I’ve got a ton of bios to drop on yall.
I went through Forbes.com lists of the 691 billionaires as of 2004, and the 200 most powerful celebrities, and came up w/ these guys who I think meet this list’s requirements. Again, I am making the mistake of only selecting the wealthiest, and in many cases most famous, geniuses/innovators/entrepeneurs.
In these bios, the quotes are from Wiki or Forbes, and if you see a number in parentheses (22 or 22 yo), that’s the persons age at the given year (yo=years old).
Sam Walton- At 27 conceived Wal Mart, in his 30s it florishes. This guy innovated some incredible things, like the single check out line and bulk purchasing to lower costs. Were he alive today, he’d be twice as rich as Gates- he has left 90.7 billion to 5 inheritants.
Paul Allen- the guy who worked with Gates in college. Top ten richest men.
Ralph Lauren- launched Polo when he was 28
John Rockefeller- “In 1853 his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where the family bought a house in Strongsville, near Cleveland, and John entered Central High School in Cleveland. While he was a student he rented a room in the city and joined the Erie Street Baptist Church, which later became the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church. Active in its affairs, he became a trustee of the church at the age of 21. He left high school in 1855 (16 yo) to take a business course at Filsom Mercantilile College. He completed the six month course in three months, and after looking for a job for six weeks, he was employed as assistant bookkeeper by Hewitt & Tuttle, a small firm of commision merchants and produce shippers. A few months later he became the cashier and bookkeeper.In 1858 (19 yo) he went into the produce commission business. His firm, Clark & Rockefeller, invested in an oil refinery in 1862, and in 1865 Rockefeller sold out his share to his partner Clark, paid $72,500 for a larger share in another refinery, and formed the partnership of Rockefeller & Andrews.At about the same time Rockefeller’sbrother, William, started another refinery. In 1867 Rockefeller & Andrews absorbed thisbusiness, and Henry M. Flagler joined the partnership. In 1870 (31 yo) the two Rockefellers, Flagler, Andrews and a refiner named Stephen V. Harkness formed the Standard Oil Company, with John D. Rockefeller as president.”
William Randolph Hearst- Has left 10.1 billion to 5 relatives. “William studied at Harvard University (1882–1885), but was expelled for sending faculty members chamber pots with the recipient’s picture adorning the inside bottom. He then took over the San Francisco Examiner in 1887 (at age 23) which his father, George Hearst, accepted as payment for a gambling debt. He nicknamed the newspaper “The Monarch of the Dailies” and acquired the best equipment and the most talented writers possible. Hearst then went on to publish exposes of corruption and stories filled with drama and inspiration. Possibly the first example of Tabloid Sensationalism. In 1895, William Hearst purchased the unsuccessful New York Morning Journal, hiring writers like Stephen Crane and Julian Hawthorne and entering into a head-to-head circulation war with his former mentor, Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World, from whom he ‘stole’ Richard F. Outcault, the inventor of color comics. The New York Journal (later New York Journal-American) reduced its price to one cent and attained unprecedented levels of circulation through sensational and dishonest articles on subjects like crime and pseudoscience; the paper’s bellicosity in foreign affairs was notorious.”
Oprah winfrey- “Winfrey began her career in broadcasting at age 19. She was both the youngest news anchor and the first African-American female news anchor at Nashville’s WTVF-TV. She moved to Baltimore’s WJZ-TV in 1976 (22) to co-anchor the six o’clock news. She was then recruited to join Richard Sher as co-host of WJZ’s local talk show, People Are Talking, which premiered on August 14, 1978.(24)In 1983, Winfrey relocated to Chicago, Illinois to take over as host of WLS-TV’s low-rated half-hour morning talk show, AM Chicago, which premiered on New Year’s Day, 1984. The show was so successful with Winfrey as host that it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, expanded to an hour, and debuted nationally on September 8, 1986.(32) Originally, the show followed traditional talk show formats. By the mid 1990s, however, the format became more serious, addressing issues that Winfrey thought were of direct importance and of crucial consequence to women. Winfrey began to do a lot of charity work, and her show featured people suffering from poverty or the victims of unfortunate accidents.”
Walt Disney- In 1910, his family moved to Kansas City. “Disney was nine years old at the time. According to the Kansas City Public School District records, Disney began attending the Benton Grammar School in 1911, and graduated on June 8, 1917. During this time, Disney also enrolled in classes at the Chicago Art Institute. He left school at the age of sixteen and became a volunteer ambulance
driver in World War I, after he changed his birth certificate to show his year of birth as 1900 in order to be able to enlist in the service. Disney returned to the USA, moved to Kansas City and, with Ub Iwerks, formed a company called “Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists” in January 1920.(18) The company faltered and Disney and Iwerks soon gained employment at the Kansas City Film Ad Corporation, working on primitive animated advertisements for local movie houses. In 1922, (20/21) Disney started Laugh-O-Grams, Inc., which produced short cartoons based on popular fairy tales and children’s stories.” (The company fails, so he goes to California w/ brother Roy).“Disney set up shop with his brother Roy, started the Disney Brothers Studio in their Uncle Robert’s garage, and got a distribution deal for the Alice Comedies with New York City states-rights distributors Margaret Winkler and her fiancée Charles Mintz. Virginia Davis, the live-action star of Alice’s Wonderland, was sequestered from Kansas, as
was Ub Iwerks. By 1926 (24/25), the Disney Brothers Studio had been renamed as the Walt Disney Studio; the name Walt Disney Productions would be adopted in 1928.” ( In his mid to late 30s everything takes off).
Ted Turner- “Turner’s media empire began with his father’s billboard business which he took over at the age of 24 after his father’s suicide. Purchase of an Atlanta UHF station in 1970 (32 yo) began the assemblage of the Turner Broadcasting System.”
Andrei Melnichenko- “Melnichenko studied physics at the prestigious Moscow State University. Dropped out in 1991 (20) and together with some schoolmates, sold computers, established a chain of currency-exchange booths; in 1993 (22) founded MDM Bank. It later handled the accounts of oil tycoon Roman Abramovich and other businessmen then favored by the Kremlin. In 2000 (29), after a failed attempt to sign up the Ministry of Atomic Energy as a client, Melnichenko teamed up with metals trader Sergei Popov and began accumulating an industrial empire that now includes chemicals, coal mines, steel mills and a 6% stake in Russia’s electric monopoly.”
Sergei Popov- “Throughout the 1990s (his 20s) he made his way through the murky world of metals and oil trading in the Urals and Siberia. As a client of MDM Bank, he got to know the bank’s owner, Andrei Melnichenko. After the collapse of the ruble in 1998 (27) he convinced Melnichenko to buy up Russian steel mills, chemical companies and coal mines on the cheap.”
Wong Kwong Yu- “China’s king of appliance retailing. At age 17, Wong moved to Beijing where he worked as a small scale trader. In 1987 (18), he opened his first appliance store.”
Oleg Deripaska- “In 2000, at age 31, assumed control of Russian Aluminum, the country’s dominant producer.”
Jerry Yang and David Filo- “Thirtysomethings met as grad students at Stanford in 1989, developed Internet search portal. Became Internet billionaires taking Yahoo public in 1996.”
Pierre Omidyar- 28 when launced Ebay
Roman Abramovich- “Orphaned as a child, Abramovich dropped out of college, then made a fortune in a series of controversial oil-export deals in the early 1990s (mid 20s). His fortune took off in 1995 (29) when he teamed up with Boris Berezovsky to take over oil giant Sibneft at a fraction of its market value.”
Rinat Akhmetov- “Son of a coal miner, Akhmetov built his Ukrainian coal and steel empire in the mid-1990s (late 20s early 30s) by forging ties with Viktor Yanukovych, then the governor of eastern Ukraine’s coal and steel rich region of Donbas.”
Richard Li- “Borrowed $250 million from his father and launched StarTV in 1991 (25); later sold the satellite TV operation to Rupert Murdoch for $950 million. Used proceeds to start Pacific Century Group, with interests in real estate, financial services and technology.”
William Wrigley Jr.- 31 when he started Wrigley’s gum company on the road of gum, not baking powder
Howard Stern- His radio show begins in 1982 (28), he goes on Letterman in 85(31), at which point he picks up fame, and is syndicated nationwide in 86 (32).
Peter Jackson- Peter made movies at 12, on celluloid. In 1983, at 22, w/ a Bolex 16mm film camera, the entire budget coming from Peter’s salary from his job at The Evening Post, Peter began making a film w/ friends, that later became the full feature film Bad Taste. “As Peter was busily filming on weekends, he was also applying to the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) for money to help with post-production on the film. Peter was to garnered the support of Jim Booth,Chairman of the NZFC, even thought the other board members weren’t too impressed with what they saw. Jim used a digressionary fund to help bankroll the completion of the film. Four years after Peter began making the movie, the alien / splatter / comedy BAD TASTE was done and ready to be shown. The New Zealand Film Commission brought the film to Cannes where the critics loved it. BAD TASTE
was than sold to 30 countries and Peter Jackson was suddenly 'a know commodity.” The film quickly returned it’s costs within a few days of being shown at Cannes. After their success, Jim Booth left the NZFC to joined Peter as a partner in WingNut Films. Peter works on Meet the Feebles and Brain Dead and The Frighteners, and by 1998/1999 (37/38), LOTR is on his plate!
Will Smith- “started his career as The Fresh Prince, the vocalist of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, which included childhood friend Jeffrey “DJ Jazzy Jeff” Townes as turntablist and producer. The duo was known for performing humorous,radio-friendly songs, most notably “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “Summertime”. Smith was a charismatic and energetic performer, and in 1990 (22), the NBC television network signed him up and built a sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, around him. The show was successful and ran for six seasons. Smith’s movie career took off with his role in Bad Boys (1995) (27) along with co-star Martin Lawrence. After Fresh Prince came to an end in 1996, Smith began a successful solo career in music and simultaneously starred in a series of movies.”
Finally, here’s some more bios you can check on Forbes.com if you wish, that meet this list but that I’m too lazy to type up bios for :
Mikhail Prokhorov
Mikhail Fridman
Jeffrey Skoll
Jeffrey Bezos
Alexei Kuzmichov
Edward Lampert
Theodore Waitt
Thomas Hunter
German Khan
Victor Pinchuk
Vladimir Potanin
Nikolai Tsvetkov
Guy Laliberte
Karl/Theo Albrecht
Steven Ballmer
Gerald Ford
Fred DeLuca
, but that’s not the point. The point is that they too achieved their thing in their 20s…[/li][li]Mozart was a prodigy by 5, Beethoven was no slacker either, so they certainly count. They don’t even belong on this list [/li][li]Steven Spielberg- 16 years old had a summer job at studio, office work; the story about finding an empty office and making it his is false, but [/li][quote=snopes.com]