The month of April is coming to an end and we can put the tax season behind us. To end the month on a positive note, I found a piece on CNBC where they picked the 25 most profound people who made an impact on business and finance since 1989 in celebration of their 25 years on the air. Think of the world 25 years ago and compare it to the present. There was no Internet, iPhone, Google or Facebook. Not even a Starbucks on every corner.
I just read through these 25 influential icons, leaders and game-changers and found some interesting points related to Money on Your Terms. These influential people bucked the trend of living on their own terms instead of everyone else’s.
1. You don’t need bank roll or SBA loans to start a business:
A. They started their business in a garage:
Steve Jobs – Apple
Jeff Bezos – Amazon
B. They started their business with little money:
NR Narayana Murthy – Infosys, founded with $1,150
Aliko Dangote – Billionaire African entrepreneur started with $3,000
2. You don’t need $150,000 in student loans to be successful:
A. Dropped out of college
Steve Jobs – Apple
Bill Gates – Microsoft
Mark Zuckerburg – Facebook
B. Dropped out of two colleges:
Larry Ellison – Oracle
C. Never attended college:
Li Ka-shing – Asia’s richest person
D. Dropped out of high school:
Amancio Ortega – Zara Stores
3. You don’t need to keep up with the Joneses:
A. Carlos Slim, the richest person in Mexico, had this to say:”When you live for others’ opinions, you are dead. I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be remembered.”
B. Li Ka-shing, Asia’s richest person, wore a $50 Seiko watch for many years before switching to a Citizen in 2011.
4. It does not matter where you start:
A. NR Narayana Murthy – Infosys founder was quoted as saying:
“It is less important, I believe, where you start. It is more important how and what you learn.”
B. Howard Schultz – Starbucks Coffee,
Grew up in public housing in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn.
C. Oprah Winfrey – billionaire talk show entrepreneur,
Born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood, where she experienced considerable hardship and abuse.
5. Envisioning:
A. Steve Jobs is called the Apple’s iVisionary
B. Bill Gates – Microsoft
“One day a personal computer would be on every office desk and in every home.”
C. Sergey Brin – Google
“We want Google to be the third half of your brain.”
6. Have your money work for you:
A. Ben Bernanke – former Chairman of the Federal Reserve
“I’ve never been on Wall Street, and I care about Wall Street for one reason and one reason only: because what happens on Wall Street matters to Main Street.”
B. Warren Buffett – legendary American investor,
No need to be a genius. “You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.”
C. Jack Bogle – index mutual fund pioneer,
He changed the way people can invest in mutual funds. His S&P 500 mutual fund has returned 21.01 percent over the past five years and 7.30 percent over the past decade.
The icons ranged from Steve Jobs as #1 to Carlos Slim as #25. They did not follow the crowd to mediocrity. Living on everyone else’s terms was way too boring for them. We can learn a great deal from these visionaries and game-changers, and I hope the points above will influence you to continually live on your own terms when it comes to money and life. You can go to http://www.cnbc.com/id/101320858 to see the complete list.
Tim Mann is a highly sought-after financial coach who meets with local clients in his sunny office in Los Angeles, CA as well as clients from around the world via phone and video. He wrote the best-selling book Money on Your Terms, and conducts his biweekly radio show, The Money on Your Terms Show, to educate people on all aspects of money. Tim spent the majority of his career in the world of finance working for companies such as Morgan Stanley, Investor’s Business Daily, and Silver Star Automotive Group. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Real Estate. He is passionate about having people live with money on their own terms instead of everyone else’s terms.
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