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Elizabeth Holmes:  The Dropout Self-made Billionaires

 
This is the youtube link, please watch
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EToDw9fhlbo

 
Today, she is worth less than 0.1 Billlion
This post is about Casualty Rate of Self-made Billionaires

Each year, about 7% of self-made billionaires dropout of the list
(during boom times, there are fewer dropouts, during bust time the number of dropouts increase) 

I will use Elizabeth Holmes as an example, because she is a high profile case. 

In 2015, Elizabeth Holmes was worth an estimated
 $4.5Billion

Elizabeth Holmes was born in Washington DC in 1984.  Her grandfather  Christian R Holmes was a medical inventor.

She was a prodigee in high school, having mastered Chinese, C++ and won a President Scholar and began her study at Chemical Engineer at Stanford University

Her most famous invention, the one drop blood test

Her Board of Director included 2 former secretary of states: Henry Kissinger and George Schultz

Unfortunately, the one drop blood test does not work. 

The failed blood tests were discovered by John Carreyrou

Here is a picture of John Carreyrou

 
 John Carreyrou is TWICE Pulitzer Prize Winners

 
 from the Wall Street Journal

How many ways to become self-made billionaires?

I will give you the answer here

About 500 Ways to become billionaires


This is the link on youtube video I published



Here is how I came to this conclusion 




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmb5fliEmtI

I have a database of about 3,000 self-made billionaires 
They come from 3 groups 
#1   The Current Self-made Billionaires , about 1,100, example Bill Gates, Warren Buffett,
#2   The Dead Billionaires , about 1,000  , for example   Chung Ju-Yung, Jessie Livermore,
                                                   Thomas Edison,  Benjamin Franklin
#3   Dropout , about 1,000 -- here there is some overlap   Jessie Livermore also dropped out of billionaire rank


Take Carlos Slim
He owns about 200 companies, which include bakery, insurance, tires, telecom etc.

So Carlos Slim alone shows 200 ways


Another one is Aliko Dangote, he made his fortunes in
(1) Sugar
(2) Pasta
(3) Soft Drinks
(4) Cement
(5) Oil Refinery 
etc
So, Aliko has 5 or more ways 

Leonardo Del Vechhio 

Age 81   Net Worth  $16.9 Billion
Born Italy   Citizen  Italy 
Self-made in Eye Ware, founded Luxotica in 1961

Here is the link to my youtube channel video
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awlij3xruHY

Nicknamed Mr Nobody, because he does not own a soccer team in Italy and he shuns publicity

Reasons why we study Del Vecchio 
#1   He is the richest man in Italy
#2   He started life in terrible condition, he grew up in an orphanage 
#3   He is King of Eye Ware in the world 
#4   We all can learn from him,  his motto is "Work, Work, Work"

The above picture is the Luxottica Headquarters, the world's largest eye wear company

 
He was born in Milan in 1935
He was the 6th child, his father died 5 months before he was born

His mother, unable to feed him, put him up for adoption in an orphanage 

1989  teamed up with Gigrior Armani 
Please see picture above, the gentleman on the left is Giorgio Armani and on the right is Leonardo Del Vecchio

1991  Bought Sun Hut

1992  bought Lens Crafter 

1994  bought Oakley 

2017  Merged with Essilor of France

Yanai Tadashi 

Age 68   Net Worth  $16.9 Billion
Citizen Japan 
Self-made in Apparel , founded Uniqlo in 1984 in Hiroshima Japan


This is my video link in youtube for Yanai Tadashi, the richest Japanese self-made billionaire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4SGjS8wNZE

This is the logo of his company.  There are Uniqlo stores all over the world, from New York to Shanghai,  from Australia to Russia.  His biggest overseas customers are the Chinese.

Typical Uniqlo store, with neatly folded clothes

This is the high tech special material used in many of his apparels









I like his approach to life.  His slogan is "1 Win 9 Losses"

This is his autobigraphy, written in 1991, when he was 42 year old. 

He failed in his first atempt to enter the UK market. 

He failed in his first attempt to enter the US market

He failed in his first attempt to enter the China market.

This is the link to my video on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2gYeNpyHZg


Ray Dalio 

Age 67   Net Worth  $16.8 Billion
Born in US  , Citizen US 

Source of Wealth: Founded Bridgewater Associates , the world's largest hedge fund, in 1975 in a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan 

Bridgewater Associates now manages $160 Billion in asset and employs 1,500 people

fanous for its culture, based on 

Radical Truth, Radical Transparency

Meaningful Work, Meaningful Relations

In 2013, he published a 30 minute video on his view

"How the Economic Machine Works"

His central thesis is (1) productivity growth  (2) short-term debt cycle and (3) long-term debt cycle, as shown above

With this, you can navigate where the economy is going and avoid needless pain

The only spy self-made billionaire in the world

Here is the URL of my video 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCmKENYobLQ

Arnon Milchan
Age  78   Net Worth  $5.6B
Citizen   Israel, France      Born Israel  (in 1944) 

He has made many successful movies, and has worked with most famous actors and actress in Hollywood

With "The Revement", he produced Oscar Best Picture 2016.  Here is Leonardo Decaprio

The box office was more than $500 million
 

In 1991, he got his big break with the movie "Pretty Woman"

He had made more than 130 movies in Hollywood, among his box office flop
"Once Upon a Time in America", made in 1984 with big budget and director Sergio Leone and Robert De Niro

Here is his latest picture 

Do you know the other guy in the picture?  Hint, he directed "The Revement"

 

Phil Knight 
Age 79     Net Worth $25.8
Citizen  US       Born US

Self-made in Sportswear , co-founded NIKE with Bill Bowerman in 1974


Here is my Youtube URL 
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=NfQTKbTnVs4

Here is his coach Bill Bowerman at University of Oregon

Bowerman was a tinkerer, who experimented and created the waffle sole trainer for his elite runner

But the biggest success of Nike was the signing of Michael Jordan and its lucrative Air Jordan Shoes

This is the first Tiger Shoe Phil Knight imported from Japan in 1969. 
The company was called Blue Ribbon Sports then. 

Phil Knight was working full time at Price Water House and doing his shoes part-time

He wanted to compete with the Best Shoe Company at the time:  Adidas of Germany, founded in 1924, 45 years older.