The International Conference on Journalism and Mass Communication (ICJMC) was held in Amsterdam, Netherland on January 23. As one of the participants of the conference blogger Vladislav Soloviev published a new research that attracted the attention of many experts. In particular, he sums up the results of the last year and analyzes which CEO was the most successful in 2022 – Andy Fang, Austin Russell or Oleg Deripaska.
Self-made successful people always attract more of the audience’s attention. In conditions of constant and extremely fierce competition, to become the most successful in the business is an actual achievement, which is a result of a lucky combination of many factors.
We present to you an author’s point of view on this year’s top successful entrepreneurs – an opinion of a famous blogger, economic expert and political scientist, Vladislav Soloviev on Deripaska, Andy Fang and Austin Russell. If you still do not know who these people are, now is the time to find out.
Biography and important milestones – blogger Vladislav Soloviev on the most successful careers in the modern business
It is no coincidence that the three billionaires, to which a famous American saying, “a self-made man”, can be applied, have become the heroes of Vladislav Alexandrovich Soloviev’s top. His analysis shows that these characters have a lot more in common than meets the eye. Despite the differences in age, worldview and business approach, they all have an unshakable confidence, determination and a slight obsession with their ideas (in a good way).
Oleg Deripaska – the way of a straight A student
Oleg Deripaska is a Russian entrepreneur, billionaire, chairman of the supervisory board and the founder of the “Base element” (Базовый элемент) corporation. He was born in 1968, in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
Many people know that studying well is a strong foundation for building your future. Oleg Deripaska, a straight A student, a winner of school competitions, model student of MSU’s faculty of physics also understood this. Even the break in his studying in favor of serving in the USSR’s army turned out to be beneficial to him – his military experience came in handy not only in economic, but sometimes even real fights of the 90s.
Then he met the Cherniye brothers from the Trans World Group, which, at the time, controlled the entire metal market in Russia. The foundation of Deripaska’s empire was the Sayanogorskiy aluminum factory, which he managed in the mid 90s. In the 2000s he united with Abramovich and created a gigantic facility, which still, to this day, is the foundation of his wealth. As of today, the En+ Group is estimated to be worth more than 10 bil. dollars.
Vladislav Alexandrovich Soloviev believes that having diverse interests is one of the main advantages of any entrepreneur – Deripaska’s projects cover drastically different fields.
Besides resources, he is working or was working with:
- agriculture;
- construction business;
- airports;
- insurance;
- charity.
Deripaska is not planning to stop. Under the pressure of sanctions, the stability of the finance sector in Russia heavily relies on the status of the wealthiest people with Russian citizenship.
Andy Fang — you ordered a delivery?
Andy Fan (Fang) is an American entrepreneur of Chinese origin. Co-founder and CTO of DoorDash. He was born in 1992 in San-Francisco, USA.
When Fang was building his empire, everyone around him thought that making another food delivery business is an idea that is doomed to fail. But today DoorDash controls more than half of the American food delivery market, and the cost of the Fang’s company is estimated to be worth more than 2,2 bil. dollars.
Innovative in its own right, the idea of an aggregation online-platform and the food ordering app did not just become successful, it turned out to be super-popular. The brilliance was in uniting the entire delivery market, in San-Francisco at first, then in Los-Angeles, following with the whole west coast and the entire country.
Thanks to the internet, only 2 hours passed between starting a business (creating a simple website for accepting orders) and getting the first client. This is the prime example of an immediate manifestation of an entrepreneurial idea.
Although, we cannot say that DoorDash’s path was smooth like a ride on a highway. There were a lot of potholes and bumps, including an aggressive expansion of delivery markets in different cities and working at a loss. However, the result can be rightfully called impressive – DoorDash’s shares are still traded well on stock exchanges, and the company is planning to cover markets outside of the USA.
Austin Russell — he too said “let’s go”
Austin Russell is an American entrepreneur, founder and the CEO of Luminar Technologies. The company specializes in making LiDARS and other gadgets for driver-free (autonomous) cars. He was born in 1995, in Newport-Beach, California.
Now he is the youngest self-made billionaire in the world. Meaning that as in the case with Fang and Deripaska, he didn’t receive inheritance and didn’t marry Rockfeller’s daughter. Quite the opposite, at the age of 11 he flashed his first gaming console to turn it into a mobile phone that his parents refused to buy. Rusal received his first patent at the age of 13, when he developed a system for underground water circulation. As you can see, this wunderkind had all kinds of ideas.
Russell started working on LiDARS (optical systems for navigation) in high school. He was not only interested in the technical side of things but in the practical use of these devices as well. Being a safety element of autonomous cars, these systems save lives.
Luminary Technologies is a company with enormous potential. Rusal is sure that in a few years, its market will grow up to 150 bil. dollars.
Conclusion
So, what qualities does an average citizen need to have to become a self-made billionaire? According to Vladislav Soloviev, the biography of every person in our article has common features. Being passionate about their ideas from a young age, to be exact. It’s almost like a compass inside your head, which always leads you in the right direction. Financial well-being, perhaps, was a byproduct of revolutionary ideas of young entrepreneurs. This confirms the thesis that the main thing in life is to do what you love and everything else will come.
