2. What is a tycoon?
Tycoon /tai.ˈkuˈn
/
A tycoon is a wealthy and powerful business person, particularly someone
who has made a great deal of money all on their own, rather than inheriting
some money or a company from relatives.
The word tycoon is derived from the Japanese word taikun (大君), which
means "great lord," and it was used as a title for the shogun. The word
entered the English language in 1857 with the return of Commodore Perry to
the United States.
3. John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller (July 8, 1839 – May
23, 1937) was an American oil magnate and
philanthropist. He was the founder of the
Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil
industry and was the first great U.S. business
trust. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil
Company and aggressively ran it until he officially
retired in 1897. Standard Oil began as
an Ohio partnership formed by John D.
Rockefeller, his brother William Rockefeller. As
kerosene and gasoline grew in
importance, Rockefeller's wealth soared, and he
became the world's richest man and first
American worth more than a billion dollars.
Adjusting for inflation, he is often regarded as the
richest person in history.
4. Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 –
August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-
American industrialist, businessman, and
entrepreneur who led the enormous
expansion of the American steel industry in the
late 19th century. He was also one of the most
important philanthropists of his era.
Carnegie was born in Scotland, and migrated
to the United States as a child with his parents.
His first job in the United States was as a
factory worker. Later on he became a
messenger boy. Eventually he progressed up
the ranks of his company. He then founded
the Carnegie Steel Company, which was later
became U.S. Steel. By the 1890s, his company
was the largest and most profitable industrial
enterprise in the world.
5. William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst (April 29, 1863 – August
14, 1951) was an American business magnate and
leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the
publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The
San Francisco Examiner from his father. Moving to
New York City, he acquired The New York Journal and
engaged in a bitter circulation war with Joseph
Pulitzer's New York World which led to the creation
of yellow journalism—sensationalized stories of
dubious veracity. Acquiring more newspapers, Hearst
created a chain that numbered nearly 30 papers in
major American cities at its peak. He later expanded
to magazines, creating the largest newspaper and
magazine business in the world.
6. Hearst Castle
Beginning in 1919, Hearst began to build the
never-completed Hearst Castle, on a 240,000
acre (97,000 ha) ranch at San
Simeon, California, which he furnished with
art, antiques and entire rooms brought from
the great houses of Europe.
Hearst Castle is now a National Historic
Landmark in the United States, and a state
park of California.
7. What do you think?
• Who are some famous tycoons from Chinese
history?
• Are people who are famous for becoming rich
admirable, or should they serve their
community in other ways?
• Do you think that we can learn more about
business by studying the lives of business
tycoons?
8. Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July
1950) is an English business magnate, best known
for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies.
His first successful business venture was a magazine
called Student at age 16. In 1970, he set up an
audio record mail-order business. In 1972, he
opened a chain of record stores, Virgin
Records, later known as Virgin Megastores.
Branson's Virgin brand grew rapidly during the
1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic Airways and
expanded the Virgin Records music label.
Branson is the 4th richest citizen of the United
Kingdom and 254th richest person in the
world, according to the Forbes 2011 list of
billionaires, with an estimated net worth of US$4.2
billion
9. Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic is a company
within Richard Branson's Virgin
Group which plans to provide sub-
orbital spaceflights to the paying
public, along with suborbital space
science missions and orbital launches of
small satellites. In the near future Virgin
Galactic plans to offer orbital human
spaceflights to tourists for several
million dollars a ticket.
10. Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October
28, 1955) is an American business
magnate, investor, philanthropist, author, and
former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the
software company he founded. He is consistently
ranked among the world's wealthiest people and
was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to
2009, except in 2008, when he was ranked
third. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the
positions of CEO and chief software architect, and
remains the largest individual shareholder, with 6.4
percent of the common stock.
Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of
the personal computer revolution. Although he is
admired by many, a number of industry
insiders criticize his business tactics, which they
consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in
some cases been upheld by the courts.
11. Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an
American computer programmer and Internet
entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating
the social networking site Facebook, of which he
is chief executive and president. It was co-founded
as a private company in 2004 by Zuckerberg and
classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo
Saverin, and Chris Hughes while they were students
at Harvard University. In 2010, Zuckerberg was
named Time magazine's Person of the Year. As of
2011, his personal wealth was estimated to be
$17.5 billion and he is one of the youngest
billionaires in history. Zuckerberg’s story can be seen
in the 2010 film The Social Network.
12. What do you think?
• Are business tycoons really talented
people, or are they just lucky?
• What do you think about aggressive business
practices? Is it right for people to force other
companies out of business?
• Who do you know that is very good at
business? What are they like?
• What is your great business idea? How can
you become a billionaire?
