants, and food production industries have made to the list of richest billionaires of the world. Below are the successful food industry tycoons who have earned billions of dollars by investing in the food industry.
- Giovanni Ferrero
Mainly known as the Nutella Billionaire, Giovanni Ferrero comes at number one among the richest billionaires of the food and drink industry.
Giovanni has a net worth of $34.1 billion dollars which makes him the 36th richest man in the world according to the Forbes Billionaires Index.
The Nutella Billionaire chairs his family-owned company “Ferrero” since 2011. After his brother’s death in 2011, Giovanni was left behind alone to manage the company single-handedly. However, shifting the focus from the company’s native brand policies to acquisitions, Giovanni has earned huge profits in the last decade. After generating massive revenues following his improved strategic policies, he has become the richest billionaire in Italy.
After getting the ownership of Ferrero Group from their father in 1977, the Ferrero brothers adopted the following strategies to make their business a huge success.
1. Giovanni and his elder brother made several divisions under the Ferrero label.
2. They launched aggressive marketing strategies for a better reach.
3. They diversified their business by introducing new brands under the umbrella of Ferrero.
4. Expansions worldwide
5. Acquired some important businesses that included Thorntons, Nestlé’s US candy business that makes Butterfinger and BabyRuth, and the most recent acquisition Kellogg’s cookie.
6. They also improved their work activities by applying revolutionary strategies like recruiting competent individuals outside the family.
This huge success of the Ferrero group lies behind its culture of “learning by doing”.
- Jacqueline Badger Mars
Have you ever imagined that setting a candy production factory can make you a billionaire? No? Well, Jacqueline Badger Mars is a living example with over $31.6 billion net worth, and most of her earning coming from her candy empire.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires index, Jacqueline Badger Mars leads the list of richest food industry magnates. She stands at number 40 among the richest billionaires in the world.
Although Jacqueline is the heiress of the multi-billionaire chocolate company “Mars” but this popular confectionery manufacturing company was started by her Grandfather, Frank C. Mars from a single kitchen.
Later, her father, Forrest Mars, Sr made several innovations to the chocolate business making it one of the leading candy manufacturing companies of the time.
After the sudden demise of her father, Jacqueline Badger and her brothers took over the company in the year 1999. Jacqueline initially served as Food Product Group President in Mars inc. from 1982 to 2001. Following the death of her father, she became the Corporate Vice President of the company.
Besides Mars inc., Jacqueline also specializes in organic farming and she is also known as the richest horse owner in the world.
Jacqueline’s success mantra is
“Don’t Give Up, Give Back, And Dare To Dream”
- Pang Kang
Pang Kang is the largest supplier of soy sauce in the world with a soaring net worth of $23.4 Billion dollars. According to the Forbes Billionaire index he stands at number 73.
From a worker in the sauce department of a company to the richest billionaires of China, Pang Kang’s journey is truly amazing.
Pang initially worked in the sauce department of the Sauce Company Hai Tian. He soon climbed the stairs of success and became the vice-chairman of the company.
Hai Tian was a collective enterprise and it was a private limited company in the initial days of its startup. Later, it was renamed Foshan Haitian Flavoring & Food.
Pang Kang had the highest share of $60K in the Foshan Haitian Flavoring & Food, after its first public offering in the year 2014, Pang successfully made it to the list of richest people in the world.
After going public, the company followed expansion policies and invested to build some non-soy sauce product subsidiaries including Foshan City Haitian (Jiangsu) Seasoning Co., Ltd., Foshan Haisheng Food Co., Ltd., and Guangdong Haitian International Trade Co., Ltd.
Currently, the company is leading the local market as its share has surged up to a total of 48%. It is also exporting its products to several other countries including America, Japan, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
Pang Kang isn’t the only one who has earned billions of dollars from the food industry; there are several other food entrepreneurs who have made fortunes worth billions, outside the tech industry.
Related: How to Start an Online Business in 7 Steps
Bottom Line
Besides identifying the right industry, an entrepreneur must also be the right person for that particular industry. So, addressing your skills, background, and technical knowledge is as important as selecting the right industry to hop into.
