There are career paths in the world that are relatively safe and secure, especially for those who do not care for surprises or the thrill of risk and ruin. The life of an entrepreneur is not one of those career paths. In all honesty, risk is one of pillars of entrepreneurship. As such, success can be a tricky thing to achieve in this line of work.
There are many ways to measure a person’s success, and certain entrepreneurs have been undeniably successful in their field. These are the six most successful entrepreneurs and their billion dollar ideas:
1. Jeff Bezos
As far as the most successful entrepreneurs go, it’s hard to beat the achievements of Jeff Bezos. In 1994, he started a small Internet bookstore known as Amazon with a limited amount of financing for his business. All those years ago, it was hard to tell whether or not an online retailer would actually work well, but Bezos took a chance on the idea.
As the Internet became more and more accessible, so did Amazon. What started out as a simple idea of shipping books anywhere around the world evolved globally and rapidly. In order to keep up the growth of his little company, Bezos continually added newer and more varied products at what appears to have been the perfect times. In the end, he is currently the richest man in the world, and is most certainly the richest of entrepreneurs.
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2. John D. Rockefeller
There are successful entrepreneurs, and then there are entrepreneurs who leave their mark on history. Rockefeller was the latter, as the effects of his actions are still noticeable today. The man literally struck oil that resulted in great wealth for him. As with most entrepreneurs, however, there can always be more money.
This drive led Rockefeller, and his company, Standard Oil, to make some pretty smart, yet ultimately harmful business decisions that made him one of the richest men in history. These decisions included the invention of the oil pipeline, as well as the coining of the phrase “monopoly,” as Rockefeller was ruled to have one on the oil industry. Either way, not many entrepreneurs will ever have that much of an impact on the world.
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3. Andrew Carnegie
One of the so-called “Men who built America.” Andrew Carnegie embodied the entrepreneurial spirit from a young age, driven by a less than wealthy childhood of hard labour. As he grew into the man he would be, however, he became a telegraph messenger for a railroad mogul, Thomas Scott.
Scott slowly took a liking to Carnegie, as he saw something truly special in him. Eventually, he became a mentor to young Carnegie, bringing him into the world of the railroad and steel train tracks. However, Carnegie was meant for far more.
Known as one of the most successful entrepreneurs, Carnegie grew well beyond his humble origins as he pioneered the use of steel beams to build stronger bridges, and even higher skyscrapers. He is attributed to building some of America’s most impressive cities using steel that made him a fortune fit for a king.
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4. Bill Gates
While Andrew Carnegie helped build cities, Bill Gates helped pioneer the future by making incredible strides in the field of personal computers. No matter where you may be on Earth, there is surely a product of his ambition not too far away in the form of PCs, operating systems, or even apps such as Skype, which he used to diversify his interests.
However, Bill Gates has also went beyond the typical entrepreneur by tossing a healthy amount of philanthropy into his activities as well. He is one of the most successful entrepreneurs involved in activism and humanitarian work.
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5. Henry Ford
Henry Ford is the prime example of how someone can revolutionize an invention they did not create. Before Ford’s automobiles, the standard motorcar was far too impractically expensive for the average person to afford. If few people were able to buy them, then the barely existent automobile industry may have simply ceased to be.
However, Ford brought innovations to the automobile. By making it both cheaper, and more functional, he brought the Ford Model T to the average person. As you can probably tell by looking down your street, this created a massive industry that is widely used to this day. For all his achievements, Ford will be known as one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the automotive industry.
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6. Walt Disney
Greatness from small beginnings is a good way to describe the success of Walt Disney. Way back in the 1920’s, Disney went to work in a small makeshift animation studio in a garage. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for the gifted animator to create one of the most recognizable characters the world has ever seen, Mickey Mouse.
Disney placed Mickey on a steamboat, titled the cartoon “Steamboat Willie,” and the rest is now history. The success of that one little mouse allowed Disney to slowly and steadily expand his studio, bringing in more artists, animators, and even musicians. Together, they created a living, breathing world that had never been seen before.
Success after success well after Disney’s passing has made the Disney company a media powerhouse so expansive that it is slowly absorbing other studios into it’s wheelhouse of talent even today.
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