Curated playlist

American billionaires

Donald TrumpDonald Trump was a millionaire in inflation-adjusted terms by age eight.
LeBron JamesLeBron James led Cleveland back from a 3-1 Finals deficit, a first in NBA history. It ended a 52-year title wait.
Taylor SwiftEvery record label in Nashville turned Taylor Swift away when she was 11. She kept going and began writing songs.
Jay-ZNo major label would sign Jay-Z, so he sold burned CDs out of his car.
Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg walked into Universal Studios without a pass, and the guard waved him in.
Rupert MurdochRupert Murdoch kept a bust of Lenin in his rooms at Oxford. Peers called him "Red Rupert".
Bruce SpringsteenBruce Springsteen threw the first acetate of his own album Born to Run into the swimming pool of his hotel in 1975. The record was being mastered while the band toured, and he was furious at what he heard. He briefly considered scrapping…
BeyoncéOn the 13th of December 2013, Beyoncé released a complete album on the iTunes Store with no warning and no promotion. Within six days it had sold one million digital copies, a record for any album on iTunes at the time. The artist behind…
Elon MuskIn 2001, Elon Musk traveled to Moscow twice to buy missiles, hoping to launch a plant greenhouse to Mars.
George LucasGeorge Lucas turned down a higher directing fee for Star Wars. He asked for toy and merchandise rights instead.
John D. RockefellerJohn D. Rockefeller, the son of a traveling con artist, became the first billionaire in the United States.
Daniela AmodeiDaniela Amodei started college on a classical flute scholarship. She now leads Anthropic as its president.
Howard Marks (investor)In 1995, Howard Marks and four partners left TCW to start Oaktree Capital Management.
Mark ZuckerbergIn January 2024, Mark Zuckerberg turned to families of harmed children at a Senate hearing and apologized.
Kim KardashianIn November 2025, Kim Kardashian announced that she had failed her first attempt at the California Bar Exam. The news travelled quickly, because she is the eighth-most-followed individual on Instagram and the thirteenth-most-followed on…
Bill GatesBill Gates and Paul Allen wrote software for a computer they did not have. Their Altair demo worked the first time.
Eric SchmidtEric Schmidt ran Google while taking a base salary of just $1 a year. That pay lasted from 2004 through 2010.
Michael JordanMichael Jordan was cut from his high school varsity team as a sophomore for being too short.
Fred TrumpFrederick Christ Trump was an American real estate developer who built more than 27,000 apartments in New York. He was born in the Bronx on the 11th of October 1905 to German immigrant parents, and he died in 1999. One of his five children…
Magic JohnsonMagic Johnson told the world he had HIV from the free throw line in 1991. He was 32 and a five-time NBA champion.
Andrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie sat down in 1868, at the age of 33, and wrote himself a memo that read like a vow. He called the piling up of wealth one of the worst forms of idolatry. He planned to cap his income at $50,000 a year and retire from…
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Schwarzenegger broke into a locked gym on weekends as a teenager. He later became California's governor.
Warren BuffettWarren Buffett's yearbook photo called him a future stockbroker. He was seventeen and liked math.
Gordon MooreMoore's law began as a ten-year forecast that Gordon Moore wrote for a magazine. He never meant it as a law.
George SorosAt 14, George Soros posed as the Christian godson of a government official to survive the Nazi occupation of Hungary.
Donald SterlingThe NBA banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life in 2014 after a private recording of him became public.
Jim IrsayJim Irsay was 24 years old when he became general manager of the Indianapolis Colts, the youngest person ever to hold that title in the NFL. He stayed with the franchise for the rest of his life, rising from front-office apprentice to its…
Howard LutnickHoward Lutnick was taking his young son to kindergarten on the morning of the 11th of September 2001. That errand kept him out of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, where his firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, had its headquarters. His…
Selena GomezIn 2016, Selena Gomez became the first person to reach 100 million followers on Instagram, a milestone Time later singled out in its Firsts series. Gomez is an American actress, singer, songwriter, businesswoman, and producer, born in…
Bernie MadoffBernie Madoff told his own sons in December 2008 that the fund he ran was "just one big lie." Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financier, born in 1938, who had once served as chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. He admitted to…
Scott BessentScott Bessent won Senate confirmation as United States secretary of the treasury on the 27th of January 2025, by a vote of 68-29. On that same day, a man carrying several Molotov cocktails and a knife, who intended to murder him, was…
Jensen HuangJensen Huang founded Nvidia in a Denny's booth, where he once worked as a dishwasher. Three engineers pooled $600.
Sam AltmanSam Altman was fired as OpenAI's CEO in November 2023. Most of the staff threatened to quit, and he returned.
Jamie DimonIn November 1998, Sandy Weill asked Jamie Dimon to resign from Citigroup. Dimon was forty-two and had no plan.
Erik PrinceErik Prince, the founder of the private military contractor Blackwater, once defended his company with a line that has followed him ever since. "No one under our care was ever killed or injured. We kept them safe, all the while we had 30…
Gabe NewellGabe Newell, the president and majority owner of Valve Corporation, has lived mostly at sea since the COVID-19 pandemic. He is an American video game developer and businessman, and he co-founded the company he now controls. His path to…
Dario AmodeiOpenAI's board once asked Dario Amodei to replace Sam Altman as its chief executive. He turned it down.
Jim SimonsJim Simons, born James Harris Simons, once explained his dislike of publicity by borrowing a line from Benjamin the Donkey in Animal Farm. "God gave me a tail to keep off the flies. But I'd rather have had no tail and no flies. That's kind…