Have you ever wondered who the richest people in the world are?
And have you wondered why they are the richest?
Me too. So I did some research and came up with this list of the richest people in the world, and each person's key lesson responsible for their success.
Some of them have been in the public eye for many years, others seem to have climbed the financial ladder almost overnight.
No matter how long it took for them to build their fortune – most of the billionaires I'm about to discuss have made a huge impact in the world in their areas respectively.
Let's take a closer look at who exactly these top 20 richest people in the world are and what you can learn from them (to hopefully make this list one day).
The Top 20 Richest People In The World & Their Biggest Lessons
Below you will find a recently updated list of the richest people in the world, but with the change of demand and markets, the net worth of these people fluctuates daily.
Forbes' realtime list of billionaires is a great resource if you want to see the current list of the richest people in the world.
#20- Jack Ma
Jack Ma is the co-founder of the world’s five largest e-commerce companies Alibaba Group. At the age of 55, he is currently worth $42.2B.
🔑 Key Lesson
#19- Julia Koch
Julia Koch suddenly became one of the richest people in the world when her husband David passed away in 2019.
At the age of 56, Julia and her three children inherited 42% of her husband’s stake in Koch Industries, ultimately increasing her worth to an incredible $47.6B.
🔑 Key Lesson
#18- Charles Koch
Also sitting on a comfortable worth of $47.6B is 84-year-old Charles Koch.
His fortune derives from the above mentioned Koch Industries, America's second-largest private company by revenue.
🔑 Key Lesson
#17- Ma Huateng
48-year-old Ma Huateng is currently worth $48.3B. He is one of the chairmen and co-founder of Tencent Holdings.
Also known as ‘Pony Ma’, Huateng turned his tech business into one of China’s largest and the world’s fifth most valuable public firms in only two decades, worth no less than $556B.
🔑 Key Lesson
#16- Carlos Slim Helu & family
Carlos Slim Helu is one of those billionaires who is not only rich when it comes to money, but especially valuable lessons. He and his family own America Movil, which is Latin America's biggest mobile telecom firm.
Carlos is currently 80 years old and with a net worth of $53.8B Mexico’s richest man- also ranking at #16 of the richest people in the world.
🔑 Key Lesson
#15-#13- The Walton family
Rob, Alice, and Jim Walton are the children of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart which is one the the world’s biggest retail companies. They own a big portion of the family-run firm and rank at number 15, 14, and 13 of the richest people in the world.
Rob Walton is the oldest son of Sam Walton and former chairman of Walmart. At the age of 75, he is currently worth $54.8B.
He is surpassed by his sister Alice Walton, 71. She is an avid art curator and philanthropist worth $55B.
Jim Walton is 72 years of age and with $55.1B currently the richest of his siblings. In cooperation with his sister, he funds organisations with millions of dollars to support education.
🔑 Key Lesson
#12- Francoise Bettencourt Meyers
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers is the richest woman on the planet, currently worth an incredible $57.8B. She is the granddaughter of L'Oreal founder Eugène Schueller and shares with her family 33% of the humongous company.
Even though most of her fortune is a result of her inheritance, Francoise is also a passionate author.
🔑 Key Lesson
#11- Michael Bloomberg
Philanthropist and co-founder of the technology and mass media focused company Bloomberg LP, Michael Bloomberg ranks #11 of the list of the richest people in the world.
The 78-year-old is currently worth $60.1B, which derive from his 88% shares in his own company.
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This was the first part of our list.
So far, we can see that internal as well as external communication are just as important as persistence, adapting to new technologies as well as a small bounce back rate.
Let’s check out if these core values are different from the ones of the 10 richest people in the world below.
#10- Sergey Brin
At only 46 years old, Sergey Brin is worth $62.1B.
Sergey is the co-founder of Google and just recently resigned from his role as the president of Google’s mother company Alphabet.
🔑 Key Lesson
#9- Larry Page
The same values can of course be contributed to Larry Page, who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin. The 47-year-old is looking at a current net worth of $64.5B, earning him one of the places in the top ten of the richest people in the world.
Larry recently stepped down from his position as CEO of Alphabet. However, he is still an active board member and controlling shareholder.
🔑 Key Lesson
#8- Steve Ballmer
$65.2B is the amount of money Steve Ballmer currently has to his name. The 64-year-old led Microsoft to success during his 14-year career as its CEO.
Ever since Steve resigned from his position in 2014, he has been an active philanthropist. Even though he is constantly donating billions of dollars to good causes, he is still one of the richest people in the world.
🔑 Key Lesson
#7- Amancio Ortgega
At 84 years of age, Amancio Ortgega has become an absolute tycoon.
Amancio is the pioneer of fast fashion, which has made him one of the richest people in Europe. His fashion empire, including the world-famous brand Zara, has accumulated him a net worth of $67B.
🔑 Key Lesson
#6- Larry Ellison
In the late 1970’s, Larry Ellison founded Oracle, which nowadays is one of the biggest global software companies.
As the retired CEO of his firm, Larry is still an important chairman and is estimated to be worth $67.1B, almost giving him a place in the top 5 of the richest people in the world.
🔑 Key Lesson
#5- Warren Buffett
90-year-old Warren Buffet is one of the most successful investors on our planet and currently worth $72.5B. He owns over 60 companies in different sectors.
Warren and his wife are heavily involved in humanitarian activities and donate billions to big foundations, trying to make the world a better place.
🔑 Key Lesson
#4- Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the biggest social network Facebook, is currently ranked at #4 of the richest people in the world.
Mark revolutionized communication in the early 2000s and is currently worth an incredible $85.4B. His ambition is to help others and bring the world together.
🔑 Key Lesson
#3- Bernard Arnault & family
Bernard Arnault and his family have an accumulated worth of $103.1B which lands them in the third place of the richest people in the world.
The 71-year-old credits his financial expertise to his father. Bernard turned the unique demands of the rich and famous into an empire of luxury brands, incl. Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior.
🔑 Key Lesson
#2- Bill Gates
A close runner-up to the title of the richest man in the world is Bill Gates.
He founded Microsoft in 1975, chairs his own foundation, and is closely involved with humanitarian activities. At currently 65-year-old, Bill has collected a worth of $108.1B.
🔑 Key Lesson
#1 – Jeff Bezos
Undoubtedly #1 of the richest people in the world is Jeff Bezos, the 56-year-old founder of Amazon.
With an incredible worth of currently $148.8B (update: now actually he passed 200B), Jeff is involved in many other businesses and innovations, such as creating rockets for commercial use.
🔑 Key Lesson
Conclusion
What did you think?
Where there some habits and success strategies that you would like to incorporate into your own routines?
Learning from the richest people in the world is surely a great way to become a successful entrepreneur or move your existing business to the next level.
Overall, we can see that consistency, sticking to your vision, being flexible and innovative in addition to great work ethics are key elements of a successful and sustainable business.
All of these people also understand the value of USP (unique selling proposition). If you want to be one of the richest people in the world, you'll need to provide a lot of value to the world.
And if you really wanna grow, learning from your own mistakes is just as essential.
Remember that failure is part of the process – and that the only true failure lies in giving up!
Which of these people do you look up to the most? Comment below!
Deep thought provoking read and learn the art of success.
Read some where long back – Failures are pillars of success.
Thank you for in-depth analysis.
Glad you enjoy, Henry!
Easy…. They are the Richest because they were born with Good Opportunities
Informative, interesting yet provocative to me. I realize there is no secret sauce to success though we all know the ingradients are roughly the same – hard work, honesty, knowledge etc. Average performances abound. Success is purely accidental. When Mark Z came out with FaceBook, I thought he had gone nuts. That time I thought he does not manufacture/ sell any product – bread, steel, oil.. so he will never make any money. But see where he is today. We can learn tehniques, crafts but not success. Success is accidental. It can come to those who were not worth even thinking about and may elude those whom we thought truely deserved. All said and done, the player who leaves the field has zero chance to score a goal. Those who stay put do have good chance of scoring the goal. So, work till you succeed.
“All said and done, the player who leaves the field has zero chance to score a goal. Those who stay put do have good chance of scoring the goal. So, work till you succeed.” – Agreed, Ahupati. We cannot score if we’re not on the pitch.
Who I look up to the most? That will be Jeff Bezos. And It’s not because he is the richest man in the world. I have always love Amazon’s customer-centric strategy and the way they scale vertically and quickly.
He’s undoubtedly a very impressive man!
Huge inspiration – (to hopefully make this list one day).
The old adage “Slow and steady wins the race” still holds true. Thnx for the well-researched post.
You know it, Ronica! Thanks a lot.