Curated playlist
Businesspeople awarded knighthoods
- Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg walked into Universal Studios without a pass, and the guard waved him in.
- Bob IgerBob Iger began on television sets earning $150 a week and later ran Disney twice.
- Ralph LaurenRalph Lauren received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden on the 4th of January 2025. He was the first fashion designer ever to receive that award. As of May 2025, his net worth was estimated at US$11.9 billion. His…
- Eric SchmidtEric Schmidt ran Google while taking a base salary of just $1 a year. That pay lasted from 2004 through 2010.
- Allen LaneAllen Lane sold the first Penguin paperbacks from a vending machine. He asked why a good book cost more than soap.
- Bill GatesBill Gates and Paul Allen wrote software for a computer they did not have. Their Altair demo worked the first time.
- Lew GradeLew Grade offered to make The Muppet Show in Britain after American networks turned Jim Henson down.
- Michael BloombergMichael Bloomberg was on the ballot in New York City's Republican mayoral primary when voting opened on the morning of the 11th of September 2001. Later that day, officials postponed the primary because of the attacks on the city. The…
- Demis HassabisDemis Hassabis changed one letter to turn a Greek word for butcher into his surname. He later won a Nobel Prize.
- Richard BransonRichard Branson, born on the 18th of July 1950 in Blackheath, London, left school at sixteen with a prediction ringing in his ears. On his last day, his headmaster, Robert Drayson, told him he would either end up in prison or become a…
- Ratan TataRatan Tata spent three days standing outside the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel while an armed operation played out inside. The attack came in November 2008, carried out by terrorists from the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Many lives were…
- Thomas LiptonThomas Lipton challenged for the America's Cup five times and never won. He got a cup as the best of all losers.