How the Rich made their money

Growing your money

What do the rich do to grow their money so much? Do they have an inheritance and are just plain lucky? Or are they self-made? Where have they invested their money in order to become billionaires? Zippy Opinion would like to take you on a journey to find out in what sectors and industries the rich (ones with inheritance and self-made) made money. Here are the industries in which the rich made their money:

Investments 📈

The best way of getting rich for both self-made and inherited billionaires is investing. And it shouldn’t be a total surprise that investments are the most common and easiest ways for billionaires to make their money.

As an investor, they invest and make money across the board — manufacturing, healthcare, food, tech, etc. — they aren’t limited to any one industry. As long as you know how to pick the right companies to invest in, you can make a fortune through your investments.

For example, look at Warren Buffet. Instead of running a business the likes of Microsoft, Apple or McDonald’s, he has simply devoted nearly his entire life to picking the best stock and trade investments and he does it extremely well which is why he is now one of the richest people in the world.

Technology 👨‍💻️

It’s no surprise that technology is the second most common way for billionaires to make their money. The mere speed and scale at which technology can reach and affect people globally allow someone to generate wealth in ways not possible decades ago.

Microsoft might not seem very trendy as much as they used to be back in the 90s. Back then, Windows was the biggest thing around since the invention of the wheel and has made Bill Gates one of the richest people in the world.

In today’s world, it is tech companies like Google and Facebook which are changing the way we practically live our everyday lives. Google kicked off as a research project at Stanford in 1996 and Facebook started life in 2004 as a closed network for Harvard students before morphing into the multi-billion dollar giants they both are today and in the process making their founders exceedingly rich. Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg was for the longest time the richest person under 30. He’s a little too old for that now.

But if ruling the tech world is not something you’re thinking of, you can still make it big as in other ways. In Singapore, two brothers started an online coupon deal site called Beeconomic waaay back in 2010 with life savings of 36 Lakhs. Six months later, their business was bought over by the largest coupon deal site in the world for a reported 174 crores and is now Groupon, one of the biggest coupon sites in the world!

You may have heard of the mobile app game, Flappy Bird, which in early 2014 was the most downloaded free game in the iOS and Google Play app store globally. If you haven’t played the game before, you probably saved yourself from destroying your iPhone in a rage of expletive fury in the first five minutes. But even if you do, the creator of Flappy Bird, Dong Nguyen, doesn’t really care because he was making 37 LAKHS per DAY in ad revenue from the game until he reached a point of absolute bliss and decided that he had enough of making too much money and decided to remove the game entirely from the app store.

Real Estate 🗾

It’s no surprise that real estate is number three on the list and the third most common way for the rich to make their lakhs and crores.

We all know that real estate is one of the most valuable assets we can own simply because we all need land to live on! But not all of us are lucky enough to be born a royalty of our country. So we have to be self-made and do it on our own.

A property you bought maybe a few decades ago is now worth about 10 to 20 times the value it was bought for! This is no mere coincidence that people are able to make a lot of money through real estate.

Plus the fact that an asset like real estate is relatively volatile and you’re taking on a hefty degree of risk because you need to take on a mortgage, knowing when and how to invest in real estate is another ball game altogether. If you get it right, its money money money all around. But if you don’t, you could be stuck with something you can’t sell for a profit for a very long time to come.

Fashion and Retail 💃

If beautiful people and beautiful clothes are more your thing, then fashion and retail is definitely right down your runway. The billionaires on the Forbes 400 who made their money in this industry include entrepreneurs like Jin Sook & Do Won Chang, the founders of Forever 21 and Amancio Ortega, the founder of Zara, all of who also happen to be the one of the richest people in the world currently.

Fast fashion is a growing trend among millennials as well as Gen Z. There is only going to be more hype about it and investing in it now might be a boon. This is due to the fact that when COVID is over, shoppers will flock everywhere and this will in-turn create a big boom in the market.

Sports 🏏

If you like a little more excitement and awe in the way you make your millions (or billions), then investing in sports teams might just be your cup of tea. It’s nice knowing that your entire business model is almost entirely reliant on a bunch of sweaty, grown millionaires being able to win a game of football, baseball, cricket hockey, etc. We kid! We kid! But sports entertainment is growing and growing in waves. And it is a worthy place to start off to make money.

Win and watch the fans lap up ticket price hikes, overpriced merchandise, and another new jersey design season after season with fanatical pomp. However, if your team loses and watch the faithless mobs literally call for your head and your business profits go down the drain. But hey, what better way to make a billion, right?

Food & Beverage 🍔

Another thing that the world needs and literally can’t live without. We all need to eat and drink so desperately that we’ve made McDonald’s one of the biggest companies in the world even though they serve us burgers that never rot. More than anything, it’s not even nutritional.

Today, not only is McDonald’s incredibly profitable, but the people who were smart enough to secure a McDonald’s franchise for themselves are fantastically rich as well due to our appetite for food that apparently never goes bad.

Not to worry though if you missed out on a golden ticket of being McRich. Many food entrepreneurs have made it big by starting their very own F&B business as well. Not the easiest industry to be in because of all the competition. But then again — we all need to eat sometime, right?

Energy ☢️

But if your goal is to live it up like the oil sheiks in the Middle East and parade around in your gold-plated car, preferably with a wild tiger as your passenger, then energy might just be the thing for you.

The world needs energy. We have an insatiable need for it. We are addicted to it. It’s no surprise that some of the biggest companies in the world by market cap are energy giants like Exxon Mobil, PetroChina and Royal Dutch Shell. Not to mention the largest company that probably exists on the planet: Saudi Arabia’s state-owned petroleum and natural gas company, Saudi Aramco.

However, there has been a turn in energy consumption as the governments of the globe are looking for cleaner and more efficient ways to use energy. Not the best time to get into the oil business, if you ask us.

Obviously, it’s no easy feat becoming an energy baron. But if you somehow managed to come from nowhere and pull it off like how Roman Abramovich did (owner of Chelsea Football Club), then stuff that made other people rich (like buying a sports team) becomes pocket change for you.

Healthcare 🏥

If you can create a drug that can cure cancer or HIV, you might just become the richest person that ever lived. But you know, even if you don’t set your sights that far, if you create the next major thing in the world, you might at the very least be acquired by one of the monopolies for a large payday.

Or you could take the high road and give your medical cure and patent to the world for free. Like Jonas Salk and what he did with his cure for polio, thereby missing out on a chance to be an extraordinarily rich man but in the process virtually single-handedly wiped the world clean of polio.

Looking at the current world scenario, the world is in a mess due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s only gotten worse and worse over time. However, the markets are back in place and people are moving around a lot more today. Now, why is that, you may ask? It’s simple. The pharma industry has received a huge boost and is making sure people get the right drugs to recover quickly. I mean, we all remember how everyone panicked during the prime days of lockdown, don’t we? We’re doing a LOT better cuz the pharma companies have done great to ensure that we can survive.

To wrap it all up in a bill 💸

The best way to make money is to find a gap in the market, find a solution for it and then offer these solutions to people. It’s easier said than done though. The amount of planning and execution that is required for it is stupendous and can’t be fathomed over time. However, if you are the first one to create something, ensure that you take it all the way through with a passion. Who knows? You might just end up becoming super-rich! But before that, you can start off by making a little bit of money on the side by asking – Do Online Surveys Really Help in Paying off Debt?

We hope you loved Zippy Opinion’s blog on how the rich made their money. What do you think about it? Let us know in the comment section below.