Friday, April 3, 2009

75 Richest Men in History

Outliers has a very interesting list. Malcolm Gladwell has compiled the list of 75 richest people in the history of mankind.

Some interesting names in the list are:

3. Czar of Russia, Nicholas II
7. Henry Ford
12. Pharaoh of Egypt, Amenophis III
21. Cleopatra
37. Bill Gates


There are a few Indians in the list too:

40. Mukesh Ambani
42. Lakshmi Mittal
48. Anil Ambani
68. K. P. Singh (of DLF)

Imagine these 4 Indians are among the richest in the history of mankind.

Wait! There is another Indian:

5. (yes 5, that is not a typo) Nizam of Hyderabad Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII.

Hmmm.. Something wrong with the list. Where is Akbar the Great?

By the way, at number 1 and 2 are John D. Rockfeller and Andrew Carnegie

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2 comments:

Uncertain Princess said...

i wana b 1 too...

Mainak said...

Ok so you have read Outliers.

Unluckily I stumbled upon this post after I posted a comment on the other one.

There you are. That was my point. Riches have always been inherited and will continue to be.

Rags to riches stories are very exciting but the truth is there are hundreds of people who struggle to become rich instead of a lot of hard work they put in. There is always an element of luck in it.

P.S. Assuming that something is wrong with the list, one can still safely say that the Nizam of Hyderabad was rich enough. One doesn't need rocket science for that!

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