At some point, we all have dreamt of becoming a billionaire even if it was just for fun. I mean who would mind having an unlimited supply of money. In a world where we are governed by capitalism, cash is the king. But the path to becoming a billionaire is challenging. Most billionaires have worked hard for decades to reach that position. Billionaires like Warren Buffet are a great example. But in this post, we’re going to take a look at the people who haven’t had to put as much work in as the rest. I know, it doesn’t sound very realistic, but some people made it that way. The opportunity was presented in front of them, and they took advantage of it.
When you think of Facebook, the only person who comes to mind is Mark Zuckerberg. However, if you look more into it, it was developed by multiple people. Along the way, when Facebook made it to the top and reached billions of dollars, all those people who were involved in Facebook at an early stage instantly became billionaires. One of those people was Eduardo Saverin. If you have watched Social Network, you’d probably know him. When Facebook was still an idea, Mark asked him to invest 15 thousand dollars and become its first investor and first CFO. Eduardo saw the potential opportunity and jumped on board but these two people shared entirely different visions, and their relationship worsened over time. So Mark diluted his shares and kicked him out of the company a year later. Although he was involved in Facebook for such a short period of time, his tiny ownership in Facebook turned him into a billionaire when the company went public and today, his net worth is over 9 billion dollars.
He isn’t the only one who was in the right place at the right time. With a bachelors degree in computer science in the 1990s, you were in the best position to start an online business. The internet was just booming. Pierre Omidyar recognized that and began working on a side project that he named eBay. It grew way faster than he expected, and after 9 months Ebay’s revenue outstripped his annual salary, so he quit his job and decided to give it his full attention. In less than a year, the website hosted over 800 thousand auctions a day. And the company decided to go public making its founder instantly a billionaire. It kept growing to the point where even luxury items were sold such as supercars, private jets. In fact, in 2006, a yacht was sold on eBay for 168 million dollars.
The reason behind the dot-com bubble was that people didn’t understand exactly what the internet was, so they threw money at any online business without really understanding anything about it hoping to make a fortune. Gary Winnick couldn’t let it go without taking advantage of it. In 1997, he founded global crossing Limited. It was a telecommunication company that provided computer networking service. It was the first private company to finance underwater fiber optic cable. It generated so much hype that it raised over 400 million dollars when it went public and its massive valuation earned Winnick a total of 4.5 billion dollars. Like many other online companies, when the dot-com bubble burst, the company crippled and declared bankruptcy but he resigned just before that with his enormous wealth. However, the fast person who became a billionaire is someone who you’ve probably never heard of: Jay Walker. Like our previous opportunist, Gary Winnick, Walker also realized that the dot-com bubble is the greatest opportunity of his life. Although everyone today books flight tickets and hotels online, when the internet was at its initial phase, no one thought about that concept except Jay Walker, who turned it into an online business. He founded priceline.com, and they sold over 40K tickets within four months of launching. In less than a year, it went public and instantly made its founder a member of the billionaires club. But, when the dot-com bubble burst, the company’s stocks dropped significantly, but by then, Walker had already cashed out and left the company, the company still operates today, but it's not as big as it once was.
The moral of the story is when an opportunity presented itself, they took it. At a time where capital is easily accessible and investors are pumping money into an emerging market, as a business minded person, you should seize the chance of a lifetime.