Last year, Young Entrepreneur published a list of Top 27 Self-Made Billionaires in its Self-Made magazine and no … this is not another post to talk about their secrets to become billionaire. As a home entrepreneur, if you look at the list carefully below, you will notice something interesting among them besides their ability to make massive wealth. What could it be?

1. Bill Gates (Microsoft)           
2. Warren Buffet (Bershire Hathaway)
3. Carlos Slim (Telmex)
4. Lawrence Ellison (Oracle)
5. Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA)
6. Takemitsu Takizaki (Keyence Corp)
7. John Sall (SAS Institute)
8. Li Sze Lim (R&F Properties)
9. Zhang Li-Guangzhou (R&F Properties)
10. Paul Allen (Microsoft)
11. Michael Dell (Dell, Inc.)
12. Peter Thiel (Paypal)
13. Abigail Johnson (Fidelity Investments)
14. Ann Cox Chambers (Cox Enterprises)
15. Rosalia Mera (Inditex-Zara-Retail)
16. Yelena Baturina (Inteco)
17. Giuliana Benetton (Benetton)
18. Oprah Winfrey (Harpo Productions)
19. Chu Lam Yiu (Huabao International Holdings)
20. Margaret Whitman (eBAY)
21. Mary West (West Corp.)
22. Joann JK Rowling (Harry Potter Books)
23. Weili Dai (Marvel Semiconductor)
24. John Arnold (Centaurus Energy)
25. Xiaofeng Peng (LDK Solar)
26. Shivinder Singh (Ranbaxy Laboratories)
27. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)

Name: Warren Buffet
Company: Berkshire Hathaway
Net Worth: $37 billion

Nebraska, USA. At a very young age, Warren Edward Buffet displayed great ability with money and business. As a newspaper delivery boy he used his earnings to buy a pinball machine, placed it in a barber shop which eventually grew in a profitable business, owning two more at different locations.

In 1951, Buffet took his M.S. in Economics at Columbia University. His career started as an investment salesman for Ben Graham (Graham-Newman Corp). In 1956, Graham retired while Buffet founded Buffett Partnership Ltd., an investment partnership with his sister and Aunt in his five-bedroom stucco house in Omaha. He managed his partnerships originally from the bedroom, and later, a small office where he spent his days analyzing and searching investment opportunities. Together with his increasing business, his life was beginning to take shape with his growing family-a wife and three children.

Through successful investments and partnerships, Warren Buffet was a millionaire by January 1962. In 2008, he ranked #1 in Forbes’ Magazine Richest People in the world. Today, 79 year-old Buffet serves as Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate holding company that oversees and manages a number of subsidiary companies, as he continues to influence the world of Economics.

Name: Ingvar Kamprad
Company: IKEA
Net Worth: $22 billion
 
Smaland, Sweden. He was born March 30, 1926 and showed entrepreneurial spirit at a young age by selling matches to his neighbors from his bike. Using his reward money from his father for his good studies, he started his furniture-selling company IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd) at 17. The store’s name is a combination of his name, the farm and hometown he grew up with. He continued to expand his business to a variety of goods, including wallets, watches, jewelry and stockings but focused on furniture by 1950’s.

Kamprad admitted to have dyslexia and was involved in Nazi group activism during his adolescence which he bitterly regrets. Today, he has over 200 stores in 31 countries but is still known to be prudent as he drives his 15 year old Volvo and flies with economy class.                                     

Name: Michael Saul Dell
Company: Dell, Inc.
Net Worth: $12.3 Billion
Texas, USA. He was born on February 23, 1965 and was seen to have incredible business instincts at a young age. Multi-billionaire Michael Saul Dell made his first $1,000 at the age of 12 by selling stamps.  Having built his confidence as a salesman, he sold newspaper subscriptions to newlyweds and him $18,000 dollars for himself to buy a car.

At 15, his parents his first computer and disassembled it just to know if he can rebuild it. His ingenuity led him to a profitable business where he would order computer parts at a cheap price, assemble it and sell directly to his customers in his own dorm room at the University of Texas. He dropped out of school at 19 to focus on his company PC’s Limited (now Dell, Inc). At 27, he was the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Today, Dell is one of the most recognize brand in the computer industry.

Name: Rosalia Mera
Company: Inditex-Zara
Net Worth: $2.6 billion

A Coruña, Spain. She is a home-based entrepreneur turned millionaire. Founded in 1974, Inditex is now one of the world’s leading apparel manufacturers and also owns ZARA.

 
Name: Giuliana Benetton
Company: Benetton
Net Worth: $1.5 billion

Treviso, Italy. Born on 1937, Giuliana actually started the family fashion business. She used to knit sweaters and his brother Luciano would peddle in a bike to sell it under the label Tres Jolie. In 1965, together with her 3 brothers they started the Benetton fashion company which now manufactures clothing under the brand names United Colors of Benetton, Sisley, Play Life and Killer Loop. In 2006, the company reached $2.7 billion in sales.

Name: JOANNE “JK” ROWLING
Company: Harry Potter Books
Net Worth: $1 billion

Edinburgh, UK. Joanne Kathleen Rowling, the only billionaire author, had nothing but passion and sheer determination before to overturn her penniless living to multimillionaire status.

Although she graduated with BA in French and Classics, Joanne found herself in deep pit as a single mother struggling to raise her baby daughter living in a cold, mice-infested flat.

In 1990, the start of the sensational Harry Potter books was conceived while in train journey from Manchester to London. Six years later, along with several rejections, Joanne released her first book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Her new found wealth was followed by numerous awards where in 2000, British book awards named her ‘Author of the year.’  She penned her last installment of the series in July 2007 that broke all time book sales records selling 9 million copies within 24 hours of release. In total, her novels were translated into 65 languages with more than 400 million copies worldwide.  Now at 43, she is happily married to Dr. Neil Murray with her son and two daughters.

 
Name: Mark Zuckerberg
Company: Facebook
Net Worth: $2 billion

White Plains, New York. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is the youngest member of The Forbes 400 for founding an addictive social networking website: Facebook.

Zuckerberg started programming when he was in middle school. He also created a computer game (Risk), peer-to-peer communication software (Wirehog) and a music recommendation system that uses artificial intelligence (Synapse). As a Harvard student, he launched Facebook from his dorm room on February 4, 2004 which became an instant hit within the campus. He then decided to add other universities with the help of his roommate Dustin Moskovitz. He dropped out of college and moved to California where he met Peter Thiel, who invested in the company.

Facebook Inc. sold 1.6% stake to Microsoft Corp for $240 million. At the time of the sale, Facebook had a market value of $15 billion. In 2008, 25-year old Zuckerberg was named as one of The World’s Most Influential People under the Scientists and Thinkers category for his web phenomenon.

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Out of 27 self-made billionaires, it is interesting to note that about 26% who have achieved massive wealth today were once a home entrepreneur. Their humble beginnings started either from home or in school dorm room – a place not only nurture for growth but also an incubator for successful business. They started small but had outgrown their home and part-time businesses into successful business empires today. If you ever doubt that starting a home business will lead to any success in the future, these billionaires are the real-life testimonials of what you could achieve. If you think that starting a business at home is less prestige then owning a proper office, think again, it is not where you start but rather where you end. A prestige office cannot guarantee you success but only your professionalism, attitudes and persistence will attract more business.

Successful entrepreneurs are not constrained by physical space but only the sky is the limit. From what these self-made billionaires have exhibited, if you have the creative ideas, passion and confidence, you will soon realize starting a business from home is not an issue. Outgrow your business one day from your home to massive wealth is possible if you know the right goal, strategies and tactics with the right product and services like those self-made billionaires had done. In addition, with the right doses of determination, persistence and patience, you are well on the way to the path of billionaire. My best wishes to all home entrepreneurs!

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1. Can Anyone be a Successful Home Entrepreneur?