Madame CJ Walker

Hello my dear readers, i am going to share some information about my favorite interpreneur Madame CJ Walker, she born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867 in Delta Louisiana to former slaves, Owen and Minerva Breedlove. Her parents died during a yellow fever epidemic when she was 7 years old. When she was ten years old, her older sister and her moved to Vicksburg to obtain work. At 14, she married Moses McWilliams to escape her sister’s abusive husband. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Lelia, and two years later her husband died. She moved in with her brothers in St. Louis, Missouri and worked doing laundry for a dollar a day. While living in St. Louis, she joined St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopal Church; this helped develop her speaking, interpersonal and organizational skills. She remarried in 1894 to John Davis, this marriage lasting until about 1903.

In the early 1900s, Sarah claims to have had a dream that inspired her to start her own business. She would tell reporters, her dream was of a large black man that appeared to her and gave her a formula for curing baldness. The early 1900s lacked indoor plumbing and consequently, many people only washed their hair once or twice a month. This caused dandruff and other scalp afflictions that soon caused problems such as baldness.

Sarah, being inspired by this dream set out to become what the Guinness Book of World Records would later call, the first woman to ever become a millionaire. In 1905, Sarah moved to Denver, Colorado, to work as a sales agent for Annie Malone, another black woman entrepreneur who manufactured hair care products. Sarah, mindful of her dreams, took a sample of Malone’s formula to a Denver pharmacist who helped her formulate her own “Wonderful Hair Grower” products.Soon afterward she met and married Charles Joseph Walker, a St. Louis newspaperman. In 1906 she changed her name to “Madame C. J. Walker”, and started the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company to sell hair care products for Black women. Critics claimed she was trying to match the black woman’s hair to the white styles, to which she retorted, “My products are simply to help black women take proper care of their hair and promote growth.”

         Madame Walker and her husband began touring the country to promote her new products, while daughter, Lelia, maintained the mail-order business in Denver. In 1908 to they opened a beauty training school, the ‘Lelia College for Walker Hair Culturists’, in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. In 1910, they moved their operation to Indianapolis, the country’s largest manufacturing base at the time, so they could have access to the eight major railway systems located there, for shipping their products all over the USA.

         Later in 1910, her husband and her divorced, and Madame Walker turned over operations to some trusted key principles, while still maintaining ownership. By 1917, Madame C. J. Walker’s hair care and cosmetic company became the largest business in the United States owned by a black person.

        A notable quote by Madame Walker:  “I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there, I was promoted to the washtub. From there, I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground.”And probably the most inspirational “There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard.” She became active as a philanthropist and in the NAACP, helping to make lynching a crime after the St Louis riots of 1917. Her company thrived providing jobs to many black women as sales people. Her inspiration and generosity was resounded through organizations like the YMCA, YWCA, orphanages, churches, and the NAACP. On Sunday, May 25, 1919, Madam Walker died at Villa Lewaro, her mansion in New York, from kidney failure, and the result of hypertension. Her daughter Lelia succeeded her as president of the C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company.

Lin Rong San

There are a lot of people in this world who have had the good fortune to become millionaires or billionaires. These people have made their money in a lot of different ways. They may have been just born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They have made some good investments. Or maybe it was that great idea that they had for a product. Some have started businesses that took off like lightening and made them rich. And some have none several things to earn their riches. Lin Rong San is one of these people. This is probably the reason why he was named the seventh richest person in Taiwan.

So what makes him and other millionaires and billionaires different from other people? Why do they get rich and others do not. Because entrepreneurs like this one, have something different then the average person does. They have determination. They have persistence. And they have faith in their dreams. They have the ability to go out there and make their dreams a reality. They do what it takes to get things done. Entrepreneurs like this billionaire from Taiwan do not listen to the words, not possible, or your crazy. They believe in themselves and take that belief and run with it. Exactly what this entrepreneur from Taiwan did.

He came into this world in 1939. His family was living in Taipei.  He was a child destined to do great things. He began by producing vegetables and selling rice to make a living. But it did not take him long to move on to better and bigger things. He started generating property before he was thirty. He founded the Union Bank of Taiwan. He still has holdings in the bank today.  He also published the Liberty Times and the Taipei Times. Both of these are newspapers that focus on the Pan-Blue coalition. This is a political alliance of the Republic of China. These were all very successful business ventures. He was soon known and recognized all over Taiwan and even into the United States.He eventually found himself involved in the political side of life. He eventually became a legislator for Taiwan. He was an advisor for two past presidents. He also gave money to different foundations and actually started the Lin Rong-San Foundation of Culture and Social Welfare.

He is married and has 4 children. But what is most known about him is, today, at the age of 70, he is worth over one billion dollars. Definitely a pretty good chunk of money for a man that started out working selling vegetables and rice. Obviously he made a great choice when he decided to go into real estate. Because if he had not went for his dreams, where would he be today. Maybe still selling vegetables, just getting by. Would he still have been happy, maybe, but he would not have filled his destiny or lived his dreams. 

Uday Kotak

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.

Joyce Hall

                            

           Joyce Clyde Hall was born on August 29th 1891 in David City in Nebraska. He disliked the name Joyce so usually adapted the name “J.C”. His father was a minister and from the age of 8 started working small sales jobs to help out with the family income. In 1905 along with his brothers, he decided to spend $150 on postcards which he sold to the salespeople that sold books to the shop in which he was working. In 1908 he set up the Norfolk Post Card Company in Norfolk, Nebraska, and he later went on to found The Hallmark Card Company which led to him becoming a millionaire.

          When he was 18 years old, with a couple of shoe boxes full of postcards, Hall moved to Kansas City in Missouri in 1910, the time at which the Hallmark Cards Company was founded. By 1913 along with his brothers he was running a store that sold postcards and greetings cards. In 1915 the store got burned, but later this store went on to become the current Halls department store in Kansas City.

        After the store got burned down Hall went on to buy an engraving business. After this he started to print his own cards that were marketed with the brand name of Hallmark. His business was better than it had ever been and was successful even during the period of the Great Depression, a time of serious economic hardship. His business was going so well that not one worker had to be laid off during this period. It was in 1928 in which the company began using the name Hallmark. They named their company after the hallmark symbol that goldsmiths used in London in the past. They began printing this name on the back of all the cards they produced. In 1931 William E. Coutts Company Ltd, a major Canadian card making company became affiliated with Hall Brothers.

In 1954 the name Halls Brothers was changed to Hallmark, and in 1958 the William E Coutts Company Ltd was taken over by Hallmark, and until the 1990s the Canadian section of the Hallmarks Company was called “Coutts Hallmark”.The Hallmark cards company is currently still based in Kansas City, and is the biggest manufacturer of greetings cards in America. In fact it is estimated that around 50% of all greetings card that are sent in America are manufactured by the Hallmark Company. Hall retired in 1966 and died in Kansas City in 1982.

Boris Berezovsky

Boris Abramovich Berezovsky was born on 23rd Janurary 1946 is a mathematician and is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is most well known for serving under the administration of Boris Yeltsin during the 1990s as a politician and a media tycoon. He was a member of Yeltsin’s inner circle towards the end of his presidency when he served as the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council and he was good friends with Yeltsin’s daughter Tatyana Dyachenko. In 1989 he worked for AutoVAZ. In 1992 LogoVAZ was set up which was a joint-stock company with Berezovsky’s AutoVAZ. 

       Over four years it grew to become one of the biggest private enterprises in Russia and in 1994 he was made Chairman of the Board of Directors when LogoVaz was made into a holding company.He became a billionaire during the period of Russia’s rush to capitalism where he seized state assets for low costs. He became the owner of the Sibneft oil company and was the majority shareholder in ORT, Russia’s foremost television channel which he used to put across propaganda before the presidential election of 1996. Instead of putting in money into the businesses he took over such as Sibneft, ORT, Avtovaz, the Omsk Oil Refinery, Brtsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novokuznetsk and the National Sports Fund, he used all of their profits. He used some of this money to fund Vladimir Putin’s party. Putin took over ORT to stop the political ambitions of people like Berezovsky who were highly disliked by the public in Russia.

       When Putin became president Berezovsky fled Russia as he was blamed for making $13 million US dollars through fraudulent means from a regional government. He now has political asylum in the UK and has since said he wants to topple Putin “by force”. He has now been linked with Alexander Litvinenko, Akhmed Zakayev and Alex Goldfarb who are known as “the London Circle” of Russian exiles. He founded the International Foundation for Civil Liberties in November 2000.

                  

In 2007 a court in Moscow found him guilty of committing massive embezzlement. He has been sentenced to six years jail time and has been instructed to repay $9 million. In addition he has been blamed for the murders of Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya who were critics of Putin’s regime. In 1994 he survived an attempt on his life and he claims there have been numerous other attempts on his life by Russia agents.

William S Paley

William Samuel Paley was born on 28th September 1901 and became a billionaire through his leadership as the chief executive for Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). He helped what originally started off as a small radio network turn into the one of the leading radio and television network operations in America. Paley moved to Philadelphia in the early 1920s due to his father’s success at managing a cigar company which led to him becoming a millionaire. He went to the University of Pennsylvania and achieved a degree afterwards expecting to go into his father’s cigar business. However in 1927 his father along with some business partners bought a Philadelphia radio network that was struggling called the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. This network had 16 stations and it was the intention of Paley’s father to use the network for advertising. The network helped to double the sale of cigars made by his company and by 1928 the family had majority ownership of the network. Over the next ten years the network grew to have 114 affiliate stations.

During the Second World War Paley became friends with Edward R. Murrow who was the head of CBS’s European News. This led to him realising the potential amount of money that could be made through radio. He realised good programming was essential to selling advertising time and therefore create profit for the network. He therefore changed broadcasting business model through successful programming and by realising that advertisers were the most important factor in broadcasting. He gave network programming to affiliate stations at the best prices which allowed for the widest available distribution for programming and advertising. This consequently allowed him to charge more for the advertising time. His ability to use broadcasting to its best ability led to CBS growing into a leading world communication empire.

                       

      In 1946 CBS expanded into television and was highly successful. They also owned the Columbia Record Company and CBS Laboratories who invented vinyl discs and colour television. Over the years Paley sold off some of his stock in CBS to help expand his other interests so that when he died on 26th October 1990 he only owned nine percent of the outstanding stock. Five years later the company was bought by Westinghouse Electric Corporation and in 1999 by Viacom. Presently CBS is owned by the CBS Corporation and National Amusements is the majority owner of the company.

Pierre Omidyar

Pierre was born in Paris, France to Iranian parents. At the age of six his family left Paris and moved to the United States. Throughout high school Pierre developed an interest in computers and in 1988 graduated from Tuft’s University with a degree in Computer Science.After graduation he worked for Claris a subsidiary of Apple Computer. His expertise during this time was in software development. He, along with three friends, co-founded Ink Development Corp. which later was renamed e-shop. In 1996 the company was sold to Microsoft, but he remained fascinated by the technical challenges of online commerce.

One night, during dinner with his fiancée, she mentioned that she enjoyed collecting and trading Pez candy dispensers. Her sadness was in the lack of availability for trade in their area. This inspired Pierre to create a simple prototype on his personal web page launching an online service called auction web. The business flourished as people began to register trade goods of an unimaginable variety. The site was kept running through a small fee maintained from a sale. As expansion continued Pierre added a feedback form allowing members the ability to rate one another in 1997 the name was changed to eBay and aggressive advertising began. The company was not only a service of convenience; Pierre showed its members an incredible level of respect. His attitude shone through during a time of service interruption in which Pierre directed company managers to personally call the top 10,000 users apologizing for the inconvenience.

His unique charisma carried over to the development of the Omidyar Network. Originally the site was created as a tool to share news, information, discuss different ideas and viewpoints, collaborate on documents, post announcements, synchronize business calendars, and, in general, keep informed. At birth membership was limited but this soon changed as Pierre recognized the usefulness of its service. The rules to the site are simple; membership’s open to those who believe in making the world a better place. It’s insisted that each member show respect. Lastly, and most importantly, it is believed that everyone has something to contribute.

It can’t be denied that Pierre’s high quality ethics have greatly contributed to his success. According to Forbes Magazine, Pierre is listed as number 43 in financial worth. There is no doubt that if you factored this accompanied with moral value Pierre Omidyar would be listed within the top ten.

James Dyson

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.

Maria Peevey

Do you ever wonder why some people struggle all their lives to just keep their head above waters and some people make millions of dollars,  Maybe they were raised in the same town, same state, same schools but one is destined to be poor all their lives while the other goes on to make millions. But there could be a very good reason for this. Everyone has dreams, but some people have the determination to carry out those dreams and make them work. Maria Peevey is one of these people. She grew up knowing what she wanted out of life and she went for it. Her determination paid off and now she is one of the world’s millionaires.She was born in the Bay area. She knew from a very young age that she wanted to own her own company. She was not sure yet what she wanted it to be, but she knew she would follow her dreams. She considered herself a little strange as a young girl. While other kids wanted dolls for Christmas, she asked for office supplies.

        After college she worked in a marketing firm. She had a bad breakup with her boyfriend. A friend sent her weekly uplifting cards. This was where she got the idea for the greeting card business. She started the business in 1999. They were greeting cards with cute sayings, sayings that had meaningful quotes. Usually things that woman say to another woman. The business was called Simply She’s. It took off very well, and the cards were eventually sold in about 23 countries and in 8000 boutiques.

But she did not stop there. She had the awareness as a pet owner herself, to see that people were pampering their pets more and more. Especially with people whom kids had all left home and they began to see their pets as substitutes. She came up with the idea to produce pet wear. Fancy collars and shirts and so on for dogs. But she wanted the products to be something that all people could afford. She went straight to one of the world’s biggest chains, Wal-mart’s. They were sold on her idea and soon cleared off shelves for her line. Over 3000 Wal-mart stores started carrying Simply She’s products and in the first week alone the company took in over 2 million dollars. Now the company carries over 700 pet apparel and accessories. The business has also sold their products on QVC.Along the way to her climb of success, she has also published books, note cards and journals. She has also started a kids line called Simply Wee. She also has a Simply Cat line. She is also pushing to start a green pet food and treats line. So her road to success is far from over. The only question is what is next, She is no doubt one of the world’s millionaires, all because she had a dream and never wavered from it.

John Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller was one of the richest Americans in history. He was born on July 8, 1939 in Richford, New York. Although he was born in Richford, Rockefeller was raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He went to Cleveland Central High School. Even at a young age Rockefeller was doing business. He would buy candies and sell them for a profit. At age 16 Rockefeller became a clerk in a commission house. With his mind set on owning his own business Rockefeller saved all his money and in 1850 went into business with an Englishman named Maurice Clark. The company was Clark & Rockefeller Produce and Commission. It sold implements, fertilizers and household goods. Although it was fairly successful it did not bring him to his goal. In 1862 after hearing that Samuel Andrews developed a cheaper and more efficient way of refining crude petroleum, Rockefeller sold his business. He invested it in a new company that he set up with Andrews. The company was called Standard Oil. Rockefeller encountered a problem with transporting his oil. 

The prices were too high. To send oil to Cleveland it cost forty cents a barrel. Sending it to New York cost two dollars a barrel. Rockefeller made a deal with the railroad company and the prices dropped to thirty-five cents to Cleveland and a dollar and thirty cents to New York. As a result his oil prices were reduced and sales increased dramatically.Within only a year four out of thirty of his competitors were out of business. Eventually oil refining in Cleveland was monopolized by Standard Oil. For a million dollars Rockefeller bought out Andrews and worked on his goal of controlling the oil industry throughout the United States. By 1890 Rockefeller’s company became an immense monopoly. He could set his own terms of business and even prices because there were no competitors. Other companies had no choice either they got swallowed up by the Standard Oil company or they got crushed. In 1896 Rockefeller was worth about $200 million.In 1911 the Supreme Court dissolved the Standard Oil monopoly because of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Rockefeller soon became one of the most hated men in America. Being a devout Baptist Rockefeller started to give his money away. He even set up a project to help mankind called the Rockefeller Foundation. Rockefeller gave over $500 million in aide to medical research, schools, and Baptist churches. Rockefeller died on May 23, 1937. By then he was a popular national figure.