30 Most Influential Entrepreneurs Of All Time

By: Josh Dunlop     Topics: Get Inspired     More posts about: Famous Entrepreneurs, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs

Historical Entrepreneurs That Have Influenced The World

At some point, most entrepreneurs have said to themselves they want to be like one of people in this list, “I want to be the next Richard Branson”. We define them as success and role models for who we want to be, this post is to give credit to these amazing entrepreneurs. One thing that most of these people have in common is the fact that they all worked really hard and in the end, they were really well rewarded for that. The list is in no particular order, we all have our own opinions on who should be top dog, such as Richard Branson who inspired me the most to start my business.

=> Recommended Reading: 21 Ways Successful Entrepreneurs Think Differently

#1 Matthew Boulton

Age: 80yrs (Died: 17^th August 1809)

Birth Place: Birmingham, West Midlands UK

Industry: Entrepreneurial Manufacturer

Influence: Pioneered many manufacturing processes.

Net Worth: Unknown

Website:www.matthewboulton2009.org

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Why they made the list…

Matthew Boulton was a pioneer in manufacturing, he was far from wealthy; his father was a toy maker at the time of his birth. Matthew attended a local school and upon leaving; he joined his father’s business. At the age of 21yrs Matthew married Mary Robinson the daughter of a wealthy Mercer (Mercer; a silk, linen and fustian textile merchant). Eventually he took charge of his fathers business (1757) When his father died, he later gained interest in precious metals; leaving behind the toy trade altogether. With a new trade under his belt Matthew then travelled throughout the United Kingdom, selling his goods wherever he could. After a short period of time he negotiated with a highly regarded friend to present a sword to Prince Edward as a gift, however it was Prince Edward’s older brother; Prince George III, the heir to the throne of England and later the King of England; that was truly interested in the gift.

In 1761 after using the majority of his wealth which had accumulated from his two marriages, and the inheritance he received from his father, he bought a larger property for his growing business. He purchased Soho House a very large premises in Staffordshire, West Midlands. He began production at Soho and introduced modern production methods as well as a “pioneering insurance scheme” for his workers. He soon became widely known for his perfectionist characteristics as well as his many technological advancements within manufacturing processes. Soho House soon became a must see to the rich and powerful and he regularly had people of royal stature coming to stay with him so they could see and learn more about his work and techniques. Later in life Matthew became infatuated with science and and astronomy, and became well known for his work. He was also named as the Sheriff of Staffordshire before his death in 1809. By the time he died Matthew had become one of the wealthiest and most pioneering manufacturers and entrepreneurs in the UK.

#2 Andrew Carnegie

Age: 83yrs (Died: 11^th August 1919)

Birth Place: Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, UK

Industry: Steel Tycoon

Influence: Pioneered many manufacturing processes.

Net Worth: lb298.3 billion

Website: www.carnegiescience.edu

Why they made the list…

Andrew Carnegie was born into a typical lower-class family in Scotland, and lived in a weavers cottage; a very small house. The main room served not only as the living quarters but also the dining room as well as the bedroom for the family. His family were suffering from near starvation and poverty when William; his father, emigrated the family to Allegheny, Pennsylvania in the USA. The area in which they lived was very poor but better than their previous community in Fife. The first job he had was that of a bobbin boy where he helped change spools for 12hrs each day. Feeling this wasn’t the career for him he went on to become a telegraph messenger for $2.50 per week; his job came with a couple of perks too, such as gaining free entry to the local theatre. He soon progressed to $4.00 per week at the age of 18yrs and through hard work and rapid development Andrew climbed swiftly the ranks. Eventually he became an investor, investing the money he had saved over the years into Adams Express Company a messenger service.

Carnegie later received shares in a car business after helping to safeguard the shares of another business for a friend; he used this to his advantage and reinvested all his money into the railway industry. During the civil war Carnegie made a fortune through investments he had made; one of which had him investing $40,000 of his own money into Story Farm; a creek rich in oil. By the end of the year the investment had paid of in dividends to the tidy sum of $1 million, as well as more profits coming in from the petrol and oil goods. After the civil war had finished Carnegie gave $40,000 to help build a library in his native Dunfermline, he also gave $50,000 of his money to a hospital college to help teach more nurses and save more lives. Now an investor in both oil and steel Carnegie was becoming very wealthy, and decided to write his first book which sold over 40,000 copies. His writing style and intelligence helped Carnegie become known as a great author and journalist which helped him earn another hefty fortune in doing so. By 1898 Carnegie was worth more than $20 million and famously offered $20,000,000 to buy the Philippines from Spain in a bid to allow them independence. By the time of his death in 1919, Carnegie had become famous for his investments, his oil his writings and of course his entrepreneurial streak. With the money he made from all his investments he died a very wealthy man his net worth being $350,695,653, today that figure would be nearly $300 billion.

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#3 Henry Ford

Age: 83yrs (Died April 7^th 1947)

Birth Place: Greenfield Township, Dearborn, Michighan, USA

Industry: Auto-motive manufacturer

Influence: Pioneer of Transport

Net Worth: $1.1 billion

Website: www.thehenryford.org

Why they made the list…

Henry Ford, One of the few men that made mainstream automobiles become a reality. He was born into a family of farmers who originated from England and Ireland. Not the wealthiest of families but certainly not poverty stricken. In his teenage years, his father had given him a timepiece, which he later took to pieces just to see if he could piece it together again successfully, which he did. He then started to do the same with other peoples timepieces and eventually he started to repair them too. Henry was also a sufferer of Dyslexia, and although this was a hurdle it was by no means a reason to give up.

He went on to complete an apprenticeship with James F. Flower & Bros, and also with the Detroit Dry Dock Company. In 1891 he met with Thomas Edison who liked his concept of an auto-mobile, so he allowed him to use his warehouses to manufacturer two vehicles. Ford was grateful but later went on to build his own company so he could build the cars on his own terms backed by William H. Murphy he founded the Detroit Automobile Company (1899). This was short lived however, as the vehicles produced lacked the quality and precision Ford wanted as well as being horribly expensive. The business went under but it didn’t stop him. Ford went on to build the Cadillac Automobile company. After almost failing a second time due to lack of sales and high debts more partners came into the business and the name was changed to the Ford Motor Company. Current sales for the Ford group are now a massive $190 billion.

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#4 Thomas Alva Edison

Age: 84yrs

Birth Place: Milan, Ohio, USA

Industry: Science

Influence: His Inventions Changed the World

Net worth: $12,000,000

Website: www.thomasedison.com

Why they made the list…

I felt obligated to add Thomas Edison to this list due to his motivation and persistence which makes him a true entrepreneur, even after thousands of failures. Now although Thomas didn’t have a terrible upbringing in terms of the money sense, he was a very poorly child. Ill a lot of his early life, he suffered from a severe ear infection that rendered him deaf in one of his ears although it has been said he was deaf in both. He also developed scarlet fever as a boy nearly dying because of it, but it didn’t stop him. After becoming a minor celebrity for saving a toddler from being hit by a train, Thomas was offered a job as telegraph operator.

Thomas went on to create thousands of inventions and patents, failing a lot more times than succeeding. However his first taste of glory came when he developed the tin foil phonograph, after working as a telegraph operator he wanted to create a way of making a telegraph transmitter to work in a more efficient way. He did this by realising that it sounded very similar to spoken words when the tape from the machine was played at a fast pace. Developing his idea further he went on to record a message through this means creating his first successful invention that lead the way for many more. Thomas Edison was a very patient and passionate man, motivated by success he went on to try and fail thousands of times before getting some of his inventions to work. Some of his inventions we still use today, and most of them are historical for changing the world.

#5 Oprah Gail Winfrey

Age: 56yrs

Birth Place: Kosciusko, Mississippi, USA

Industry: Media and Entertainment

Influence: Empowering People, Female Media Pioneer

Net Worth: $2.7 billion

Website: www.Oprah.com

Why they made the list…

Oprah Winfrey, this is not the first time I have spoken about her and it probably won’t be the last time either; it seems she’s coming up in quite a few places. The reasons why Oprah is such an influential entrepreneurs is because of the fact that she’s been through so much and yet accomplished so much more. After being the subject of vicious sexual attack at the age of nine; she later became pregnant, losing the child at birth she was only 14 years of age at the time.In 1986 she famously revealed this to her shocked viewers on her live show. Her fame came to fruition in 1983, when her seductive character and genuine love of people gained her the job of her dreams; as a talk-show host.

The following exposure was explosive and she soon became one of the most famous, most well loved, and most professional people in the entertainment industry. However; she did not want to stop there as she felt there was another side to her, a side of which she wanted to pursue, her entrepreneurial side. In 1988 following her instincts she founded the company Harpo Studios, which for those of you not realised is simply Oprah spelt backwards. The business went on in leaps and bounds most likely due to her television career which gave her a massive amount of advertising is each and every day. The company now has over 250 employees and is currently growing every year. She also co-founded oxygen media which helps attract over 50 million viewers. Because of all of the skills she possesses, and her entrepreneurial side she’s managed to create a personal wealth $2.7 billion pretty tidy sum if you ask me.

#6 William “Bill” Gates

Age: 54yrs

Birth Place: Seattle, Washington, USA

Industry: Information Technology, Computer Science

Influence: Changed the Personal Computer Forever

Net Worth: $53 billion

Website: www.gatesfoundation.org

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Why they made the list…

Bill Gates; The second richest man on the planet, one of the most recognized names in the world, as much a celebrity as the pop stars and movie stars due to his highly public profile. Bill has always been in the lime-light since he began his career way back aged 13yrs the age of the personal computer was far from near and Bill, Paul Allen and some others from high-school started using the computers of the time, the DEC PDP-10 was one of them. Bill, Allen and their friends studied the inner workings and making notes of coding language and tried to decipher it to understand how a computer worked. They were eventually banned from the DEC PDP-10 after they were caught exploiting code “bugs” which allowed them to extend the amount of time they had been allocated on the machine. In 1973 after completing high-school with a 1600 (top score) in his SAT’s, he enrolled at the University of Harvard. While studying at Harvard Bill made a new friend in Steve Ballmer, they have continued to be friends to this day and Ballmer took over as CEO of Microsoft upon Gate’s early retirement. After spending much of his study time at the helm of the University’s computer systems Bill decided to leave Harvard in order to start his own business, this was partly due to the launch of the Altair 8800 which used Intel’s new cpu 8080 which had gotten bill excited by the prospects of what he could do with the technology.

Many people call Bill Gates a college drop-out, or that he failed college, this simply is not true at all; it was a decision he made himself, he did not fail or give in he saw an opportunity the same as many entrepreneurs and he took a huge leap of faith that eventually paid off. Having gained interest from MIT’s director Bill and Allen, created an emulator that ran on a microcomputer to simulate a computer they had no access to (but had said they had) to show to Ed Roberts (MIT). They received a deal from MIT and began working on their new business in 1975 with the company name “Micro-Soft” although in 1976 they changed it to Microsoft, dropping the hyphen. Throughout the years Bill and Allen made some amazing advancements in computer technology and partnered with some massive businesses in order to gain the capital they needed to start the manufacturing of their own products and software. IBM approached Microsoft in 1980 asking for them to develop code for their BASIC (computer language) computer the IBM PC, MS DOS was created and this made Microsoft a very big player in the industry over night. In 1985 a decade after beginning their business They launched the first ever copy of MS Windows. As we know Microsoft became the standard in computer technology and has now become the largest computer information and technology business in the world. Microsoft currently stands at $62.4 billion (2010) with Bill Gates have a personal fortune of around $53 million which he uses to help very worthy causes and charities; including his own, the Gates Foundation.

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#7 Larry Page

Age: 37yrs

Birth Place: East Lansing, Michigan, USA

Industry: I.T entrepreneur, Computer Science

Influence: Revolutionized Online Searching and Media

Net Worth: $15 billion

Website: www.google.com/larry_page

Why they made the list…

Co-Founder of one of the most recognized search engines in the world, Google. It’s no wonder why Larry became interested and later an entrepreneur within the computer science industry; his parents were both computer science professors at the University of Michigan. Being of quite a wealthy background Larry was a very lucky person. He attended the Montessori Radmoor School (formerly the Okemos Montessori School), and later completed a degree in the science of computer engineering (BA Honors Degree) as well as completing a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Stanford University. In 1995 Larry met Sergey Brin, who was also a fellow Stanford student. They became close friends and eventually went into business together in 1996, forming the company Google Incorporated. Larry alongside his partner Brin ran Google Inc. as co-presidents of the company, until hiring the CEO Eric Schmidt.

Larry and Brin got their first financial backing from Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, with the sum of $100,000. It was here that Page’s “Web Crawler” was soon to become the search engine we know today. Starting from his own Stanford University home page the web crawler began to search the internet for web pages, with the home page being the only starting point. To assess the importance of the information which the Web Crawler had found; Page and Brin created a complex algorithm which the late named PageRank. In 1999 just three years since they went into business, Larry and Brin found themselves becoming hounded by investors, and they finally accepted $25 million from Kliener Perkins Caufield and Sequoia Capital. By 2001 Google, now global; was producing profits of over $100 million, and by 2003 had raised those profits to $960 million a massive amount growth in just two years! Google as of today is now worth $172,399,800,300 or there about.

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#8 Sergey Brin

Age: 37yrs

Birth Place: Moscow, Russia

Industry: I.T , Computer Science

Influence: Revolutionized Online Searching and Media

Net Worth: $15 billion

Website:www.google.com/sergey_brin

Why they made the list…

As you’ll already know (at least if you read about Larry Page, above) Sergey Brin is one of the co-founders of Google Inc. Brin immigrated to the United States of America with his family aged just 6yrs old, and although he is both Russian in terms of ethnicity and background, he is a citizen of America, with his nationality set as American. His grandfather and his father both had studied mathematics in the past and Sergey was also keen on the topic, more than likely after seeing his father and grandfather work on various equations and projects as a child. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in mathematics and computer science, he then left and began studying at Stanford University, for a PH.D in computer science, a topic Sergey was keen to explore further, here at Stanford Sergey met Larry Page, another student of computer science.

Sergey and Larry decided to work together and with their mediocre computer systems they frantically worked at developing new search engine designs and algorithms. They started doing this basically because they wanted to cause disruption to the Stanford online website infrastructure, but in doing so, they had masterfully created a search engine with massive potential, and all completely by accident. They upped their game and the inner workings of the code further and further; perfecting the algorithms and creating the unique PageRank system. The pair suspended their studies and went on to co-found the company Google Inc. the very same Google which we love and hate today.

#9 Steve Jobs

Age: 55 yrs

birth Place: San Francisco, California, USA

Industry: computer technology, computer science

Influence: Advancement in Computers and Media Devices

Net Worth: $6.1 billion

Website: www.apple.com

Why they made the list…

Steve jobs, you either love him or hate him but there’s one thing that is certain; you will definitely know who is. One thing that you might not know him about him is that he’s actually adopted, but that hasn’t stopped him becoming one the most successful people in the world and why should it. Jobs graduated from high school in 1972, one of Steve jobs, first jobs was actually as a technician the computer company Atari. Which was possibly a big turning point for Steve at the time In 1974 the same year jobs first worked with Atari, jobs went into business with his old friend Steve Wozniak. Jobs had managed to convince Steve Wozniak that it would be a good idea to start assembling computers and selling them on for a profit. It seemed to quite decent idea as they soon started making a profit from the computers they were making, and on April 1, 1976 Apple Computer company was founded as a partnership with Steven jobs and Steve Wozniak as the co-founders.

Within just 4 years; the Apple Computer Company being founded Apple became a publicly traded corporation, and in 1983 jobs managed to lure John Scully away from the Pepsi-Cola company. Jobs went on in leaps and bounds and in 1984 on January 26th jobs introduced the first Apple Macintosh. It wasn’t all pleasantries though; in May 1985, following an internal power struggle between the board of directors; jobs lost control of the Apple computer company and was forced out; although he did still have shares in the business. He then went on to form another company NeXT computers which did amazingly well sobering fact that in 1986 he bought “The Graphics Group” which was later named Pixar Animation, the $10 million. Some time later; in 1996 Apple computers company decided to buy the NeXT company for approximately $429 million, bringing Steve jobs back to Apple as the company’s interim CEO. In 2000 Apple announced publicly that Steve jobs was to become the permanent CEO of the company. In 2007 Apple changed its name to Apple Inc. On a side note In January 2006 jobs announced the Disney had purchased Pixar in an-all stock transaction;worth approximately $7.4 billion, so as you can see Steve jobs has done pretty well for himself.

#10 Sir Richard Branson

Age: 60 yrs

Birth Place: Blackheath, London, England, UK

Industry: British industrialist

Influence:

Net Worth: lb2.97 billion ($474.6 billion)

Website: www.virgin.co.uk

Why they made the list…

Richard Branson is a well-known British industrialist probably best known for his company the Virgin Group, which holds in itself over 360 different companies. Branson started his education at scaitcliffe school, in 1963 continued by his attendance at Stowe School in 1965. In 1966 Branson started his first successful business venture Student Magazine. In 1967 Branson went on to opens first charity “The Student Advisory Centre”which was a great success. In 1970, Branson decided to create another company; which was a retail business based on mail-order deals. Its first success came when Mike Oldfield signed the virgin group and had a record which went platinum very quickly. Following the success of Mike Oldfield more bands began to sign with the virgin group The Sex Pistols being one of the biggest.

In 1984 Richard Branson formed the Virgin Atlantic Airways company, or as we know today, virgin Airways; which has been a great success just like many of his previous companies before it. Probably one of Branson’s most notorious business ventures to date, is his newest venture the Virgin Galactic, where is aiming to take passengers into space which he calls space tourism. The virgin Galactic company according to rumour will be licensing the technology behind the so-called spaceship one which is being funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen as well as Burt Rutan who is an American engineer well-known for his aeronautical work. Sir Richard Branson is without doubt one of the greatest entrepreneurs the UK has and possibly ever will have in its history, without him a lot of things wouldn’t be how they today, such as the music we listen to, the charities we support, and quite possibly in the near future space travel.

#11 Mark Zuckerberg

Age: 26yrs

Birth Place: White Plains, New York, USA

Industry: Social Media Mogul

Influence: Revolutionized Online Social Media and Networking

Net Worth: $6.9 billion

Website: www.Facebook.com

Why they made the list…

Mark Zuckerberg, is possibly one of the most spoken about individuals of the past year, not only is he one of the richest men on the planet, he’s just had a story portrayed by the Hollywood giants in a new movie entitled the Social Network. Zuckerberg first launched his website Facebook whilst attending Harvard University, the website was launched from his dormitory room, on 4 February 2004. It has been rumoured, but the inspiration for Facebook actually came from his former high school the Phillips Exeter Academy which had its own student directory known as”The Photo Address Book” which according to rumour, the students nicknamed the Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg was joined by fellow Harvard university students Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes as he wanted to evolve the Facebook website.

To begin with Facebook wasn’t available to everybody and due to this competitors such as; MySpace and Bebo seemed to be the clear winners, in terms of social networking. However that soon changed when Zuckerberg and the co-founders of Facebook dropped out of the Harvard University in a bid to make Facebook success, which they knew was possible, due to the amount of support it had received at the University. By then the 2004 Facebook had received over 1 million users for the website. Then in 2005 capital venture firm Accel partners, invested $12.7 million into the business to help them evolve its further. Soon Facebook was being approached by massive brands and companies who wants to buy out Zuckerberg and co-tutor is obvious trendsetting capabilities and the possible revenue to be made from it. However we know that Zuckerberg didn’t actually sell Facebook and he still is CEO of it although his partners have left now, and today according to Forbes magazine Zuckerberg is worth approximately $6.9 billion. Not bad for a college dropout.

# 12 Ariana Huffington

Age: 60yrs

Birth Place: Athens, Greece

Industry: Blogging Columnist and Author

Influence: A Pioneer in Blogging and Online News

Net Worth: $115million

Website: www.HuffingtonPost.com

Why they made the list…

Ariana Huffington, born in 1950 in Athens has got to be the most influential and professional as well as successful female within the blogging industry. Some of you may not know that she is also an author of the off-line variety, writing a biography of Maria Callas in 1981 she also wrote a biography on public Picasso eight years later in 1989. To became well known in the early 90s due to her relentless support for conservative causes during her ex-husband’s unsuccessful bid for the Senate in (1994). She later founded the Huffington is which is now liberal American news websites which he co-founded with Ken Lerer and Jonah Peretti.

The website itself of some mass of valuable information regarding politics, business, lifestyle, and environmental causes as well as media and entertainment news. They decided that the website could do with some localisation, so that loyal supporters of the Huffington Post could read detailed news for the area, due to this in 2000 they launched their very first local version of the Huffington post called HuffPost Chicago, very soon after came New York and Denver as well as Los Angeles. As well as writing articles for the blog herself she also has the help from many of her famous supporters such as Rosie O’Donnell and Harry Shearer. She has also won many awards through the Huffington post; such as winning the People’s Voice Award in the 2010 webby awards, she also won the 2006 and 2007 webby award for best politics blog and in 2009 the blog was named second in the best 25 blogs of 2009 in Time magazine.

#13 Peter Jones

Age: 44yrs

Birth Place: Maidenhead, Berks, United Kingdom

Industry: Telecommunications

Influence: Investing in young entrepreneurs

Net Worth: lb220 million

Website: www.peterjones.tv

Why they made the list…

Peter (CBE) is probably best known by the public for his role on Dragon’s Den, a British television programme which is broadcast on the BBC network. He is a British entrepreneur whose main dealings are within the mobile telecommunication, media and leisure industries. He is also named America for his television programme the American Inventor, on which he judges businesses in an almost X-factor style show for business. His first business venture to earn him money was a tennis academy which he set up at the age of 16. His second and also successful business venture was completely different in that it was a technological company based on computers where he manufactured his own PCs however the business went bankrupt after failing to receive payment from his customers.

This led to him having to give up his three-bedroom house as well as his cars, forcing him to move back in with his parents. He then joined the company Siemens Nixdorf, and it 20 years of age he became the youngest ever head of the business unit in United Kingdom. After leaving Siemens Nixdorf he started to work within the telecommunications industry and after a year of hard saving he managed to set up his next business venture which was Phones International Group. Times were obviously hard in the beginning as he has stated he had to sleep on the office floor until his business grew enough for him to find somewhere suitable to live. His business became amazingly successful and is revenue totalled nearly lb14 million by the end of his first year which more than doubled in his second year when it nearly reached lb45 million. Peter James undoubtedly brought telecommunications to new heights and new levels within United Kingdom, and in doing so has made brave leaps of faith within business proving years true entrepreneur. Since starting his second business venture he has been part of many other investments through the Dragon’s Den programme on the BBC with most notable ones probably being; Reggae Reggae, Visual Talent, and more recently Worthenshaws.

#14 Michael Newton

Age: 50yrs

Birth Place: Cheshire, UK

Industry: CCTV, Retail

Influence: Brought Revolutionary CCTV to the UK

Net Worth: $504.25 million

Why they made the list…

Michael Newton may not be someone most of you have heard of and you may even think he is not a historical figure, but he most definitely is in the UK. Michael changed the UK in big ways back in 1982 when he started with a CCTV system that basically monitored how long a person was at a table (in a bar). He soon introduced a line of multi-channel systems able to view across a broad range of areas all at once and not just in a singular location. He continued to add new systems to his arsenal and introduced them all to the UK. Today using Michael’s CCTV systems, over 7 million images are recorded a second!

If it wasn’t for his ingenuity and passion for what he did, it may not have been another few years until the introduction of a similar CCTV device, Not only did he make a fortune through his business; he also helped to make the UK a more secure and safe place to be. In 1994 due to his enthusiastic interest within aviation he began to learn how to fly; and soon passed his pilots license, not long after passing his pilots exam, he decided to go into the aviation industry to try his hand at a new sector. In 1998 he made the move into the commercial airline sector of the industry, which eventually led to the AD Aviation company he is now the CEO of.

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#15 Charles Kemmons Wilson

Age: 90yrs (Died debris talks 2003)

Birth Place: Osceola, Kansas, USA

Industry: Hotelier

Net Worth: $100 million

Website: www.holidayinn.com

Why they made the list…

Charles kemmons Wilson, is best known for his outstanding commitment and passion the hotelier business. Rumour has it that Charles came up for his idea of his business venture after a road trip brought to his attention the fact that many of the roadside motels, were definitely not up to scratch in both quality and consistency for that era. He decided to become a hotelier, he wanted to make hotels and motels; more friendly, consistent, of a higher quality, and be somewhere that people really enjoy coming back to again and again. He and his business partner Wallace E. Johnson named the business Holiday Inn of America, rumoured to have come from one of his architects as a joke referring to the Bing Crosby movie. They went on to create for Motorola’s in the Memphis area and it was a great success, in 1957 Wilson franchised chain and it grew dramatically. By 1958 Wilson and Johnson had managed to create 50 different Holiday Inns, all across the country, by the following year that had double to 100, and within five years the number of Holiday Inns, had reached a level of 500 (1964). Remarkably Wilson had managed to reach the magic number 1000 different Holiday Inn’s across the country by 1968, just over a decade from starting a business from scratch.

Wilson created some innovative ways to leveraged the market, which puts a lot of pressure financially, on traditional hotels as well as its bigger competitors such as Howard Johnson’s, Best Western, and even the Ramada Inn Company. There were 1400 holiday Inn hotels across the world by 1972, which funnily enough was the same year that Charles Wilson was on the cover of Time magazine. In 1979 Charles Wilson decided to retire from the hotelier business, and in doing so retire from the Holiday Inn, although this broke his heart he knew it was the right thing to do. The Holiday Inn Corporation (Holiday Corporation), was taken over by the UK-based company Bass PLC. However it wasn’t until 1990 when Charles Wilson sold the remainder of his shares to Bass PLC that the company gained full control, the company that was known worldwide. As a side note about also out that Charles Wilson also created many different businesses related to the Holiday Inn.

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#16 Simon Nixon

Age: 42yrs

Birth Place: Chester, Wales, UK

Industry: Financial

Influence: Revolutionized Online Financial Systems

Net Worth: $570 million

Website: www.moneysupermarket.com

Why they made the list…

Simon Nixon is one of those entrepreneurs that likes to keep his cards close to his chest, and his personal life private because of this up until 2008 there really wasn’t much information on Simon Nixon. If you don’t already know who he is Simon Nixon is best known as the man who founded Money Supermarket He establish the business in 1993 while still a student at the Nottingham University in the United Kingdom. Everytime he was backed by Duncan Cameron he was an off-line mortgage adviser and decided to invest a little in Simon Nixon’s idea. In 1999 Nixon took the business online providing online mortgage information as well as expanding to provide services within the credit card and personal loans sector.

With his usual excess, and his brilliant and refreshing customer service his business grew beyond his wildest dreams and in 2003 he opened up another website under the money supermarket brand called insuresupermarket.com, he also opened up travelsupermarket.com in 2004 to expand his business futher. The business was growing and Nixon wanted more of the pie, which was great seeing as in 2007 Duncan Cameron had decided to sell his share of 47% under the presumption that there was soon to be a very sharp downturn in business for them. Duncan Cameron couldn’t have been more wrong, Simon Nixon bought Duncan’s shares from approximate figure of lb162 million. The company became listed on the London stock exchange in the same year, and in late 2009 Nixon managed to get the comedian Omid Djalili to star in some of his commercials.

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#17 Anita Roddick

Age: 64 yrs (Died September 10, 2007)

Birth Place: Littlehampton, UK

Industry: cosmetics

Influence: Green Product Pioneer.

Net Worth: $1.03 billion

 

Why they made the list…

Dame Anita Roddick created The Body Shop in 1976 with just 15 products that she had sourced herself from around the world. Anita had traveled extensively before opening up her business and with her husband and two girls in tow she set off to create something special.Faced with a massive task of getting the shoppers in the UK to part with their money for “Greener” products, but with a motivation, a dollop of passion and a pinch of luck Anita managed to succeed. Luckily for Anita just as she was halfway through her first year the UK shoppers had a change of heart and started shopping for these “Green” products she was selling.

She opened another store and another, and another, they just seemed to grow and grow. Anita had managed to build her empire to a whopping 1,980 The Body Shop stores, totaling in more than 75 million customers worldwide in 50 different countries by 2003 and was then bought out in a very controversial deal with L’Oreal it was controversial due to The Body Shop not using ANY products tested on animals, as opposed to L’Oreals company that did. The deal made her lb652.3 million ($1.03 billion) better off which was more than well deserved for her fierce years of service. I hope Dame Anita managed to enjoy that money for the remainder of her life.

#18 Donald Trump

Age: 64yrs

Birth Place: New York City, New York, USA

Industry: Real Estate

Influence: Pioneer in Real Estate, Empowering Entrepreneur

Net Worth: $2 billion

Website: www.trump.com

Why they made the list…

We all know Donald Trump, and I have spoken about him in previous posts, not just because of his amount of success but also because of his amount of failure in which he overcame again and again. Donald began working for his father in the late 1960s, it was here that he truly shined and began to show the world just where was headed in the future. He started his career by successfully revamping a failing complex than appalling occupancy percentage, turning it into a fantastic complex with a 100% occupancy percentage. Succeeded again when a few years later he took on a massive project which the city of New York had failed to complete, he was given a very small budget, but most complete set and used less than a third of the remaining budget.

Donald Trump as we know has not been just a successful businessman, he’s had his ups and downs, and he’s been to a point where most entrepreneurs would have given up. In 1992 Trump was forced to sign a bankruptcy plan due to the fact that he could not make payments towards his debts which were accumulating at quite a speed. The most that his personal debt, note I said personal and not just business debt, was an incredible $900 million! Can you seriously imagine being in debt by that much money? However not want to disappoint; trump managed to not only get out of his debt and get his business out of debt, but he also managed to climb straight back up that ladder and become a multi-billionaire. It has been estimated that Donald Trump is worth approximately $2 billion.

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#19 Jeff Bezos

Age: 46yrs

Birth Place: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Industry: online retail

Influence: Revolutionized E-Commerce

Net Worth: $8.7 billion

Website: www.Amazon.com

Why they made the list…

Jeff Bezos was born in 1964 and is the founder of the president and the chief executive officer as well as the Chairman of the board for one of the most popular and well-known websites/e-commerce sites in the world, Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos mother was just a teenage girl when he was born in Albuquerque New Mexico, she married his father which lasted only one year in total, and when Jeff was just five years old she remarried the man he recalls his father Miguel Bezos. They moved to Texas and Miguel became an engineer for Exxon. Jeff Bezos was very interested in scientific projects at an early age and got into a lot of trouble by reading up small electric alarms to keep his siblings out of his bedroom. He managed to persuade his parents to convert their garage into his own personal laboratory, which suited him just fine.

He went on to be very highly awarded through his school and college years and he was awarded an honorary doctorate in science and technology from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. After finally graduating from Princeton University, Jeff Bezos decided he wanted to work in computer science field and began working on Wall Street. In 1994 after a bright idea whilst on a cross-country trip from New York to Seattle Jeff Bezos came up with a business plan for what he called, is on. He managed to get some backing and started Internet business that very year and as we know it is now one of the most successful e-commerce sites in the world. Amazon.com currently has a revenue of around $25 billion not bad the saying he came up with the idea in the back of a car on a road trip.

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#20 Steve Case

Age: 52yrs

Birth Place: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Industry: Internet Services

Influence: Helped Pioneer Online Services

Net Worth: $1.0 billion

Website: www.aol.com

Why they made the list…

you may or you may not know Steve Case, he’s one of those rich and successful entrepreneurs, with a gigantic company who likes his privacy, kept private. He was born and he grew up in Honolulu in Hawaii and graduated in 1976 from a private school. In 1980 he left the Williams College in Williamstown Massachusetts, with a degree in political science. In 1982 after having worked as an assistant brand manager at Procter and Gamble, he joined the Pizza Hut incorporation in Kansas, and served as one of the pizza marketing managers. In 1983 he met Bill Von Meister, who was a contact of his older brother. His company was creating a marketing service to the Atari game console which basically allowed the users to download certain games using only a phone line and a modem. This was seen as an amazing advancement in technology. Later in the same year Von Meister hired case to become a marketing consultant for a business, which at the time was almost going bankrupt.

1985 case co-founded business called Quantum Computer Services, case was soon promoted to vice president of marketing and due to his good work, entrepreneurial character, and his passion for the company he was soon promoted yet again becoming the Chairman and CEO of the company in 1991 and 1995 respectively. In 1988 his business began working with Apple as well as PC link, helping create online services for both. Later in 1991 case changed the company’s name to America online, and later that same year decided to integrate the Apple and PC services under the name AOL. Over the following years case personally made many innovative online games with his team most of them being very successful. After 10 years with amazing growth throughout the business AOL and Time Warner decided to do a merger. The mergers was worth approximately $164 billion and it was completed in year 2000. Over the course of the next five years the business seemed to take a very sudden downturn due to the recession of the dot-com boom. In 2005 case decided to leave AOL and Time Warner so that he could spend more time on his own business Revolution LLC which is a company he created in 2005.

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#21 George Eastman

Age: 77yrs (Died March 14, 1932)

Birth Place: Waterville, New York, USA

Industry: photographic

Influence: A Pioneer inPhotography

Net Worth: $100 million

Website: www.Kodak.com

Why they made the list…

Many of you will know the company Kodak, and many of you have probably used some of their products whether it be a digital camera, 35mm film, or even their processing services. What you may not know or rather who you may not know is the man he made it all happen. George Eastman was a self educated man born in Waterville, New York, and is most notable legacy alongside his massive generosity, donating literally millions of dollars of his own personal wealth to charities and hospitals, is that of the roll film. He played a massively leading role in transforming photography as a form bringing it from a very expensive hobby into the public domain so that anybody could take photographs and keep their memories forever.

The Kodak company was founded in 1884, and although Eastman had founded the business he was more intrigued with the inventions within the photography industry rather than actually running the business. Due to this he hired Henry Strong as the president of Eastman Kodak. In 1885 Eastman invented the roll film which was used worldwide for over 100 years it was also the basis for the motion picture camera film which early filmmakers such as Thomas Ava Edison used. In 1888 Eastman decided to register Kodak as an official trademark he also came up with the “phrase You Press the Button and We Do the Rest”. Easement died in 1932 but not before donating masses of his personal fortune to numerous causes, such as the University of Rochester and the Royal Free Hospital.*

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#22 Simon Fuller

Age: 50yrs

Birth Place: Dhekelia, Cyprus

Industry: Music

Influence: Television and Music Pioneer

Net Worth: $2.7 billion $4.1 million

Website: www.19entertainment.com

Why they made the list…

Simon Fuller, although born in Cyprus, is a British artist manager, he’s also the television producer and the founding creator of the pop Idol franchise. Pop Idol as you may know first appeared in the UK and has continued over 100 different versions including American Idol and Australian Idol to name just a few. Is also being a manager of many very great performers his most notable ones being Annie Lennox, the Spice Girls, and S club 7. He was the chief executive in 19 Entertainment, which is based in the three major cities of London, LA, and New York. He founded the business in 1985 after leaving the company Chrysalis Ltd and working with some of the most profound names in the music industry such as Madonna. In 1985 aged only 25 years old, he signed the musician Paul Hardcastle his first song went to number one in both the UK and the US charts with his Vietnam song,”19”.

In 1999 he got his first taste of working in television after he had auditioned over 10,000 different people to form a new band, the band was called S club 7. The band later became one of the most popular pop bands of the era taking many number one places in the UK and the US charts. Fuller later came up with the idea of Pop Idol after taking his time and thinking about how S club 7, was such a success and how the process was such a fun way to decide which musicians and singers to have within a band. As many of you will know, and as stated above, pop Idol went on to become huge success and later went over the waters to America where it was just as successful. Fuller had managed to get some of the best presenters and judges in the entertainment industry to appear on a show. This only created more of a hype and just made the program or that more successful.

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# 23 Carlos Slim Helu

Age: 70yrs

Birth Place: Mexico City, Mexico

Industry: Telecommunication

Influence: Investments and Telecommunications

Net Worth: $53.5 billion

Website: www.carlosslim.com

Why they made the list…

Carlos Slim Helu, best known as slim, is a well-known entrepreneur who is currently the richest man alive. Carlos started in business at the age of eight when his father asked him to help with the family store. He graduated with a degree in civil engineering from the University of Mexico, however his personal wealth began when he inherited a large amount of real estate from his parents. Using his capital from the real estate to make some very explosive acquisitions. In the 1970s some of his assets became part of a group called Grupo Galas S. A, which was later renamed Grupo, Carso. This business had many different departments such as restaurants, real estate, mining, tobacco, railways, and also department stores. Later in the 1980s after more than 30 different companies joined his group some of them very well known and well respected, slim took control of the majority of shares of Cigtam, a tobacco business.

Cigatam, for those of you that don’t know the manufacturers of Marlboro cigarettes as well as many other brands of cigarettes. Still within the 80s Slim decides to sell a massive 50% of his shares just as the market was at its peak, making him a massive fortune overnight. He used the money to purchase a business chain called Sanborns, which again included restaurants music stores and bookshops to name a few. In the 1990s he managed to get Sears one of the country’s largest department stores to join his group, however it wasn’t until his monopolisation of the telecommunication industry in Mexico when he won a bid for the privatisation of Teléfonos de México, also known as Telmex. With Telmex he incorporated a partnership with France Telecom as well as Bella Canada which brought him great success. His business now controls 90% of all landlines within Mexico. With his fortune he has been an amazing example of what an investor should be, investing in companies such as Apple Computer Inc, MSN, as well as red Uno and Coca-Cola. It is here with his investments as well as his large share of the telecommunication business where he is made the majority of his fortune.

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# 24 Penny Streeter

Age: 43yrs

Birth Place: Zimbabwe

Industry: Recruitment

Influence: Creating Employment Opportunities

Net Worth: $117.80 million

Website: www.a24group.com

Why they made the list…

Penny Streeter is somewhat of an unknown to most of you over in the USA, and quite possibly to a lot of us here in the UK too. She was born in 1967, in Zimbabwe, and later attended the Alberton High school in Johannesburg until she graduated in 1983. She decided to leave South Africa and set her sights upon the UK. In 1989 after launching her in recruitment business she was left penniless and homeless after the business failed and she went through a divorce leaving her with nothing. Six years later in 1995 after managing to get out of the terrible situation she was in previously, she decided to set up business again, confident that she could be successful. With her confidence and passion were in the right place and a she launched the new venture funded by working evenings as a party entertainer, the business Ambition 24hours was established.

Ambition 24Hours was a business which recruited temporary staff to fulfill the need in many different sectors such as nursing, social workers, teachers, lecturers and also carers. In 2004 the company expanded into South Africa which was located there is a kind of back-office the UK as well as the South African markets. In 2004 she launched an lb11 million investment plan in South Africa to initialise a South African nursing agency. Just two years later in 2006 the company made its first noticeable acquisition; the nursing services of South Africa, this was the largest agency the temporary staffing of nursing personnel. She now has a multi-million dollar recruitment agency and is currently expanding in the UK as well as South Africa to this day

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# 25 Emma Harrison

Age: 41yrs

Birth Place: Clacton on Sea, UK

Industry: Business Services

Influence: Creating Schemes to Help Employment

Net Worth: $157 million

Website: www.mya4e.com

Why they made the list…

Emma Harrison is not only a British entrepreneur, she is also the chairman owner and also the co-founder of action for employment also known as A4e. She only has a degree in engineering, but she also has two honorary doctorates from the University of Derby and the University of Bradford respectively. Her company Action for Employment has grown massively since its founding in 1991. She currently has over 4000 members of staff across a total of 250 different business centres worldwide. Action for employment is one of the prime contractors to various governments helping with services such as the Flexible New Deal and social care.

Emma’s business expertise and confidence has brought her much success and she is also high demand as a mentor or from many different small businesses and groups throughout the world. She currently serves on a number of boards and is also the chairman of Andromeda which is an events company. She also works within the People’s health plc, as well as having a role in the Bank of England regional consultations on behalf the monetary policy committee. In layman’s terms Emma is one of the most successful entrepreneurs that the UK has ever seen she is chairman of many different companies and is many different boards for other businesses, departments and industry sectors worldwide. A mentor that we can all look up to.

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#26 Linda Bennett

Age: 46yrs

Birth Place: Somerset, UK

Industry: Clothing and Retail

Influence: Inspiring Fashion and Entrepreneurs

Net Worth: $235.6 million

Website: www.lkbennett.com

Why they made the list…

Linda Bennett is truly a remarkable entrepreneur not only has she made it in a very saturated industry but she has made it by working her way from the bottom to the top. Her passion is in the clothing industry. She founded the luxury womenswear brand LK Bennett in the United Kingdom in 1990. The reason she named LK Bennett was because her middle name is Kristin and she thought it would make for a more professional sounding business name. Bennett trained at Hackney’s cordwainer’s College as well as at Reading University where she studied land management also. To this day Bennett still likes to design many of her brand items and is constantly creating new shoes for her brand.

Aged 26 she opened an accessories shop in Wimbledon with just lb13,000 worth of savings and a lb15,000 bank loan. She managed to turn this into one of the most stylistic and high end brands within the clothing industry creating shoes for the likes of the Duchess of Cornwall, which she wore for her wedding in 2005 to Prince Charles. With an entrepreneurial streak Bennett has managed to place all of the stores in very prime locations, just in reach of her ideal customer base. In 2004 she decided to sell the business and asked for lb75 million ($117.8 million) however the asking price was never met and she kept hold of the business. Just four years on she managed to sell the business to a private equity firm called Phoenix Equity partners and Sirius Equity, the deal was for a rumoured lb70 million ($110 million). However that was on top of the wealth that she had already accumulated throughout the life of the business.

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# 27 Madame C. J. Walker

Age: 51yrs (Died May 25, 1919)

Birth Place: Delta, Louisiana, USA

Industry: Haircare

Influence: Hair Care Pioneer, Empowered Female Entrepreneurs

Net Worth: $600,000

Why they made the list…

Madame CJ Walker is somebody that you may very well and not know that you’d be forgiven for not doing as well but she died over 90 years ago. Although her fortune of $600,000 may not seem much the reason why she such inspirational person to have on this list is because she made herself an empire, through hard work and determination, she was also an inspiration to all other female would-be entrepreneurs. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, is known best for being America’s first African-American entrepreneur, as well as being one of the most wealthiest women of her era. A lot of the women in her era experienced hair loss for some reason. It’s thought that this was due to a lacking of indoor plumbing and electricity, making it hard for them to bathe each and every day. Walker had experienced this also (hair loss) and so she experimented with some of own home-made remedies. They work so well that she decided that it was worth investing in and creating a business out of so she did.

The products were an instant hit and soon stores all across the country were selling them, in 1908 she opened a College to train hair care trainees, and in 1910 she moved to Indianapolis and established a factory which he used as her main headquarters. Later in her life she went on to teach and lecture female entrepreneurs to help them build their own businesses and to gain their own freedom and independence. This in itself made quite a name for her and she later joined the National Association of the advancement of coloured people also known as the NAACP. She joined them in an effort to stop hate crimes and to ban lynching, making it a federal crime. She died in 1919 because of apparent kidney failure leaving behind her fortune and the manufacturing business to her daughter A’Lelia Walker. Today the business continues although not as successful as in its heyday.

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# 28 Coco Chanel

Age: 87 yrs (Died January 10, 1971)

Birth Place: Samur, France

Industry: Fashion

Influence: Fashion and Perfume Pioneer

Net Worth: $160 million

Website: www.Chanel.com

Why they made the list…

Coco Chanel, it kind of slips of the tongue doesn’t it, it’s one of those names that we all know and probably one of those names that we associate with the world of fashion and her perfumery. Known worldwide Coco Chanel was one of the most creative and successful entrepreneurs of her era. Her first chosen career was that of a singer, although she couldn’t get the work whether that was because she had a poor voice or because there was such excellent singers at the time I’m not quite sure. However it spurred her into becoming the entrepreneur that we know her are as today. In 1910 she became a hat maker and opened up her own beauty in the Paris, France. The business was a success and in 1913 she opened a boutique in Deauville, where she began introducing a luxury line of casual clothing which were apparently suitable for leisure or sport.

In 1921 after concocting a perfume for herself, she found other people enjoyed it so much that she decided to introduce it to her boutique she called it Chanel No. 5. It is thought that this perfume was the first of its kind, by that I mean that it was the first perfume that was ever sold worldwide and not just within a singular state or country. In 1939 at the beginning of World War II, Chanel decided to close her, now many, boutiques as she believed it to be the wrong time to sell fashion. However after four years without working she decided it was time to renew her passion. 1945 after moving back to Paris (she had previously moved to Switzerland), she continued with their collections of luxury clothing and perfumes, and although her new collections at first did not have much success with the Parisians at the time, she was very successful with the British and American customers. Today her legacy, Chanel, is worth an estimated $4.5 billion.

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# 29 Martha Stewart

Age: 69yrs

Birth Place: Jersey City, New Jersey, USA

Industry: Television, magazine publisher

Influence: Health, Entertainment, Advice

Net Worth: $913 million

Website: www.MarthaStewart.com

Why they made the list…

Martha Stewart may not be very well-known to our British readers; although you probably have heard her name before. Martha Stewart, is an American television host who also has published magazines in the past. She managed to create amazing success for herself through a plethora of business ventures such as publishing, merchandising, presenting and also broadcasting. Perhaps the most recognizable thing that many of you will think of when you think of Martha Stewart is prison, or rather her prison time. In 2004 she was convicted of lying to an investigator, regarding a stock sale and served only five months in prison. Just so the British readers understand, lying to an investigator in the US, is a federal offense which is punishable by up to 5 years in prison.

Many people thought that inside the prison she would deteriorate, and possibly have a mental breakdown however that did not happen and on her return from prison she bounced back massively and became even more successful than before. In 2005 she released a book which was highly publicized due to her comeback, this was received very well by her funds and became a very good seller. To them back into television with the Martha Stewart show and also appeared on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. Today with all of her merchandise which is in many stores around the US, her lucrative television deals and her many books and magazines have earned her an accumulated total approximately $913 million.

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# 30 Walt Disney

Age: 65 yrs (Died December 15, 1966)

Birth Place: Samur, France

Industry: Entertainment

Influence: Pioneered Entertainment

Net Worth: $1.1 billion

Website: www.Disney.go.com

Why they made the list…

I’m 100% certain every reader today, reading this will know Walt Disney, and he is a great example of a successful entrepreneur. His first break in entertainment came when he was hired by the Kansas City film Ad Company, where he learned to make animations from cut-outs. He was then given a massive inspiration after reading the book by Edwin G. Lutz; Animated Cartoons: how they are made. Upon reading it and getting quite excited about the prospects of becoming a professional animator he left Kansas City Film Ad Company. Laugh-O-Grams his second business went bankrupt; which was mainly down to the studio costs, staff costs and and lack of business to bring in revenue to pay for them. Which meant he wasn’t a bad businessman, he was just bad with money.

Having really learned his lesson from failing so miserably, Walt and his brother Roy went to Hollywood where they managed to secure a distributor deal to help with the business. Things grew more and more successful and the business started to go from strength to strength. His unique characters and his ability to bring animation to life really brought the fans to the cinemas and theatres. Walt Disney received an Academy award in 1932 for his efforts in animation, thanks to his new found fans who were demanding more cartoons featuring Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney continues his success for another 34 years before his death they left behind a legacy which is now called the Walt Disney Co. Today the Walt Disney business is currently worth $35 billion.

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