1.蓋·拉里伯特，太陽馬戲團創(chuàng)始人：做你喜歡做的事，但不能忘了逐利

　　當蓋·拉里伯特召集了一幫子演員開始創(chuàng)建太陽馬戲團的時候，他還只是一個高中文化程度的馬戲團小丑。雖然有著政府的資助和贊助商的慷慨解囊以及拉里伯特勤奮的工作，但在最初形成其特立獨行的表演風格的那段時期，這家馬戲團也只能剛剛維持生計。拉里伯特的一著妙棋是將馬戲團的性質由非盈利性轉變?yōu)榱擞?他自己作為1/3的所有者)。今天的他已經(jīng)坐擁18億美元身家。

　　2. Suze Orman, Financial Advisor: Save Less, Earn More

　　2.蘇茲·奧爾曼，美國第一女性理財大師：開源強于節(jié)流

　　Suze Orman has made a fortune telling people to grow their wealth through frugality, despite having no personal experience in the matter. When Suze was in her mid-30s, she lived high, but was mired in debt. She didn't cut back on luxuries; instead she worked her way out. She did what she loved, followed financial opportunity, and today she is in a situation to spend 0,000 a year traveling the world on private jets. In the end, your time is much better spent seizing opportunities than pinching pennies.

　　蘇茲·奧爾曼通過告訴人們?nèi)绾慰恐?jié)儉來積累財富而賺了一大筆錢，盡管她本人并沒有這樣的經(jīng)歷。在她30多歲時，她過著相當奢華的生活，但卻深陷債務泥潭。她并沒有為此減少在奢侈品上的開銷，與此相反，她找到了自己的解決之道。她做了她喜歡的事，并且抓住了致富的機會。今天，她已經(jīng)有能力每年花費30萬美元乘著私人飛機環(huán)游世界。最終，你的時間花在抓住機遇上要遠遠好過花在省吃儉用上。

　　3. Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder: Imitate, Don't Innovate

　　3.比爾·蓋茨，微軟創(chuàng)始人：模仿，不創(chuàng)新

　　Bill Gates built one of the world's largest fortunes-- billion, according to Forbes--by licensing operating system software to IBM. In actuality, that software was wholly adapted from someone else's code. Gates' Microsoft lacked the innovative capacity to write it from scratch, so it dressed up some code from another company's software, which Microsoft had bought for ,000. When Gates delivered the second-hand software to IBM, it was on time, but it was so buggy that IBM engineers had to rewrite it completely. Thirty-three years later, no one remembers or cares. Innovation is seldom as important as timely execution of an adequate imitation.

　　比爾·蓋茨通過將操作系統(tǒng)授權給IBM創(chuàng)造了世界上最巨大的財富之一——據(jù)福布斯稱，達到了670億美元。事實上，這個軟件完全是改編自另一家公司的代碼。當時，蓋茨的微軟公司并沒有足夠的創(chuàng)新能力將它從草稿變?yōu)槌善?，于是微軟?萬5千美元從另一家公司購買了這些代碼并為它做了一番包裝。當蓋茨把這個二手軟件交給IBM公司的時候，盡管來得非常及時，但還是存在著太多的漏洞。因此IBM的工程師不得不徹底地重新編寫了一次。33年后，沒有人記得也沒有人在意這些。好的模仿在關鍵時刻往往比創(chuàng)新更重要。

　　4. Warren Buffett, Investor: Know-How Is Good, Know-Who Is Better

　　4.沃倫·巴菲特，投資家：有知識好，有人脈更好

　　Warren Buffett arrived at his savvy investment philosophy when he was very young, but his know-how was nearly worthless because he personally lacked enough capital to make large market moves. Buffett didn't get rich until he overcame his shyness, recruited members for his investment partnerships, and led those partners in squeezing stock performance out of corporate managers. Case in point: No one gets rich alone.

　　沃倫·巴菲特很年輕的時候就悟出了他的投資哲學。但由于他缺少足夠的資金來推動整個龐大的市場，他那些對世事的洞察幾乎毫無用武之地。巴菲特成為了有錢人是因為他戰(zhàn)勝了自己膽小靦腆的毛病。他招募了一些投資伙伴，并且?guī)ьI著這些伙伴從公司管理者那兒榨取了股票業(yè)績。這個案例的重點是：沒有人能僅僅依靠自己獲得成功。

　　5. Richard Branson, Virgin Founder: Spread the Work, Spread the Wealth

　　5.理查德·布蘭森，維珍品牌創(chuàng)始人：給別人工作，財富才會滾滾來

　　Sir Richard Branson suffers from severe dyslexia, but he's come to regard it as his greatest strength. Branson runs his Virgin Group as a venture capital fund that places bets on entrepreneurs with bright ideas that fit the Virgin brand strategy. He's never tempted to micro-manage any of the dozens of Virgin companies because he can't. “If I could read a balance sheet,” he once said, “I wouldn't have done anything in life.” In sum, work your strengths and get others to work theirs.

　　理查德·布萊森爵士患有嚴重的失語癥，但他卻把這當做自己的巨大優(yōu)勢。布萊森將他的維珍集團運營為一家風險投資基金，將賭注壓在了那些具有奇思妙想并且符合維珍品牌戰(zhàn)略的企業(yè)家身上。他從未考慮過對那些數(shù)量巨大的維珍旗下公司進行管理，因為他沒法這么干。“假如我看一張資產(chǎn)負債表，”他曾說，“那我生活中什么事兒都干不了了。”總而言之，你要讓你的優(yōu)勢發(fā)揮作用并且讓他人也能發(fā)揮他們的優(yōu)勢。

　　6. Steve Jobs, Apple Founder: Nothing Succeeds Like Failure

　　6.史蒂夫·喬布斯，蘋果創(chuàng)始人：失敗乃成功之母

　　Steve Jobs had a vision, back in the 1980s, for a three-dimensional imaging computer that would revolutionize the defense, oil, and medical industries. He was wrong about it, and he lost millions of his own dollars before shutting down production of the 5,000 Pixar Imaging Computer in 1991. At the time, Pixar's only profitable unit was a tiny team of animators using Pixar software to make computer-generated TV commercials--a team that would later form the Pixar movie studio that made Toy Story. And when Jobs died in 2011, more than 70 percent of his .3 billion fortune came from his stake in Pixar Studios, in an industry he never had any intention of entering.

　　早在20世紀80年代，史蒂夫·喬布斯就預想了一種三維成像計算機，這種計算機將在國防、采油和冶金工業(yè)方面產(chǎn)生革命性的影響。他想錯了，在他于1991年停止生產(chǎn)價值12.5萬美元的皮克斯成像計算機前，他損失了數(shù)以百萬計的個人財產(chǎn)。當時，皮克斯唯一盈利的項目是一個使用皮克斯軟件制作電腦合成電視廣告的動畫團隊。正是這個團隊在之后組建了皮克斯電影工作室，他們創(chuàng)造了《玩具總動員》。更有甚者，當喬布斯于2011年去世時，他83億美元資產(chǎn)的70%來自于他所持有的皮克斯工作室的股份，而這是一個他從未想過涉及的領域。