#Amancio Ortega, from courier to emperor of the second-hand
This is the beginning of an irresistible success. Despite the strong development of its brand, the founder managed to keep nearly 60% of Inditex, the parent company. But Ortega is also a legendary discretion. His last public appearance dates back to 2001
Age: 73 years
Nationality: Spanish
Fortune: $ 18.3 billion (10th worldwide)
#Michael Ilitch missed a baseball career, but no pizzaiolo
If he had not been injured in the knee, Michael Ilitch would probably never have been a billionaire. Born in Macedonia, he emigrates with his parents to the United States. He is an excellent baseball player. In the 1950s, the Detroit Tigers even offered him a contract that he would not sign because of a bad knee injury. But it was written that if he did not break into the sport, he would break into the business.
With his wife, he opened a pizzeria in 1959, which they call Little Caesars Pizza. Little Caesars is the nickname that his wife gives him. A kind of talisman since today thousands of thousands of the same name have opened around the world, ensuring his fortune.
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Age: 80 years
American nationality
Fortune: $ 1.4 billion (522nd worldwide)
#John Paul DeJoria, a former SDF turned billionaire
He is hired by a hair products laboratory. Driven for criticizing the business strategy, he borrowed 700 dollars and set up his own brand John Paul Mitchell Systems by partnering with a hairdresser. Since his hair products have made his fortune he has diversified into the music industry.
Age: 65 years old
American nationality
Fortune: $ 2.5 billion (261st worldwide)
#Michael Dell dropped out of college to do business
At university, Michael Dell did not shine by his academic success. On the other hand, he was busy with talent in his room on the Austin campus to imagine and assemble computers. So he dropped out of school at 19 to start his business with only $ 1,000 earned by selling subscriptions.
From the beginning, in 1984, Dell enacts some of the recipes that will make its success. No stocks, manufacturing only to order and sell at low prices. Companies and individuals who equip themselves at this time of PC are seduced. Dell becomes world number 2 in computer manufacturing. Between 1996 and 2000, the company's stock price multiplied by 500, making Michael Dell a billionaire.
Age: 44 years old
American nationality
Fortune: $ 12.3 billion (25th worldwide)
#Harold Hamm, a pump attendant turned king of oil
The horizon of Harold Hamm, the last of 13 children, could never have passed Oklahoma. His parents were poor, they were picking cotton, and their only roof was a tiny one-room house. His first job will be pompiste. An ungrateful job but that will give him ideas. A few months later, in 1966, he founded Tank Truck Service to transport oil. With his interpersonal skills, he manages to sign increasingly important contracts.
To find new markets, he becomes an expert in oil and gas exploration. Well, he took some. He discovers fields of resources that he begins to exploit, making his company Continental Resources a small major that counts.
Age: 64 years old
American nationality
Fortune: $ 3.5 billion (164th worldwide)
#Ingvar Kamprad, matches to kit furniture
Before selling kit furniture, Ikea designer Ingvar Kamprad sold a lot of other things. But always with an innate sense of business. During his youth, it was matches, then Christmas decorations and finally seeds. As much small business that allowed him to buy his first bicycle.
Entrepreneur in the soul he creates Ikea in 1943, the acronym taken from Ingvar Kamprad, the family farm, Elmtaryd and the name of his village, Agunnaryd. The company sells pens, small leather goods, tablecloths, and nylon stockings by door-to-door. The business grew and in 1947 she added kit furniture to her catalog. A revolutionary concept to the point that it will finally sell more than that from 1951.
Age: 83 years
Nationality: Swedish
Fortune: $ 22 billion (world 5th)
#Li Ka-Shing, the "superman" of Hong Kong
There are many stories about the wealthy Li Ka-Shing, boss of the conglomerates Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong as well as the leader of the harbor management group Watson. Of this Chinese present in the distribution, real estate, telephony, perfumery ..., it was said at one time that for every dollar spent in Hong Kong, five hundred landed in his pocket.
Today, we call him Superman. However, at age 15, when he flees China and abandons school after his father's death, he is the one who makes plastic flowers in the former English colony. Today at the head of a fortune estimated at $ 16.2 billion, he would have only one wish: walk in a park without being recognized.
Age: 81 years old
Nationality: Chinese
Fortune: $ 16.2 billion (16th in the world)
#Kirk Kerkorian, from rings to high finance
At 92, Kirk Kerkorian has not been shaking the rings for a long time. But this Armenian immigrant son in the United States who dropped out of school in the fourth for boxing, still scares many industrialists today. A former fighter pilot during the Second World War, he made a fortune by selling the Trans International Airlines airline in 1968 for which he had put $ 60,000 20 years earlier.
Then he invested heavily in Las Vegas and today his MGM Mirage has more than half of the hotel rooms in the city. This does not prevent the businessman from juggling millions in the American automotive industry with several participations.
Age: 92 years
American nationality
Fortune: $ 5 billion (98th worldwide)
#François Pinault, from wood merchant to emperor of luxury
The son of a Breton lumber merchant and peasant, who left school at the age of 16, François Pinault made a spectacular fortune. First by taking over the business of his father-in-law, whom he renames Etablissement Pinault, by developing and buying dozens of companies in the sector.
Then speculating on raw materials and buying companies in difficulty before reselling. Finally, he built an empire in distribution and luxury. The Pinault-Printemps-Redoute group is worth 20 billion euros and holds nearly 41% through its family holding company, Artemis.
Age: 73 years
French nationality
Fortune: $ 7.6 billion (60th worldwide)
#Sheldon Adelson, newspaper salesman to king of casinos
At 12, Sheldon Adelson, son of a Boston taxi driver borrows $ 200. Objective: to become a newspaper salesman. What he does for a while but does not really allow him to build an empire. His fortune is primarily as a trade show organizer that he builds. He created the Comdex computer show in 1979. He sold it sixteen years later for $ 860 million.
Since then, he has invested in hotels and casinos. He is the CEO of Las Vegas Sands, which in 2000 created the Venitian Hotel, the largest in the world at the time, with 120,000 square meters of exhibition halls and 50,000 square meters of conference rooms.
Age: 76 years
American nationality
Fortune: $ 3.4 billion (World 178th)
#Roman Abramovich, a fortune built on a small dowry
Well known in Europe for owning the English football club Chelsea, Roman Abramovich was orphaned at the age of four. Brought up by his uncles, he manages to study properly. His first job will be a mechanic in a Moscow factory.
He gets married at the end of the 80s and it is with the wedding gift of his parents-in-law, 2,000 rubles, that he invests in ... the black perfume market. In a few months, it generates profits that allow it to invest in the plastic toy industry. This sector brings him closer to the petroleum industry he is interested in. Increasingly introduced to power, he acquires for a mouthful of bread Sibneft, an oil company. His resale to giant Gazprom for $ 13 billion will make his fortune.
Age: 43 years old
Nationality: Russian
Fortune: $ 3.4 billion (51st worldwide)
