Today’s recession causes hardships to almost all of us. Inspirations, let alone resources, are difficult to come by. Why? Because we all focus on the problems, not on the solutions.
Here is one to inspire you: the rags to riches, or Noveau Riche stories.
Noveau Riche
Nouveau riche – a French term for ‘new rich’ – is referring to the group of people that are THE wealthy people of their generations, usually rises from poverty.
Their success stories are inspiring to me, because most of them start with nothing and be something – or shall I say – own everything.
One example from this Noveau Riche article is the life of William Gates III, or well known as Bill Gates of Microsoft.
Bill Gates is a Harvard drop-out that, along with Paul Allen, founded Microsoft. Today, he is the third richest person in the world (The richest American) and a Non-Executive Chairman of Microsoft, as well as, along with his wife, the founder of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Do you want to be rich?
“Do you want to be rich?” I do – I want to use my money for greater purposes. I keen on what Bill and Melinda Gates did, and if I have the opportunity, I’d exactly do what they did with their foundation.
But some don’t want to be rich.
Some people I know simply don’t want to be rich. They want to be simply ‘sufficient’ and ‘adequate’, due to cultural or any other personal reasons.
The reason I know about why people don’t want to be rich is due to the one of the Bible verses – Money is root of all evil.
Here’s what I believe: money is root of all evil, if you don’t use it for greater purposes. I also believe that NOT having money is root of all evil – people steal and scam for money.
Being rich is individual endeavour, though.
How to be the next noveau riche
There are business opportunities that offer you a chance to be the next noveau riche, of course if you want to be one. This Noveau Riche business opportunities article lists some business opportunities that you can pursue in your entrepreneurial journey.
My favourite opportunity from the article is building (cheap) Wi-Fi networks for Brazilian resorts with investment less than $100,000.
Are you interested in being the next noveau riche or currently in a journey to be one? Please share your favourite business ideas that are possible to do.
Ivan Widjaya
Aim to be Noveau Riche
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I often prefer to list rich people who are not well known. One of the problems with every site and every blog that is in the entrepreneur niche, is that they often reference the usual successful people… Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Warren Buffet, etc etc…
It is better to list a rich figure who is not of that stature than to list someone so obvious because it gets redundant. The other issue is your depiction of Bill Gates is very inaccurate. Bill Gates, although build his fortune from the ground up, is anything but a rags to riches tale. He comes from a VERY wealthy background having the privilege to attend some of the most expensive private schools Washington had to offer and from a family told to be millionaires (one of the wealthier families at the time) long before Gates ever reached college.
A far better person to use as an example would have been Chris Gardner, the main character in the movie Pursuit of Happyness. He is in fact a real person, who went through seriously tough times and rose to become one of the wealthiest and probably one of the most unknown figures (until the movie was released).
Steven,
Good point – perhaps they are mentioned a bit too often :)
Regarding the hidden champion, like Chris Gardner in your case, I enjoy the story of Gurbaksh Chahal, a serial entrepreneur whose one of his businesses, BlueLithium, is acquired by Yahoo! for $300 million.
I’ve written a bit with his case in http://www.noobpreneur.com/2008/04/25/made-for-google/
He is a school drop out at 16, and his parents, Indian immigrants, struggled financially for years. Today, Gurbaksh, 25 years old, has a net value of $100 million.
Ouch.
Bill GATES is a “rags to riches” story? Are you serious?
Bill Gate
I’m sorry, I guessed it’s a paid review. But it’s not. Nice article, Bro. Everyone want to be richman, but the wrong way will never make it. :D
Well, I think a lot of people think they want to be “rich” when all they really want is the freedom to pursue their dreams.
You can be rich and chained to a job or a business that sucks the life out of you day after day. You can be of moderate means but have designed your life in such a way that you can go where you want, when you want, and do what you want.
Tim Ferris’ Four Hour Work Week is a great read on the subject of the new rich and lifestyle design.
Now that truly is a valuable story to tell =]
@ Ray – well, I agree that he’s not really a rag to riches story, but he does have an ‘uncommon’ background that most people with his background would achieve what he has achieved today, IMO.
@ Ecko – :D Thanks!
@ Lindsay – Tim’s lifestyle is the dream of most of us entering the make money online market. I fave his concept of outsourcing your life.
@ Steven – Cheers, mate :)
I guess I’d rather be Nouveau Riche than Never Rich…
LOL – well said!
Thanks I found just the info I already searched everywhere and just couldn’t find. What a perfect site.
Cheers!