Besides being billionaires, the high Net worth individuals have one thing in common– most of them, at least those belonging to the first generation, are self-made billionaires. You can verify the truth of the statement by looking at the lives of the billionaires from Warren Buffet to Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, N.R. Narayana Murthy and many others. They amassed massive health in a few decades that is unimaginable by any measure, and they were entirely on their own. Each one has a fantastic story to tell about how they could create such enormous wealth. On looking at their stories closely to unravel the secret of such crazy wealth creation, some common traits of wealth-building become visible. To know how many billionaires are self-made, you can refer to the Forbes 400 list 2021.
How many billionaires are self-made?
Before we try to find the number of self-made billionaires, it requires some clarification about what the term means. Among the list of global billionaires, a significant number are self-made. They are the first-generation entrepreneurs who dreamt big and converted their dreams into reality all by themselves with rare conviction, commitment, and dedication. If you are curious about what percent of billionaires are self-made, then a look at the Forbes 400 list for 2021 will help get the answer. According to the list, 70.5% of billionaires are self-made, and the number has gone up by almost 20% of what it was in 1984.
Here are some common traits shared by the billionaires who started from scratch and scaled the wealthiest peaks all on their own. The 36 billionaires interviewed by entrepreneur Rafael Badziag shared the following traits that helped rapidly multiply their wealth.
Becoming rich by making others poor is a myth
The public mostly believes that those who become billionaires could build wealth at the expense of the poor. This is an utter misconception, and there is not even an iota of truth in it. Building wealth is not about becoming rich by grabbing what belongs to others. Instead, looking at the real economy, it will become clear that those who became billionaires could do so by creating enormous value for others. The economy is ever-expanding, and large-scale participation will enrich the economy. There is plenty of wealth to share among many people, some of whom become millionaires and billionaires. The bigger is the economy, the higher is the number of billionaires that it can create. To become wealthy, you must think of sustainable wealth creation instead of cutting corners by taking away others’ wealth.
Billionaires create more billionaires
Take the case of N.R. Narayanamurthy, the founder of Infosys, the Indian tech giant that employs more people than Microsoft, Apple, and Google, has taken together. Infosys employs 2 20,000 people and provides livelihood for over 1 million by considering the families. Infosys paid their employees well and ensured a better quality of life than many others. Narayanamurthy, who was the CEO of Infosys for a long time, not only became a self-made billionaire himself, but along with him, six co-founders also became billionaires. Added to it are another 4,000 employees of Infosys who became millionaires. Infosys is an example of how sharing of wealth played a recital role in creating self-made billionaires.
Inspiring others to become billionaires
Besides sharing wealth to ensure sustainable growth for becoming billionaires, the lives of the self-made billionaires inspire many others to follow in their footsteps to become billionaires. Take the case of Naveen Jain, who worked closely with Bill Gates during the formative years of Microsoft before the company went public. On seeing how Bill Gates relentlessly chased his dreams and turned them into reality with resilience and grit, Naveen was deeply inspired by how Gates created the enormous business almost from nothing. He learned how to think of the impossible and turn it into reality without giving up. Besides becoming a millionaire during his stay at Microsoft, Naveen dared to dream big and became a billionaire and subsequently launched several tech companies.
Such stories of people becoming billionaires all by themselves answer how many billionaires are self-made.
