Who is your favorite billionaire?
Very simply who is your favorite billionaire?
I 'd have to go with Rupert Murdoch or Henry Kravis...
Trending Content
Career Resources
WSO Free Modeling Series - Now Open Through
June 30, 2024
9 Free Financial Modeling Lessons
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
I like T. Boone alot, he seems like he's a cool dude
Michael Jordan
This post has been deleted.
My future self.
ur mom
Donald Trump
He was asking about billionaires, not people who simply claim to be
I got a lot of MS so I don't think a lot of people got my joke
Y'all forgot about Dre.
Got somethin' to say, but nothin' comes out?
not a billionaire
Dre's not a billionaire yet. Is your name Nicholas by any chance?
but first...worst billionaires
zuck: holier than thou Buffett: hypocrite ackman: crybaby soros & gross: more annoying than profitable paulson: was right once, hasn't shut up about it musk: do you really have to ask?
my faves:
james simons: revolutionary, has kicked the shit outta the market since he started druckenmiller: one of the only macro guys I'll ever listen to tom & judy love: gas station billionaires, love it george lucas: duh redstone: you seen his wife? jim davis: new balance is frat
Lol why do you dislike Elon? And what do u mean by Soros/ Gross being more annoying than profitable? Just curious
george soros is one of the best macro minds of our time, but he's tired and the fact that he's allowed his political beliefs to enter into his investments is despicable. granted, he only runs money for himself, but in recent years, it seems he wants PR moreso than absolute return.
bill gross same thing, a shadow of what he once was at PIMCO, more keen on forecasting than delivering value to investors. nice enough guy I'm sure, but he seems way too sure of himself as of late with mediocre performance at best backing it up.
and musk wouldn't be a billionaire if tesla's investors had any idea about valuation. cars are cool, but meh.
I'm definitely a hater here, the people my generation worships as gods causes the contrarian in me to want to hate them.
that being said, Buffett is who I based most of my investing philosophy on, so I can only dislike him so much
I love it. This is the limousine liberal dream team. Only guy you left off is Mark Cuban.
Mark Cuban is not a liberal... he just didn't support Trump, like many other independents/ conservatives
Cuban reminds me of the geek in high school that finally got biceps and a BMW and now cannot stay off social media talking about how hard he's worked and how you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it, but turns into stuttering steve when he's within a 1 mile radius of a vagina
I'll second Jim Davis. Dude made over $2B because he loved lasagna and hated Mondays
lmao, solid reference, I guess I should've said both Jim Davises
Why do say Buffett's a hypocrite? I've always gotten the sense that he tries way too hard to appear down to earth and as a Wall Street outsider, but never paid enough attention the guy to come to a conclusion on him.
As a rule, I'm suspicious of anyone with notable wealth who tries to appear as just-one-of-the-common-folk.
Something something you can take the boy out of the country but not the country out of the boy.
He is a hypocrite because he talks about rich people needing to pay more taxes but always takes every tax deduction and write down he can. I'm not shitting on the guy for doing that as it is perfectly legal, however don't chastise me for doing what you are doing.
Well, for one thing, Buffett argues for higher income tax RATES on guys earning a salary of over $250,000 per year knowing full well that Buffett largely doesn't pay income taxes due to the structure of his investments. His kind of garbage is like DiCaprio taking a private jet to 2 global warming events on the same day on opposite coasts. Remember as Andrew Wilkow says, "Socialism is for the people, not the socialist."
pretty much all of those things said above. the only investment thing that's hypocritical is how he says his estate will be 100% index funds when he's built his business on active management.
the political stuff is what bothers me, I find myself saying: dude, I learned how to read a balance sheet from you and pick stocks, I dgaf what you have to say about fiscal policy, help me pick winners.
Buffet as a hypocrite stood out. What's hypocritical about buffet?
see above commentary, but basically the below
that being said, I'm just throwing shade for fun, if I met warren I'd be over the moon, the man is the reason I got into finance, so just because he's a hypocrite (aren't we all a little?), doesn't mean he's not been one of the most important business leaders of American history
heister
Looks like some people around here still know who I am.
the noobs never read your interview http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/qa-with-heister-my-total-worth-is-n…
or this http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/non-traditional-investments-q-and-a
Russ Hanneman
Solid reference
, , ,
"Anyway, next thing you know, we IPO, stock triples in a day and AOL gobbles us up. All of a sudden, I'm 22 years young and I'm worth 1.2 billion. Now a couple decades later, I'm worth 1.4. You do the math."
Mark Cuban was already mentioned.
Lynn Tilton... lol
john Paulson
motto: it only takes one
My favorite billionaires are the dudes from facebook who became billionaires (or close) basically because they were zuck's roommates at harvard. Could have been me.
Were you at Harvard during that time?
No I wasn't haha. I just meant the concept of being a merely above-average person at a top-tier school who happens to be roommates/friends with someone like Zuckerberg.
Bill Ackman, love his outspoken style and confidence
Phil Knight's a billy right? He makes a nice product!
Dan Bilzerian. ha
Masayoshi Son (Softbank): Probably Japan's only badass businessman now Jeff Gundlach: Crazy life story Phil Knight: Iconic brand Seth Klarman: Surprised he hasn't been mentioned yet John Doerr: One of the greatest VCs ever Yuri Milner: A Russian billionaire who's not hopelessly corrupt
did you hear the story about how gundlach got ousted from TCW after they found pot and sex toys in his desk?
gundlach definitely > Gross, if only for sheer entertainment value.
Bro they could make a movie about that guy's ousting from tcw. I read about it and it's awesome.
No love for Gates on here?
probably will go down as one of the best businessmen of all time, but he's boring, and too nice. I mean first you change the world with PCs and now you're trying to eradicate diseases in Africa?! cheat on your wife, poison an ocean, murder a puppy, something dude. he's got no edge, he's just what everyone wants to be when they grow up: drop out of school, become richest man alive, retire, then make the world a better place. barf.
Had a chance to speak with him once. Nicest guy ever - it's like he's Futurist Christ or something. I still have his autograph as a keepsake.
Trump and Branson win best best billionaire and coincidentally also have the best hair.
My recent favorite is Peter Thiel since I've been reading his VC book, Zero to 1. What an amazing flippin' book with a lot of great counterintuitive insight. I also love Elon Musk--I mean, he and I would do things very differently, but that's why I like him; the guy is a true visionary whose reach exceeds his grasp.
Treat yourself to the audiobook, too. Trust me.
Im trying to get back into the reading game and had been wanting to check out the Thiel book. Let me know if you have any other top recs to read.
Endorsing the Musk biography by Ashlee Vance. Great read.
John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.
I love Elon for trying to advance us as a species. Yeah, Tesla is overvalued, but he made electric cars cool. SpaceX is amazing and SolarCity is leading the way for solar in this country. He's got an innovative mind.
Other than that, I don't really give a shit about any of these guys. No one beats the titans of the past.
I never get tired of reading about the railroad/oil/steel guys of the 19th century.
Finishing Titan now. These people were amazing.
great series, either on history or amc: the men who built america, talks about all the old 19th century tycoons, very interesting
That GS kid is the next lloyd
Bezos, Gates, and Zuck in that order.
'sco stags
Seth Klarman: Strong performance without the ego
I wish more people knew about this. just because someone's in the news doesn't mean they suck. the activist guys are interesting for sure, but there's plenty of guys who kill it and keep a low profile, those are the ones you want to listen to.
Actually had a 15 minute call with him off a cold email. Extremely down to earth.
DickFuld
Milken
Vlad or V.Putin as he's known to his close friends.
Favorites: Elon Musk - for doing cool tech stuff that no one else has the balls to do Jim Simmons/Robert Mercer - for literally overturning an industry Gates - I wouldn't be typing here without him Bezos - Love his aggressive style, his no-nonsense way of doing things Bloomberg - Having built a multimillion dollar firm after getting fired from a sinking ship Peter Thiel - amazing insights, I think he puts the realism into Elon's ideas Jack Ma - for beating the odds and rising to the top
Worst: Zuckerberg - being such an idealist retard, thinking he can change the world positively using a glorified ad company Bill Ackman - cry baby Ambani - extravagant spending on an ugly-ass house, while half his country lives below the poverty line European and Arab rich fags who inherited their wealth through countless generations Soros - annoying representative of the elite class Buffet - as mentioned above, hypocrite Mark Cuban - arrogant shit. Though I respect him for selling internet radio at a bumper price.
I have to emphasize Simons again. 35% compounded for their flagship fund...AND he contributed to string theory.
you wanna talk about smart and profitable?! look no further.
plus he stays away from the media, which just adds to the mystique.
This alone makes him more palpable than Ackman, Buffet or Cuban
Agree with you on Bloomberg and Jack Ma!
What so much hate for Bill Ackman? Yes, the man cried (also Icahn killed him on CBNC interview). But why worst?
This one is easy, it's the future me.
Nicolas Berggruen
Just checked out the guy.....seems cool, starting out with just 250k$. But then, he did have familial security.
I call bs on the 250k but agree overall pretty cool guy. So was Gunter Sachs.
Jack Ma seems like a genuine guy
Favorite: Jack Ma Worst: Rupert Murdoch
I vote for Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx. She's the only billionaire I can think of who is bangable.
this would make a more entertaining thread: most bangable billionaires
laurene jobs tory burch had too look this up: maria asuncion (heiress to grupo modelo) and I would bet that julia louis-dreyfus is getting there as her dad's estate settles, between that and seinfeld money, she's gotta be the #1 bad b billionaire
Thanks for adding names to my MILF collection. Better start sending out 'em cold emails now.
Maria.....ugly as sin.
Regardless, it would have to be self-made billionaire to qualify in my book. Otherwise, every wife/daughter of a billionaire could qualify. I think we're down to Sara Blakely, Tory Burch, and Oprah. All three of those ladies are a 1/1 for me on the binary scale. That being said, I think Tory Burch would have to be my top choice.
Surprised he hasn't been mentioned yet, but my guy is Larry Ellison. Homeboy straight don't have a fuck to give. Went from orphan to billionaire, fucks over Silicon Valley jerkoffs on the regular, and races the coolest boats on the planet. Total Bond villain.
not to mention he bankrolled zero dark thirty via his daughter. I had a hard time leaving him off my list
How did I forget fuckin' Larry Ellison! What's the difference between God and Larry Ellison?
I'll bite...
I gotta say, I respect Musk. Don't necessarily believe the valuations on his companies, but hell, he's got vision and doesn't give a sh*t. Who else is trying (relatively successfully) to commercialize space on the same scale? Props.
Also Paul Singer. He may be an asshole, but c'mon. Elliott Capital had a foreign power's military ship seized.
People either love or hate Ackman, interesting..
Vladimir Putin, straight up gangster.
I approve of this
Jamie Dimon - I cant think of many non-founder executive billionaires. He also became CEO of J.P. Morgan after they acquired Bank One where he was CEO. Not very often the smaller company CEO becomes CEO of the larger combined entity.
Dimon and Blankfein both have their net worth mainly in stock options. Too volatile, and they barely crossed the 1b mark. Still they are good choices, if you look at the person and not the number.
Love the BlankMan. How's that for a rags-to-riches story? He didn't even start out middle class, and look where he ended up.
Bobby Axelrod
Just binged the first season last week, pumped for season two in February.
Larry Ellison by a mile.
Michael Jordan is worth $1.25 billion. He's got to be on my list of favorite billionaires.
Jerry Seinfeld
he's $200 million short
David Rubenstein - I love his Youtube channel where he interviews other Billionaires
Liberal elitism at its finest.
Ross Perot. Reminds me of a time when men were men and the women were too by today's standards.
The time frame you are thinking of is some time before now, whenever now actually is. Think of it as t minus 20-50 years. You think that when Ross Perot ran for President was when men were men? You realize this was years after the peak of the popularity of Boy George, right? And decades after disco? And around the height of the AIDS crisis? Also KD Lang was pretty popular, if I'm not mistaken.
Your rose colored glasses are a little out of touch. To be fair, just like they are for most people.
You just made my point for me, snowflake Dick.
Also everyone is forgetting Putin
Sheikh Muhammed Bin Fattadh Allawah Mustafa Hakim Alubar - The man really knows how to enjoy the finer things in life like yachts, supercars, soccer teams, and instagram portapotties.
Hopefully the future governor of California, Peter Thiel.
Phil Anschutz. Stocks, real estate, oil, railroads....sure, money begets money, but he's made fortunes all across the board. Absolute badass
Bruce Wayne
Carl Icahn
Richie Rich.
David Abrams Howard Marks Karl and Theo Albrecht Chuck Feeney
The Koch brothers.
I'm partisan to the Kochs because of their politics but then I saw David Koch in the documentary "Sour Grapes" I was just like, "Jesus, this guy is a complete fag..." (And I mean "fag" in the 1990's junior high school use of the word i.e. the South Park way).
It was Bill Koch in Sour Grapes. Although, he's still a boss for having built a multi-billion $ company from the ground up and winning the America's cup, I like him much less than Charles and David. They were the two that built Koch Industries.
Charles and David turned a 20mil private consulting firm into one of the world's largest manufacturing conglomerates. You'd be hard pressed to find a company that has a greater impact on the fulfillment of basic needs of daily life than Koch (Cargill is up there too). On top of that, they've maintained total control and done everything their way. For example, they built the company on essentially anarcho capitalistic/meritocratic principles. Good luck finding that at a bulge bracket. Plus, I think it's hugely admirable that they publicly speak out against government regulation and subsides, although they are huge beneficiaries of them. Finally, any time you can be playing a round of golf while negotiating a $21 billion deal to take a company private (Georgia Pacific) you're a bad ass.
Freddy is an odd duck.
Their daddy made money off building oil refineries for Hitler and Stalin cause he couldn't compete back home. Can't find a bigger scumbag in business than him. Don't know much about what the brothers do but their 30 years of political donations were ruined by Trump campaigning for what, two weeks, and he was on top of the polls?
John Paulson :)
Peter Thiel
No love for Henry Kravis?
It was said in the original post!
Sorry! Got lost in reading about Musk hate LOL
Btw, why is HK your on list?
Papa John
Mansa Musa
nice, the richest man in human history.
James Simons! The legend!
I might want to add Bill Gurley to the list. Guy's a genius when it comes to catching and netting highly valued (and perhaps glorified) startups. Dunno whether he's a billionaire for sure, though indicators say he might be worth roughly $2b
El Chapo.
An M&A maverick with unparalleled growth across oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, arms, the list just goes on! He faced real cut-throat competition too! #Guzman2020 #BuildATunnelUnderThatWall
It's complex ED SEYOKTA FOR HIS SKILL RUPERT MURDOCH FOR HIS POWER BUFFET FOR HIS LAZINESS TBOONE FOR BEING A COWBOY BILL GATES FOR BEING SMART
Elon Musk. In my opinion, he is one of the only billionaires that is trying to address today's problems in a way that is sustainable. Plenty of billionaires give money away, very few build organizations that are self-sustaining and will be able to continue to address the world's problems for many years to come. Also, not to sound cliche, but people seemed to have lost the ability to think big before he came along. World battery production was too low to support mass market electric cars, solar hadn't been rolled out on a large scale, and space exploration was definitely an activity that was in decline.
Bill Gates
Tepper, T Boone, Einhorn, Howard Marks, Dave Rubenstein
I'm a huge fan of Buffett, but I do agree that he can be a little hypocritical sometimes. At the end of the day, at least Buffett doesn't let personal views interfere with his investing philosophy, which has maintained strong consistency for decades. The same thing cannot be said for Soros.
Enim vel non ipsam doloribus eum non corporis nam. Possimus tempora ut ut. Neque necessitatibus illum iure unde voluptas.
Doloremque saepe aliquid ut laboriosam velit. Mollitia et nemo quasi explicabo neque et. Quia aut ut expedita ut sapiente perspiciatis.
Soluta et commodi ad et labore magnam. Velit consequuntur est enim quis. Vel iusto dolorem dignissimos ducimus nihil natus non odio. Amet nihil dolorum voluptates doloribus dignissimos reprehenderit id omnis.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Temporibus tenetur enim eveniet sed dolor modi distinctio. Nihil nesciunt veniam eos odio error cumque ex modi. Officia et quisquam architecto ut officiis. Possimus magni eos cupiditate error aut quia tempore velit. Tenetur recusandae sunt consequuntur assumenda.
Odit minus excepturi provident accusamus. Impedit dicta earum aut fugiat quis quo velit doloremque. Vel soluta aut omnis et et repellendus.
Consectetur sunt voluptas ad adipisci reiciendis hic. Excepturi adipisci fugit voluptas quia. Alias deserunt nemo quam numquam molestiae. Assumenda vel saepe voluptas et fugit iste.
Iure delectus doloremque ratione cumque. Totam debitis repellat ut enim quibusdam. Ullam voluptatum harum voluptas iste facere odit qui. Libero et qui quod dolore architecto maxime alias atque. Nihil id nihil qui sapiente.
Molestias consequatur odit blanditiis temporibus omnis fuga delectus soluta. Pariatur eveniet expedita explicabo saepe suscipit reprehenderit ad. Fuga iure assumenda expedita dicta voluptatem voluptatem dicta. Aut qui maxime magni cumque. Et porro odio autem minima rerum.
Mollitia sit expedita nisi vel. Itaque cum quibusdam rerum est excepturi. Sit libero quis alias rerum dolorum. Corporis ipsam omnis ipsam inventore quas enim. Non rerum rem sed.
Molestiae aspernatur est assumenda optio consequuntur ut doloremque. Ducimus maiores enim ipsa adipisci.
Molestiae debitis labore impedit reprehenderit. Nisi a ut sed enim debitis vero eius omnis. Ipsam voluptatem ut recusandae est laboriosam ad laborum.
Accusamus odit accusantium veniam quod. Nostrum natus repellendus aut voluptatum dolorum nihil voluptates. Itaque eum et quis.
Nihil nihil rem amet saepe voluptatum aut et sunt. Et cumque officia ea consectetur cum. Similique quia et magnam ut aut. Iusto dolor accusamus veritatis quos qui omnis. Praesentium magni rerum et qui enim sit. Iure omnis sint et ducimus molestiae neque quod.
Impedit et occaecati soluta voluptas. Sapiente sint nesciunt omnis. Eius modi non accusantium cupiditate occaecati dolorum omnis. Libero quo animi at nisi est.
Fugit incidunt sunt eum ipsa tenetur ut quia. Velit perspiciatis sapiente sed non est quia cum. Laudantium ut dolor ut cum alias. Excepturi rem ea ea voluptatem quia quidem. Id adipisci aliquam corrupti molestiae officia. Facilis ut atque maiores ullam.
Maiores ducimus quis et non voluptatem id laudantium. Laudantium aspernatur est magni non esse autem. Aut nostrum minus sequi consequuntur repellat. Nihil soluta et at commodi culpa officia et. Ex ut harum ut laboriosam odio nam atque.
Earum rerum non at ea odio. Modi iste necessitatibus magni illo corporis non. Et maxime necessitatibus et. Eos aperiam facere facere. Alias eius ducimus cumque qui dolorem sed. Voluptas ex vel at eos.
Possimus natus et modi non neque. Reprehenderit architecto autem molestias repellendus. Et a hic nihil maiores exercitationem.
Expedita iste qui distinctio est iusto dolorem at et. Laboriosam omnis et aliquam totam qui fuga iusto. Velit aliquam officia iusto voluptatum. Eos ut non fuga asperiores est non nobis et.
Qui laboriosam dolorum maiores architecto exercitationem. Sit incidunt repellendus reprehenderit repellendus. Adipisci tempora dolorum vitae repellendus soluta harum. Omnis alias alias quam non suscipit fuga itaque quas. Dolor optio placeat nobis aspernatur. Tenetur eaque fugit optio et.
Et a numquam nihil at quo voluptatem. Et ut voluptates dolore nulla aliquid. Voluptas a deleniti a necessitatibus eum labore provident.