Billionaire Late Bloomers, by Age of Their Breakthrough

Billionaire Late Bloomers, by Age of Breakthrough

More often than not, individuals and media alike focus on the success stories of early bloomers.

These early-age accomplishments of some of the richest people in the world are highlighted as marvels. The early achievements of hoodie-wearing CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg or Evan Spiegel—who became billionaires at ages 23 and 25, respectively—come to mind.

But there’s also the case to be made for the late bloomer. According to the Census Bureau, a 35-year-old is three times more likely to found a successful start-up than someone aged 22.

The infographic above, from Virtual College, highlights 45 billionaires who had their breakthrough later in life, by the age of their respective breakthrough.

Billionaires With Career Breakthroughs at or After Age 35

Though these late successes span many different industries and countries, there are many consistent through lines.

The 45 billionaires highlighted had an average age of 41 and an average net worth of $10 billion.

Billionaire	Company	Age of Breakthrough	Net Worth ($B)	Nationality
Eduardo Eurnekian	Corporacion America	56	$1.3	🇦🇷 Argentina
Issad Rebrab	Cevital	54	$4.8	🇩🇿 Algeria
Torstein Hagen	Viking Cruises	54	$1.5	🇳🇴 Norway
Ion Tiriac	Banca Tiriac	51	$1.7	🇷🇴 Romania
Mike Adenuga	Globacom	50	$6.1	🇳🇬 Nigeria
Hussain Sajwani	Damac Properties	49	$2.4	🇦🇪 UAE
Radhakishan Damani	Dmart	48	$16.5	🇮🇳 India
Robert Kuok	Shangra-La Hotels and Resorts	48	$12.6	🇲🇾 Malaysia
Ricardo Po	Century Pacific	47	$1.1	🇵🇭 Philippines
Alain Tarvella	Altarea Cogedim Group	46	$2.0	🇫🇷 France
Seo Jung-Jin	Celltrion	44	$14.2	🇰🇷 South Korea
James Dyson	Dyson Ltd	44	$9.7	🇬🇧 UK
Walter Faria	Grupo Petropolis	43	$2.9	🇧🇷 Brazil
Horst Paulmann	Cencosud	43	$3.3	🇨🇱 Chile
Wolfgang Marguerre	Octapharma Group	42	$9.1	🇩🇪 Germany
Hansjorg Wyss	Synthes	42	$6.0	🇨🇭Switzerland
Giorgio Armani	Giorgio Armani S.p.A.	41	$7.7	🇮🇹 Italy
Dietrich Mateschitz	Red Bull	40	$29.6	🇦🇹 Austria
Sergei Katsiev	Megapolis	40	$1.7	🇷🇺 Russia
Li Xiting	Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics	40	$21.5	🇸🇬 Singapore
Jim Simmons	Renaissance Technologies	40	$24.6	🇺🇸 U.S.
Richard White	WiseTech Global	39	$3.5	🇦🇺 Australia
Amancio Ortega	Zara	39	$77	🇪🇸 Spain
Barry Lam	Quanta Computer	39	$5.3	🇹🇼 Taiwan
Arnon Milchan	New Regency Enterprises	38	$3.4	🇮🇱 Israel
Taha Mikati	Investcom	38	$2.5	🇱🇧 Lebanon
Arnout Schuijff	Adyen	38	$3.5	🇳🇱 Netherlands
Chuchat & Daonapa Petampai	Muangthai Capital	38	$3.5	🇹🇭 Thailand
Jaime Gilinski Bacal	Banco De Colombia	37	$3.8	🇨🇴 Colombia
Mohamed Al Fayed	Genevaco (Ritz Paris, Harrods)	37	$1.8	🇪🇬 Egypt
Vardis Vardinyannis	Motor Oil Hellas	37	$1.4	🇬🇷 Greece
German Larrea Mota-Velasco	Grupo Mexico	37	$25.9	🇲🇽 Mexico
Martin Lorentzon	Spotify	37	$6.0	🇸🇪 Sweden
Tran Ba Duong	Traco	37	$1.6	🇻🇳 Vietnam
Strive Masiyiwa	Econet Global	37	$1.5	🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
Zygmunt Solorz-Zak	Polsat	36	$3.2	🇵🇱 Poland
Mehmet Aydinlar	Acibadem Healthcare Group	36	$1.3	🇹🇷 Turkey
Joseph Tsai	Alibaba Group	35	$11.6	🇨🇦 Canada
Jack Ma	Alibaba Group	35	$48.4	🇨🇳 China
Eduard Kucera	Avast	35	$1.1	🇨🇿 Czech Republic
Bidzina Ivanishvili	Rossiysky Kredit	35	$4.8	🇬🇪 Georgia
Tahir	The Mayapada Group	35	$3.3	🇮🇩 Indonesia
John Armitage	Egerton Capital	35	$2.6	🇮🇪 Ireland
Tadashi Yanai	Uniqlo	35	$44.1	🇯🇵 Japan
Richard Hart	Raynolds Packaging Group	35	$8.7	🇳🇿 New Zealand

Here are just a few highlights of late career breakthroughs:

Jack Ma

Ma is best known for co-founding Alibaba and becoming one of China’s wealthiest people, but his start came rather unexpectedly. After failing to secure jobs as a fresh graduate and starting his own translation company, Ma went on a business trip to the U.S. and discovered the internet (and a lack of Chinese websites). Over time, he connected Chinese companies with American coders to create websites, and soon saw room in the market for a business-to-business marketplace, which became Alibaba. The company secured millions in investment and would go on to become one of China’s leading forces in tech, all without Ma writing a single line of code.

Amancio Ortega

As the former CEO of fashion chain Zara and its parent company Inditex, Ortega is Europe’s third wealthiest person. That success came after opening the first Zara store in 1975 with his then-wife Rosalía Mera, with their store focusing on cheaper versions of high-end fashion. Ortega fine-tuned the design and manufacturing process to produce new trends more quickly, helping to pioneer the concept of “fast fashion,” and soon becoming a fashion powerhouse.

Jim Simons

Simons was once lauded as the world’s greatest investor, largely due to his outlandish returns of over 60% before fees. But he actually started in the academic field, acquiring a PhD in mathematics—he worked in many faculties, and even as a codebreaker for the NSA. Eventually, Simons utilized his mathematical knowledge on Wall Street, where he had his breakthrough in 1982 by starting his model-based hedge fund—Renaissance Technologies, and built a net worth of $24.6 billion.

Dietrich Mateschitz

One of the 60 richest people in the world, Austrian businessman Mateschitz got his start in marketing for Unilever and then cosmetics company Blendax. His breakthrough came on a business trip to Thailand, where the 40-year-old discovered that the local energy drink Krating Daeng helped his jet lag. Mateschitz and the drink’s creator, Chaleo Yoovidhya, each put up $500,000 to turn the drink into an exported energy brand, and Red Bull was born.

James Dyson

Before Dyson was a household name of vacuums, fans, and dryers, The UK’s James Dyson was an industrial engineer with many ideas for inventions. After getting frustrated with the bags of Hoover vacuum cleaners, Dyson had the idea for a bagless cyclone vacuum, and developed one after more than 5,000 prototypes over five years (and supported by his wife’s salary). At first he couldn’t find a manufacturer or success in the UK, so Dyson instead sold his vacuums in Japan and ended up winning the 1991 International Design Fair Prize there. Thirty years later, Dyson’s success led to a royal knighting and becoming the fourth richest person in the UK.

Late Bloomers: The Rule Not The Exception

It’s helpful to remember that these stories might be incredible and successful on a grand scale, but they are not entirely unique.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the majority of successful businesses have been founded by middle-aged people and the average age of a company’s founder at the time of founding is 41.9 years. Experience definitely pays dividends, and the saying that “life is a marathon, not a sprint” seems especially true for this list of late breakthrough billionaires.