Who wants to be a billionaire?

One commenter to my post on why a career in computer programming sucks wrote:

But how many billionaire attorneys can you name? How many rank above Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Sergey and Larry, etc. etc. in any list of income, net worth, or name recognition?

I should begin by pointing out that no one will pay you a billionaire's salary for doing actual work in either computer programming or law. The billionaires mentioned are people who were once programmers but who became entrepreneurs.

To answer this know-it-all's question, I consulted the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans. I got bored with the endeavor after examining the first 75 people on the list, so for the rest of this post we will only discuss the 75 richest Americans, all of them billionaires.

It turns out that there are five law school graduates who are among the 75 richest billionaire Americans:

Sumner Redstone, Harvard JD
Samuel Zell, Uniiversity of Michigan JD
S Robson Walton, Columbua JD
Robert Rowling, Southern Methodist University JD
William Morse Davidson, Wayne State University JD

To be fair to the commenter, the last three don't count because they inherited their money. Any idiot can use a law degree to become a billionaire if he inherits a billion dollars.

It should be noted that 100% of the self-made billionaire lawyers graduated from Top 14 law schools.

The most common way to become a billionaire is to inherit wealth. 23 of the 75 richest Americans inherited their wealth:

Jim Walton
Christy Walton
S Robson Walton
Alice Walton
Helen Walton
Abigail Johnson
Barbara Cox Anthony
Anne Cox Chambers
David Hamilton Koch
Charles De Ganahl Koch
Forrest Edward Mars
Jacqueline Mars
John Franlyn Mars
Ruperty Murdoch
Donald Newhouse
Samuel Newhouse, Jr.
Robert Muse Bass
Robert Rowling
Herbert Kohler
Lester Crown
William Morse Davidson
Leonard Stern
Ray Hunt

One of the best ways to become a self-made billionaire is to attend an Ivy League school. 16 of the 52 self-made billionaires have Ivy League educations:

Warren Buffett, Columbia
Bill Gates, Havard
Carl Ichan, Princeton
John Werner Kluge, Columbia
Edward Crosby Johnson, III, Harvard
Sumner Redstone (Viacom), Harvard
Charles Bartlett Johnson, Yale
Edward Lampert, Yale
Steve Ballmer, Harvard
Geroge B. Kaiser, Harvard
Leonard Blavatnik, Columbia, Harvard
Ronald Owen Perelman, Penn
Michael Bloomberg, Havard
Stephen Schwarzman, Yale, Harvard
Eric Schmidt (Google), Princeton
Jeff Bezos, Princeton

An additional six billionaires have near-Ivy quality education:

Sergey Brin, Stanford
Larry Page, Stanford
Philip H Knight, Stanford
Charles Schwab, Stanford
George Soros, London School of Economics
James H Simons, MIT

The conclusion is clear. If you want to become a self-made billionaire, get the most prestigious educational credentials.

The best degree to get is an MBA. The following nine self-made billionaires have MBAs, and it's worth noting that eight out of the nine have an MBA from one of the nation's top three business schools: Harvard, Wharton, and Stanford.

Steve Ballmer, Harvard, Stanford MBA
Geroge B. Kaiser, Harvard, Harvard MBA
Philip H Knight, Stanford MBA
Charles Egen (Echostar), Wake Forest University MBA
Leonard Blavatnik, Columbia, Havard MBA
Ronald Owen Perelman, Penn, Wharton MBA
Michael Bloomberg, Havard MBA
Charles Schwab, Stanford MBA
Stephen Schwarzman, Yale, Harvard MBA

Finally we get to computer programmers who have become billionaires. There are nine.

Bill Gates
Larry Ellison
Paul Allen
Sergey Brin
Larry Page
Pierre M Omidyar (eBay)
Eric Schmidt
Jeff Bezos
James Goodnight (SAS)

And one honorary mention:

Leonard Blavatnik

Leonard Blavatnik has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Columbia, but he doesn't owe his fortune to software.

Why are there fewer billionaire lawyers than computer programmers? Because law is a more egalitarian profession. All of the BIGLAW firms are partnerships in which there are many decamillionaire partners but no single billionaire founder. If BIGLAW firms were dominated by a single lawyer who owned one third of the firm's wealth, then there would be a lot of billionaire lawyers.

I will wrap up this post with the following admonition: a young person deciding upon his career should not place any weight on whether it will likely make him a billionaire. There is a near infinitesimal chance of becoming a self-made billionaire. It's hard enough just to make it to the top 10% of a profession.

Important things to consider are how well the average member of the profession does, as well as your chance of making it to the top 10% and and how well they have it. Graduates of Top 14 law schools have nearly a 100% chance of getting a BIGLAW job and BIGLAW starts people out these days with $160K, and there's the chance you could make partner and be making as much as a million dollars a year. It's not billionaire status, but it's not so bad. However, if you have the lucky opportunity to get an MBA from Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, or Columbia, then you should definitely choose that over law.

A much easier way to become a billionaire would be to marry an heiress. This is really a lot easier to do than you might think. I personally dated women whose ancestors were billionaires on more than one occasion. I had more dates with heiresses than interviews with BIGLAW despite graduating in the top 10% of the class.

Comments

[before sunrise]

"A much easier way to become a billionaire would be to marry an heiress."

Anyone who does this might enjoy the lifestyle but will also be eternally bitter and resent the woman for all the money she has because, ultimately, her money will never be her husband's money. This strategy is doomed to failure if the goal is to become a billionaire.

I took a quick look at the list and noticed that of the top 75, the bulk is above the age of 50 and those who are under 50, the bulk is in the technology field. I think it's quite safe to say that it's becoming much harder to become a billionaire nowadays and those who are, are mainly in the technology field.

[anon]

HS, I think you should do a post on barriers to entry. A lot of programmers who comment here don't seem to understand how barriers to entry help prevent jobs from being outsourced/insourced and how barriers to entry help keep salaries high.

i wonder if there are more dropouts than lawyers or MBAs. names that come to mind are bill gates, dell, ballmer (i believe he never finished his MBA), and others.

[before sunrise]

Correcting myself - from what I counted there are 15 people who are in their 50's or younger and of those half are in the technology field, therefore, not the bulk.

[Spungen]

A much easier way to become a billionaire would be to marry an heiress. This is really a lot easier to do than you might think. I personally dated women whose ancestors were billionaires on more than one occasion.

IMHO, I'm at least as hot as you are, but to my knowledge I've never dated anyone with a solid family connection to a billionaire or anywhere close. It must have something to do with that Ivy League background of yours. Which hardly makes you an everyman.

[Mensarefugee]

Piffle...who gives a damn about Billionaires anyway?

The only defining characteristic about billionaires is what they did for other people .

Walton, Gates etc.. changed the world to what it is today. After you have more than a couple of million, its the love of the job that keeps you going.

(Yeah, I know you already mentioned something like this in your post).

[Spungen]

Oh, and in case you were thinking, "Ha, that just proves women have to be hotter than men do to hook up with rich people because there's more competition for rich men than rich women," I will note that I never even knew any datable guy who fit that description. So it's not like the billionaires were passing me up.

[David Alexander]

Given that New York City has a tendency to attract lots of people with trust funds and Half Sigma's aspirational tendencies, it wouldn't be that hard for him to meet and date heiresses. My cousin despite not having a college degree until he reached 30 managed to date many heiresses and other related upper class women as well.

IMHO, I'm at least as hot as you are

LMAO, that's a good one...

[Charles P]

>

I am new to posting on this blog, but trying to marry a heiress is IMHO thinking out of the box to a greater extent than the millions of folks who try to play the winner take all Robert Kiyosaki "Be a self made entrepreneur" gam.

By the way,what would be the best way to go about meeting an heiress in the first place.I live in New York City, but am cooped up in a dead end PhD program at CUNY almost all day. Have you ever known of anyone who actually married an heiress in the end? An encouraging story would brighten my day. You should write a post one day suggesting that any sane person should stay completely away from any kind of PhD program( some marketable sciences might be an exception).

[David Alexander]

From a cursory glance of the list, the majority of the last names seem to imply Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, or Germanic origins with few names white ethnic (e.g. Italians, Eastern European) names.

I also found it very interesting that over half the list is under the $2B mark, and that only the first 21 have net worths of $10B. Given the attention given to the number of billionaires in this country, one would have expected to see more billionaires in the $10B and up range.

[Agnostic]

From a cursory glance of the list, the majority of the last names seem to imply Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, or Germanic origins with few names white ethnic (e.g. Italians, Eastern European) names.

Well, central and northwestern Euros do make up the vast bulk of the US population. The obviously overrepresented group is Ashkenazi Jews (there may be others): they make up about 2% of the general population, but there are far more than 8 in that list of 400. The "Good ol' boys" days are long, long gone.

[Peter]

Billionaires are just too uncommon to serve as the basis for any sort of lessons. Except maybe to show that plain dumb luck is a very important factor.

[The Engineer]

>>IMHO, I'm at least as hot as you are,

Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me... don't you?

Ah, the musical arts these days. That song is as much a classic as "Boom, boom, boom, come back to my room, so we can do it all night and I can make you feel right".

[The Engineer]

>>Billionaires are just too uncommon to serve as the basis for any sort of lessons.

I don't know about that. I'm pretty impressed with how often Stamford is mentioned.

To call Standford "near-Ivy league" is actually a put down. It's kind of unique.

[The Engineer]

And by mispelling "Stanford" twice in the same post, in different ways, I must win a special prize.

"Damn you fat fingers! Damn you!".

[Spungen]

"Boom, boom, boom, come back to my room

Not to quibble, but it's "...take you back to my room."

[Wild Pegasus]

The most common way to become a billionaire is to inherit wealth. 23 of the 75 richest Americans inherited their wealth

Actually, the most common way is to start a business that becomes very, very successful: 52 of 75 created their wealth through starting powerful businesses. These businesses are, obviously, in very different fields, but creating wealth is the most common way to get a lot of it.

As for Ivy League degrees, that comes back to the signaling v. quality argument. Are Ivy League people successful because they have Ivy League educations or does the Ivy League attract people who are driven to be successful anyway? Gates, IIRC, had a year of Harvard math before he left for his company, which seems to make his Harvard education mostly pointless.

- Josh

[JewishAtheist]

BIGLAW starts people out these days with $160K, and there's the chance you could make partner and be making as much as a million dollars a year.

Yeah, if you're willing to work 120 hours a week. Your wife and kids will have a great time with your money, I'm sure.

[Lancaster]

Reading posts like this, even a capitalist running dog feels compelled to quote T.S. Eliot:

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us--if at all--not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

[tim lundeen]

I suspect that the correlation between Ivy League and near-Ivy Leage is because these schools select for high IQ and drive.

[David Alexander]

Yeah, if you're willing to work 120 hours a week. Your wife and kids will have a great time with your money, I'm sure.

That's the main reason why I'm not interested in law. Given the hours that you work, the pay just doesn't seem attractive. Plus, if I did have children, I'd prefer to be actively involved in their lives, and I'd prefer to keep my wife company instead of another male doing that job for me.

[The Engineer]

>>Not to quibble, but it's "...take you back to my room."

So noted. It's been a while since I heard that one.

[mondo]

What's the point of being a modern-day billionare when you're expected to have philanthropies instead of harems? I'm envious of no one on the list except for perhaps Larry Ellison.

[David Alexander]

So noted. It's been a while since I heard that one.

What song are you old folks talking about?

[anon]

"Yeah, if you're willing to work 120 hours a week. Your wife and kids will have a great time with your money, I'm sure."

This is bull. New associates at big firms work around 70-80 hours a week, tops. Furthermore, they don’t always work these long hours. Stop exaggerating just because you are a low-paid code monkey.

[anon]

"That's the main reason why I'm not interested in law. Given the hours that you work, the pay just doesn't seem attractive. Plus, if I did have children, I'd prefer to be actively involved in their lives, and I'd prefer to keep my wife company instead of another male doing that job for me."

David, don't believe every thing you read on this site. Law would be a good career for you to look into since you are majoring in Poly Sci. If you can get into a good law school, then your job opportunities and pay will be far better than if you pursue a job in the government.

[JewishAtheist]

This is bull. New associates at big firms work around 70-80 hours a week, tops. Furthermore, they don’t always work these long hours. Stop exaggerating just because you are a low-paid code monkey.

Admittedly, I was working on anecdotal data. I have a relative who's a secretary at a Big law firm. She tells me that all the lawyers at the firm, including partners, work very nearly 365 days a year with very long days. I don't know the precise number.

[JewishAtheist]

If you can get into a good law school, then your job opportunities and pay will be far better than if you pursue a job in the government.

Or, for less pay, you can get a VERY cushy job as a lawyer FOR the government.

[Half Sigma]

Medical doctors work similarly ridiculous hours during their residency.

But once you've put in three years or so with BIGLAW, you can move to an easier job if you don't want to stick with it.

At this age, you are 28 years old with your whole life ahead of you.

People avoiding law because they don't want to deal with three hellish years are lacking in proper future time orientation.

[David Alexander]

At this age, you are 28 years old with your whole life ahead of you.

You mean the rest of life littered with children, cranky wives, aging parents who need more care and attention, and various debilitating ailments?

I'd much rather take my vacations and do fun interesting things with my life when I'm young when I can enjoy them and do them when there's the time and energy to do them properly.

[David Alexander]

New associates at big firms work around 70-80 hours a week, tops.

Am I weird in thinking that's too many hours, or am I a lazy 35-hr a week Francophile?

[The Engineer]

>>What song are you old folks talking about?

"Boom, boom, boom, take you back to my room, so we can do it all night and I can make you feel right"

Or possibly, "you can make me feel right". Spungen?

[dearieme]

"She tells me that all the lawyers at the firm, including partners, work very nearly 365 days a year with very long days." And my wife met a surgeon's wife who claimed her husband worked a 200-hour week.

[anon]

"Am I weird in thinking that's too many hours, or am I a lazy 35-hr a week Francophile?"

Aren't you always complaining that women don't want to date you because of your employment situation?

Trust me, if you start working at a big law firm, you will be able to find yourself a good looking white chick FAST.

[David Alexander]

Aren't you always complaining that women don't want to date you because of your employment situation?

Actually, I've theorized that white girls would turn me down for a date because I'm black and I haven't completed college yet, and I have none of the "social advantages" that a overly masculine ghetto black males has because of my geeky oreo tendencies and traits.

I probably alluded to that when I was complaining about being currently unemployed. Even if I was employed now, I probably wouldn't date a girl my age if she had a college degree, nor would I date the younger female students in classes either.

Trust me, if you start working at a big law firm, you will be able to find yourself a good looking white chick FAST.

Oh, I agree considerably that if I chose that career path, I'd easily find white women. The problem is that I'm not interested in such a career path and my personality isn't the best for somebody in such an career path. BIGLAW requires the alphaish tendencies that I don't have, and I am much too "soft and squishy" for that.

[David Alexander]

And my wife met a surgeon's wife who claimed her husband worked a 200-hour week.

Is one alluding to the idea of not trusting a woman to measure the amount of time spent on "man's work"?

[Half Sigma]

BIGLAW requires the alphaish tendencies that I don't have

I have no idea why people who read my blog think that.

BIGLAW hires the people with the highest law school grades. These are the guys who spend the most time studying in the law library. Hardly "alpha" in the football player/fratboy sense.

[David Alexander]

When I states "alphaish tendencies", I was thinking of the stereotypical strong, confident, bold, yet intellectual masculine leader. That's what BIGLAW is probably looking for in terms of an associate.

[Half Sigma]

I was thinking of the stereotypical strong, confident, bold, yet intellectual masculine leader. That's what BIGLAW is probably looking for in terms of an associate.

You've been watching too many movies where a lawyer with those qualities manages to sway the jury and save his client who is really innocent but was wrongly accused.

That's not what BIGLAW associates do. They do legal research, write motions, etc. Nerdy work, not alpha male work.

[David Alexander]

That's not what BIGLAW associates do. They do legal research, write motions, etc. Nerdy work, not alpha male work.

No arguing in front of judges and juries? Just sitting in a room alone for several hours a day? That sounds a bit more tolerable, but the rumours of the long hours after the introductory years and the rumoured "up and out" processes makes it less appealing. For $150K, it doesn't seem worth it to work for that much money and not be able to enjoy it, but for $500K, that's another case entirely.

[before sunrise]

"That's not what BIGLAW associates do. They do legal research, write motions, etc. Nerdy work, not alpha male work."

I don't think I've ever met a lawyer that wasn't at least a bit nerdy. I think you have to be minimally nerdy to become a lawyer due to all the studying, reading and research involved.

[Half Sigma]

No arguing in front of judges and juries?

As a BIGLAW associate you will NEVER argue in front of a jury.

If you're good, you might be allowed to argue one of your own procediral motions in front of a judge after a few years, but initially a senior associate or partner will claim your work as his own and argue the motion. I haven't worked in BIGLAW so someone more familiar with BIGLAW would be able to more accurately comment.

Just sitting in a room alone for several hours a day? That sounds a bit more tolerable, but the rumours of the long hours after the introductory years and the rumoured "up and out" processes makes it less appealing. For $150K, it doesn't seem worth it to work for that much money and not be able to enjoy it, but for $500K, that's another case entirely.

Yes, you mostly do your work alone, just like a computer programmer but the work is more interesting.

And the salary for partners at the top BIGLAW firms are more like $1 million and not $500K.

"Up and out" is true, but "out" doesn't mean out on the streets and unemployable, it means you can transition into a cushy 40 hr workweek inhouse counsel gig or move to a smaller firm. The competition is for one of the few $1 million/year slots.

[David Alexander]

Hmm, to become a rich lawyer, a content yet middle class government employee, or a poor professor trying to figure out "why black people are poor".

Oh the choices we can make...

[anon]

"Oh, I agree considerably that if I chose that career path, I'd easily find white women. The problem is that I'm not interested in such a career path and my personality isn't the best for somebody in such an career path. BIGLAW requires the alphaish tendencies that I don't have, and I am much too "soft and squishy" for that."

You are hopeless then. If you get a government job, I guarantee you will be complaining that "white women don't want to date me because I'm a lowly government employee".

You have some strange views about the world, and I think you either need to get out more or have your head examined.

[David Alexander]

You are hopeless then. If you get a government job, I guarantee you will be complaining that "white women don't want to date me because I'm a lowly government employee".

Actually, given the vacation time, health care, job security, somewhat relaxed working hours, and pension benefits that one can rack up doing government work, I'd easily give up white women and all women for that. I can spend my free time doing much more productive and enjoyable things for my social health.

Plus dating females is just too expensive and a waste of time. :)

You have some strange views about the world, and I think you either need to get out more or have your head examined.

A lot of people have said this, and I've yet to figure out why I see the world so differently than most other people. Something must be at the root cause of it, and I can't really isolate my upbringing as the cause of it as I did grow up with strict immigrant parents, but they weren't that unusual or extreme. The only thing that may have a role was my hearing impairment when I was an infant which delayed by social development slightly.

[Spungen]

Yes, you mostly do your work alone, just like a computer programmer but the work is more interesting.

Well, don't discount all the asshole partners and associates you're expected to deal with, who hang out in your doorway and look for stuff about your clothes to criticize. But perhaps in a truly whiteshoe firm, one is actually left alone to do work.

Re the alpha male thing: Thinking about male law school classmates who graduated with a BIGLAW job and stayed there (very heavy attrition in the first 3 years), there's a bias to the good-looking athletic non-Coif ones (top-third) rather than the ones with super-high grades. I can think of a few big brains, mostly older guys, who are apparently still at their big firms.

[Spungen]

A lot of people have said this, and I've yet to figure out why I see the world so differently than most other people.

Everyone I knew who grew up around a different race is like that. No matter what the race.

By "like that," though, I'm not including the fear/abhorrence of real women. That's something you need to work on. Probably once you get a regular job and get your teeth fixed you won't be so insecure.

The Engineer, a quick Internet search shows we were both wrong, it's "Let's go back to my room." And "You can make me feel right." Which sounds sort of selfish to me ...

[David Alexander]

Everyone I knew who grew up around a different race is like that. No matter what the race.

You do get a skewed perspective when you're a first generation American, black, and attend mostly white schools.

By "like that," though, I'm not including the fear/abhorrence of real women.

Abhorrence is such a strong word especially since I love women and I had plenty of female friends and I enjoyed their friendship much more than I did with any of my male friends. I may be to scared and nervous to ask a girl out, and I may allude to the lack of sexuality in "real women", but I don't hate women.

[JewishAtheist]

David:

Reasons don't matter. You can change the wqay you think now without worrying about all that junk.

[nobody]

Is HS going to bother to tell the readers that the value of MBA is not the classroom instruction itself but the actual connections people make after class? This is the real reason why Harvard MBA trumps State U MBA.

Without such disclaimer, some might think that if they only got a Ivy league MBA money will start rolling in automatically.