Elon Musk  Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos all share 5 traits
Jeff Bezos
Bill Gates  Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have a combined net worth of approximately $195 billion. Together  they  have amassed more money than the GDPs of Greece  Hungary  or Algeria. While each entrepreneur has a unique set of traits that has made him successful  these three tech founders also have a few things in common that have allowed them to build some of the world's most respected and innovative organizations. View As: One Page Slides
1. Impeccable pattern recognition. In 1975  Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard after just two years. He reportedly spent more time using computers in the computer lab than studying for exams. Gates  along with his co-founder Paul Allen  realized that the personal computer was going to need software to run it successfully. After purchasing an Altair 8800 (an early home computer)  he and Allen projected that a computer would eventually make it into every home in the United States. In 2004  Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard sent an email to Elon Musk  who had already successfully participated in PayPal and founded SpaceX  asking for an interview to discuss an investment in his new electric car company. Musk  who had believed in the power of electric cars for a decade  was keen to invest. Musk's involvement generated a $7.5 million round of funding. Eventually Musk would go on to become the chairman and CEO of Tesla.  Jeff Bezos  founded Amazon in 1995. At the time Amazon only sold books  though  Bezos  knew from the moment  he  founded the company that the ecommerce platform should become an "everything store." When Amazon was founded  eBay did not exist  and Barnes and Noble was not yet selling books online.  Bezos  had a premonition about the future  and acted quickly to establish what is now a nearly $500 billion company.
2. Faith in themselves and in their founding teams. Gates  Bezos and Musk all had profound belief in their own capabilities and those of the founding members of their teams. It is one thing to have a visionary idea; it is another thing to drop out of Harvard  invest millions in a small electric car company or risk insurmountable debt.  Take Jeff Bezos  as an example. After graduating from Princeton   he  eventually ended up as a senior vice president of DE Shaw  an investment company. When  he  hatched the idea of an online bookstore   he  left  his  job at DE Shaw in the middle of 1994. In other words   Bezos  walked away from a considerable end-of-year bonus in favor of founding a small company headquartered in  his  garage.
3. High risk tolerance. Founding a startup entails a great deal of risk. One study found that after 10 years of being in business  96% of startups fail. This means that  statistically speaking  Gates  Musk and  Bezos  were facing tough odds when they decided to leave otherwise comfortable lives to start a risky business venture. For example  Musk left  his  PhD program at Stanford University to found a company called Zip2 with  his  brother. The company was sold to Compaq  netting Musk a bit over $20 million. But rather than pocket the cash and ride off into the sunset  Musk once again took a great risk by investing millions of dollars to found a company called X.com  which would later merge with another company to form PayPal.
4. Preference for horizontal or vertical integration. Microsoft  Amazon  Tesla and SpaceX are all organizations that tend to prefer vertically integrated products. A critical component of Microsoft's development was the horizontal integration with other software platforms through acquisition. For example  in 1994  the company acquired SOFTIMAGE  and a year later it acquired Altamira. Amazon  Tesla and SpaceX all embrace vertical integration. Amazon is already developing their own brand of products called Amazon Basics  and is working on delivery systems as well. This means that    in the near future  Amazon will produce  retail and distribute  their  products  owning the production chain from start to finish. Tesla not only produces electric cars; they also educate the public about their cars via Tesla showrooms across the country. And SpaceX doesn't just launch rockets; they develop their own rocket architecture as well.
[TGT]  have a combined net worth of approximately $195 billion. Together   [TGT]   have amassed more money than the GDPs of Greece  Hungary  or Algeria. While each entrepreneur has a unique set of traits that has made him successful   [TGT]  also have a few things in common that have allowed  [TGT]  to build some of the world's most respected and innovative organizations. View As: One Page Slides
1. Impeccable pattern recognition. In 1975  Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard after just two years. He reportedly spent more time using computers in the computer lab than studying for exams. Gates  along with his co-founder Paul Allen  realized that the personal computer was going to need software to run it successfully. After purchasing an Altair 8800 (an early home computer)  he and Allen projected that a computer would eventually make it into every home in the United States. In 2004  Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard sent an email to Elon Musk  who had already successfully participated in PayPal and founded SpaceX  asking for an interview to discuss an investment in his new electric car company. Musk  who had believed in the power of electric cars for a decade  was keen to invest. Musk's involvement generated a $7.5 million round of funding. Eventually Musk would go on to become the chairman and CEO of Tesla.   [TGT] founded Amazon in 1995. At the time Amazon only sold books  though   [TGT] knew from the moment   [TGT]   founded  [TGT]  that the ecommerce platform should become an "everything store." When Amazon was founded  eBay did not exist  and Barnes and Noble was not yet selling books online.   [TGT] had a premonition about the future  and acted quickly to establish what is now a nearly $500 billion company.
2. Faith in themselves and in their founding teams. Gates  Bezos and Musk all had profound belief in their own capabilities and those of the founding members of their teams. It is one thing to have a visionary idea; it is another thing to drop out of Harvard  invest millions in a small electric car company or risk insurmountable debt.  Take  [TGT] as an example. After graduating from Princeton    [TGT]   eventually ended up as a senior vice president of DE Shaw  an investment company. When  he  hatched the idea of an online bookstore   he  left  his  job at DE Shaw in the middle of 1994. In other words    [TGT] walked away from a considerable end-of-year bonus in favor of founding a small company headquartered in   [TGT]   garage.
3. High risk tolerance. Founding a startup entails a great deal of risk. One study found that after 10 years of being in business  96% of startups fail. This means that  statistically speaking  Gates  Musk and   [TGT] were facing tough odds when  [TGT]  decided to leave otherwise comfortable lives to start a risky business venture. For example  Musk left   [TGT]   PhD program at Stanford University to found a company called Zip2 with  his  brother.  [TGT]  was sold to Compaq  netting Musk a bit over $20 million. But rather than pocket the cash and ride off into the sunset  Musk once again took a great risk by investing millions of dollars to found a company called X.com  which would later merge with another company to form PayPal.
4. Preference for horizontal or vertical integration. Microsoft  Amazon  Tesla and SpaceX are all organizations that tend to prefer vertically integrated products. A critical component of Microsoft's development was the horizontal integration with other software platforms through acquisition. For example  in 1994   [TGT]  acquired SOFTIMAGE  and a year later it acquired Altamira. Amazon  Tesla and SpaceX all embrace vertical integration. Amazon is already developing their own brand of products called Amazon Basics  and is working on delivery systems as well. This means that    in the near future  Amazon will produce  retail and distribute  their  products  owning the production chain from start to finish. Tesla not only produces electric cars; they also educate the public about their cars via Tesla showrooms across the country. And SpaceX doesn't just launch rockets; they develop their own rocket architecture as well.