The Billionaire Club Membership

The Billionaire Club Membership
By: Altaf Sahibzada

Jon Rockefeller (1839-1937), an American industrialist and philanthropist, is considered to be the first billionaire, as recorded in 1916.

The prestigious club of billionaires consists of 946 members from 49 countries as in February 2007, according to Forbes with a composite wealth of US $3.5 trillion. There was a big jump in the number of billionaires during 2007 as compared to 793 during 2006 and 586 during 2004. More billionaires got added to this list from countries like Russia, India and Brazil, mainly because of economic growth in these countries.

The top ten countries with most of billionaires are the US (371), Germany (56), Russia (47), India (40), UK (34), Australia (30), Japan (27), Turkey (25), Canada (22) and Brazil (18). Number of billionaires in the USA continues to far outstrip those in other countries. This scenario may take some time to change till other countries catch up in economic growth.

Higher number of billionaires in industrialized countries only indicates that free enterprise and availability of opportunities has much to do with wealth creation. There has to be the right atmosphere for people to create wealth and exploit opportunities.

Anyone with a net worth of at least a billion dollars is a billionaire. In most cases, it will take a lot of time and even a life time to become a billionaire. It needs dedication, perseverance, a quality product etc. Usual industrial categories feeding the industrial club are manufacturing, petroleum, broadcasting, entertainment, basic natural resources, textiles, automotive, publishing, technology etc.

The list of billionaires is an annual Forbes magazine publication. This list varies from year to year with new additions and deletions. The position of billionaires in the list also keeps on changing from year to year. Many factors contribute to the changes in the list. Some are external and some are internal. Some external factors which affect the wealth of individuals are economic conditions of other countries, changes in stock and foreign exchange markets, fluctuations in real estate values, political conditions and the like.

Many countries like India and China are experiencing tremendous growth of late. There may be an increasing number of billionaires from these countries in future. Since the exchange value of US dollar has been going down for quite some time now, it might lead to a decrease in the number of US billionaires.

A large number of people have a burning desire to get to a billion dollar worth of net wealth. Nothing is impossible for a human being. Many present day billionaires have demonstrated that by sheer hard work, passion and patience, it could be an easier goal to become a billionaire than it may seem to be.

The author believes that acquiring a billion dollars of net worth is a possibility for any one who is determined. Give it a try.