Famous Entrepreneurs
Enviado por • 17 de Enero de 2014 • 1.537 Palabras (7 Páginas) • 645 Visitas
Famous Entrepreneurs
Howard Hughes - “Play off everyone against each other so that you have more avenues of action open to you.”
Was an aviator, movie producer, the world’s first billionaire and chronic hypochondriac. Howard Hughes was born in Houston, Texas in 1905. His father owned the Hughes Tool Company and invented a drill bit which made him fortunes. Howard never graduated from high school, instead after both his parents died, he bought out his relatives and inherited the family estate.
Thanks to his position as one of Hollywood’s foremost producers and owner of his own studio, Hughes was able to live the life of a playboy and date some of the most famous actresses in the world including Catherine Hepburn.
He also owned TWA (Trans World Airlines) and rose to fame in 1935 by lying at 325 milies per hour and breaking the air speed record. He then became a national hero by cutting Charles Linbergh’s Paris to New York record in half and also circumnavigating the world in 3 days and 19 hours.
During World War II he built military aircraft for the United States military. Hughes built the ‘Spruce Goose’, a flying boat which only flew once and caused a lot of controversy [expand]. In the 1950s Hughes made satellites to spy on the Soviet Union and it is rumoured that he was behingd the assassination attempt to Cuba’s President, Fidel Castro.
In 1966 he sold TWA and moved to Las Vegas where he became a recluse and died in 1976 [expand]. His he was in such an emaciated state that his body could only be identified by finger prints. Howard Hughes left an estate worth $2 billion [expand]
Ted Turner - “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise”
Was born in 1938 and is known as a media mogul and philanthropist. He founded the CNN news network, TCM movie channel, the Cartoon Network. Married Jane Fonda and once gave $1 billion dollars to the UN.
He started out in the world of business as a young man of 24 by taking over his father’s billboard business after his father committed suicide. His next step was to buy a T.V. Station in 1970. Then to compliment this, in 1978 he purchased a small basketball team (Atlanta Hawks) which he guided to success, often taking a hands-on role in team matters. Due the success and popularity of the team he was able to command large advertising revenues from companies wishing to advertise on his TV channel. He followed this up by buying the failing baseball team, the Atlanta Braves.
In the 1980s and 1990s his news channel, CNN revolutionized news media when it captured live coverage of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986 and the Gulf War in 1991.
Turner’s life has been that of a true maverick. He was expelled from university [expand]. He won the Americas Cup in 1980 which elevated him to a social standing he had previously never attained. From this moment his friends and acquaintances became princes and billionaires.
He created WCW Wrestling [expand on this phenomenon] which was sold to WWF. In 1995 he merged his empire with the media behemoth, Time Warner . In 2001 this company expanded even further to become Aol Time Warner [expand]. Ted Turner is America’s largest private landowner and also owns the world’s largest bison herd in the world making him…[expand] [how much is he worth?]
Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) - “I have found out one thing and that is, if you have an idea, and it is a good idea, if you only stick to it you will come out all right.”
was a British businessman and statesman. He is the founder of Rhodesia which is now modern day Zambia and Zimbabwe. Rhodes also founded the Rhodes Scolarship which [expand] and has had such illustrious recipients as Bill Clinton, former President of the United States.
Rhodes arrived in South Africa aged in 1870, aged 17 with GBP 3,000 which he invested in diamond claims in the newly discovered Kimberly diamond mine. [expand]. He formed DeBeers diamond company which today still holds a monopoly on the supply of diamonds worldwide.
In 1872 he trekked north to prospect for gold and in 1873 he sailed back to England to complete his studies at Oxford.
On his return to South Africa he invested in more claims. In 1874 and 1875 the mines were in depression and many itinerant prospector who had come to South Africa seeking fortune were left broken, bankrupt and empty handed. Rhodes however, took advantage of this adverse situation and continued to buy up more and more claims. [expand on Hard Blue rock]. He then won the contract to pump the water out of the three main mines. By 1880 he owned most of the mines and even hid thousands of newly discovered in concrete at his home in order to restrict the
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