FX.co ★ First jobs of Forbes billionaires

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos, whose fortune is valued at $197 billion, used to be employed as a cook at McDonald's. He made burgers at his first job and his hourly wage was just $2.69. Although this experience has nothing in common with the high-tech sector, it played a significant role in shaping the business qualities of the future IT billionaire. Jeff Bezos often mentions that working at McDonald's taught him to appreciate hard work and showed him the importance of customer focus. These lessons were later applied when he founded Amazon, a company that dramatically transformed the retail market.

Mark Zuckerberg

Founder of the world's largest social network Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, whose fortune exceeds $180 billion, began his career as a software engineer but without earning a salary. While still in high school, he developed an open-source music recommendation program called Synapse. The project attracted the attention of major investors, including Microsoft. However, Zuckerberg declined to sell Synapse for the $1 million he was offered. Ironically, five years later, Microsoft purchased a stake in Facebook for $240 million.

Warren Buffett

Founder of the Berkshire Hathaway hedge fund Warren Buffett whose fortune is valued at $150 billion began his working life delivering newspapers for The Washington Post, earning $175 a month. In his youth, he also sold chewing gum and Coca-Cola door to door. By the age of 15, Buffett had saved $2,000, of which he invested $1,200 in a 40-acre farm under a profit-sharing agreement with a farmer. The billionaire has often admitted that all of this experience laid the foundation for his future investment decisions and helped him rise to the top of the financial world.

Mark Cuban

Investor Mark Cuban, with a personal net worth estimated at $5.4 billion, also began his journey in business with door-to-door sales. At the age of 12, he sold garbage bags to earn money for new basketball shoes. The billionaire has often said that this experience helped him develop valuable skills like self-confidence, persistence in achieving goals, and the ability to persuade. In 2023, Cuban sold his ownership of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team for more than $4 billion.

Oprah Winfrey

Famous TV host Oprah Winfrey, whose fortune today is estimated at $3 billion, was once employed as a grocery store clerk, earning 50 cents an hour. Despite the tough job, the future billionaire stayed determined and worked towards her goal. By the age of 16, she was already reading news on the WVOL radio station in Nashville, and by 19, she was invited to host the talk show People Are Talking, which became the launching pad for her stunning career in American television.

Richard Branson

Richard Branson with a net worth of $2.7 billion began his career with a little-known youth magazine called Student, which he founded with his friends. To financially support the project, which was aimed at students, Branson started Virgin, a company that initially sold records by mail. This venture laid the foundation for his future Virgin empire, which eventually expanded into a record label and a multi-industry conglomerate.