As if all the glowing reviews of the new iPhone, which Apple Inc. promises will change the mobile phone market forever, weren't enough for Steve Jobs, he has been named one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time by BusinessWeek. It doesn't end there, because Forbes' has listed him as one of the 10 greatest rags-to-riches billionaires. Nonetheless, Jobs wasn't the only person to make both lists.
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However, it wasn't fellow techies Andy Groves, Jeff Bezos or Michael Dell from the entrepreneur lists to make both. The only other person to join the Apple and Pixar founder on both lists wasn't Bill Gates either — after all, his father is a successful attorney. Plus, nontechies from BusinessWeek's 30-person long list, which includes Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart, also failed to make Forbes' list. Perhaps, the biggest surprise was Winfrey, who did not make Forbes' list despite growing up in poverty.
Nor did the dealmakers, such as Sheldon Adelson, Kirk Kerkorian, Li Ka-shing or François Pinault, from Forbes' list find themselves sharing space with Jobs, even though they built mighty empires from nothing.
Interestingly, the only other person to share Jobs' distinction is fellow trendsetter Ralph Lauren. After all, Lauren may be the only other person on both lists who turned the mundane into something trendy. In Lauren's case, it was men's fashion, and in Jobs' it was the computer, and just may be the mobile phone. —Matthew Wurtzel
See BusinessWeek's "Greatest Entrepreneurs of All Time"
See Forbes' "Rags to Riches Billionaires"
