How
long before the owner and founder of the world’s biggest bookstore becomes the
wealthiest man in the world – ever?
Forbes announced who made the cut in its
annual list of billionaires. This year’s
collection featured the largest number of billionaires in the world – 2,043 –
(up 13%) which collectively represented a record of combined assets that
exceeded 7.67 trillion dollars – an increase of 18% over last year. Billionaires from a year ago that increased their
wealth outnumbered decliners, 3-to-1.
Bill
Gates, the Windows pioneer, remained No. 1 for the fourth straight year. His fortune of $86 billion was up from $75 billion
a year ago. His numbers continue to scale
higher even though he gives away billions with his amazing Gates Foundation.
Warren
Buffett, the guru of investing, took back the No. 2 spot with a gain of $14.8
billion last year. His $75.6 billion net
worth exceeds that of Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos, but not for long.
Bezos,
worth 72.8 billion bucks, could become the first 100,000,000,000-dollar
man. His fortune juggernauted $27.6
billion in just 12 months.
Of
course Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1995 and it quickly became the planet's biggest
online bookstore, then the biggest online retailer, and now the biggest
bookstore. He is aiming to become the
world’s biggest retailer and most powerful man, period.
Interestingly,
of the top 10 richest people, many of them have been enriched in part, because
of their role in mass communications.
Michael Bloomberg has a media empire; Mark Zuckerberg runs Facebook and
dominates the social media landscape; Bezos has Amazon; and Gates created a dominant
software used by writers and businesses.
Of
the world’s wealthiest 68 people, only five are women. The richest, at No. 14, Liliano Bettencourt,
inherited her father’s company, L’Oreal.
She owns 33% of the cosmetics giant.
Unfortunately,
the publishing industry’s wealthiest, are not well represented on this
list. Best-selling authors, book
publishing tycoons, and bookstore owners can’t compete with the riches earned
from energy, military, technology, or retail.
Being
a writer or involved in the arts has its own rewards and those riches can
exceed what billions of dollars can do for someone.
However, to have a couple of billion dollars couldn’t hurt!
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Brian
Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and
not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email
him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in
the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2017©. Born and
raised in Brooklyn, now resides in Westchester. Named one of the best book
marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs
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