Business Advice From Billionaires

If you want to learn about entrepreneurship, investing, and becoming wealthy.This is a compilation of advice, videos, and books created or recommended by billionaires.
We don’t hear much about billionaires from day to day. This is partly because there are so few of them (there are currently about 1,000 billionaires in terms of US dollars in the world, which is 0.000015% of the population) and partly because most of them keep a low profile. Luckily, some members of this elite group have offered some help to the rest of us.

Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson is the founder of the “Virgin” brand of over 350 companies.
Net worth: 8.6 billion USD

Books written by Richard Branson

• Losing My Virginity (1999) – This is Branson’s first autobiography. It vividly details everything from his early teenage ventures to his death-defying ballooning attempts to his hard-fought success with Virgin.
• Screw It, Let’s Do It (2006) – This book contains more life lessons that helped Branson survive and build a fortune.

Videos of Richard Branson

• Richard Branson interview on TED Talks
• Richard Branson interviews on Charlie Rose (several here dating from 1998 to 2008)
• Richard Branson speaking at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival

Quotes by Richard Branson

• “Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”
• “Fortunately we’re not a public company – we’re a private group of companies, and I can do what I want.”

Mark Cuban

Currently chairman of HDNet and owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, Mark Cuban gained his billionaire status in 1999 by selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo! for 5.9 billion in stock.
Net worth: 2.8 billion USD

Blog Posts by Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban is the only billionaire I know of who publishes a blog. Blog Maverick is where Cuban frequently writes about business, and technology, and basketball. Here are some excellent posts:

• Success & Motivation
• The One Thing in Life You Can Control: Effort
• The Best Equity is Sweat Equity
• The Sport of Business
• Success & Motivation: Don’t Lie to Yourself

Videos of Mark Cuban

• Beyond The Glory, a television biography of Mark Cuban.
• Mark Cuban interviews on Charlie Rose

Quotes by Mark Cuban

• It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because… All that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.

Warren Buffet

Warren Buffett is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a massive conglomerate with holdings in GEICO, Costco, Fruit of the Loom, Coca-Cola, American Express, Nike, and dozens more.
Net worth: 62.0 billion USD

Books Authored by Warren Buffet

• The Essays of Warren Buffett (2008) – Every year Buffett writes a letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. This is an organized a collection of all of those letters from the past few decates.

Books Warren Buffet Collaborated On

• The Intelligent Investor (2003) – Buffet wrote the preface and appendix of this revised edition and has called it the best book ever written on investing.
• Buffet has also recommended dozens of other books over his lifetime.

Videos of Warren Buffet

• Warren Buffet speaks to MBA students at the University of Florida
• Warren Buffet interviews on Charlie Rose

Quotes by Warren Buffet

• “Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.”
• “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
• “The dumbest reason in the world to buy a stock is because it’s going up.”

Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison is the co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, a major enterprise software company. Today he is ranked as the 14th richest person in the world. Not bad for a college dropout.
Net worth: 25.0 billion USD

Books Featuring Larry Ellison

• Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle (2004) – A biography of Larry Ellison and his company, Oracle, with commentary by Ellison.

Videos of Larry Ellison

• Larry Ellison interviews on Charlie Rose

Quotes by Larry Ellison

• “I have had all of the disadvantages required for success.”
• “When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.”

Eric Schmidt

Dr. Eric Schmidt became a billionaire from the stock options he received as the CEO of Google. Today he is also a member of the Board of Directors of Apple.
Net worth: 6.6 billion USD

Videos of Eric Schmidt

• Eric Schmidt interviews on Charlie Rose
• Interview with Eric Schmidt by iinnovate
• Schmidt speaking about innovation at Stanford
• List of short videos of Schmidt speaking to students at Stanford
• Speech on technology, advertising, search at the Seoul Digital Forum

Business Models by Eric Schmidt

• 70/20/10 Model – an employee resource management model

Quotes by Eric Schmidt

• “The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn’t understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.”
• “Anytime you’re in a pressure situation you find out who’s going to step up and do it and who’s going to fade into the background.”
• “Technology is always evolving, and companies – not just search companies – can’t be afraid to take advantage of change.”

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is the co-founder and CEO of Apple Steve Jobs and he was the majority shareholder of Pixar when Disney bought it in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock.
Net worth: 5.4 billion USD

Videos with Steve Jobs

• Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address at Stanford

Interviews with Steve Jobs

• BusinessWeek Interview

Quotes by Steve Jobs

• “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”
• “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”
• “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

Larry Page

Cofounder of Google, Inc.
Net worth: 18.0 billion USD

Videos of Larry Page

• Larry page gives advice for entrepeneurs at Standford in 2002

Quotes by Larry Page

• “We don’t have as many managers as we should, but we would rather have too few than too many.”

Sergey Brin

Cofounder of Google, Inc.
Net worth: 18.0 billion USD

Videos of Sergey Brin

• Sergey Brin speaks to a class at UC Berkeley in 2005
• Sergey Brin and Larry Page interview on Charlie Rose

Quotes by Sergey Brin

• “Obviously everyone wants to be successful, but I want to be looked back on as being very innovative, very trusted and ethical and ultimately making a big difference in the world.”