Top 10 List of Wealthiest Men – Billionaires

This list of the wealthiest people by Forbes magazine was eagerly awaited. Now that it is finally here, we can take a peek at how much the richest billionaires of the world are worth and who surpassed who in the top. The list features 1,426 people of which 442 are from the US, 386 from Asia-Pacific, 366 from Europe, 129 from the Americas and 103 from Middle East and Africa. 

The total net worth of the world’s richest was calculated at a staggering $5.4 trillion.

1. Carlos Slim Helu

Like many others on this list, this wealthy telecom tycoon is no stranger to being worth billions. Last year he was worth $69 billion and this year he managed to rise to $73 billion. It is his fourth time on the top of the list of the world’s richest. His most successful year so far was last year when good fortune smiled upon 73 year-old Carlos Slim.

2. Bill Gates 

Mr. Gates is one of the best known philanthropists of our years and his value is now calculated at $67 billion. His success story is not a very common one, as dropping out of college seemed to be the boost his career needed. This path led him towards opening a huge software company. The company worked wonders for him and he was among the first to be featured on Forbes’ list of world’s richest

3. Amancio Ortega

Said to be the one who gained the most worth over the past year ($19.5 billion), Amancio Ortega is a Spanish fashion retailer that owns the Zara stores. His enormous gain brought him from number 5 on the list to number 3. His net worth this year is $57 billion which is a giant step ahead from last year’s $37.5 billion.

4. Warren Buffet

Mr. Buffet, also known as the Wizard of Omaha, has increased his net worth by no less than $9.5 billion since last year. However, for the first time since 2000, he was ranked lower than third place. Clever investments are what, over the years, raised Warren Buffet’s worth to an amazing $53.5 billion.

5. Larry Ellison

For this tycoon, business is all about knowing which things are worth investing in, which are not and which the best deal is. Ellison bought 98% of Lanai Island in Hawaii, which was formerly owned by David Murdock. The land includes a housing development and two resort hotels. His net worth this year is estimated at $43 billion, $7 billion more than last year.

6. Charles Koch

Went from $25 billion (last year) to $34 billion.

7. David Koch

Went from $25 billion (last year) to $34 billion.

8. Li Ka-Shing (Hong Kong)

Went from $25.5 billion (last year) to $31 billion.

9. Liliane Bettencourt (France)

Went from $24 billion (last year) to $30 billion.

10. Bernard Arnault (France)

Went from $41 billion (last year) to $29 billion.

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How One Woman Went from Homeless to Millionaire In Less Than Two Years

In an episode of Sex And The City, the lead character Carrie Bradshaw, once poignantly concluded, “Maybe the past is like an anchor holding us back. Maybe, you have to let go of who you were to become who you will be.”

In extraordinarily different circumstances, in a far cry from the glamorous lives portrayed onSATC, a 21-year-old homeless woman named Dani Johnson, came to roughly the same conclusion, though perhaps, through a more excruciating journey.

She made a meager living as a cocktail waitress in Hawaii, and was living out of her car with just two dollars and three cents to her name and $37,000 in debt. Haunted by a childhood filled with brutal and systematic physical and sexual abuse, she attempted suicide following a cocaine binge – but in that moment, ironically, her life changed forever.

Today Dani Johnson is a multi-millionaire many times over, runs five companies and spends her time jetting around the world, giving back through her various charities.

How she went on to make her first million despite a tortured past and despite being homeless, is the stuff of entrepreneurial legend.

Her story suggests, as Dr. Phil would put it, “It doesn’t matter what your mama did; it doesn’t matter what your daddy didn’t do. Nobody but you is responsible for your life. You are responsible for the energy that you create for yourself.”

This is Dani Johnson’s Story.

It was Christmas Eve, 1990.

“I was stoned out of my mind for two months – sleeping with eight different guys. I got to eat only by dating all these people. I realized that I had become worse than the family I grew up in and that was devastating. My mom and dad were drug addicts and I had never seen my parents sober. My childhood was filled with threats and getting beaten daily; week in, week out. My whole life was filled with horror and terror and lies and I vowed that I would never be like my family. And there I was doing cocaine…”

She hated cocaine ‘with a passion’ and recalls that when coke was introduced into the home by her parents when she was a teenager, the violence had intensified and the emotional instability was ‘horrifying’. “They would say one thing and then another thing after 15 minutes.”

That Christmas Eve, she joined other waitresses at the beach on a drink and drug binge.

“I was sweating as I was constantly dancing. I see the coke and I leaned down and I did a line. I remember waking up at 10 the next morning on my beach mat and I am asking everyone for coke. I was walking around saying, ‘Where do I get more of that stuff?’

That day, I would have given my body – I would have become a prostitute for coke and that’s how low I became. I hated everything about myself. I knew my future would never be good. I was suicidal from the age of six. My life was not worth living. There was no chance to turn it into anything better. I was disgusting. I hated how my parents raised us. My life was filled with broken promises and lies and people stealing and people beating me and people hating me and me hating myself even more…”

Fueled by the after-effects of the drug, in an almost catatonic state that morning, Dani decided she was going to end it all. “I started walking towards the ocean and dived underneath the wave.”

A few more moments under, and her life would have ended there – not an unsurprising demise given her circumstances, the coroner and police chief would have quietly concluded.

But as it happened, in that instant, her life changed forever.

‘Almost a Miracle’

“I heard a voice say, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’’

It felt almost like a miracle to her.

“The feeling of coke left instantly – I wasn’t wanting it anymore. I rolled up my beach mat, turned around and hiked a mile that I needed to in order to get back to my car. I drove 45 minutes to the beach where I was living. And the whole time I was driving, it was as if the left side of my mind was saying, ‘This is not what is intended for your life, you shouldn’t be drinking. There is more to life,’ and the right side was saying, ‘You’re a failure, you’re a loser, you’re filthy; worse than your parents. Drive this car into the ocean.’ This was like a war inside my mind with these voices and I was literally in a trance.

And I have no idea why I chose to listen to that first voice.”

So Dani began to ask herself: What can I do? What do I need to do to get myself out this situation?

“As a cocktail waitress, I was not making enough, so I had to figure out my options.”

She needed $4,500 to be able to afford an apartment but with a small income derived mostly from tips coupled with the island’s high rents, it would take her four months to save enough money.

“I didn’t want to be homeless for another four months. Rent in Hawaii was outrageously expensive and I couldn’t afford plane tickets back to California. I knew no one. I was terrified I would be raped or beaten or kidnapped because there wasn’t any shelter. I was a kid who, between the ages of three to 16, was abused and molested. The emotions were still there. You try to push this back but when you’re homeless, it is at the forefront of your mind all the time and it was terrifying to me.”

That night she fell asleep in her car without any answers but the following day, the proverbial light bulb went off.

“I get this idea. Everything I ever owned was in the backseat of my car. And there was this weight loss program I had purchased long before I was homeless, lying in the back seat. I had used it for a week. I never paid attention to it before. And it just caught the corner of my eye in the sun. It was warped from the humidity. But it was as if this device was talking to me. I picked it up and it was as if this thing was saying, ‘I’m your answer.’ And my first thought was, ‘No, I’m not going to peddle a weight loss program! No way I’m going to do this!’

As if it was beneath me. As if it was sinking to a new depth. And you know, sometimes you have that feeling that you need to do something you don’t want to do?

I turned the box around, saw the manufacturer’s details and called them from the payphone.

I started asking them the question: What is it going to take to carry the product in Hawaii? As it turned out, it would require me to have licensing – and money, that I didn’t have.”

And this is when Dani – given her very scant means – decided to get resourceful.

“I handwrote a flyer [for the weight loss program] but I needed a phone number to advertise so people could contact me – and I didn’t have one. So I picked up the Yellow Pages in the phone booth. You know cocktail waitresses always have coins! So I looked through the Yellow Pages and called a small telecommunications company. And I chatted with this guy for some time, trying to build a relationship. I asked him what the cost of their voice mail service was.

He said to me, ‘Don’t drive all the way to pay for this. Send me a check for $15. Here’s your new number…!’

Dani, of course, was elated – down to her last quarter for that week, she got the break she needed.

“I put up the flyer at the Post Office where everyone in this town went to, and three hours later, not thinking I would get any messages – it was filled with 25 messages. I didn’t know what to do with them!

Long story short, I ended up with 40 checks, totaling $4,000 dollars from people I didn’t even know – that first month!

I called up the manufacturer with an order but they wanted a physical address to send the product and I didn’t have one. So I talked the local liquor store into letting me use their address.”

Dani made a quarter of a million dollars that first year just by selling the weight loss program, was a millionaire by the second year and went on to open up 18 weight loss centers around the country. She sold the business in 1996 – a multi-millionaire.

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How Michael Jordan Still Earns $80 Million A Year

Michael Jordan turns 50 on Sunday and retrospectives of his career have been getting heavy airtime this week. The highlights include his six titles with the Chicago Bulls, his impact on athlete marketing and countless unforgettable moments on the court (“flu” game;switching hands driving the lane; the“shot” versus the Cavs). Los Angeles Lakers forward Antawn Jamison opined last week that Jordan could still average double-digit points in the NBA. I think it is safe to say we’ve seen the last of MJ soaring above the rim after hitting the half-century mark with three retirements already under his belt. But Jordan the business? It is stronger than ever.

Jordan earned an estimated $80 million last year from corporate partners Nike, Gatorade, Hanes, Upper Deck, 2K Sports, Presbyterian Healthcare and Five Star Fragrances. Other Jordan assets include six restaurants, a North Carolina car dealership, a motorsports team and his 80% stake in the Charlotte Bobcats. Jordan out-earns almost every member of the world’s highest-paid athletes 10 years after his last NBA game (Floyd Mayweather topped Forbes June 2012 list with earnings of $85 million).

The Jordan Brand, a division of Nike, is responsible for the vast majority of MJ’s earnings. Jordan partnered with Nike after being drafted by the Bulls out of North Carolina in 1984. The original five-year deal was worth $500,000 annually, plus royalties. The terms of Jordan’s current deal with Nike are a closely guarded secret, but royalties now generate more than $60 million annually for MJ, according to sources.

Nearly 30 years later, the brand is still a marketing juggernaut. It controlled 58% of the U.S. basketball shoe market in 2012, according to research firm SportsOneSource. The Jordan Brand’s parent, Nike, was second with a 34% share, while Adidas (5.5%), Reebok (1.6%) and Under Armour (0.6%) divvied up the leftovers.

Nike signed up current NBA stars Carmelo Anthony, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, as well as non-NBAers like Derek Jeter and Nascar’s Denny Hamlin for the Jordan Brand. But the star is still Jordan and the Air Jordan franchise.

Nike will release the Air Jordan XX8 this weekend to coincide with the NBA All-Star game. It is the 28th shoe in the Jordan franchise. The suggested retail price is $250. In addition to new Air Jordans, Nike continues to pump out retro versions of the franchise with an average selling price of $130 to $150.

The Jordan Brand is doing “exceptionally well” says Susquehanna Financial analyst Christopher Svezia. He estimates the brand grew 25-30% in 2012 and now generates more than $1.75 billion globally, including apparel. The U.S. Jordan Brand sneaker business alone had $1.25 billion in wholesale revenue in 2012, says Matt Powell, an analyst at SportsOneSource. LeBron James is the top-seller among current NBA players with signature shoe deals, but Jordan outsold James by a 6 to 1 margin in 2012 in the U.S.

Gatorade, Hanes and Upper Deck are long-time Jordan sponsors. 2K Sports put Jordan on the cover of its NBA 2K11 and 2K12 video games. His latest deal is with Presbyterian Healthcare and its Winston-Salem parent, Novant Health. The agreement signed last year was part of a sponsorship renewal for the Bobcats franchise. It was the first time Jordan included himself as a carrot to close a team sponsorship deal. Jordan will appear in TV ads for the hospital system.

Jordan still resonates strongly with consumers. His 22 million Facebook fans rank fourth among athletes, behind only soccer icons Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and David Beckham. His Q score, which measures awareness and popularity, is 43 among sports fans. The next highest active athlete is Peyton Manning at 32. Jordan has had the top Q score among sports fans every year since 1987. The one exception was in 1990 when Joe Montana usurped him for a single year (Tiger Woods is the only athlete to top MJ’s Q Score among the general population, which he did once in 2008).

“Jordan is unique in that he has been able to maintain that emotional connection with his consumer base for more than 25 years,” says Henry Schafer, Executive Vice-President at the Q Score Company.

Jordan’s net worth is estimated at $650 million thanks to years of endorsement checks and $90 million in salary from the Bulls. Jordan’s net worth has the potential to surge through his 80% stake in the Bobcats. The team has been losing as much as $20 million annually and part of Jordan’s ownership agreement included providing working capital to cover those losses. Those deficits will shrink under the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, which triples the amount of revenue sharing from high-revenue to low-revenue teams. The Bobcats will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the new plan and are expected to receive as much as $18 million annually by next season. The value of the Bobcats was up 14% to $315 million, including $150 million in debt, in Forbes recent annual look at the business of basketball.

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Highest Earning Celebrity Chefs

Gordon Ramsay

Probably the angriest chef on a television show, it's obvious that his dedication to detail has paid off, making him the highest-earning chef in the world. He hosts Hell's Kitchen, owns 23 restaurants across the world and has also just opened a steak house in Las Vegas at the Paris casino hotel. He also wants to set up in a restaurant in India, with Mumbai on his radar. Look at his plans for the city.

Total earnings: $38 million 

Wolfgang Puck 

A famous guy among Hollywood royalty, Puck made sure the Oscar invitees were fed well. He sits on a company that is home to about 20 fine dining restaurants and 80 Wolfgang Puck Express locations. Incidentally, Puck made it big in the industry when he introduced his fresh take on pizza.

Lately he has introduced an app that includes recipes and links to his restaurants to help with party planning.

Total earnings: $20 million

Paula Deen

A native of Albany, Georgia, Paula Deen is known for her love of butter and the deep fried cooking that's traditional in the American South. She has had a long-running partnership with Smithfield Foods and owns 17 different licensees and covers a range of good living products. Paula has authored 14 cookbooks, and lately she introduced a line of furniture too.

Total earnings: $17 million 

Mario Batali

Batali sits on a culinary empire with Italian traditions, that spans from in New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas to Singapore. Among his accolades, he was "Man of the Year" in the chef category by GQ Magazine way back in 1999. And then in 2001 he took home the D'Artagnan Cervena "Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America," which is a prestigious food industry lifetime achievement award. Mario has authored nine cookbooks to date.

Total earnings: $13 million

Alain Ducasse

With his motto being "Savoir-faire, faire-faire et faire-savoir" which means expertise, to-do and know-how, he can take credit for a number of restaurants under the same name. The Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester holds three stars in the Michelin Guide. His other properties include Alain Ducasse in London and Le Relais and Le Louis XV in Paris. And he's spreading his knowledge through his network of European hotels and has a Parisian cooking school.

Total earnings: $12 million

Todd English

When he's not busy cooking for the jet set, he is inventing dishes. He wanted to patent a new type of rotisserie grill that moves skewered chickens not just in one direction around a spit, but also around the grill and the spit itself. He is best known for his restaurant, Olives, Boston and Las Vegas. Todd English Enterprises includes over 20 restaurants spanning across USA. He also has his own cooking show, Food Trip with Todd English.

Total earnings: $11 million

Nobu Matsuhisa

Famously known as Nobu, the celebrity chef is known for his fusion cuisine - blending traditional Japanese dishes with South American (Peruvian) ingredients. His signature dish is black cod in miso. He is the chief proprietor of Nibu, Mastuhisa and Ubon restaurants located across three continents.

The chef partnered with actor Robert DeNiro, and thus opened Nobu sushi restaurants in New York, Dallas and Moscow. Now he plans on opening an entire Nobu hotel inside Caesar's Palace in Vegas later in 2012.

Total earnings: $10 million

Bobby Flay

The 47-year-old chef has staked his claim when it comes to American south-western food incorporating ingredients such as chillies, avocados, and beans. He is the owner and executive chef of 12 restaurants. Additionally, Flay shares his enthusiasm for food through his cookbooks and national cooking shows on the Food Network, Cooking Channel and NBC.

Total earnings: $9 million

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10 Billionaires Give You The Best Investment Advice They Know

Here's a piece of investment advice your parents aren't likely to give you:

“I’d buy cocaine rather than buy that s---”

That was billionaire lawyer Joe Jamail talking about investing in hedge funds. You'll find wisdom from him, and nine other billionaires, in a Bloomberg Markets magazine in a piece called Advice From Billionaires by Matthew G. Miller and Peter Newcomb. We have the highlights for you right here.

While no investor likes to run with the herd, you may want to take their insights seriously, because 2012 doesn't look like its going to be any easier for investing than 2011 has been.

In a nutshell, these billionaires are thinking that Europe's going down, hedge funds can be very dangerous, and the dollar is still the safest bet in the world.

But their advice isn't just for navigating bad times. If you do happen to make a million, one billionaire, Mikhail Prokhorov, has an idea on what you should do with it: "spend it with pleasure."

For more you'll have to read on below :

Eli Broad

Broad started out building houses and ended up buying and selling insurance companies. Most notably, he founded Sun Life Insurance Co. of America Inc to AIG in 1999 for $18 billion. Now he's a Los Angeles society figure with an impressive modern art collection and a charitable foundation (The Broad Foundation) that handles assets of $2.1 billion.

What's the best advice he ever got? Don't bet the farm.

Where would he invest a million dollars? "High-quality multinational consumer companies such as Procter & Gamble co., Coca-Cola co., Kraft Foods inc. and Johnson & Johnson."

Tidbit: He thinks the dollar will remain strong but the euro will tank in 2012. As for hedge funds, he likes funds and managers with good long term track records like Seth Klarman Baupost Group LLC. 

Patrick Soon-Shiong

Soon-Shiong was the first person to perform a full pancreas transplant at the UCLA medical school in 1991. After that he left and co-founded Vivo RX Pharmaceuticals and co-created breast cancer treatment Abraxane. He now has a stake in over 30 companies and a minority share in the LA Lakers—an investment he says is better than gold.

What's the best advice he ever got? "Invest in yourself and the people you believe in."

Where would he invest a million dollars? "The most important thing is not to lose money right now."

Tidbit: Gold is an "both a bubble and an enigma" but not an opportunity.

Peter Hargreaves

Hargreaves has a 32.2% stake in the biggest retail broker in the UK, Hargreaves Landsown Plc, he co-founded the company in 1981. Now he has 388,000 clients and $35.7 billion under management.

What would you do with $1 million? Half in Norwegian krone, half in Singapore dollars.

In terms of fixed income investments? Hargreaves likes German bonds for the currency play when the euro tanks.

Tidbit: Hargreaves is an avid gardener.

Randall J. Kirk

Kirk's venture fund, Third Security LLC, has made major money on biotech firms. In 2007 he score his biggest deal when he sold New River Pharmaceuticals for $2.6 billion— out of that deal, he got $1.2 billion for himself. He's been doing well ever since. Now he lives in California, Connecticut, Virginia and Florida. When he's not making deals, he's laying down electronic music tracks in his recording studio.

What's the best advice he ever got? "Good deals are like bus stops, there's one of every corner." Told to me by Red Robertson of Grundy, Virginia, who invested in my first deal. The advice illustrated not so interested in my deal as in my dedication to it. One invests in the guy behind the deal, above all else."

Tidbit: Would he buy a hot-shot tech IPO on the secondary market before it went public? "Only if they would participate as a judge in a Keynsian beauty contest. I am not one of those people."

Mikhail Prokhorov

Prokhorov is known for owning the New Jersey Nets and leading a decadent lifestyle. He started out by selling his 25% stake in OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel, the world's biggest nickel producer. That netted him $5 billion and 17% of aluminum maker United Co. Russia.

What's the best advice he ever got? Keep your back straight and don't fidget — a Russia proverb.

Three economic indicators that influence your investments? "German IFO data on business business 

expectations are best on global manufacturing. U.S. conference board data are the top measure of American consumer confidence. Chinese PMI manufacturing data are good for china’s growth and 

exports. in emerging markets, inflation, budget deficit, production growth index and retail sales are key."

Tidbit: A money manager Prokhorov would trust with his entire portfolio? "Mikhail Prokhorov...I sign every check myself."

Menin Teixeira de Souza

Teixeira de Souza made his money building homes for low-income Brazilians, founding MRV Engenharia & 

Participacoes SA, Brazil’s fifth-largest home builder by revenue, in the 1970s. He still owns 32% of the company and lives in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

What's the best advice he ever got? The best was buying Brazilian C bonds when they were trading at 40 cents on the dollar. The securities, issued in the 1990s, traded at par in 2005 when the government bought back the last of them.

Where would he invest a million dollars? Brazilian investment-grade bonds.

Tidbit: The economic indicators that influence him the most are the S&P 500 and the US dollar versus the real exchange rate.

John Paul DeJoria

In 1980 DeJoria invest in a friends hair care company, Paul Mitchell. Now it's generates $1 billion of revenue annually. DeJoria wisely took his earning from that investment and co-founded Patron tequila.

What's the best advice he ever got? How to buy a put, told to DeJoria by a woman named Rebecca.

Where would he invest a million dollars? "25% percent in gold, 25 percent in silver, 25 percent in NYSE blue-chip stocks that pay a dividend and 25 percent between Asian and European blue chips that pay a dividend."

Tidbit: Beauty salons are the best economic indicator. Typically, customers will visit every 6 weeks; in downturns that drops to every 8 weeks. When it goes up again, things are on the mend.

Donald Trump

Everyone knows "The Donald." From real estate to television, he's managed to turn his last name into a brand synonymous with business. He also claims to have a 3 handicap.

Best advice? "My father, Fred C. Trump, told me to know everything you can about what you’re doing. He believed in being thorough and was wary of blind spots."

Where would he invest a million dollars? "Equities, corporate bonds and, if you know what you’re doing, purchasing foreclosed houses from banks and demanding long-term financing at favorable interest rate."

Tidbit: Trump's best investment was buying 40 Wall Street. His worst was buying a yacht.

Alisher Usmanov

Usmanov is the oligarch of Russia's oligarchs. He runs Gazprom invest holding, the investment arm of Russia's state gas monopoly. His primary asset is a 45% stake Mettalloinvest, Russia's largest iron ore producer.

When buying stocks: "First of all I trust my own instinct, experience that I gained over years and feeling when the moment is right for buying shares. That is what one calls intuition."

On Currencies: "If EU leaders don’t make a clear decision on how to exit the crisis, then it’s likely we will see bankruptcies by some member states. The euro will suffer the most. This in itself wouldn’t be all bad for the European economy, as pillars such as Germany will get support for exports."

Tidbit: He's an investor in Groupon and Facebook. He also owns a 29% stake in the English Premier League's Arsenal with a partner.

Joe Jamail

They call Jamail "the King of Torts." He got the name by representing Penzoil in a lawsuit against Texaco in 1985. That trial alone earned him $335 million. Now, at age 86, he's into personal injury and malfeasance cases. In his career, he's made about $13 billion.

Best investing advice? "My dad told me. 'Don't buy any g_dd_mn stocks, OK?' He had a chain of grocery stores. He liked the cash coming in."

If he does buy stocks though..."I usually don't invest much in the market directly. I always look for price returns rather than income because I make enough f__king money out of this sue shop, my law office. Most of my stuff is in bonds."

Tidbit: His best investment was a law degree, and his worst was in airline stocks. Now, he suggests, if you have $1 million, hide it under your mattress.

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