You unlock your door, turn on the lights, you turn up the heat or turn on your air conditioner
before going to the fridge, pulling out last night's left-overs and heating them up in
the microwave.
While your minute and 30 seconds go by, you check your phone and make sure you haven't
gotten any texts from 15 minutes ago.
Maybe if you're feeling a little loose you'll buy a bunch of crap you don't need on Amazon,
and then post about your frivolous spending habits on Facebook.
Isn't it great – and also terrifying – how easy all this can be?
Technology has always been the driving force behind civilization.
What would you do if you didn't have your cell phone for a week?
Would you go into existential panic if you couldn't check Facebook?Well, you can thank
your dependence on technology to a few key brilliant minds who are constantly working
to make your life better... or at least more accessible.
Here's our list of top ten tech entrepreneurs.
When Elon Musk was in university, he identified five areas that he believed would truly influence
the development of mankind.
These were: genetic modification, sustainable energy, the internet, artificial intelligence
and space exploration, about four of which he's touched, and three in which he is on
the cutting edge.
He created Paypal, which was the beginning of his fortunes, he's working on affordable
space rocket technology, on affordable solar paneling and electric, self-driving cars.
Did we mention he's filthy rich?
It's safe to say that he is one of the eminent minds of our time as a brilliant thinker,
inventor and business man.
He even taught himself to code and sold a video game he made at the age of 13, so for
Elon, it has been entrepreneurship since then.
Everybody knows Bill Gates, he's been the richest man on the planet for many years now,
and his name is ubiquitous with home computers.
Having fallen in love with computers from his teenage years, he displayed so much talent
that his high school administrators allowed him to program the course scheduling computers...
and he put himself in classes with lots of girls... and his talent never seemed to dwindle.
His intellect eventually landed him at Harvard, which he left on a leave of absence for two
years to start his company...
the rest, as they say, is history.
While his business tactics have come under criticism, he's always been driven by his
goal of changing the world, first through the computer revolution, and now through his
philanthropic efforts.
He plans to donate 95% of his wealth to bettering the world, and urges his wealthy peers to
do the same.
Jack Ma (real name Ma Yun) was the first mainland Chinese to appear on the cover of Forbes Magazine.
Though he is known for his fame and fortune, his beginnings were humble and complicated.
As a young boy, he had a fascination with learning English, giving tours to foreigners
around the city so he could practice.
After graduating school, he applied to many jobs and couldn't seem to find his “fit”,
he even applied for Harvard ten times!
When he heard about the internet in the early '90s, he jumped on the opportunity to visit
the United States and learn as much about it as he could.
Noticing that there was not much information about China, nor were there any Chinese websites,
he started a company with his wife and a friend to create websites for Chinese businesses.
Having jumped on the opportunity, he is now one of the wealthiest men in the world.
If you've spent too much money buying random trinkets you don't need on Amazon, there's
one person to blame...
well, after yourself that is.
Jeff Bezos had displayed technical know-how since he was a child, dismantling his own
crib as a toddler.
Following a path through school that lead him to studying computer science and landed
him a high-paying job with a hedge fund, he eventually heard about the internet (seeing
a pattern here?) and paying close attention to a supreme court decision involving the
internet, decided he could make a lot of money with selling things online.
So now you know who to blame for your drunken Amazon sprees.
The next person on our list that you can blame for your misdoings is Reed Hastings, CEO of
Netflix.
TV has been a staple of modern life for decades now, with evening news, saturday morning cartoons,
talk shows and the works, it seemed society was basing its life around TV scheduling,
but now, with the advent of streaming, it's almost totally changed.
I don't think we need to tell you about the advantages of being able to watch what you
want, when you want, for how long you want, but we'll tell you a bit about the guy behind
it.
Reed Hastings owed a video store – if you're old enough to remember those – forty dollars,
and on his way to the gym, he realized paying forty dollars and being able to use it as
much as he wanted was a much better business model.
So, believe it or not, Netflix began in 1997 as a rental service where you'd rent one movie
at a time at a flat-rate for the month.
Eventually it turned into the service we know today, and is so part of our culture that
you'll hear people say “Wanna watch netflix?”
Zhou Qunfei is the richest woman in China.
Her childhood story was rough, with her mother passing away when she was 5 years old, and
having to drop out of school at 16 years old so she could find opportunity for work with
her uncle.
Deliberately working near the local university to attend classes in her spare time.
Eventually, in 1993 when the factory where she was working shut down, she was encouraged
by her family to start a business due to her technical knowledge in making watch lenses.
Her skill in all aspects of the production, including assembly, lead to a big break in
2001 with the advent of smart phones and her superior production capabilities.
Interestingly, she says her biggest regret was not learning English, and that the reason
for her success was the continued desire to learn.
While he isn't as rich as the others on our list, Arash Ferdowsi has made his mark on
the landscape of the internet.
He created Dropbox with his friend Drew Houston who had been inspired by the fact that he
kept forgetting his USB key at home before going to class.
It seems the limits of the human mind are also what inspires the next best thing in
technology.
Our next two top tech entrepreneurs are inseparable from each other.
These two are responsible for the most used website of all time... we're sure you guessed
what it is, yep...
Google.
Googling something is just another way of saying look it up on the internet, and internet
searches are only the tip of the ice berg for what they've done.
Did you know Youtube is also owned by Google?
These two were bright guys growing up, in fact, both of them were working on PhDs in
mathematics when they realized the power and connection of the internet, which at the time
had about 10 million pages.
The difficult part was being able to find all these pages.
The appropriately named Larry Page was interested in figuring out how to connect them all, and
his friend Sergey Brin, whose grandfather was a mathematician, saw the potential in
what Larry had to offer.
Together they rented a garage and ended up building one of the most important tools known
to mankind, for which they've made a hefty sum and are now amongs the richest and most
influential people in the world.
If there is anything notable about Mark Zuckerberg, it is that he is so young, so wealthy, and
almost everyone has a Facebook profile.
Being a prodigious developer starting in his early teens, he says began making little tools
for he and his sisters.
Eventually finding himself at Harvard university, he found a passion in creating websites that
connect people together, such as being able to see who would be taking which classes.
This lead to what we know as Facebook, Mr. Zuckerberg's dream platform for connecting
the world and allowing people to share experiences with each other.
And as much as you can hate the guy for having all you information, and maybe knowing everything
about you, like Bill Gates, he's said he intends to donate the majority of his wealth over
the course of his life.
That's a perk of being rich, huh?
Alright, now we've seen who the top dogs are.
Hate 'em or love 'em, they've changed the way the game is played.
It's no surprise to us that these people are filthy rich, after all, they found a way of
improving our daily routines, if not downright creating new things for us to check and waste
our time.
But as much we all love using Facebook and posting pictures of what we just ordered at
a restaurant, try to remember that you're a human and you need to go outside and disconnect
every now and then.
Or maybe you need to set-up a business plan today and explore the new frontier of technology!