Wealth has constantly been a relative concept. Americans from different generations have fantasized about becoming a millionaire. According to Grant Cardone, a person needs to possess at least $20 million to be considered rich.
Millionaires today are practically everyday Americans. During the pandemic in 2020, a lot of them were so close to hitting $22 million in the United States alone. A handful of high-net-worth individuals are so bent on seeing their wealth ascent to a valuation that, for many people, seems monumental.
The First Billionaire
The world’s first-ever billionaire was John D. Rockefeller, who achieved his billionaire status in 1916. When this circumstance was announced in 1916, such a considerable number must have seemed even more elusive than it is today.
Rockefeller achieved his status mainly because of his ownership of Standard Oil Company, which regulates 90% of all the oil in the United States. The interesting part here is that the supreme court has decided to dismantle his company as a consequence of his violation of anti-trust laws.
Before being the world’s first billionaire, Rockefeller was already too wealthy and powerful to the point that he’s become too big for anyone to compete with. And so, his company was asked to be broken down into 34 different entities. But instead of losing money, the entities wind up doubling or tripling their value over the years.
If you would come to think of it, Rockefeller shaped how our today’s world works. He fashioned various industries by finetuning the process of turning oil into fuel. This event has shaped modern America.
Moreover, he owned the railroads that were used to transport oil, making logistics way smoother. Rockefeller had direct input on how everything in the entire country was done, making him the wealthiest person in the world in that generation.
At the time of writing, there were about 2,668 documented billionaires all over the globe. However, most of these new breeds of billionaires don’t have the same impact as the first-ever billionaire had.
Billionaires these days can be categorized into two groups. Either they are into the technology or luxury business.
But… enough of these billionaires. The real question now is who’s going to take the throne of being the first trillionaire?
Before making a guess about who’ll be sitting on the throne, let’s start our quest to find out what a trillionaire looks like.
Not Just An Idea
Ideas are good, but ideas alone are worthless. Like what has been said before, “An idea is worth a million dollars after it’s made a million dollars.” To be successful, you need execution more than a brilliant idea.
Aside from ideas, you need to come up with the actions you can take to achieve your main goal. Your actions should create value for other people. It should serve as a solution to certain problems since no one would pay attention to you if you go for something people don’t actually need.
Most people think that they need a very world-changing idea that nobody has ever thought of — and this is where they often fail. Ideas won’t ever make you wealthy unless you make an effort to pursue them.
Scalability
Great investors don’t always look at what a company has accomplished so far. Instead, they analyze whether you can do it again on a bigger scale.
Examine what’s stopping you from dominating the global market. Do you think you have problems with the distribution? Look for solutions because the lack of scalability could immensely hinder you in your success.
If you have accomplished something big locally, look for ways on how you can do it on a global scale. If you’ve come to think of it, Tesla didn’t make it big just because they managed to create one functioning electric car. They pushed through scaling it within a specific budget. At the time of writing, Tesla has sold over 2 million cars.
Scalability is among the biggest problems of many companies. Most of them cannot produce several products without affecting their quality or without losing money and eventually going out of business.
Business books often mention how to scale, but it’s one of the vital keys to achieving growth and success. Each kind of business possesses different ways to scale.
Logistics
It is critical to pay close attention to logistics if you want to scale.
A lot of people think that overpopulation is the reason why shortages often happen. However, the problem lies in the unequal distribution. In fact, there’s a quote that says, “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”
Getting services and goods from one place to another is a big issue that needs to be ventured into. If you could get it right, you can step up your game, get it wrong, and you’ll be in great trouble.
Now…who will be the first trillionaire?
The person who will become the first-ever millionaire is, perhaps, the one who finds a problem that most people all over the globe care about. That person has the capability to build a system that could provide a solution on a global scale.
According to Tribality Approved, Musk’s wealth has grown an average of 129% every year since 2017. Hence, many people think that Elon Musk is the closest person to reaching the trillionaire status.
We can never be so sure, though. Something extraordinary happens once in a while, so there could be a chance that the first-ever trillionaire is still working like a Trojan day and night, paving his way to the top.
