You wanna to be rich?
Like Bill Gates!
Or a medieval king?
No, like an Emperor!
Hey, you wanna have more money than the wealthiest person in human history!
Alright, then how much would it take to top them all?
Hmm, let’s see…
Oprah Winfrey was the first woman in history to own and produce her own talk show.
We’ve all wanted to be members of that studio audience, getting generous gifts like cars,
cash prizes, and free trips!
It was no easy road, but Winfrey has accumulated an impressive wealth of $2.6 billion.
Ralph Lauren’s net worth is just shy of $6 billion.
The future fashion designer would’ve never seen it coming when he wrote a single word
in his high school yearbook as his life goal: “Millionaire.”
One of the greatest minds of our day, Steve Jobs was worth $10 billion.
He dropped out of school to work at a video game company, where he was known as a bit
of an eccentric, dipping his feet in toilets at work to relieve stress and eating the same
food for weeks on end.
Jobs had to sell his car to found his own company, which helped him earn his first million
at the age of 23.
This next guy earned his living working in a factory and later opened his own shop.
It grew to be the largest eyewear company in the world, making glasses for designer
labels like Ray Ban, Giorgio Armani, Prada, Chanel, and Versace, just to name a few.
No wonder Leonardo Del Vecchio is worth $18 billion.
Engineer and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made his first project – a game called Blaster – at
the age of 12, and became a multi-millionaire by his 20s.
Nowadays, he makes about 20 million bucks an hour and is worth $32 billion.
Jack Ma is the founder of a leading internet marketplace.
He’s one of the wealthiest people in Asia with his $40 billion.
After graduating from college, he was rejected from many jobs, even for the position of a
fast-food worker.
He said it taught him that success means getting used to failure.
The richest monarch today is listed as the recently coronated King of Thailand.
His net worth is estimated at $43 billion.
This number is relatively small compared to the wealth of kings and queens we’re about
to see.
But it’s a lot more than Her Majesty Elizabeth II – she’s the richest queen in the world
with her $520 million.
Alice Walton is one of the heirs of a discount shopping empire worth $54 billion.
She’s currently the richest woman in the world.
But she didn’t want to focus on the family business.
She instead went into charity programs and supporting art.
The youngest person in the Forbes top 40 is Mark Zuckerberg.
You know him for Facebook, but he’s also into solar sail spacecraft development!
His obvious braininess has earned him $65 billion, and he’s still in his ‘30s!
Warren Buffett is known as the greatest investor of the 20th century.
He made his fortune finding bargains in undervalued companies.
He could’ve outdone Bill Gates in terms of wealth, but he’s already given away $34
billion to charity, leaving to himself just $76 billion.
Cleopatra.
Being Egypt’s pharaoh, she controlled the nation’s largest industries.
Her wealth is now estimated at $96 billion, but that number could be 3 or 4 times higher!
Though she’s most famous for her beauty, it’s her intelligence that made her a good
ruler.
She spoke several languages and was well-educated.
Even though Bill Gates is no longer the richest person today, he and his $104 billion are
still holding on strong to the #2 spot.
He stepped down from controlling his creation Microsoft, where he used to memorize all his
employees’ license plates to see who was on time and who was late!
His and his wife Melinda’s foundation is now trying to help solve world health problems.
The most affluent person on Earth today is Jeff Bezos.
He started his famous website just selling books, but then it developed into the most
successful market ever known.
Bezos now is worth $124 billion.
But he’s sooo far from the richest person ever known in history…
Not all money is earned from hard honest work.
Heshen was an administrator of the Qing Dynasty in China.
He was also a favorite of the emperor, and helped himself build a fortune that would
equal $132 billion today.
William de Warenne was a Norman nobleman in England in the 11th century.
He owned castles and tracks of land, which doesn’t sound like much by today’s standards,
but it was all worth $146 billion!
Having good friends pays, especially when you have the patronage of William the Conqueror.
Alan Rufus was a medieval aristocrat who helped the king and was generously rewarded for his
service.
As in, gratitude worth $150 billion!
Queen Isabella I of Castile was a legend of her time.
She was the one who backed Columbus’s exploration to the New World.
Well, makes sense – the Crown did have around $200 billion in gold to spend!
$200 billion – as much as medieval royalty – is the fortune of an automotive pioneer
who made cars an accessible vehicle for common folk.
This person also made the manufacturing process easier.
Yes, I’m talking about Henry Ford!
Jacob the Rich was Europe’s wealthiest man in the 16th century, if the nickname didn’t
give it away.
Making his first fortune through banking, he later went into the mining business.
His wealth is estimated at $220 billion or possibly even twice that!
William the Conqueror himself is believed to have owned $228 billion.
He was the first Norman king of England and left many architectural memorials, such as
The Tower of London, Windsor, and Pevensey and Dover Castles.
Mir Osman Ali Khan ruled the princely state of Hyderabad in India in the mid-20th century.
His riches are estimated at $230 billion.
Tsar Nicolas II was the last leader of the Russian Empire, and he was worth $300 billion
for his time!
Coming from Scotland to America with nothing in his pockets, Andrew Carnegie started working
at a low-paying job.
After his successful investments, he founded his steel company and earned a fortune that
by today’s rate would be $310 billion.
John D. Rockefeller is the richest American in history.
His fortune would equal $367 billion today.
Like Carnegie, he was also well-known for his philanthropy.
Mansa Musa was a leader in the Mali Empire in 14th-century West Africa.
His empire had half the world’s gold supply.
By today’s rates, his vast fortune would equal $400 billion.
$1.5 trillion.
This is what the economic power of Catherine the Great would be.
She was Russia’s longest-reigning female leader.
Thanks to her reforms and support for art, her reign was called The Golden Age of Russia.
Augustus Caesar was a ruler in the Roman Empire, which, in turn, controlled 1/5 of the whole
world’s economy!
For his time, he was in control of $4.5 trillion.
Cleopatra was not Egypt’s only female pharaoh by far.
In the 15th century BCE, Hatshepsut was the first woman to rule Egypt.
She’s remembered as a person who built many temples and brought an era of prosperity to
Egypt.
She would now own $5.5 trillion.
Empress Wu was the first and only female emperor in all of China's thousands of years of history.
At first, she controlled the country from the shadows, but she later had full power
over it.
She expanded her Empire, making it the largest at that time.
Her riches would now be worth over $6 trillion.
In the second half of the 16th century, Akbar I ruled the Mughal Empire in India.
He expanded his possessions to include almost the entire Indian subcontinent, making his
fortune equal to $21 trillion today.
Emperor Shenzong of Song was a Chinese ruler in the 11th century.
His era is called “Peaceful Prosperity” and “Primary Abundance.”
He improved the lives of the poor and led numbers of reforms that were well ahead of
his time.
His fortune would now value about $30 trillion.
It’s hard to say exactly how much the wealthiest person in all of history owned.
His only treasure was his country and vast lands.
He didn’t accumulate wealth, sharing all trophies with his soldiers and commanders.
But his net worth has been estimated at hundreds of trillions of dollars today.
To become the richest person ever, you’d have to overcome Genghis Khan himself, the
first leader of the largest contiguous empire in history!
Big bucks indeed!