10 Most Successful Entrepreneurs of 2016

Once again we are approaching the end of the year, and the time has come to make a list of the 10 most successful entrepreneurs of 2016, and check out who made it to the throne of the business world.

Time is money, and these guys definitely didn’t waste it, according to their bank accounts, for they together earned more than 100 billion this year. Quite a success, right? What it takes to become one, you might ask – but the answer is hard to get! It’s a rocky road to success and not everyone is daring, cunning, and capable enough to pass it. And once you overcome it, there is no time for milk and honey, for it’s when the real struggle begins. All gentlemen on the list have a nose for opportunity, and they definitely were at the right place at the right time. However, every one of them is a self-made-starting-from-scratch entrepreneur and therefore a good role model for all newcomers in the world of entrepreneurs.

So, if you are feeling lucky and have some business ideas, stop with the daydreaming and check out most profitable businesses with low start-up costs – who knows, maybe you’re the next Bill Gates. I think we can all agree that the money is the first indicator of success, which is why we looked into Forbes’ lists of richest to find the most successful entrepreneurs of 2016. Hence, we mixed and matched data obtained from 2015 and 2016 lists and calculated how much entrepreneurs increased their wealth with the regard to last year, expressed in percentages. Howbeit, it is to be noted that 2016 is not over yet and that there might be some changes regarding their income in the month to come. After summarizing the result, we made the following list.

10. Michael Bloomberg

Company – Bloomberg L.P.
2016 earnings – $7.3 billion
Wealth increase – 20.5%

This wolf of the Wall Street didn’t cross over to the dark side. Instead, he seized an opportunity, and after 15 years at Salomon Brothers launched a startup in 1981, today known as Bloomberg L.P. After the first sale in 1982, the rest is history – early 1990’s business growth regarding the launch of Bloomberg Business News and subsequent rise in the field of global business and financial information and data crowned with the invention of financial platform called Bloomberg Terminal. Being the 108th Mayor of the New York City, with a total of three mayoral terms starting in November 2001, he struggled with the 9/11 attack aftermath and rose the Big Apple from the ashes. Regardless of his age, as a 72-year-old, he once again found himself at the head of Bloomberg L.P. With few smart moves, such as refocusing its media division on financial and business news, he improved the company’s prosperity, as well as its own, since he reached the 8th place among World’s richest, with the net worth of $42.8 billion.

9. Amancio Ortega

Company – Inditex fashion group (co-founder)
2016 earnings – $7.7 billion
Wealth increase – 11.9%

Clothes don’t make the man is what can be easily said for our 9th place on our list of 10 most successful entrepreneurs of 2016 since his dressing choice is always the same – blazer, white T-shirt, and gray pants. Yet, in the case of Amancio, clothes do make a difference, a lot actually, for he is the founder and former chairman of the Inditex fashion group. This wealthiest European is the most successful retailer in the world with the empire that includes Zara, Pull&Bear, and Massimo Dutti. Therefore, it’s not surprising that he is playing an everlasting cat-and-mouse game with Bill Gates, the richest man in the world. The sky is a limit for this self-made Spanish billionaire since, despite humble beginnings, he gained the fortune of more than $70 billion, with a growth tendency considering his real estate investments in Madrid, Barcelona, London, and Chicago as well as additional $400 million in Inditex dividends annually.

8. Ma Huateng

Company – Tencent Inc.
2016 earnings – $6.8 billion
Wealth increase – 42.2%

From the small start-up to the business magnate – the story of Tencent Holdings is also a story about Chinese low-profile engineer who due to his virtue appeared on the list of richest in China and worldwide. A year after the establishment of the firm in 1998, Ma, the number 8 in our list of most successful entrepreneurs of 2016, and his four co-founders launched the internet messaging service called QQ, which became the largest in the country in a few years. In order to attract more people, he added games to its services. Texting app WeChat, used by more than 800 million people was launched in 2012, and since then his wealth and firm success have significantly amplified. As long as his online gamers are happy, his wealth will grow considering his earnings of $7.5 billion in 2016.

7. Sergey Brin

Company – Alphabet Inc.; Google
2016 earnings – $ 7.7billion
Wealth increase – 26.3%

Whether it’s a matter of the pure intelligence and talent for entrepreneurship or the struggle for existence, many Soviet Jews emigrated from Russia in the second half of the XX century and succeeded in fulfilling the American dream, and in the case of our No 6. on our list of most successful entrepreneurs of 2016 – and much more! Sergey is not the rule, but more the exception, since this year he has added more than $7 billion to his bank account. Sounds dreamy, right? From the Stanford beginnings and research project, with his pal Larry Page, that outgrow to what we know as Google, through the position of special projects director of the GoogleX moonshot factory to the presidency of the Alphabet Inc.– Brin showed nothing but success. A total net worth of $36.8 billion, makes him the richest immigrant ever.

6. Wang Wenyin

Company – Amer International
2016 earnings – $6 billion
Wealth increase – 60.6%

It seems that China’s Prince of Copper is on the right track according to Amer International’s 2014 and 2015 reports on sales growth and income as well as his personal gain of more than $6 billion in 2016. It can be said that Wenyin, the number 6 in our list of most successful entrepreneurs of 2016, is gold mining, but his success relies on copper mining and processing within industrial parks, specialized in the production of copper and cable products, that are part of Amer International Group – his own company. He is challenging the China’s state-owned titans by multiplying Amer’s mines and factories, thus directly influencing the state’s economy and satisfying its demand for the industrial metal. As for the power and significance of the Communist Party – his offices across the country and abroad along with good relations with government and foreign officials are proving that Wang is truly a big player.

5. Larry Page

Company – Alphabet Inc.(CEO); Google
2016 earnings – $8.1 billion
Wealth increase – 27.2%

1998 was a great year for two Stanford, Ph.D. students, Larry Page and aforementioned Sergey Brin, since that year, those two computer scientists and Internet entrepreneurs co-founded the Google Inc. after the invention of the search engine that made our life so much easier. Larry’s introversion and lack of social grace sometimes were the stumbling blocks of his career, since he almost became the Steve Jobs of Google – he could have been banished from his own firm due to misunderstandings with Google’s project managers. However, his wild ambition and self-awareness gained through the years eventually resulted in enviable career, crowned, in 2015, with him becoming the CEO of Alphabet Inc, the Google’s parent company. Moreover, he is funding Kitty Hawk and Zee.Aero, two flying-car startups, that could make him richer than $37 billion, what is his current net worth. And now let’s see the top four most successful entrepreneurs of 2016.

4. Wang Jianlin

Company – Dalian Wanda Group
2016 earnings – $ 8.6 billion
Wealth increase – 35.5%

3-year in a row, China’s richest man, and entrepreneur deserves to be this high on our list for he has earned more than $8 billion this year. Being the founder and chairman of the Dalian Wanda Group, he is holding a monopoly over the real estate business in China, owning more than 21 million square meters of investment property, including hotels, department stores, and shopping malls. Moreover, in 2012 he purchased the AMC Theater, which, along with 213 cinemas that he already owned, made him the big shot in the field of movie and theater. Big game means big money – he expects to triple a multi-billion investment regarding the purchase of U.S. film studio Legendary Entertainment and in that way to bring the Hollywood to China. Construction of theme parks, and various sport-tourism-entertainment facilities in China and worldwide, as well as a 95-story skyscraper in Chicago, are part of his megalomaniac plans that will certainly reserve him a place on the most-successful lists in years to come.

3. Mark Zuckerberg

Company – Facebook (co-founder)
2016 earnings – $ 16.8 billion
Wealth increase – 50.2%

The third place on our list of 10 most successful entrepreneurs of 2016 is reserved for the famous and well-known internet magnate Mark Zuckerberg, the first man of Facebook, a young prodigy that launched this social network in 2004 when he was just 19. After sophomore year, he dropped Harvard and dedicated himself to building the company that today worths more than $350 billion. To all appearances, this was an intelligent risk to take, for he increased his wealth more than 50% in 2016, due to billions from mobile ad sales, the introduction of Facebook Live, which enables streaming of live videos and appearance of virtual reality headsets. He made the World more transparent, open and connected by giving the voice to millions to be heard; and like that is not enough, along with his wife Priscilla promised to give away 99% of his Facebook shares for humanitarian purposes, starting with $3 billion to be spent over the next 10 years for the treatment, cure, and prevention of all diseases.

2. Heinz Hermann Thiele

Company – Knorr-Bremse Group & Vossloh AG
2016 earnings – $7.5 billion
Wealth increase – 117.1%

If a saying “Doing business is a lot like a playing chess” is true, that makes our number two in the list of most successful entrepreneurs of 2016, a hell of a player since he managed to double his wealth in just a year. Seems like the years of experience, legal knowledge, and indigenous mind are finally paying back. For years he was the chairman of two successful companies, Knorr-Bremse and Vossloh, and that’s why this Munich industrialist is one of the world’s leading producers of railway braking systems as well as commercial vehicles and equipment. Although this 74-year announced his withdrawal from the current position, early in 2016, he is still in the business, at least when it comes to his other company Vossloh AG.

1. Jeff Bezos

Company – Amazon.com & Blue Origin
2016 earnings – $29.5 billion
Wealth increase – 85%

If you are a shopaholic then you have definitely heard of the founder and chairman of Amazon.com., the largest online, we might say – store, where you can shop till drop, with just a few clicks. Jeff’s career has been a roller-coaster ride – his start from the scratch and a few failed startups haven’t promised much. However, constant brainstorming and courage to take risks brought him great wealth since he managed to build the merchant empire by selling books online, at least at the beginning. Up to this day, Amazon’s offer covers pretty much everything that comes to your mind. As a fan of Star Trek, he was particularly interested in the space travel which resulted in another founded company called Blue Origin, which main cause is space-exploration. And that’s not all folks, he is the owner of the Washington Post since 2013, as well. All of the above and his $64.3 billion puts Jeff at the top of the list of 10 most successful entrepreneurs of 2016.