Top 10 revolutionary entrepreneurs of all time
Entrepreneurship is not everyone’s cup of tea- rather not everyone’s cup of lifestyle and thinking. And certainly, not everyone could be an entrepreneur because he or she is no ordinary person. Such people have the courage and determination to operate a new business from scratch and not just that but also take a financial as well as a personal risk in doing so. Not to forget the investment of time and effort in it. From the perspective of an amateur entrepreneur, it is a HUGE risk.
Yet many people stand steadfast in their decision and let their passion drive them towards success. Of course, some fail. But there are few who know how to tackle obstacles and move forward. Those people not just won but also excelled in their respective fields. So if you are an aspiring entrepreneur, here is a list of top 10 revolutionary entrepreneurs of all times to boost your confidence.
1. Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish American business tycoon who was specialized in the steel industry in America. Born to poor parents, Carnegie had a rough childhood. Yet he struggled his way up and created several businesses out of which the most successful one was Carnegie Steel Mill. Carnegie had control over most of the iron and steel operations in the United States. He is cited as the transformative force that had ushered America into its industrial revolution.
Carnegie later sold his company to J.P. Morgan and became the richest man in the world surpassing John Rockefeller. Later, he donated almost 90% of his wealth in philanthropy and lived a humble life.
2. John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller was a well-known American business tycoon. In fact, he is considered as the wealthiest American of all times! That happened through his dominance of oil and railroad industries. He controlled 90% of all the oil in the whole of United States.
Being born to a travelling salesman and spending his early life doing odd jobs, he eventually became the founder of the Standard Oil Company. However, his company was later split into 34 different entities due to violation of anti-trust laws in the United States which then made him America’s first billionaire. His peak net worth was estimated at US$409 billion (in 2018 dollars; inflation-adjusted) in 1913.
3. Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was an entrepreneur in its truest sense. He was a researcher as well as a creator, printer, political scholar, government official, freemason, postmaster, innovator, humorist, metro lobbyist, statesman and a negotiator.
Walter Isaacson, a famous writer and researcher described Franklin as “the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become.”
He is also known for his inventions such as the lightning rod, bifocals and Franklin stove. He even founded many civic organizations including the Library Company, and the University of Pennsylvania.
He was considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
4. Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an industrialist who was specialized in automobile and assembly line. During his time, cars were only meant for rich people. Ford saw that as an opportunity and began making cars affordable for middle-class Americans.
In 1896 Ford built a self-propelled vehicle which he named the “Ford Quadricycle”. He test-drove it on June 4. After various test drives, Ford brainstormed ways to improve the Quadricycle.
Later on, Ford & Malcomson(a Detroit-area coal dealer) incorporated the Ford Motor Company on June 16, 1903, with $28,000 capital.
One of the most famous cars of Ford Motor Company was Model T which was introduced on October 1, 1908. By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts.
The current sales for the Ford group are a massive $190 billion.
5. Thomas Alva Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and also a legendary business person. Though he is famous for his light bulb invention, very few people know about his business side. His General Electric is considered to be one of the high revenue making companies of all times. Edison was the one who introduced the term “R&D”; Research and Development to combine both innovation and process.
Thomas showed true entrepreneurship throughout his life. Despite having more failures in inventions than success, he kept doing what he was passionate about. And eventually came up with inventions that are used even till date.
6. Walt Disney
Walt Disney is known for his world-famous cartoon character ‘Mickey Mouse’. Apart from being a cartoonist, he was also an animator and a voice actor and most importantly a good entrepreneur. Walt Disney himself was the voice actor of Mickey Mouse in the cartoons from 1928 to 1947. His first sound cartoon was ‘Steamboat Willie’, followed by ‘Snow White’.
With the help of his imagination and talent, he invented cartoon characters. The success of those characters let him set up Disney Corporation later on. This Disney Corporation is known to be one of the most successful entertainment businesses in the world.
As a film producer, Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations.
7. Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs was a technology mogul of America. He was a visionary who envisioned a company building revolutionary products that would change the lives of people. He founded the Apple Computer Company which assembled and sold computers. He then developed an operating system called Macintosh which is still one of the operating systems with the highest ratings in the world.
He was also the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a member of The Walt Disney Company’s board of directors following its acquisition of Pixar.
However, Steve Jobs was mainly known for being the CEO of Apple Inc. One of the most amazing technological breakthroughs of the 21st century of Apple includes iPhones and iPads which are still in demand these days.
8. Bill Gates
Bill Gates is an American technology business tycoon and also the co-founder of Microsoft company which happens to be the world’s largest PC software company.
One of the most amazing contributions of Gates, is Microsoft Windows. The risk that entrepreneurs take in their business is clearly shown by Gates when he announced that his company was ‘working on an operating system which used graphic interface and will be compatible with all PC software products’ to the world just to increase anticipation when in reality they did no such thing. It was only after the announcement that the work began.
In 2009, Gates and Warren Buffett founded The Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy.
As of April 2019, Gates had a net worth of $100 billion, making him the second-richest person in the world, behind Jeff Bezos.
9. Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos is an American technology entrepreneur and investor. He is the force behind the largest e-commerce portal and marketplace in the world i.e.Amazon. The idea of starting this e-commerce portal sprung up in the back of a car when he was on a road trip. Initially, it was designed as a virtual bookstore but soon it got diversified to offer electronics, music, toys and many such commodities.
The other important innovations of Jeff include the ‘Kindle’ and its other versions. In 2018, Amazon had a revenue of roughly $233 billion. Blue Origin a privately funded aerospace developer and manufacturer is also founded and owned by him.
10. Elon Musk
Elon Musk is a technology entrepreneur. He is also an investor and engineer. He is the CEO and lead designer of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO and product architect of Tesla Inc. Not just that, he is also the co-founder of PayPal, Neuralink and The Boring Company. Despite having found so many companies, to say that Elon’s journey was easy would be a lie. Even though he was almost bankrupt with continuous failures in SpaceX and Tesla, he did not stop. Eventually, the failures were turned to success.
In December 2016, he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People.
His goals include reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, and reducing the risk of human extinction by establishing a human colony on Mars.
