Friday, 4 July 2025

What age world’s richest billionaires start their own business?‎

Many of the richest billionaires in the world established their own business at the age of twenty or even younger, which led to the belief among some that the upper hand when starting a new business is at this age, and that you have missed the opportunity.

There are many examples of entrepreneurs who have succeeded in building their own businesses, whose value has now exceeded several hundred billions, and some of them have crossed the trillion dollar mark for young people in their second or third decade, such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, as Elon Musk established his first company. “Zip 2” at the age of 24, and its acquisition after only 4 years led to the launch of his second project, “X.com”, which later turned into “Paypal”.

But most of these examples are just a departure from the rule, as most of the business founders, especially the most successful of them, launched their projects from the age of 35 years or older, according to Al-Arabiya.

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According to a 2018 study from Northwestern University, middle-aged founders are two to three times more likely to be successful than those in their twenties or even younger.

40-year-olds make up 3% of startup founders compared to their 25-year-old counterparts at 1.7% and are 1.3 times more likely to found a startup in the top 0.1% in terms of value.

The 2015 US Census data survey also showed that 55% of businesses between the ages of 6 and 10 were started by their founders, with an average age of 36.5 years, compared to only 4.8% for young people in their twenties.

This is due to several reasons, the most important of which is the strength and breadth of their relationships, their reputation that extends for a longer period of time, and a wider range of experiences, as well as a deeper understanding of the potential risks that young people may ignore simply because their idea is wonderful, exciting, and follows a fad that may not have long-term legs. ..

Here is the age at which the world’s richest billionaires started their own businesses:

Bill Gates (19 years old)

Mark Zuckerberg (19)

Debbie Fields (20)

Walt Disney (21)

Steve Jobs (21)

Jeff Bezos (30)

Elon Musk (24)

Charles Schwab (34)

Oprah Winfrey (32)

Estee Lauder (38)

Henry Ford (39)

Vera Wang (40)

Sam Walton (44)

Arianna Huffington (55)

Colonel Sanders (62)

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