13 – Most Successful Entrepreneurs in Modern History

There are number of entrepreneurs, who changes their lives through entrepreneurship and if we list down this list, it will be a too long. Below is the top 13 entrepreneurs who changes their lives from the small ideas and now today, they are well known in all over the world.

13 – Most Influential Entrepreneurs of the Modern History

1. Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was named as the most outstanding entrepreneur in modern history, according to Fortune magazine. They are followed by Bill Gates and Fred Smith. The Fortune Magazine has published an interesting list which highlights the entrepreneurs that would have contributed more to the corporate culture of modern times, and literally “changed the business world as we knew it”.

The magazine highlights the ability of each of these entrepreneurs to turn their dreams into reality. “The great ideas that revolutionize the world are infrequent – and difficult to achieve – but that is the difference between the dreamer and the doer.”

The ranking was elaborated according to aspects such as the social and economic impact generated by the entrepreneur, the vision to change the world, the inspiration generated to the employees and other entrepreneurs, the innovation and the performance of their companies over time. I invite you to review some of the inspiring stories of these admirable entrepreneurs and their companies.

Despite his petty, arrogant and even abusive attitude towards the people who worked for him, Jobs is considered the “entrepreneur par excellence” of our generation.

One of the most impacting aspects of this entrepreneur is his opinion about focus groups and market research, concepts he considers as “limiting innovation”. He was once asked how much research he had done to decide to launch the iPad. His answer was: “No it is not the job of consumers to know what they want is difficult for consumers to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything even remotely like what you offer…”.

Another important skill of Steve Jobs is to “follow your intuition”, a tool that I use to detect emerging technologies and define the direction of Apple. If you want to know more about the philosophy of this entrepreneur, I invite you to review the “Celebrate Steve Jobs speech.” A must-have video for entrepreneurs.

2. Bill Gates

Bill Gates is one of the most extraordinary entrepreneurs of all time, because his revolutionary mind led him to change the world in two opportunities: First, as the most influential geek in the world, he helped to mark the beginning of the computer revolution Staff. He is now addressing the difficult challenges of global health and public education as the world’s most generous philanthropist.

As Microsoft CEO or co-chair of the “Bill & Melinda Gates” foundation, he always focused on hiring smart people and working them into small groups to solve the big problems.

Once asked what his best business decision was, Gates replied, “The decision to get into business with Paul Allen is probably the first on the list on the list, and subsequently hiring a friend, [the Gates’ successor as Microsoft CEO] Steve Ballmer It is important to have someone of your entire confidence, who is fully committed, who shares your vision, but who also has a slightly different set of skills and who acts as a kind of Control over you.”

3. Fred Smith

In third place we have the founder of FedEx, one of the largest logistics companies in the world. Fred Smith developed his entrepreneurial skills through experience during the Vietnam War. From 1967 to 1969 he served for two periods of service, first as a platoon leader of the US Marine Corps. And later as an air controller.

It was a very formative experience. On the one hand, Smith came close to seeing the military’s overwhelming logistical efforts to efficiently mobilize more than half a million soldiers and millions of tons of supplies. Discipline, training and leadership experience would remain with the Navy captain. “When people ask me what principles have guided me since I started FedEx Corp. years ago,” he says, “my response often scares them: They are the leadership principles I learned in the US Marine Corps during My service in Vietnam.” For Fred Smith, one of the keys to entrepreneurial success is relying on top-level managers (company counterparts to noncommissioned officers).

4. Jeff Bezos

Fourth, we have Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneur who revolutionized online shopping. Amazon.com was one of the pioneers in e-commerce and its story is quite inspiring. When Jeff Bezos came up with the idea of ​​what would become Amazon.com, he went for a walk in Central Park with his boss to share his epiphany.

Bezos, in 1992, was senior vice president for “The New York hedge fund DE Shaw.” He described his dream of creating a company that sells books on the Internet. His boss listened carefully before giving him a little tip: “That sounds like a very good idea, but it would be a better idea for someone who did not already have a good job.”

Guided by his vision and passion, Bezos decides to ignore the advice of his boss and in 1994 he starts his project, but it would take him more than 6 months to report his first quarterly profit. Patience and perseverance have been key factors in making Amazon an important and lasting company.

One of the most interesting practices of this entrepreneur is that at the end of each quarter takes some time alone, to get away from the frantic business life. “I just got locked in. There are no distractions in the office, the phones do not ring, it’s just because with a bit of isolation I find myself starting to be more creative, I can spend a lot of time surfing the Internet for two or Three days and just look at what the fans and hackers are doing. What are the types of things that are in the forefront?

If you want to know more about this great businessman I invite you to consult the article “The history of Amazon and Jeff Bezos “.

5. Larry Page & Sergey Brin

The story is divided into 2: The before and after Google. Larry Page & Sergey Brin is the creators of the search engine that revolutionized the entire world. Google is synonymous with the Internet, and for many this search engine is the interface to access a world of unique knowledge and information.

Larry Page remembers the night in 1996, when he was 23 years old and had vividly dreamed of downloading the entire Web on computers. “I took a pen and started writing,” says co-founder and CEO of Google. “I spent half that night scribbling the details and convincing myself that it would work.”

These two young people have created a whole business philosophy, oriented towards innovation and the use of the potential of each member of the organization.

Currently, Google is no longer just a great search engine to become one of the companies that are defining the future of the Internet and the world, thanks to the development of multiple products ranging from web applications and business tools to software and mobile connectivity.

The Google figures are amazing, and these two entrepreneurs are a clear example that to be successful you have to dream of changing the world.

6. Howard Schultz

Starbucks lived a dark time during the recession, but Howard Schultz would return to pick it up. Upon his return, Starbucks’ income and earnings were on the floor, and stock prices had fallen so severely that at one point it was feared that the company might break.

Schultz did his job well as an entrepreneur. He brought financial discipline, efficiency in the bottom line, and a back-to-basics approach for the company. Growth and success had covered a lot of errors and led to new developments and innovations in the company’s products.

As with Steve Jobs at Apple, Howard Schultz’s second coming to Starbucks, saved her from being just another company from the bunch, and spinning an iconic brand. Schultz, 58, showed he could do what most founders say should not be done: challenge the old way of doing things.

7. Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg is soon turning 28, and in his relatively short life has managed to change the world. Facebook, in only 8 years since its foundation, changed our way of socializing, living and even doing business. According to some, this social network produced one of the most important revolutions in history, just as the industrial revolution produced at the time.

“Zuckerberg is an entrepreneurial obsessive genius,” as the magazine defines it, and although many consider his success as a stroke of luck, the truth is that this young entrepreneur has demonstrated great abilities to take the reins of Facebook.

8. John Mackey

In 1978, John Mackey and his then-girlfriend Renee Lawson opened their first vegetarian food store in an old Victorian house in Austin. They had modest ambitions: earn a living, have fun and help some people eat better to lead a healthier life.

Whole Foods stores now have more than 300 supermarkets and more than 56,000 employees (or “team members”). The success of the luxury food retailer has changed the way many of the industry’s top competitors operate. “If you told me 20 years ago that Wal-Mart would be one of the top sellers of organic foods in the world, I would have thought it was ridiculous,” says Mackey, 58.

As it does? Among the fundamental precepts found in the core of Whole Foods are: commitment to sell the highest quality organic and natural products available, satisfy and delight customers, and promote environmental care. Many companies have mission statements, with high principles that are little more than tapestry.

9. Herb Kelleher

Herb Kelleher is the founder of Southwest Airlines, the largest airline in the United States that celebrated its 39th consecutive year of profitability in 2011. How did Kelleher do it? He kept the costs extraordinarily low and focused on providing excellent customer service. Like Sam Walton, he understood that front-line staff can either make or break a business. And Kelleher started a program through profit-sharing plans and stock options that made employees feel and act as owners.

“Years ago,” he once told an interviewer, “Business schools pose a riddle.” They said, “Well, who comes first?” “Your employees, your shareholders, or your customers?” “But it’s not a riddle. The first thing. And if you treat your employees correctly, guess what? They attend well and their customers feel satisfied and come back, and this makes their shareholders happy. Get on with the employees and the rest will come alone. “

10. Mahayana Murthy

It showed that India could compete with the world by taking on the software development work that had long been in the West province. As one of six Infosys co-founders and CEO for 21 years, Murthy helped unleash the outsourcing revolution that has represented billions of dollars in wealth for the Indian economy and transformed his country into the back room of the world.

Your important lesson: An organization can start from scratch but a team of people must be formed to create a system of lasting value. “It’s about sacrifice, hard work, a lot of frustration, being away from your family, hoping that someday you’ll get an adequate performance from that.”

11. Sam Walton

The founder of Wal Mart, the largest retail store in the United States and one of the largest companies in the world. The cornerstone of his company’s success ultimately is to sell products at the lowest possible price, something he was able to do by sidelining middlemen and directly targeting haggling with manufacturers to lower costs. The idea of ​​”buy low, pile high, and sell cheap” became a sustainable business model largely due to Walton.

He shared the data in real time with suppliers to create alliances that allowed Wal-Mart to exert significant pressure on manufacturers to improve their productivity and become more efficient. As Wal-Mart’s influence grew, so did its power to almost dictate the price, volume, delivery, packaging, and quality of many of its suppliers’ products. The result: Walton turned the supplier-retailer relationship to its favor.

You can find more about this entrepreneur in the article “The story of a visionary who set up an empire breaking rules “.

12. Muhammad Yunus

And we continue with Muhammad Yunus, creator of Grameen Bank. In the 1970s, Muhammad Yunus was teaching economic theory to students in a university classroom in Bangladesh. But outside the campus of Chittagong University, everything I saw was crushing hunger and poverty. His desire to do something to help local citizens led to a simple but powerful gesture: Yunus lent 27 dollars to indigent basket weavers in a village next to his university campus.

Could not believe the excitement caused by the small amount of money. For people who live with a few cents a day, only a few dollars can transform their lives – and in many cases it did. The gift was used to support and expand this type of very small businesses, and helped many out of poverty. To Yunus’s surprise, the basket of weavers actually paid the loans. Then he moved from one town to another in search of all kinds of entrepreneurship projects to finance.

It was not until 1983 that Yunus founded the Grameen Bank, the institution that helped develop and disseminate the concept of microcredit. By the time Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, Grameen Bank had outstanding loans to nearly 7 million poor people in 73,000 villages in Bangladesh. More importantly, Yunus, 71, helped create a global movement for microcredit. The Grameen model has moved to more than 100 countries around the world and has helped millions of people.

The bank may have eradicated poverty, but lifted many lives. Not least, the idea of ​​Yunus inspired countless young people to engage in social endeavors around the world.

13. Elon Musk

And we end the listing with Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, Hyperloop and OpenAI. He is currently the CEO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla Motors and President of SolarCity. Musk is known for creating the first viable electric car for production in the modern era (Tesla Roadster), for SolarCity (which supplies renewable electricity to Tesla cars), for designing a private successor to the Space Shuttle (F9 / Dragon) and create PayPal, the world’s largest online payment system.

In an interview she gave to Ashlee Vance, the journalist who wrote the biography, Elon said: “Resting the weekend is a fucking blandish. I’m going to colonize Mars. “

Larry Page, co-founder of Google, said he “would rather donate his money to Elon Musk than to charity.”He is a visionary entrepreneur. Their projects have literally changed the world and do not stop working to build a better future by the hand of technology.