List Of Famous Entrepreneurs That We Can Learn From Them.

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and/or initiative.

Dictionary.com defines entrepreneur as ‘a person who organizes, manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk’. Entrepreneurs can rightly be called the force that drives economic and social progress. We owe these famous entrepreneurs for they are the ones who keep the world in the continuous evolution that it is in. It is solely because of them that we can enjoy the products that we do and use the excellent and useful services brought to us because these famous entrepreneurs were willing to work towards achieving the ideas that led to these products and services.

There are hundreds and thousands of famous entrepreneurs who earned their millions and billions of dollars with their ideas and hard work. According to Forbes website the real essence of entrepreneurship is ‘define, invest, build and repeat’. The real famous entrepreneurs are passionate; they turned their passion into their business.

All the famous entrepreneurs acted as the pillars of society. Henry Ford’s mass production of vehicles redefined the 20^th century. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Larry Page revolutionized the cyber world and thus the way we live our lives today. The famous business magnates who are still with us and those who have departed from this world leaving behind the legacy of their business are the true communicators and venture capitalists. Li’s father was a primacy school teacher in his home country and soon after his arrival in Hong Kong, he died of TB. When Li was 12 years old, he quit school and started working as an apprentice in a factory which manufactured watch straps. To support his family, he had started working full time by the time he was 14. He worked in a plastic trading company. Li had always been hard working and he had always remained true to his moral compass. It was because of his hard work, adaptability and integrity that he has built a business empire which includes construction, banking, plastics, real estate, hotels, airports, cellular phones, cement production, satellite television, retail outlets, domestic transportation, ports, shipping, electric power and steel production.

In 1950, he founded a plastic manufacturing company after he learnt how to operate a plant. Few years, later Li was able to make a fortune just by selling plastic flowers and became the largest supplier in Asia.

It was in 1967 when the opportunity to buy land at low prices arrived due to the 1967 riots. In 2001, he was named ‘Asia’s Most Powerful Man’. In 2006, he achieved “Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Forbes family. In spite of his success and wealth, he lives a pretty simple lifestyle. Kelly Hoppen was born in July 1959 into an Irish-Jewish background. At the age of 16, she started her career when a family friend asked her to design their kitchen. Hoppen has authored 8 books. The title of her recent book is Kelly Hoppen Design Masterclass – How to Achieve the Home of Your Dreams. The book was published in late 2013.

Kelly has received many awards to date. Some of them include Andrew Martin Interior Design Award, European Woman of Achievement, Grazia Designer of the Year, EWAA Woman of Achievement and many more.

So far, she has published seven books which include “East Meets West”, In Touch”, Table Chic”, Kelly Hoppen, Home – From Concept To Reality”, Ideas”, Kelly Hoppen Style” and “Close Up”. Her books have been published in more than ten languages and they have sold over 100,000 copies on Amazon.

Kelly Hoppen is unstoppable in the world of design, having her own line of high street home furnishing call KHome. Hoppen has an intrinsic eye for style which is not only limited to interior designing. In 2010, she launched Kelly Hoppen Home Fashion Collection.

Steven Tisch was born on 14^th February, 1949. His father, Bob Tisch was the co-owner of Giants. Steve is the Executive Vice President and chairman of the NFL team, New York Giants. Steve was born in New Jersey and went to Tufts University. Steve created several small films during his youth which were backed by Columbia Pictures. He created his first feature film in 1976 after he left Columbia. He named it “Outlaw Blues”. In 1983, he made “Risky Business” in which Tom Cruise was in the lead role.   It was in 1986 when Steve started his own production company and named it “Steve Tisch Company” which specialises in small screen films. For Forest Gump, he got the Best Motion Picture Academy Award as well as a Golden Globe Award. The film won 6 Academy Awards out of the 13 nominations it received. In 2007, he received an award for his exceptional work in the entertainment and media field from Tufts University.

Steve Tisch is also partner at Escape Artists Production. After the death of his father, Steve became the chairman of the Giants team and worked with John Mara on the construction of Metlife Stadium. In 2010, he joined his brother Jonathan and worked with Jets owner Woody Johnson and John Mara to bring Super Bowl XLVIII to Metlife Stadium.

Moreover, he is also on the Board of Trustees for The Sundance Institute, The Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles, The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Cancer Centre and the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art.

As of March 2014, Steve has a net worth of $1.2 billion and has residences in Los Angeles and New York. Steve got married in 1996 to Jamie Leigh Anne Alexander, but they divorced later. Sean Combs was born on the 4^th of November, 1969, Sean Comb has worked with artists like Biggie Smalls, Mariah Carey and Mary. In 1993, he launched his first music production called Bad Boy Entertainment. After Biggie’s murder in 1997, Sean Combs recorded “I’ll Be Missing You” as a tribute which topped the billboard singles chart and launched his first album to platinum status.

Comb’s father was murdered in 1974 and he was raised by his model mother. He grew up in New York and studied in a Catholic boys school. While attending classes, he used to run an airport shuttle service and also produced weekly dance parties. It was the same year he launched a clothing line in America and named it “Sean John”.

The incident happened in a nightclub in which three people suffered injuries. Combs was charged with a single count of bribery and four counts of illegal possession of weapons. In 2002, he released “We Invented The Remix and Bad Boy’s 10^th Anniversary… In 2002, he was ranked 12^th on Fortune Magazine’s “Top 40 Entrepreneurs under 40”. James Trevor Oliver was born on 27 March 1975 in Essex, England. He is a celebrity chef, media personality and restaurateur. He is well known for his cookbooks and television shows. Recently, he made headlines when he campaigned against the use of processed food items in national schools. Jamie has been nicknamed the Naked Chef. By the time Jamie was 31 years old, he had already sold over millions of copies of cookbooks. He had conquered the US market, appeared in a number of television shows, revolutionised school dinners in the United Kingdom and opened a restaurant. Jamie makes cooking cool and being the energetic man he is, his cookbooks are bestsellers around the world. His cooking shows are broadcast in more than 50 countries and he has also been titled the sexiest chef on TV. Some of Jamie’s diners include Prince Charles and British PM Tony Blair.

Jamie’s parents had a restaurant and this is from where his fascination for food comes.   After Jamie left school, he went to attend Westminster Catering College and to further his skills he travelled to France as well. When he returned to the UK, he got the job as a head pastry chef at The Neal Street Restaurant. When the programme was broadcast, he received calls from different production companies who wanted to work with him. It was not late when he became a celebrity chef and revolutionised television cookery shows with his programme “The Naked Chef”.

Jamie is a chef who likes to take risks. Lately, he has set up Fifteen Foundation which is a charity organisation responsible for training unemployed young people to become professional chefs. A book as well as a TV series followed and these were huge successes too.

David Chilton was born in October, 1961.  Today, he lives in Kitchener, Ontario.  He runs a publishing company and a financial planning business.  David has attained a degree in Economics from Wilfred Laurier University.

In March, 2012, it was announced on CBC Television that Chilton had become the newest dragon on the Dragons Den which is a hit reality television program.  He replaced Robert Herjavec in Season 7 and the show was telecast in September, 2012.   During his introduction on the show, he was heard saying that he currently lives outside Waterloo.

The Wealthy Barber was published in 1989.  It is seminal book about money and focuses on three people who are in their 20s.  These three people visit Roy who is a barber to get lessons on financial planning.  When the book was released, it sold over 2 million copies and this made it one of the bestsellers in Canada.  During an interview, Chilton has revealed a lot of things about his books and why he chose such as approach.  Chilton was 25 years old when he started writing and at the age of 27, he published his first book.   When the book was published, there were only two other personal finance books relevant to the Canadian finance market.  Darryn Lyons was born on 19^th August 1965.  Darryn was the youngest of his siblings and was born in Melbourne Australia.  The home they lived in was designed by their father who was an architect.  Darryn had a love for photography from a young age.  He went to Geelong Tech Secondary School and was often the dux of the school.  Following his graduation, he worked at the Geelong News as a professional photographer.  When he was 22 years old, he went to London and started working at the News of the World.  The company was being run by Kevin Anstey and Melanie Lyons for three years while Lyon focused on his work at the Daily Mail.  In 1996, he quit again and started working at Big Pictures full time with Melanie Lyons.  He garnered huge media attention when he sold a photograph to a news agency supporting the claim that David Beckham was in a relationship with Rebecca Loos who was his personal assistant at that time.

Lyons appears on television and radio programs often and he is also a weekly commentator on Alan Titchmarsh Show, LK Today and Sky News Sunrise Program.  He also commentates for Australian radio shows Hughsey and Kate Show and Kyle and Jackie O Show.  In 2005, he appeared in reality television show Dragon’s Den as a business expert.  In addition, he appeared in Mr Paparazzi Show which was produced by Big Pictures Production with each episode lasting for about 5 minutes.  In 2007, he made an appearance on the reality TV show “Deadline”.  In 2011, he entered the UK version of “Celebrity Big Brother 8” and finished in 6^th place.  He also entered another reality show as a contestant in 2012.  Other celebrities on the same show “Excess Baggage Australia” included actor Gabby Millgate and singer Christine Anu.  The show was although a failure and many people believed that it failed because of its contestants as they were not famous enough.

Today, Lyons lives in Geelong.  Bruce Croxon is not as popular as some of the other dragons on Dragon’s Den as he had always maintained a very low media profile.  Croxon had a very interesting childhood.  During those times, mixed-marriages were uncommon.

It was through this job that he learned the importance of the environment and nature.  Although he was being paid 2 cents per tree at that time, he kept his focus on eco-friendly projects.

The website started generating revenue in the form of membership fees.

After the success of his online dating business, he decided to sell his company for $180 million.  When Bruce is not busy helping other entrepreneurs with their startups or operating one of his businesses, he spends his time playing golf or kayaking.  Currently, he lives in Toronto.  Bobby Kerr was born in 1960 in Ireland.  He was brought up in Kilkenny where he had his family business.  Currently, he lives in Sandycove with his wife and four daughters.

He is the chairman of Insomnia and is a famous entrepreneur in his country.  He has many business interests including restaurants, hotels and food sectors.  Bobby got into business from a young age.   It was not long before he started travelling the world, working on oil rigs as a chef.  He then went to Canada and gained experience in stadium catering.  In 1985, he organised for the catering of about one million people when the Pope visited Canada.

During the mid-1980s, he went back to Ireland and worked at Campbell Catering and then at Bewley’s Oriental Cafes.  He became the Managing Director of Bewley’s Bakery, Bewley’s Franchising and Bewley’s Oriental Café and his responsibility included overseeing the development of the brand in overseas market such as in Japan, USA and UK.   All the proceeds of the coffee shop sale were reinvested into Insomnia and Bobby became the CEO and shareholder of the company.  From 2004, the business has expanded from 17 shops to 70 shops.  In 2010, he stepped down from the position of CEO and became the chairman of Insomnia so he could concentrate of his portfolio of business.

In 2008, he became a dragon on the popular television show Dragon’s Den and over the first few series he already made about ten investments.   Aside from being a successful entrepreneur, he is also a public speaker.  In 2011, Bobby was involved in charity work in Zambia where he built a house for AIDS orphans.

Steve Jobs was an American businessman and inventor who played a key role in the success of Apple computers and the development of revolutionary new technology such as the iPod, iPad and MacBook.

– Steve Jobs as quoted in The Wall Street Journal (Summer 1993).

Early Life

Steven Jobs was born in San Francisco, 1955, to two university students Joanne Schieble and Syrian born John Jandali. Steven’s father Paul encouraged him to experiment with electronics in their garage. This led to a life long interest in electronics and design.

Steve Jobs attended a local school in California and later enrolled at Reed College, Portland, Oregon. His education was characterised by excellent test results and potential. Steve Jobs in India

In 1974, Jobs travelled with Daniel Kottke to India in search of spiritual enlightenment. – Steve Jobs, The New York Times, Creating Jobs, 1997

Job’s first real computer job came working for Atari computers. During his time at Atari, Jobs came to know Steve Wozniak well. Jobs greatly admired this computer technician, whom he had first met in 1971.

Steve Jobs and Apple

In 1976, Wozniak invented the first Apple I computer. Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne then set up Apple computers. In the very beginning Apple computers were sold from Jobs parents’ garage.

Over the next few years, Apple computers expanded rapidly as the market for home computers began to become increasingly significant.

In 1984, Jobs designed the first Macintosh. It was the first commercially successful home computer to use a graphical user interface (based on Xerox Parc’s mouse driver interface.) Despite the many innovative sucesses of Jobs at Apple, there was increased friction between Jobs and other workers at Apple. In 1985, removed from his managerial duties, Jobs resigned and left Apple. Life After Apple

On leaving Apple, Jobs founded NeXT computers. This was never particularly successful, failing to gain mass sales. In 1996, Apple bought NeXT for $429 million.

Much more successful was Job’s foray into Pixar – a computer graphic film production company. Disney contracted Pixar to create films such as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life and Finding Nemo. These animation movies were highly successful and profitable. This earn jobs significant respect and success.

In 1996, the purchase of NeXT bought Jobs back into Apple. At the time, Apple had fallen way behind rivals such as Microsoft. Apple were struggling to even make profits.

Return to Apple

Jobs launched Apple on a new direction. The iPod was a revolutionary product in that it built on existing portable music devices and set the standard for portable digital music played. In 2007, Apple successfully entered the mobile phone market, with the iPhone. Apple has been rated No.1 in America’s most admired companies. Jobs management has been described as inspirational, although c-workers also state, Jobs could be a hard task master and was temperamental. “My job is not to be easy on people. – All About Steve Jobs [link]

Under Jobs, Apple managed to overtake Microsoft in terms of share capitalisation. Apple also gained a pre-eminent reputation for the development and introduction of ground breaking technology. Interview in 2007, Jobs said

Despite, growing ill-health, Jobs continued working at Apple until August 2011, when he resigned.

Wealth

– Steve Jobs

Jobs earned only $1million as CEO of Apple. But, share options from Apple and Disney gave him an estimated fortune of $8.3billion

Steve Jobs died in 2011 at the age of 56.