#2 Stephen Schwarzman $10.7 billion
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Stephen Schwarzman graduated from Yale University, and then went on to earn his Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He began his career in finance while still in college, and then began working for Lehman Brothers after completing his graduate school education. He went on to become a managing director at Lehman Brothers, and then the Head of Global Acquisitions and Mergers. He left the firm in the mid-80s to co-found The Blackstone Group, a firm focused on acquisitions and mergers. Now, after his partner retired he is sole owner and CEO.
#1 Steven A. Cohen $11.1 billion
Born June 11, 1956 in Great Neck, New York, Steve Cohen is the founder of SAC Capital Advisors, a Stamford, Connecticut-based hedge fund that mainly focuses on equity market strategies. Cohen is known on Wall Street as one of its most successful traders. He began his Stamford-headquartered hedge fund in 1992 with only $25 million. Today the fund has $14 billion assets under management and employees around 900 people globally.
These people are just tip of the mountain. In this short descriptions says that mostly of them make their fortune alone. They were born in ordinary famillies with no special background. But somehow they made it. They did it in this life. Now, probablly all of them will say how their succses is product of hard labor and effort. But it is just half of a story. Non of them will admit how many problems in making their future they had. How many times they had to gave bribe, or to make treats to someone, or to do even worse things. I would say that these people trully understand proverb “The aim justify the meaning”. You can envy them, or even hate them, but truth is many ordinary people would like to be on their places.