How Billionaires Become Billionaires

The Winklevii Whinge-athon Continues

Members of the Lucky Sperm Club Hold a 6 Year Long Pity Party

Will it ever stop? The whining that is. It's getting old.

I have to admit that it's been a rough time for the poor Brothers Winklevoss (or "Winklevii" as they are known) since last summer. First, The Social Network was a smash hit (and a probable Oscar best picture winner) that offers a positive portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg as a driven genius--albeit one suffering from poor social skills like any C.Sci. major. Then Time magazine chickens out at the last moment in December, and instead of making the voters' choice, Julian Assange, its Man of the Year, picks Zuckerberg. Finally Mark Z appears on SNL a week ago when Jesse Eisenberg was hosting and looks good yet again. Mark is on a roll.

Meanwhile, the Winklevoss twins can do nothing but bitch and moan in stereo about how Mark stole their idea. Come on guys, grow the fuck up. You were born with the proverbial silver gold spoons in your mouths and have had every advantage in life since the moment of birth. There are something like 6.8 billion people on the planet. You were born among the luckiest 100,000.You're members of the Lucky Sperm Club. Move on with your lives. Do something on your own accounts. The only times we ever hear about you since 2003 are when you're whining about how Zuckerberg out-competed you.

Here's some free advice: use your inherited wealth, your Harvard pedigrees, Ivy League connections, and the $65 million you have already squeezed out of Mark, to actually do something with your lives instead of ending up as nothing more than footnotes in the various Mark Zuckerberg biographies that will be coming out for many years.You guys are rapidly becoming a comedy act ... an unintentional and painfully unfunny comedy act.

And ditch the man-purses, guys. What were you thinking?

If you want to see what I'm talking about, watch these guys embarrass themselves yet again: 

The Tycoon Playbook

I just added 11 more pages of detail for anyone seriously interested in getting the Tycoon Playbook.

 

Nathan Tinkler Australia's Youngest Billionaire

Nathan Tinkler, Australia's biggest billionaire, has gotten a lot richer since taking his company public last August.

From mining to pizza, technology to dental care, rising share prices and successful company floats have added tens of millions  and in some cases hundreds of millions  of dollars to the wealth of leading businessmen and women since July.

Heading the list of big winners is coal tycoon Mr Tinkler, who has made a $100 million bid to buy the Newcastle Knights rugby league club.

Already one of the state's richest men, the public listing of his Aston Resources company in August - and increases in the value of stock since - has boosted his bank balance by at least $634 million, earning the 34-year-old a place in Queensland's exclusive billionaire club with an overall wealth estimated at about $1.027 billion.

"Nathan is a true entrepreneur," Mr Hannigan, who was headhunted from Xstrata to run Aston, said.

"His skill lies in identifying an opportunity, moving quickly to secure it and building the right team to develop it."

Nathan Tinkler is definitely worth tracking if you're interested in learning from tycoons.

 

Who is the World's Richest Man?

Looks like the world's richest man is Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The Guardian estimates his fortune at 70 billion USD. Yes, with a big fat "B." Either the Egyptian civil service pays extremely well or this scumbag has been robbing his people blind for at least 30 years. No wonder he holds onto power like Gollum. (Mubarak evens looks a bit like him.)

President Hosni Mubarak's family fortune could be as much as $70bn (£43.5bn) according to analysis by Middle East experts, with much of his wealth in British and Swiss banks or tied up in real estate in London, New York, Los Angeles and along expensive tracts of the Red Sea coast. After 30 years as president and many more as a senior military official, Mubarak has had access to investment deals that have generated hundreds of millions of pounds in profits. Most of those gains have been taken offshore and deposited in secret bank accounts or invested in upmarket homes and hotels. According to a report last year in the Arabic newspaper Al Khabar, Mubarak has properties in Manhattan and exclusive Beverly Hills addresses on Rodeo Drive.

His sons, Gamal and Alaa, are also billionaires. (source: Mubarak family fortune could reach $70bn, say experts)

Last time I checked, Carlos Slim was estimated to be worth only $54 billion.