This is a group of legendary people.They are low-key, calm and round, like gold coins with different shapes but similar functions.They are all incredibly rich, and in the eyes of most people, those wealth can only be consumed in the way of imagination. They are the richest person in a country, and there is only one person in the whole country.In this society where business dominates everything, this is not just a concept of monetary figures, but more symbolic and allegorical.Therefore, the interpretation of this ethnic group goes beyond the scope of business strategy, and has the meaning of examining life.In the past period of time, my assistant and I conducted a "story sorting" of the richest people in 30 countries and regions based on the latest 2005 global rich list released by "Forbes", and some impressions we got And the conclusion may be a little bit of a surprise to many people when they read it.

American writer Ehrenburg commented on the Russian poetess Tsvetayeva: "She made every effort to keep herself unknown." This sentence seems to be more appropriate for many richest people. Sometimes, the low-key of the richest people is even unbelievable. In 2004, the total assets of the Albrecht brothers in Germany reached 41.1 billion U.S. dollars, of which the elder brother Karl became the third richest person in the world with 23 billion U.S. dollars.It turns out that the last interview with the brothers was in 1953, and that the most recent newspaper that published their photos was published 16 years ago.The only thing everyone knows is that their elder brother Carl is now 83 years old, and his younger brother Theo is also 81 years old.

Spain's richest man, Amancio Ortega Gona, is another old European man who puts himself in a cover.The son of a railway worker and a housewife has now become the second richest man in the world's fashion industry. The fashion chain stores he runs are located on the most prosperous urban avenues in the world, but they are listed in almost all Spanish newspapers. There is not a single piece of news about him, and he never appears in the media.Someone managed to find two photos of him, one of which was a report on the listing of a company under him in 2003, and the other was a picture of the report after the company's stock listing. What's more interesting is that this The chubby Ortega was wearing the same dress in the two photos.

In Japan in Asia, Masayoshi Son, the president of Softbank who once surpassed Bill Gates with a stock market value of US$77.5 billion and was the "world's richest man" for a day, is no longer in glory. His assets have shrunk by 98%, and are currently only US$1.5 billion. Instead, he was replaced by a 55-year-old tea and wine merchant who took over the job at the age of 55 and never appeared in the media—the president of Suntory Group, Nobutada Saji.Even in Japan, he is hardly a public figure. Low-keyness seems to be a common trait among the vast majority of the current richest men, especially in continental Europe.Completely different from what many people imagine, they often do not settle in metropolises like London and Paris, but live in some unknown small villages and cities all year round.They almost never attend star-studded parties or carnivals, although many of these extravagant events are organized or paid for by their companies.They also seldom appear in business events such as the "Fortune Forum" and the annual meeting of business leaders in Davos. The world seldom hears them preach their wealth wisdom, or write books for themselves-"without words" It seems to be an unwritten "tradition of the richest man". In the early 20th century, Rockefeller, the richest man in the United States, strictly forbade his descendants to write a biography for him in his will.They just accumulate their wealth figures day by day in obscurity, and let the glittering money block any curious eyes on them.

Along with understatement comes simplicity and frugality in life.Kamprad, the richest man in Sweden who was once thought to be wealthier than Bill Gates, is the founder of IKEA.The son of a farmer and a second-generation German immigrant, he spent his life building a formidable furniture chain empire.This is how he was described: Kamprad never lacked a flashy look. He didn't have fashionable clothes, expensive watches or luxury cars, and he always traveled economy class when he traveled.He would be very annoyed if the company booked him something expensive.For working lunches at IKEA headquarters, he would pay with bills from his wallet.He likes to drink, but it doesn't have to be expensive, a cheap bottle of whiskey makes him more enjoyable.He would drive around in an old Volvo, or take a bus to the vegetable market to find cheap vegetables...

Among today's richest people, figures like Aristotle Onassis, the world's richest man in the 1960s, have been blown away by the wind.After the assassination of US President Kennedy in 1968, the "world ship king" married his widow Jacqueline very sensationally. When Monaco, a famous casino city in the small Mediterranean country, encountered financial difficulties, Onassis even tried to annex Monaco. It even caused an uproar in the world. Today, those legendary figures in the eyes of the media are different in the tribe of the richest man.Obviously, excessive swagger, star temperament, and enthusiasm for public affairs are often negative numbers for the accumulation of wealth.According to Berlusconi of Italy, a rare political star among the richest men, since he entered politics, the judiciary has opened dozens of investigations into his business activities and drafted 87 documents against him and his business interests. For this reason, judicial officials visited the offices of his family business more than 470 times, and more than 1,500 court hearings were held just about him.

Lin Shaoliang, the richest Chinese man in Indonesia, is another example.In his early years, he had a close relationship with then-President Suharto, obtained various franchise rights, and was called a unparalleled red-capped businessman at that time.Lin's assets once reached as high as 16 billion US dollars, known as "the eighth richest man in the world".However, after Suharto stepped down, Lin Shaoliang gradually lost power. After the Asian financial crisis hit hard in 1997, the Lin Group was precarious. Although it is still the richest man in Indonesia, its assets have shrunk to US$1.03 billion.

"From good to great, a company has nothing to do with whether the industry it is engaged in is in the trend. In fact, even a company engaged in a traditional industry, even if it is initially unknown, may eventually move towards excellence." Kim Collins in " The Law of Corporations found in Good to Great still holds true when looking at the richest people. Judging from the industries that the richest people are engaged in, it seems that they are not as particularly favored by heaven as imagined.The industry they enter does not have too high a threshold.Among the 30 richest men, 4 run chain stores, 3 are in the media, and 2 are selling beer.If there are any business secrets, "globalization under a professional background", "channels are king" and "core resource monopoly" are the three answers to the mysteries that make today's richest man.

A hundred or even decades ago, with the advancement of industrialization and urbanization, land was once the biggest breeding ground for the birth of great wealth.In the early days of the rise of every commercial country and region, the value of land soared exponentially, giving birth to one after another invincible richest man.Li Ka-shing in Hong Kong, the Guo Henian family in Malaysia, and the Guo Lingming family in Singapore are all products of this model.Even in the old British business empire, the Duke of Westminster, who owns hundreds of acres of land in the center of London, has been the richest man for a long time. The Russian magic boy Roman Romain, who was transferred to British nationality two years ago, Abramovich over.In 1990, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the founder of Japan’s Seibu Group engaged in the real estate industry, became the world’s richest man with a net worth of US$16 billion. This humble concubine bought one-sixth of Japan’s land in 20 years , the market value of the Group's assets is US$165 billion.At that time, when the Japanese economy was in full swing, the land value of Tokyo and the three surrounding areas exceeded the total market value of all the land in the United States plus the sum of the market value of all American listed companies on the New York Stock Exchange.

Today, the myth of wealth creation caused by land value appreciation and sharp increase in assets has become obsolete in those commercially mature countries and regions.Among the richest men in Europe and America in 2005, none of them had real estate as their main business.In Asia, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, who was once prominent, was jailed for financial fraud in his seventies.Among the rich Chinese, except for the fortune of the richest man in the Philippines, Chen Yongzai, whose fortune is not closely related to real estate, the rest have deep ties to real estate.Today, those who have made a better transformation, such as Li Ka-shing, can be regarded as advancing with the times, and their wealth growth momentum has not diminished.The richest Chinese are generally older than those in Europe and the United States. If there is no special opportunity or a radical transformation, it seems that it is only a matter of time before they are surpassed by other upstarts.

Except for the Asian region, among the richest people in Europe and the United States, almost none of them is a diversified consortium.On the contrary, globalization in a professional context is a popular trend. In the past 20 years, the strategy of globalization has made some traditional companies that are not outstanding leaped out of reach. Heineken was originally a Dutch company on the verge of bankruptcy. In 1971, Freddie Heineken became the company's president. He had the foresight to foresee the emergence of a unified European market. Heineken went out of the Netherlands and became the first multinational company to implement Development strategies of European beer companies.Today, Heineken is already the beer enjoyed by people from different countries in the world. Similar to Heineken, Sweden's IKEA, France's L'Oreal, Spain's Zara, Japan's Suntory, including South Korea's Samsung, have achieved a generation of hegemony because of timely and long-term adherence to the transnational strategy.It is said that in L'Oreal, its employees come from 45 nationalities, and among the 48,000 employees, 36,000 are outside France; among the 400 senior managers, there are 40 Spaniards, 70 Italians, and 40 Germans. and 35 Brits; out of 8,000 managers, 2,000 have stock options.It is not difficult to understand why L'Oreal's turnover rate is quite low: the average service time of employees is 14 years. Related to the characteristics of globalization, those companies that focus on improving channel capabilities are exuding unprecedented wealth charm. The survival and expansion concept of "channel is king" has been proven time and again in the business world. If Sam Walton, founder of retail giant Wal-Mart, were alive today, he would be worth twice as much as Bill Gates, the world's richest man.In this year's "Forbes" global rich list, the Wal-Mart family occupies a total of five seats from tenth to fourteenth.Ingvar Kamprad, the richest man in Sweden and founder of IKEA, ranked sixth, and Carl Albrecht, the richest man in Germany and founder of the Aldi supermarket chain, ranked eighth.In this rich list, 9 of the top 20 richest are chain retailers, which is an impressively high proportion.Among the 30 richest people in each country, there are 5 chain retailers, including Huang Guangyu of Pengrun Gome, the new richest man in mainland China.In the past year, the assets of Ingvar Kamprad alone have increased by US$4.5 billion, and this figure exceeds all the assets of Lee Kun-hee, the richest man in South Korea, who leads the Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. The group is already the world's best growing comprehensive electronics company. The unrivaled competitiveness of these chain retailers mainly comes from two aspects, the first is the scale effect produced by modern chain business, and the second is the innovation ability of rapid response.The Zara clothing company founded by the richest man in Spain, Amancio Ortega Gona, never puts a penny in advertisements for his chain stores, but he employs 200 designers and launches as many as 20,000 fashion styles every year More than one species. "Monopoly is the only source of huge profits", this Jewish business law seems to have not expired so far, and a little progress is that the meaning of monopoly is becoming more extensive and "commercialized". From the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, through marriages or transactions with the political power, countless giants owned the monopoly rights of mines, railways, ships and major agricultural products, thus bloodily completed primitive accumulation and became the richest man in a country.With the improvement of the national system and the progress of commercial civilization, this path of getting rich is becoming more and more impossible.Among all the richest men today, the only ones related to resource-based monopoly are probably only two. One is the Oppenheimer family in South Africa, which controls 70% of the world’s diamond resources; Hongsen Ho, he took control of the local gambling industry. The richest people in other countries, without exception, maintain an absolutely dominant market share in their respective main industries through the means of complete market competition, forming another sense of monopoly benefits.Bill Gates, the richest man in the United States, basically controls the desktop systems of computers all over the world. The richest man in Italy holds 80% of the national commercial TV market share. The richest man in Australia controls 80% of the magazine market in the country. The richest man in Canada monopolizes newspapers and periodicals. The new richest man in India owns 6% of the world's annual steel production. In the past 10 years, the boom of the IT industry has triggered an unprecedented industrial revolution, which is changing our lives at a dizzying speed.However, what is surprising is that among the richest people in 30 countries and regions, only three and a half are mainly engaged in IT. One is the most famous Bill Gates; the other is the founder of Vipro India. Azim Hasham Premji, whose wealth this year was overtaken by compatriot Mittal, remains India's best-known software firm, with dozens of clients on his list. There are many companies including one of the world's top 500 companies; there is also Guo Taiming from Taiwan, China. The Hon Hai Group led by him is the world's most profitable electronics professional manufacturing service provider. After the "real estate king" and "insurance king" Cai Wanlin passed away After that, his assets surpassed Wang Yongqing and ranked first in the whole island; the other half was Carlos Salim, the richest man in Mexico. The company, the development of the IT industry has led to the prosperity of the telecommunications industry, and now the company has dramatically increased its value to 20 billion US dollars, accounting for 40% of the total capital of the Mexican Stock Exchange. Today in the 21st century, the substantial impact of the richest man on the national economy is no longer comparable to that of the past.In 1901, the richest man in the United States at the time was Andrew Carnegie. The capital of the U.S. Steel Corporation under his leadership reached 1.4 billion U.S. dollars, equivalent to two-thirds of the U.S. currency in circulation at that time.Today, except for some extremely poor countries, it is very difficult for the kind of "absolutely rich" who can monopolize the lifeline of the country's economy to appear.In the past few years, the desperate struggle between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the "Seven Oligarchs" headed by Khodorkovsky is an instinctive response to this by a state regime with a rudimentary business system. resist. How long it takes to become the richest man is a concern of many people. After researching the richest people in 30 countries and regions, we came to a conclusion that is enough to give everyone full confidence: none of the parents of these 30 people is the richest man!Less than 20% of wealthy families have more than three generations, and their family industries are diamonds, beer, clothing, and media; about 20% are second-generation entrepreneurship. ; In addition, about 40% of middle-class people are from middle-class backgrounds, and they are models of personal struggle; while another 20% are from extremely humble backgrounds, such as miners, shopkeepers, immigrants, penniless "poor princes", and even smugglers. That is to say, if the chance is right and the sky is a genius, anyone can become the richest man in a country from now on. Often in some developing or transitional countries, some dramatic wealth surges are prone to occur.Mou Qizhong, who was the first to be printed with the logo of the richest man in mainland China, was in a sense a trader who wandered on the edge of the law. He sold Sichuan's unsalable canned food to Russia in exchange for several planes that fell down one by one. airplane.But at that time, only gray business activities like his could quickly accumulate considerable personal wealth in China. Abramovich, who is now the richest man in Britain, was still a smuggler at the Moscow airport in 1989. "His bag was full of contraband such as Marlboro cigarettes and Chanel perfume. In order to bring these things on the plane, he It really took a lot of effort, and it took a desperate battle with the police and security personnel for a long time to break through the barrier." Such a story is too crude, but it happens in all countries with system transition.The appearance of these richest men has injected a strange atmosphere into the list of richest men who are generally on the high side. In fact, in the 2005 "Forbes" list of the world's richest people, in addition to the young Russian oligarchs, there are some new faces.Their appearance seems to indicate that new wealth concepts are faintly emerging, and new wealth creation channels are quietly opening. In Europe, no rich man is more charming than the 40-year-old Swiss richest man Ernesto Bertarelli. He was born in a wealthy family. His grandfather’s company was founded in the early 20th century and became the most prestigious biopharmaceutical company in Europe early on. He began to follow his father in the business world at the age of 10, and was considered by the people around him to have a bright future. At the age of 17, he helped The company makes an annual budget. At the age of 31, he officially succeeded his father and became the CEO of the entire family-owned international company. He is not only rich, but also talented, young, handsome, and personable. He has obtained a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School and a bachelor's degree in science from Boston University. degree, a European Wall Street Journal dubbed him "the crown prince of the Swiss industrial dynasty"; he led the inland country's sailing team to participate in the world's most famous America's Cup sailing competition for the first time and won the championship, not only making the event in 150 Returning to Europe for the first time after many years and pulling it out of a money-eating pit and transforming it into a lucrative event... If Ernesto Bertarelli's story is too flashy and lacks drama, Saudi Arabia's current richest man, 48-year-old Alwaleed bin Talal, is another very unexpected "Arab story". Talal is one of the thousands of "princes of the sheikhs" in Saudi Arabia.When he started his business at 23, he had just $15,000 to start with.He first started a trade agency and contracting business by using his own connections and limited capital.After that, he used the accumulated capital in his hands to establish several companies one after another, and established joint ventures with foreign companies in Saudi Arabia.Then, he predicted in time that the high welfare policy implemented by the government relying on petrodollars would greatly stimulate the domestic real estate market, so he bought two large pieces of real estate in the capital Riyadh.These lands became the beginning of his journey to real estate, and today, he has become the largest private real estate owner in the capital of Saudi Arabia. At the age of 29, Talal, who had successive successes, extended his tentacles to the financial world and became the largest shareholder of the United Bank of Saudi Arabia, which has been losing money for years, and made it the most profitable commercial bank in Saudi Arabia a few years later.His shares cover all business fields, and the companies he has participated in include Citibank, News Corporation, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald's, Disney, Apple, Motorola, AOL-Time Warner, Ford, Amazon, EBay, Kodak, Xerox, etc. Internationally renowned enterprises.At present, Talal's assets are as high as 23.7 billion US dollars, ranking fifth in the 2005 "Forbes" list of the world's richest people. Today's Talal, apart from his Arabian attire, can hardly smell the smell of the desert.Even the "stock god" Buffett said humbly in a letter: "Sometimes, they call me the 'Talal' of Wall Street." Guo Taiming, who has just become the richest man in Taiwan, is the hope of the rich Chinese.On the new list of the world's richest people, his assets have surpassed that of the 87-year-old Taiwan "God of Business" Wang Yongqing and jumped to the top.Prior to this, the growth of the Chinese tycoons was characterized by too much land hype, power-money transactions, and resource monopoly. However, Guo Taiming, by himself, stood out in the IT field surrounded by big powers, making Taiwan today a global representative of information technology products. The center of the processing industry.He and Saudi Arabia's Talal, Mexico's Carlos Salem, and of course Bill Gates, who had reached the top 11 years ago, have become the technology and capital upstarts among the richest people. When the wealth has gone far beyond personal consumption and enjoyment, how will its owners dispose of it is a more difficult issue than creating these wealth. No one is ever long remembered for being rich for a while, but rather his attitude and details about his wealth are often mentioned.Dr. George Gallup, the founder of the contemporary business research company, once said: "People can't forget some historical figures, sometimes not because of their achievements in politics, military exploits, or wealth, but because of some of their personalities. subtle features." The 30 richest people we are looking up to now are indeed very similar to a coin in character: low-key, hard, round, and seemingly unreasonable.Among them, only one (Israel's richest woman) has had three marriage experiences, five have had two, and the rest have had one.The stability and harmony of the family seems to have always been the prerequisite for the gradual advancement of wealth.Liliane, the richest woman in France who owns L'Oreal, often tells her friends that a happy marriage that lasted 50 years is the greatest wealth in her life. Compared with wealth, marriage is more meaningful to a woman. "In addition to silence, what this family pursues is simplicity and wisdom in life." This comment is suitable for Liliana, and it is also suitable for many richest families. Among the 30 richest people, there are no scientists, writers, artists, or even famous art connoisseurs.If one must be counted, it is Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, the rich man and president who sold and sang on music boats when he was a teenager. In 2001, he released an album of his love songs.The richest man is rarely an expert in a certain field. The former Duke of Westminster, the richest man in the United Kingdom, has a "best description" of himself: miscellaneous but not proficient, knowing a little about everything, and not proficient in anything.Perhaps, this miscellaneous professional attitude allows the richest people to concentrate more energy on wealth itself.Some of them don't even shy away from being contemptuous of culture and taste.Australia's richest man, Parker Kerry, is a media tycoon as famous as Murdoch. He frankly admitted that he "likes movies and sports, and despises artistic and elegant things. He hates literature and art, and thinks that going to the Sydney Opera House Concerts are pure suffering. I never read because I have dyslexia since I was a child, and there are a lot of movie videos in the study.” If we must find a common spiritual characteristic for these rich people, it is that they without exception combine wealth and charity together, whether it is from the heart or for the world to see. More than half of the richest people are the largest charitable givers in their countries.Bill Gates has announced that he will donate all his assets to charitable funds after his death, leaving only 10 million US dollars for each of his three children.There is an unproven story about his conversion to charity: after Gates became the richest man at the age of 40, letters asking for donations came like a snowflake, but Gates ignored him, which made his parents very embarrassed.Gates Sr. later recalled that his mother and I had been advising him that as a good citizen, he must do more for the society.But Gates couldn't listen, and sometimes his mother's nagging made him impatient, so he retorted: "Mom, I have a company to manage. The best thing I can do for society is to make this company successful." What promoted Gates' fundamental transformation was the fall of 1993 when he traveled to Africa with his wife Melinda and others. The extreme poverty of the local people aroused Gates' heart tremor.After returning to China, Gates immediately established a foundation to carry out charitable work. The "stingy man" who was ridiculed in the past began to donate large sums of money. Someone once used Maslow's theory of life needs to explain the charitable actions of the rich.In "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism", Max Weber believed that in countries where the middle class was still very backward, there was once a distinctive feature, that is, the prevalence of making money for personal gain by any means, which was almost an insurmountable stage .The sign of a mature commercial society is that people break away from the pursuit of material things and start to discover other abstract and metaphysical values ​​in life.This is true of a country, and no individual is an exception. In Weber's not-so-structured but extremely influential book, he revealed for the first time the relationship between the "ascetic" Protestant ethics and business spirit. He demonstrated why many entrepreneurs struggled to accumulate wealth all their lives, but They are not interested in spending this wealth.Weber believed that the concept of life derived from Darwin's predestination theory made those people thrifty, self-disciplined, honest, and clean. This is the spiritual origin of modern Western economic success. These expositions of Weber have been most vividly and accurately reflected in these richest men.If Karl Marx's words are to be used, then these richest men have spent their lives practicing his famous saying: "Labor is the essence of man, the true essence." In fact, since the Industrial Revolution, the material world has become It is becoming more and more abundant and inconceivable, while the needs of human beings on the spiritual level are facing more and more urgent and severe questions.For more than a hundred years, almost all wealth owners have been forced to face such troubles. Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, grew up from a poor boy of a textile worker to a steel magnate. In his later years, he devoted most of his time to charity and religious causes.Today, you can see libraries and museums donated by Carnegie everywhere in the United States.American financier J. P．Morgan bought a large number of artworks for donation in his later years, leaving only tens of millions of dollars after his death. When Rockefeller learned of this figure, he said: "Morgan is not even considered a rich man." A stingy, ruthless person, but in his later years, he also donated most of his property. In his will, he said: "It is a shame to die rich." Carnegie, Morgan and Rockefeller were lucky. They were addicted to the money game all their lives and enjoyed the excitement, thrill and pleasure. However, before they died, they finally found the answer to the game. What is wealth?What can we buy with wealth?Is there anything more important in life than money? These problems lie in front of everyone, and no one can get around them in their whole life.At this point, you, me and the richest man are on the same answer line.