Some rich people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth; rich before they can even talk. Some inherited the riches. Some are self made, like billionaire John Edson. A man who had a dream and put it to work for his own advantage and proceeded to change his whole life.

He got his sea legs at a very young age. He loved the water and loved boats. He built his first boat when he was still just a kid and sailed around Lake Washington. After graduating from high school he attended the University of Washington and got a degree in Bachelor of Arts/ Science. He then got married and had two kids. He spent a lot of time building sailboats in his garage but he knew that he wanted to turn this love into a business. He wanted to build sailboats that even the average guy could afford. So that everyone could live his or her dream of owning a sailboat.

He started the Advanced Outboard Marine, in 1955. The company sold the usual kinds of engines, gear and hardware for boaters. But by 1965 he was ready to move on to bigger and better things. He bought a couple of molds and started to craft bigger boats. Thus became Bayliner Marine Corporation. And the company took off. The revenue for the company doubled every three years. Bayliner sold many different kinds of boats. From luxury boats to simple boats they had everything. To this day Bayliner is known as having high quality boats at a fair price. He had made his dream come true, ten times over. Because of his company he was now one of the richest men in the world.

In 1986, He sold the company to Brunswick for 425 million. But John did not stop there. He invested money into stocks and into real estate.

But one of the things that he is most known for is the money he donated to Arizona State University for student entrepreneurs. The amount was staggering. It was 5.4 million dollars. But he wanted to help young people who had dreams of starting their own business. He wanted to support their dreams as well.  This program backs young entrepreneurs and their ideas. The winners of the funding get funded for a year and then they have to try again. The winners receive a 20.000 dollar award. The program has really helped some college students get started on their careers and brought some really good ideas to the table. He also gave money to places like Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research and the Mayo Clinic.

These days he spends his time, sailing the waters, skiing and flying helicopters. He has also recently unveiled the first 164-foot motor yacht, which he spends a lot of time traveling around on. A leisure life for a man that made him self a billionaire selling leisure craft.

James Dyson is one of those billionaires that should not be. When you think of a self made millionaire, you may think of someone who came up with extraordinary ideas or did great things. But he made his billion dollars by inventing Dyson vacuums. In a way this makes him more of a genius then others. He took a basic idea, added to it and boom, it spread like wildflowers and he was a huge success.

He was born in Norfolk, England in 1947. His education came from Gresham’s school and Royal College of Art. He married in 1968 and the couple had three children. It was his wife who partially supported him while he was developing the vacuum cleaner.

He had several inventions before he invented the Dyson vacuum. One was the seatruck and then the Balbarrow, where he used a ball to replace the wheel on a wheelbarrow. He then invented a trolleyball to launch boats.

In the late 1970s he started toying with the vacuum idea. He was interested in creating a cyclonic separation. He wanted to make a vacuum that would not lose its suction power. He was always frustrated with his own vacuum that constantly become clogged and lost suction. So started the Dyson vacuums. He got his first patent on the idea in 1986.  But he still failed to sell his vacuum to major manufactures so he set up his own manufacturing company. He opened his own research company in 1993.  The product now outsells all of the companies that turned him down. In 2005, Dyson was selling more vacuums in the United States then anyone.

He was not done. He continued to come up with new ways to make an even better vacuum, with a greater suction power. He also was able to get rid of the bag completely in his vacuums. When other companies like Hoover, came out with bagless vacuums, he sued and received 5 million dollars. In 2005, he added the wheel ball idea to his vacuum, to make it easier to push around. He also invented Dyson hand held vacs and hand dryers.

He moved his company from England to Malaysia. He then was able to employ more people from the UK then before he moved.

He is involved in so much more then just vacuums; he also is responsible for coming up with the All-in-one kitchen appliance kit. This is designed to make a space saver kitchen, with stack-able appliances. He is also now working on a lightweight electric motor that would produce an enough electricity to power a car for hundreds of miles.

So just because he may not seem to be the usual self made millionaire, we now know that he is more then just some guy who invented a cyclone vacuum. He is a man who not only has a lot of great ideas but he also has the determination to bring these ideas alive and make them work. This is why he is worth over a billion dollars.

Steve Case came into this world in 1958. He had an entrepreneurial spirit, even when he was a very young boy. By doing things like running limejuice stand with his brother. In his teen years, he and his brother formed a company called, “ Case Enterprises.” This was a small company that sold miscellaneous items. He also generated small companies like giving people rides back and forth to the airport. He also made up baskets of fruit and sold them.

He attended Williams College and received an undergraduate degree in political sciences. He started his career with Procter Gamble. Here his job was to develop different kinds of beauty and health products. In the early 1980′s he went to Pizza Hut. Here he developed new pizzas for the chain. Before people even started having a lot of personal computers in their homes he was already going online. He started working for Control Video, an online service for Atari users. When the company went bankrupt, he was on the outlook for a new venture.

Soon after American Online (AOL) was born. It was launched in 1989. It offered games, real time chat and e-mail. In 1992 he took the firm public was named CEO and president .By 1994 subscribers to AOL was over one million. By 1995 he took the firm internationally. To Germany, subscribers soon grew to over 3 million. Soon he was also in United Kingdom, Canada and France. Today there are over thirty million subscribers to AOL.

AOL forged a deal with the Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune to develop an online information service consisting mainly of local news for residents of Chicago and surrounding areas. Chicago Tribune paid AOL five million dollars for a minority stake in AOL.

It is said that the success of AOL all rests on him. It was his diligence and values that he put into AOL that has took it to the extremes that it has. He could have sold the company early on and made millions but that was not what he saw for the future of AOL. He was relentless in the fact of wanting to keep rebuilding the company to be the best that it could be. Even though he is known to have a healthy ego, he has never let that affect his business choices. He hires only the best creative people that are right for the company.

After the company merged with Time Warner, the market value of the company fell over 50 million dollars; this was surprising to him and other analysts. He took a lot of heat over this downfall. By the time he stepped down nearly 200 million worth of shareholder value in AOL Time Warner had been lost. Some people said that they should bring him back on board to bring the company back to profits. But he refused. After leaving the company he spent most of his time concerned with the philanthropic efforts of the Case Foundation.

Sometimes it is surprising as what works, what sells. It’s amazing what people will make millions of dollars off of. In the case of Marco Giannini, it may be shocking, but it worked. He made his millions off of dog treats. He is the founder and president of Dogswell. They produce dog treats and come up with new products all the time.

Back when he was growing up, he had a dog; his dog had to take medicine for hip dysphasia. He was always trying to figure out new ways to get his dog to take his medicine without upsetting his stomach or just refusing to take it. This is where the idea of Dogswell was born.

He attended the University of California and got a MBA in entrepreneurial studies. And his company was born. He started out by selling his dog treats out of his car. He then started selling them in little Baggies that storeowners could hang on hooks. Before long, storeowners could not keep enough of the treats in their stores and Dogswell was born.

Since starting in the United States, it has now been put into over 7000 pet stores and natural food stores. Dogswell also works with 45 pet distributors. One thing different about his company is that most people start out with dog food and then ass dog treats. His company is the exact opposite. He started out with only treats and just recently in 2008, added a wet dog food line. Eventually Marco wants to grow his line until he is producing 80% dog food and 20% treats.

All of Dogswell Treats and dog food are all natural and excellent for the health of your pet. In a country that has became very health conscious, these foods that are good for your pet has went over well.

He says that some of the reasons that his company has worked so well is it is a simple product line. In addition, they express the point of how good the ingredients are and how good they are for your dog. Another thing that has been very successful for him is the fact that he gives away over 100,000 samples a month. This gets the product out there and lets people find out for themselves how great the food is for their pets. Another must is that he has great employees and that the employees have great communication with the pet owner and are able to tell them all about how great the treats and dog food are good for their pets. He received the Best Business Plan Award and the Marcia Israel Curley Award for excellence in entrepreneurship. This shows that at the young age of 32, he has been very successful, he not only has built his company up to a very respected company he has also gained the respect of many while doing so.

He is still very involved in the everyday business of Dogswell. He can often be seen visiting the many stores that they serve.

There are a lot of rich people in the world. Some are rags to riches stories, some work hard for every cent they have made. And some like Ingeburg Herz inherited the money. In her case she inherited all of the money from her husband upon his death.

Her husband was coffee magnate Max Herz. Max  was born in 1905. He was a raw coffee merchant as a young man. He also as a young man, put his fathers coffee business back on its feet after it almost failed. But he really started making his money when he started “Frisch-Röst-Kaffee Carl Tchilling GmbH” in 1949 (French Roasted Coffee). By 1951, he was the company’s only shareholder. The company was a huge success and they could not keep the coffee on the shelves. He married his wife and had five children. By 1965 they had 427 shops and 434 depots. All during this time, Ingeburg is the person that Max turned to for advise and his confidante. So only naturally when he died he left all of his holdings to her and the five children.

The five children were Gunther, Daniela, Michael, Wolfgang and Joachim. Joachim died in 2008 in a boating accident and his shares went to charities. Gunther and Daniela, after a big family feud sold their shares and got completely out of the business. Michael and Wolfgang are still major shareholders and still have a great deal with running the company. Ingeburg still controls 15% of her husband holdings.

She still has major holdings in all of their companies and investments. One of these are Beiersdorf AG, who announced that their business is getting more profitable every year .At Tchibo GmbH, they announced that even with cutbacks on surplus, they are still above plan. Another one is Libri GmbH, is Germany’s leading book wholesaler. Books on Demand GmbH are the country’s No.1 producer of a very small print run. And the last but not least is Blume 2000 Blumen-Handelssge-sellschaft mbH, which is Germany’s largest chain of flowers and plant sellers. There is already over two hundred shops. All of these businesses are doing quite well and still bringing in major profits.

She may have inherited the billions from her husband. But she was right beside his side all of his life. She worked ten-hour days right along her husband and the other workers. She was there for him in all ways that a wife should be and so much more. He came to her for advice, turned to her in confidence and rightfully left his billions to her, and to his children. It is sad that the family broke up over a family feud but at least two of the brothers are there with their mother carrying on their fathers dream.

There are many entrepreneurs in the world. Many of them have already made millions in their young lives.  These are millionaires that were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth. These are people that worked hard to pursue their dreams and were very successful at what they did.  These are millionaires who have earned every cent that they have. Anne Pawsat-Dressler is one of them. She is the president and founder of the Hawaii Hideaways Inc.

She started out by attending Yale University. She graduated with very high honors. She received a bachelor’s degree in behavioral neuroscience. She then proceeded to head computer operations at  Morgan Stanley Dean Witter’s. Even with staying busy with work and side projects she still managed to travel all over the world. While traveling through places like Europe and Central America , she obtained an insight on travelers and what they prefer and what they are looking for in accommodations.

With this knowledge she headed to Hawaii. There it took her and her hand picked associates only a couple years to get together a company to line up homes for clients and be able to meet their special needs and wants. Her success comes from her ability to be able to match the perfect place to the perfect client. She started with a few clients that she had previously but it did not take her long to prove herself. People were hesitant at first to allow a young woman to handle their expensive houses, but they soon realized that she had what it took and she gained a huge reputation as the only agent in Hawaii that came hugely recommended. She soon built up an extensive inventory of  rental homes across Hawaii and became known as the person to go for to find a luxurious home.

The staff at Hawaii Hideaway is made up of only five employees. They not only provide luxurious homes but also added other extras that the client may be interested in.. They try and succeed in pleasing their customers no matter how bizarre the request is. This customer service is what awarded Anne the Condé Nast’s Villa Rental Specialist award in 2006 and 2007.  also in 2008, she was awarded the Conde Nast “World’s Top 50 Villa Rental Agents”. This award helped boost Hawaii Hideaways reputation and that is all that Anne Pawsat- Dressler is concerned about.

She says her success comes from always being available, always taking her calls and continuously being accountable for what she does. Some advice that she gives out is to always go after your dream and never give up. She also pushes for people to use the Web as a way of getting their business out there. Trust in the Web and it will work for you. She did and now she is one of the youngest millionaires in the United States.

The life of Andrew Carnegie is definitely a rag to riches story. He was born in Scotland in 1835. But Scotland held only poverty for him and his family. His father was a weaver, and that would be the career that he was expected to follow, but when the steam powered looms came to Scotland and soon a lot of weavers were out of jobs. Though this would be a tough time for him and his family that is when he got his determination for riches when he grew up. But unlike a lot of other people his want for riches was not for his own greed. He wanted riches so he could help others and be able to offer jobs to people like his father, so no one would have to beg for a job again.

The Carnegie family moved to the United States in 1948. They settled in Pennsylvania. Young Andy wasted no time, he started working at age 13, always looking for better opportunities and more responsibilities. One thing he did was to memorize all the important names and addresses of folks that he delivered to, knowing one day that these names may be important to him.

Not only was he a hard, determined worker, he also had a great thirst for knowledge. He often spent his free time in the local library, learning about anything he could get his hands on. He also enjoyed watching plays by Shakespeare and other great playwrights.

Eventually Thomas A. Scott, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, hired him. He served as Scott’s personal secretary and it began his career for the railroads. He worked hard and his efforts paid off because he moved up the ladders until he became the superintendent of the Pittsburgh division. Before long he was making 50,000 dollars a year. But he knew that his thoughts were focused on making more and more money and this worried him some, he wanted to stop his business career at age 35 to read and receive teachings in order to gain more knowledge but this did not happen. He continued to make more and more money over the next thirty years.

At age 35 he invested heavily in the steel refining business. He built a new steel plant near Pittsburgh. By 1900 Carnegie’s Steel was producing more metal then anywhere in the world. The plant was eventually sold to J.P. Morgan for 480 million dollars. This made him the richest man in the world.

He never forgot his dream as a child and he used all of his riches to help others. He donated money to libraries and to colleges. This way instead of just handing people money he could help people to help themselves, for the improvement of mankind.  By the time he died he had gave away 350 million dollars. And still managed to die a rich man.

P.T. Barnum was born way back in the early 1800s. He started out by running a small business. It was a weekly paper. It was called the Herald of Freedom. He ran the paper for about five years. He then moved to New York City where he began his career in the entertainment business. His first troupe was a variety group, which he called “Barnum’s Grand Scientific and Musical Theater”.  Then he soon bought the Scudders American Museum. In this museum, he started doing shows to promote hoaxes that would draw people in. these were things like “General Tom Thumb”. Before to long he was drawing in over 400,000 people a year.

But do to some bad investments that he made, he was in litigation for about four years. He quickly recovered. It did not take him long to get completely out of debt and built himself a mansion. He then added the first aquarium in America to his museum. He also added more to the wax department. Yes, he was most known for his circus but he did so much more. His museum housed many famous exhibits, like Chang and Eng, the two famous Siamese twins, the giantess Anna Swan and many more. Over the years he added more and more different “freak “ exhibits but when a fire destroyed the museum in 1865, he retired from the museum business completely.

Over the years he built four mansions. The Iranistan, Lindencroft, Waldemere and Marina. All four of these mansions were splendid and well known. He also wrote several books. These books were The Life of P.T. Barnum (1854) The Humbugs of the World (1865) Struggles and Triumphs (1869), and The Art of Money Getting. (1880). These books sold amazingly well and at the time there were more books printed of his books then any other book except for the New Testament.

What a lot of people may not know about him that he was elected into office in Connecticut and served two terms. He tried two times to run for The United States Congress but did not succeed. He was also mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut for a year. He was responsible for enforcing prostitution and liquor laws.

When he was 61, he started the circus. Which soon was known as the “Greatest Show on Earth” he was not the first circus, but he was the first person to move a circus by train, and the first to buy his own train. His circus soon joined with James Bailey’s circus and became known as a three-ring extravaganza. He then bought the largest elephant ever to be had in captivity, Jumbo. This upset the English a great deal, but this only made Jumbo and the circus a greater hit. It took off like wildflowers and was soon popular all over the United States. And still is today, over a hundred years after his death.

There are quite a few more billionaires in the world than you may think.  Every country seems to have their fair share.  Even though this is the case the economy has been rough on everyone, including the billionaires.  They lost money as well but perhaps they did not feel it as much.  India boosts a very successful entrepreneur who drudged up the determination and passion to take a business and turn it into a billion dollar operation.  His name is Uday Kotak.  He is 50 years of age and he is a self-made billionaire.  He made his money in one of the most risky businesses of all, investment banking.  He became the pride of Mumbai and turned finance in India upside down and inside out.  This young man who grew up in India living on hopes and dreams became a magnate in banking and achieved success beyond his wildest dreams.

He attended Bombay University where he obtained his four-year degree.  He also received a Masters in Business Administration from UOB Science.  After college he joined with a tycoon who made his fortune in tractors and created a finance company.  Over the years the company would adapt to offering new financial options such as bill discounting and auto finance.  In 1991 his company took control of FICOM a major marketing network in retail.  The very next year they jumped into Funds Syndication.  By 1995 the company began to divide into divisions.  The Banking division for investments became Kotak Mahindra Capitol Company.  Many more separate branches were to follow.

In 1998 he begins the mutual market fund in an asset management company.  A few years later and they were in the life insurance business as well.  The same year they launched their first brokerage site online.  In 2003 the finance company changes over to a commercial bank.  He holds the honor of being the first company in India to accomplish this.  The next year he creates the India Growth Fund.  This is a private equity program.  In 2005 a real estate fund is incorporated.  He continues to maintain a wide range of financial options for those who desire it.

Along the way he was able to get married and have a few children.  His dedication and persistence has won him admiration throughout the Indian financial society.  His financial empire has won numerous awards over recent years.  Some of the awards were for being one of the best employers in India.  Others were for being the best local bank.  He took a small finance company and turned it into a financial conglomerate.  That is why he is considered one of the most successful entrepreneurs of his generation.  He was part of the financial change in India and he paved the way for many of the alterations.  His passion for finance was equaled for the last quarter of a century in his country.  He introduced the world of investments and financial options to India in an entirely new way.  In the end he is the true definition of success.

There is more than one way to become a millionaire and Alvin Ailey discovered it all on his own.  They say that when he came into this world back on that cold January day in 1931 that he came out ready to dance. Now although that may very well be an old folks tale one thing is for sure, dancing was to become his life.  The pride of Rogers, Texas was witness to the world of dance at an early age when he was privy to catch the famous dance company featuring Katherine Dunham.  Of course when the youngster first began attending classes offered by Lester Horton he couldn’t have had a clue that he was taking the first dance steps towards a million dollar future.

As he grew he began to put together a dancing style that was all his own.  He was able to do this by reaching deep into his past and pulling out the visions of his youth when Sunday night spirituals filled the Texas air.  That music just made you want to move.  He also found a way to work his love for the blues, the music from the soul that had inspired many before him.  The blues had a way of taking a body to places it had never been.  All of this mixed with his gospel upbringing allowed him to produce a dancing style that set him apart from many dancers of his era. This combination of inspired musical styles came together to form ‘revelations’ and set the motion for his dance work that has been hailed and highly praised for decades.

During his lifetime he managed to put together 79 of his own dance ballets.  He always made it clear that he did not create his own dance company to display his dance only.  One of the biggest days in his life came in 1958 in the month of March.  He and his ensemble cast of African-American dance subjects put on a show that would forever shed a different light on the artistry known as American dance.  His dance company took off and he never had to look back, except for inspiration.

For decades his dance company grew and with it so did his reputation as a goodwill ambassador.  His fortune grew right with it.  The dance company that bore his name toured all over the world.  In 1969 he opened a dance school as well.  On the first day of December in 1989 he was taken from the dance world way too soon at the age of 58.  However, his legend lived on.  His long time associate Judith Jamison took over the helm.  His dance company has went on to entertain close to 22 million dance lovers in states all over the nation as well as 71 countries around the globe.  His dance company continues to present the best in modern dance while savoring the excellence of the past.