• Jeff Bezos, Rupert Murdoch, and several other billionaires own print papers. 
• Print newspapers have been a bad business.
• The print media may be in a death spiral, but some of their online versions have a large and growing readership, though they might still lose money.

“Newspapers have a terrible future. We own the Buffalo News, as you say, and we hope to be the last man standing.” That’s what the Oracle of Omaha prophesied in November 2009. In November 2011, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought the Omaha World-Herald. A series of other acquisitions has turned into BH Media Group, which owns 31 daily newspapers, 47 weekly newspapers, 32 “other print products,” and a TV station in Miami.

Today, BH Media announced that it is laying off 148 employees and will not fill 101 vacant positions, for a total of 249 jobs, representing about 6% of the workforce. These cuts include 43 jobs at the Omaha World-Herald.

The drop in advertising revenue is a “harsh reality” in the industry, explained BH Media CEO and publisher of the Omaha World-Herald, Terry Kroeger, echoing what Buffett already knew in 2009, well before he bought the outfit, and all the other outfits.

Kroeger blamed e-commerce which has caused a large number of their regional and national clients to cut back on their advertising spend because their brick-and-mortar businesses are being disrupted by online retail.

This is the second round of job cuts in 10 months: In April 2017, BH Media announced 289 job cuts, including 108 vacant positions. At the time, it employed 4,450 people. The World-Herald:

Kroeger said the company is experiencing a “critical moment” as print newspapers have “suffered from the growing popularity of the digital environment.” Regional and national advertisers are being hurt by online retailers, he said, causing them to reduce their print advertising.

Buffett is number 3 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ($82 billion). If newspapers have such a “terrible future,” why do billionaires – who’re supposed to have brilliant business minds – keep buying them?

Billionaires have been all over print newspapers

Earlier in February 2018, Patrick Soon-Shiong, biotech mogul and number 175 on the Billionaires Index ($8.6 billion), acquired the Los Angeles Times, along with the San Diego Union-Tribune, Spanish-language Hoy Los Angeles, and some community newspapers. His private investment firm, Nant Capital, agreed to pay $500 million and will assume $90 million in pension liabilities.

“Ultimately, this decision is deeply personal for me,” he said. “As someone who grew up in apartheid South Africa, I understand the role that journalism needs to play in a free society.”

The New York Times was less merciful. It said the deal “brings to a close a tumultuous period marked by the ouster of top leaders, the suspension of the newspaper’s publisher and a contentious unionization effort.”

In recent months, the frustration in the Times newsroom erupted into public view, as The New York Times, HuffPost and other news outlets published articles on the tensions between staff and management at the 136-year-old newspaper.

So now a billionaire owns that baby.

The seller was tronc, the third-largest newspaper publisher in the US (think Chicago Tribune), in which Michael Ferro, Jr., who doesn’t get to play with the big boys on the Billionaires Index, has a 28% stake.

In November 2017, Charles and David Koch, the numbers 12 and 13 on the Billionaires Index ($48 billion each), put their money behind the acquisition of Time Inc., the publisher of the once iconic Time, Sports Illustrated, and well, People. They did so with a $650-million capital infusion from Koch Equity Development into media conglomerate The Meredith Corporation that then used this money to acquire Time Inc.

Despite the Kochs’ active involvement in the political scene, the deal announcement said that Koch Equity Development would not have a seat on Meredith’s board and would “have no influence on Meredith’s editorial or managerial operations.” The New York Times:

The deal could represent the beginning of the end for one of the country’s most celebrated magazine publishers, whose titles commanded the attention of global leaders and chronicled world events, sometimes with striking photography.

The company failed to keep pace as the industrywide transformation from print to digital rendered old methods of magazine-making obsolete and publishing companies crumbled under the pressure of declines in print advertising and circulation.

April 2017, Ron Perelman, number 57 on the Billionaires Index ($18 billion), acquired The Independent, a free weekly paper based in East Hampton. “I am a firm believer in tradition and history, and preserving the qualities that make our community so strong,” he wrote in an open letter. OK, so The Independent isn’t exactly the global paper of record, but hey, any paper counts.

In 2015, Sheldon Gary Adelson, number 20 on the Billionaires Index ($38 billion), founder and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation and its gambling empire that stretches across Las Vegas, Singapore, and Macau, secretly acquired the Vegas Review-Journal.

When it came out, the NY Times posed the question this way:

And so the $140 million question – why Mr. Adelson, 82, and his family would want the newspaper at such a lavish price – remains mostly unanswered. It is particularly pressing to many in Nevada because he is perhaps the most powerful and overtly political figure in the state.

And when it comes to his own interests, Mr. Adelson can get prickly, according to the NY Times:

"He has pursued libel suits against journalists whose reporting on his sprawling empires drew his ire. In one continuing case, Mr. Adelson sued a reporter from The Wall Street Journal over an article about another legal battle Mr. Adelson was engaged in with a former employee."

In October 2013, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon and number 1 on the Billionaires Index ($123 billion), acquired The Washington Post via his private investment company Nash Holdings for $250 million.

In August 2013, John Henry, owner of the Red Sox and at the time widely called “billionaire” though he currently does not figure on the Billionaires Index, acquired the Boston Globe for $70 million.

This story itself is a glaring sign of the print media’s death spiral: the seller was the NY Times, which was trying to stop the bleeding. It had acquired the Boston Globe in 1993, at peak print-media, before the Internet would tear it all apart, for the fabulous sum of $1.1 billion.

In 2007, Rupert Murdoch, currently number 85 on the Billionaires Index, acquired The Wall Street Journal for $5 billion via his company, News Corporation, from the Bancroft family, which had owned it for over 100 years.

So what is it with billionaires wanting to own newspapers even though they have a “terrible future,” as Buffett had put it so elegantly in 2009 before he started buying newspapers himself?

Wealthy people buying and running newspapers is a well-established practice. And fortunes have been made founding the old print media, including by such newspaper moguls as William Randolph Hearst. It’s just that there are a lot more billionaires these days, with asset prices inflated as they have been since the global money-printing orgy started in 2008. The print media may be in a death spiral, but some of their online versions have a large and growing readership, though they might still lose money. And a little red ink may well be worth the price to influence the debate.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Jay Z is the richest hip-hop artist in the world, according to a new ranking from Forbes.
• Alongside his wife Beyoncé, they're one of the world's richest power couples.
• From entertainment to politics to tech, these happily married pairs span many industries and have a combined fortune of over $260 billion.
  

Some people seem to have it all.

Juggling a successful career or marriage has its challenges, but doing both well can quickly launch you into power couple status.

Devoting time to the relationship may be harder for power couples. But across many industries, from entertainment to politics to tech, these duos have managed to stay happily married while building empires together. And they're not just powerful — they also have a combined fortune of over $260 billion.

Scroll through to see seven of the richest power couples in the world.

SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg and his college-sweetheart wife, Priscilla Chan, are worth $74 billion — see their houses, cars, and travels

DON'T MISS: Inside the decade-long relationship of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who met at a networking lunch and once broke up because of religious differences

Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen

Combined net worth: $540 million

Both halves of this tanned and toned power couple, who have been married for eight years, are in the top earners of their respective industries. Supermodel Gisele Bündchen is the highest-paid model in the world, raking in $30.5 million in 2016, and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is the third-highest paid player in NFL history. His endorsement deals earn him about $8 million annually.

Perhaps the most telling example of their wide-ranging influence is the viral news of their insane diet, which is composed of 80% vegetables and 20% lean meats.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner

Combined net worth: Between $207 million and $762 million

The eldest daughter of President Donald Trump and unpaid adviser in the White House, Ivanka Trump just celebrated her eighth wedding anniversary with husband Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to the president and owner of a real-estate empire.

Their estimated net worth was revealed earlier this year in public filings that document the couple's assets, including a $25 million art collection, and income from the Ivanka Trump lifestyle brand and various investments.

Kushner suggests the couple, who are parents to three children, have their roles figured out: "I would say she is definitely the CEO of our household, whereas I’m more on the board of directors."

Beyoncé and Jay-Z

Combined net worth: $1.16 billion

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are entertainment royalty. The couple — who has been married since 2008 and have three children — earn their wealth primarily from music producing credits, album sales, live performances, and worldwide tours, as well as stakes in streaming service Tidal, a private jet company, and a luxury champagne brand.

This summer, they bought an $88 million mansion in Los Angeles — for which they took out a $59 million mortgage — making it the sixth priciest home purchase in LA history. Not bad for the highest-paid celebrity couple in the world.

• There are more than 100 billionaires in China's legislature and its top advisory body, including the CEOs of Tencent, JD.com, Baidu and Xiaomi.
• Their combined net worth is $624 billion, twice that of Ireland's GDP.
• President Xi Jinping vowed to fix income inequality and eradicate poverty by 2020, a deadline that is two years away and 40 million people are still struggling.

A new global rich list has tallied 104 billionaires in the upper echelons of China's leadership.

Released this week, research from Hurun Report, found China minted 206 billionaires in the last year, taking the country's total to 819 billionaires 40% more billionaires than in the US.

But its the number of billionaires within senior arms of the Communist Party, according to more data from Hurun Report, that's drawing attention.

The National People's Congress (NPC), which serves as the country's legislature and will be responsible for voting on scrapping presidential term limits in about two weeks, contains 45 billionaires.

And there are a whopping 59 billionaires in the party's top advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The CPPCC includes entrepreneurs, academics, and even celebrities, who advise the government and legislative arms.

While this only accounts for 2% of the roughly 5,000-odd members, their total net worth amounts to $624 billion. That's more than double Ireland's GDP, and more than three times that of New Zealand's.

The billionaires includes the founder of one of China's biggest online retailers JD.com, the CEO of smartphone maker Xiaomi, and the CEO of search giant Baidu. Also included in the National People's Congress is the country's richest man, Pony' Ma, the CEO of Tencent, who is worth $47 billion.

With some workers lucky to earn a few hundred dollars a month, the net worth of these leaders illustrates China's vast income inequality.

A third of the country's wealth is owned by 1% of households, and 25% of the poorest households own just 1% of China's wealth, according to a study from Peking University.

Since becoming president, Xi has spearheaded initiatives to double all 2010 incomes by 2020 — to make China a "moderately prosperous society"— and has also set that as the target year to eradicate all poverty.

And while state media has reported that millions of people now have better working and living conditions, 40 million people still live in poverty.

SEE ALSO: 'Immortality,' 'disagree,' 'emigrate,' and 'personality cult' — here's every word and phrase China censored after criticism of Xi Jinping's potentially unending reign

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Successful people don't necessarily consider themselves successful because they're rich or powerful.
• Instead, they often talk about relationships, well-being, and societal impact.
• Below are 12 legendary figures' definitions of success, from John Paul DeJoria (hard work) to Maya Angelou (enjoying your work).

When we talk about a "successful" person, we're typically talking about someone who's got billions in their bank account, someone who's authored multiple bestsellers, or maybe someone who's in charge of an entire nation.

But if you ask people who fit the conventional definition of a successful individual, many will tell you that those achievements aren't what make them feel accomplished.

Below, Business Insider has rounded up what some of the world's most powerful and impressive people — from President Barack Obama to the late author Maya Angelou — have to say about success.

SEE ALSO: 14 changes to make in your 30s that will set you up for lifelong success

Billionaire Richard Branson believes success is about happiness.

Though Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, is worth some $5 billion, the Virgin founder equates success with personal fulfillment.

"Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with,"he wrote on LinkedIn. "In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are."

Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington says that money and power aren't enough.

Huffington says that while we tend to think of success along two metrics — money and power — we need to add a third.

"To live the lives we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives we settle for, we need a Third Metric,"she told Forbes' Dan Schawbel, "a third measure of success that goes beyond the two metrics of money and power, and consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving."

Together, those factors help you to take care of your psychological life and truly be successful, or as the title of her 2014 book, "Thrive," suggests.

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban says you don't need money to be successful.

"Shark Tank" regular Cuban offers a surprisingly simple take on success.

In an interview with Steiner Sports, he said:

"To me, the definition of success is waking up in the morning with a smile on your face, knowing it's going to be a great day. I was happy and felt like I was successful when I was poor, living six guys in a three-bedroom apartment, sleeping on the floor."

Life is anything but ordinary when your mom and dad are some of the richest people in the world.

We already met the world's richest black billionaires, so it is time to take a look at their kids. 

Being born into a billionaire family can certainly make life interesting. Many of these kids followed in their parent's footsteps, whether that meant playing basketball or running an oil company.

Despite growing up in undeniable privilege, many of the kids of billionaires have made an impact in their own right.

Keep scrolling to meet the children of the world's richest black billionaires.

SEE ALSO: A Nigerian businessman is half as rich as he was 3 years ago — but he's still the richest black billionaire in the world

DON'T MISS: Meet the kids of the world's richest tech billionaires

Michael Jordan is perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time, but also one of the richest African Americans on the planet with a net worth of $1.65 billion. In 2014, Jordan became father to a twin boy and girl, his fourth and fifth children.

Source: USA Today

His son, Marcus Jordan, played basketball at the University of Central Florida from 2009 to 2012 where he scored an average of 12.3 points per game.

Sources: Sports-Reference 

Like his father, Marcus also got into business after his playing days. He opened a boutique sneaker shop in Disney World called Trophy Room — inspired by his dad's collection of awards.

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Source: Bleacher Report

There is something intensely intriguing about the world's richest people — and as the third youngest billionaire in the world and Norway's richest man, 24-year-old Gustav Magnar Witzøe certainly makes for an interesting case study.

Gustav Magnar owns almost half of Norwegian fish farming company Salmar, a stake that was gifted to him by his father when he was just 19. He's now worth a staggering $1.9 billion (£1.4 billion), according to Forbes.

Fortunately for anyone curious about he spends his wealth, he documents his extravagant lifestyle on Instagram.

Keep scrolling to see how the third youngest billionaire in the world splits his time between his glamorous family, exotic holidays, getting tattoos, buying expensive clothes, and investing in local tech startups.

SEE ALSO: The 5 youngest billionaires in the world in 2018

Meet 24-year-old Gustav Magnar Witzøe, who is worth an estimated $1.9 billion (£1.4 billion), making him the third youngest billionaire in the world.

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Source: Forbes

Gustav Magnar's extreme wealth comes from his stake in Norwegian fish farming company Salmar. He owns almost half of the firm, which is one of the world's largest salmon producers.

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Source: Forbes

Salmar is headquartered on the island of Frøya in the region of Central-Norway, where they also have a processing factory.

• Billionaires don't always come from moneyed backgrounds.

• In fact, many famous billionaires actually grew up poor.

• From George Soros to Larry Ellison to Oprah Winfrey, here's a look at how some of the wealthiest people on the planet came up from nothing.

Billionaires aren't all born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

In fact, many came from nothing at all.

The "rags-to-riches" trope may be a cliché, but it's one that's definitely grounded in reality for some famous billionaires.

Through extraordinary grit and perseverance, individuals across the globe have beat the odds and achieved their own rags-to-riches stories.

Here are 19 people who started off life poor and went on to become billionaires:

SEE ALSO: From fry-cook at McDonalds to waitress at Hooters, here are the unglamorous first jobs of 24 highly successful people

DON'T MISS: What Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and 23 other highly successful people were doing at age 25

Guy Laliberté was a fire-eater before founding Cirque du Soleil

Net worth: $1.19 billion

At the beginning of his career, Laliberté had fire in his belly — literally. The Canadian-born circus busker played the accordion, walked on stilts, and ate fire.

Later on, as Business Insider previously reported, he took a chance and flew a troupe from Quebec to Los Angeles without purchasing a return fair. The circus troup traveled to Las Vegas and became Cirque du Soleil.

Laliberté is now the CEO of Cirque de Soleil.

Kenny Troutt, the founder of Excel Communications, paid his way through college by selling life insurance.

Net worth: $1.41 billion

Troutt grew up with a bartender dad and paid for his own tuition at Southern Illinois University by selling life insurance. He made most of his money from phone company Excel Communications, which he founded in 1988 and took public in 1996. Two years later, Troutt merged his company with Teleglobe in a $3.5 billion deal.

He's now retired and invests heavily in racehorses.

Montpellier rugby club president and Entrepreneur of the Year Mohed Altrad survived on one meal a day when he moved to France

Net worth: $2.7 billion

Born into a nomadic tribe in the Syrian dessert to a poor mother who was raped by his father and died when he was young, Altrad was raised by his grandmother. She banned him from attending school in Raqqa, the city that is now capital of ISIS.

Altrad attended school anyway, and when he moved to France to attend university, he knew no French and lived off of one meal a day. Still, he earned a PhD in computer science, worked for some leading French companies, and eventually bought a failing scaffolding company, which he transformed into one of the world's leading manufacturers of scaffolding and cement mixers, Altrad Group.

He has previously been named French Entrepreneur of the Year and World Entrepreneur of the Year.

• Walmart's headquarters are located in Bentonville, Arkansas.
• The city has become a desirable destination as Walmart executives have relocated there.
• As a result, home values have gone up in recent years. 
• Bentonville has also become home to more trendy restaurants and a boutique hotel.

Since the Waltons first set foot in Bentonville in 1950, the quiet town has grown to become a cosmopolitan city with a modern art gallery, boutique hotel, artisan shops, and fancy restaurants — and the family that founded Walmart is mostly to thank for this. 

The presence of Walmart's headquarters here has driven up property prices in the area as company executives settle in the town and create a demand for luxury real estate. 

The average price for homes in downtown Bentonville has increased from $63 to $192 per square foot up in the past six years, according to a study done by the University of Arkansas and commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

See how the city has evolved as Walmart has grown: 

SEE ALSO: MEET THE WALTONS: How America's wealthiest family spends its Walmart fortune

Bentonville is in the northwest part of Arkansas. It's the ninth-largest city in the state, with a population of just over 47,000 people.

Source: US Census Bureau

The founder of Walmart, Sam Walton, moved to the city in 1950 and set up his Walton's 5 & 10 store. At the time, it was a quiet town, and the surrounding area was once known for its apple, poultry, and dairy production. Walton's original store still stands today and is part of the Walmart Museum, which was set up to educate visitors about the company's history.

Source: Walmart, Bentonville Chamber of Congress 

Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. By 1967, there were 24 locations in Arkansas. Three years later, the company went public.

• According to Forbes, there are just over 2,000 billionaires in the world.
• TitleMax made an infographic showing which countries have the most billionaires.
• The US, China, and Germany take the lead.

There are roughly 36 million millionaires in the world.

That means if you meet someone from the global population at random, there’s a 1 in 200 chance that they could be a millionaire – this makes for surprisingly good odds.

However, the billionaire on the other hand is a much rarer breed. According to Forbes, there are just over 2,000 billionaires in existence, making up just 0.00003% of the global population.

Where do these people live, and what countries have the highest concentrations of them as citizens?

25 countries that are rich in billionaires

Today’s infographic comes to us from TitleMax, and it shows the 25 countries with the most billionaires in them. It also covers the richest person in each of these countries, as well.

Here is the list of countries, sorted by the number of billionaires:

The United States has the most billionaires in total with 565.

In second place is China (319) – a country that is adding billionaires at a rapid pace, but also losing some of its ultra-rich population to capital flight.

Billionaire concentration

Although the United States has the most billionaires by a large margin, the country ranks 6th in terms of billionaire concentration.

In the U.S., there is one billionaire for every 571,858 people, but it is beat out in this measurement by Hong Kong (110k), Switzerland (233k), Singapore (267k), Sweden (319k), and Israel (475k).

Hong Kong, which has the highest rate of billionaires in the world, boasts 67 billionaires in just one city of roughly seven million.

For comparison’s sake, if Mainland China could somehow have the same rate of billionaire occurrences as Hong Kong, the country would amass 12,575 billionaires – more than six times the total amount in the world that currently exist!

Lowest billionaire concentrations

With only roughly 2,000 billionaires scattered throughout the world, it’s estimated that there are over 100+ countries and dependencies that actually have zero billionaires as citizens. For example, Haiti, Lithuania, Ethiopia, Belarus, and Andorra are just a few places that have millionaires, but no billionaires.

As for countries that made the above list, India and Indonesia are pretty scarce in terms of their billionaire concentrations – if you were to hit the street in these countries, the odds are 1 in 13 million that a random person would be a billionaire.

SEE ALSO: Trump's cabinet is way wealthier than Obama's or Bush's initial cabinets

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• Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have been best friends for 27 years.
• Initially, they weren't interested in meeting each other — but they hit it off right away.
• They've partnered on political and philanthropic ventures, mentored each other, and had lots of laughs.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are the second and third-wealthiest people on the planet. They also happen to be best friends.

But when they met 27 years ago, it was grudgingly. Each one was surprised at how much they enjoyed talking to the other.

Since then, they've been a tag team on political and philanthropic causes as well as mutual mentors. Plus, they love goofing off together.

Below, we've collected the highlights of their relationship.

SEE ALSO: Bill Gates says his two favorite books from 2018 'explain that the world is getting better'

Bill Gates, 62 years old, is the second-richest person in the world. He's the former CEO of Microsoft and the cofounder of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

Source: Forbes

Warren Buffett, 87, is the third-richest person in the world. He's a legendary investor and the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

Source: Forbes

Gates' and Buffett's friendship dates back to July 5, 1991. Gates' mother, Mary, had invited the late Meg Greenfield, a Washington Post editor, to her home. Greenfield was to bring her friend Buffett with her.

Source: Fortune, Business Insider

• Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing announced his retirement on Friday, at 89 years old.
• Li is the 23rd richest person in the world with a estimated net worth of $35.4 billion
• Often called "Superman," he has an incredible "rags-to-riches" story that saw him go from impoverished in southern China to building a conglomerate that spans across 50 countries and 323,000 employees.

Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing announced on Friday that he would be retiring from running CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings, the two massive conglomerates that he built in Asia's most famous rags-to-riches story.

While he is no longer the richest man in Asia, the 89-year-old still ranks as the 23rd richest person in the world with a current estimated net worth of $35.4 billion.

Li is retiring weeks shy of his 90th birthday, but it is unlikely that the famously active mogul will rest for long. He has said he plans to work on his charitable foundation, the Li Ka Shing Foundation, and has pledged one third of his wealth to philanthropy. 

His 53-year-old son, Victor Li, will take over the conglomerate, which has 323,000 employees, operations in 50 countries, and investments ranging from property and technology to energy. 

Often called "Superman" and Asia's answer to Warren Buffet by the media, Li has an incredible and inspiring life story. He went from dropping out of school as a child to support his family to becoming the first person of Chinese origin to buy one of the British-built Hong Kong companies that dominated the city since its colonial days. 

Christi Danner contributed reporting to an earlier version of this story.

SEE ALSO: I stayed at New York’s most iconic luxury hotel that charges up to $50,000 a night and was once owned by Donald Trump

Li Ka-shing was saddled with financial responsibility from a young age. After his family fled to Hong Kong from southern China during WWII, his father died of tuberculosis. He had to leave school before the age of 16 to work in a plastics factory.

Source: Business Insider

For almost four years during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, he sent 90% of his pay to his mother. Li worked hard from a young age, often working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, a pace that he says he continues to keep up even at 89 years old.

Source: Forbes

Li eventually became the factory's top salesman and was promoted to be the factory manager at 18.

Source: Forbes

• Alexa Dell, the daughter of computer magnate Michael Dell, once posted an image to Instagram of her younger brother aboard the family's private jet.
• The "Rich Kids of Instagram" Tumblr blogged the image, and it went viral.
• Dell was forced to leave social media after exposing her family to security risks.
• Dell, now a 24-year-old startup advisor, has advice for teens on apps today.

Alexa Dell, 24, is the daughter of tech billionaire and entrepreneur Michael Dell. She grew up in Austin, Texas on a sprawling estate called "The Castle" with her parents and four siblings, and her father gave her an at-home masterclass on building world-changing technologies.

But as tech royalty, Dell quickly learned that she couldn't use social media apps the way most teenagers do. Business Insider caught up with Dell at SXSW to hear the whole story.

When she was 18, Dell posted a photo to Instagram. Her younger brother, Zacahary, sat in the window seat of what appeared to be a small plane. A spread of fresh fruit, vegetables, charcuterie, and, of course, a Dell laptop, was laid before him.

"Snachary en route to Fiji @zachdell by alexadell #dell #privatejet," Alexa Dell's caption read.

Then the internet descended.

Rich Kids of Instagram, a popular Tumblr site that documents the adventures of the world's wealthiest offspring, circulated the image. Within a week 0f the posting, Dell and her brother, Zachary, disappeared from social media.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek broke the story that Dell had been documenting her every move on Twitter, complete with GPS locations from her phone. According to BusinessWeek, Dell's father's security detail had her Twitter and Instagram accounts suspended. The article cited concerns over the family's safety, singling out fears of kidnapping for ransom. 

It's worth noting that Gawker's now-defunct Valleywag reported that Alexa Dell shut down her social media accounts without the Dell company's intervention after the photo went viral.

Dell was an 18-year-old Columbia University student and "W" magazine intern at the time.

She told Business Insider her first response to the Rich Kids of Instagram posting was panic.

"That obviously took me completely by surprise. I didn't even realize that account, or that blog-Tumblr-thing, was a thing," Dell said. "It's unfortunate because it obviously put my family at risk and our safety. It's a shame that there are people out there who just are having fun exploiting others."

In 2012, BusinessWeek reviewed proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commision that showed Michael Dell spent $2.7 million annually on his family's security. His company provides the security detail, and Dell reimburses the company for its protection.

But the computer magnate didn't know to check his daughter's social media accounts.

"[Social media] wasn't there when I grew up. It wasn't something that I was taught how to do. It was something that we sort of taught ourselves how to use, and it sort of grew with us and became what it is now over time," Dell said.

Dell returned to Instagram only two days after the BusinessWeek article posted, with a photo of the college student sitting poolside in a tropical location with a grove of palm trees behind her.

Her posts to Instagram are no longer tagged with her location.

Today, Dell runs a tech consulting business, and counts dating app Bumble as a client.

Dell said the experience of making it onto Tumblr's Rich Kids of Instagram — and the safety risk it created — taught her a lesson that teens on social media platforms can learn from.

"I would advise younger people new to social media to be weary ... everyone's not so nice," Dell said.

She encouraged teens to "think twice" and "be careful" before sharing personal information on the internet. She also warned that a person's tone of voice can be lost in translation on apps.

"If you think you meant something in a fun and lighthearted kind of context, someone may spin that and take it from you," Dell said.

SEE ALSO: The fabulous life of Alexa Dell, the 24-year-old billionaire heiress who grew up in 'The Castle,' dated Tinder's CEO, and got engaged with a million-dollar ring

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• The average age for becoming a millionaire is 37. 
• The average mark for becoming a billionaire is 51.
• The gap between becoming a millionaire and billionaire has ranged from one year to 26 years.

Some people say that making the first million is the hardest.

Others, like oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens have quipped that the first billion is a “helluva lot harder”.

Regardless of which is true, it’s interesting to examine how long it took the world’s wealthiest to reach the million and billion dollar benchmarks, as well as how many years were in between.

MILLIONS TO BILLIONS

Today’s infographic comes to us from Betway, and it provides a study of the 100 wealthiest billionaires that topped the 2018 edition of the Forbes Rich List.

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

Based on the top 100 billionaires studied from the Rich List, the average age for hitting millionaire status is 37. Meanwhile, the billion dollar mark is hit on average at the age of 51.

This puts the average time period to go from millionaire to billionaire at 14 years.

MAKING THE JUMP, BY INDUSTRY

Even with this small sample size, it’s clear that how fast this jump happens depends greatly on industry.

Tech entrepreneurs were by far the fastest on the list to go from millionaire to billionaire, with an average time of only 7.3 years. That number is averaged down by entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos, who has singlehandedly been able to amass an impressive empire of companies and assets in a very short period of time.

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• Discovery is about to begin production on a new show called "Undercover Billionaire."
• In the show, an unnamed self-made billionaire will try to create a million-dollar company from scratch in 90 days.
• They will not be allowed to access his previous contacts or wealth, and will be sent to an unfamiliar city.
• Succeed or fail, the show will be a commentary on the American Dream.

If you dropped a self-made billionaire off in a random city, with just a few dollars and the drive to build something, could they make a million-dollar business in only a few months?

That’s the question Discovery is trying to answer with its new show, “Undercover Billionaire,” which is about to begin production on a 90-day shoot.

“The billionaire came to us with the idea of wanting to test himself,” Discovery’s Chief Brand Officer, Nancy Daniels, told Business Insider in an interview. He was someone who had come from “nothing” before making it big, and was “100% confident” he could do it again, she said.

Here's the test they devised: He'll be given three months to build a million-dollar company from scratch in an unfamiliar mid-sized city, without the benefit of his past contacts, and something like $200 dollars in his pocket (the exact amount is still being worked out).

Daniels wouldn’t reveal the billionaire’s name or industry — due to concerns about spoiling the shoot — but said he wouldn’t be recognizable to the average person. In the show, while the audience will know who he is from the start, the people he’s working with won’t know until the end, when he will gift them whatever business he ends up creating (they’ll have a cover story to explain the cameras).

“We truly are following him do this,” Daniels said.

He could succeed or he could fail spectacularly. But whatever happens, good or bad, will be a commentary on American capitalism and the idea of the self-made man. How much of his initial success was luck, and how much was his innate drive and ability? Can entrepreneurial lightning strike twice for someone without huge financial backing?

The show is fundamentally about “taking your own life into your own hands,” Daniels said. And the results will say a lot about the extent to which that is possible. 

The billionaire has explained to the producers a few business avenues or industries he thinks he could explore in the show, and none are in his previous wheelhouse, Daniels said. He’s really trying to get back to his own origin story: no contacts, no expertise, no money.

“Before I met him, I was suspicious [of his chances],” Daniels said. But after meeting him, she thinks he just might be able to pull it off. He'll have 90 days to prove her right.

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• Most billionaires needed a lifetime of work to amass their fortunes, but others were able to earn $1 billion in a relatively short amount of time.
• The list includes online commerce pioneers like Jeff Bezos and tech innovators like Mark Zuckerberg and Evan Spiegel, who all became billionaires with less than six years of work.
• Some of the billionaires who got rich quick are among the most influential business players in the world.

Making a billion dollars sounds like it would take a lifetime of hard work.

But some people managed to pull it off in just a year.

We compiled a list of self-made billionaires who made their fortunes the fastest. The list includes pioneers of online commerce to early execs of the biggest social media site on the planet, and many of them are among the wealthiest and most influential players in the business world.

Read on to see who became a billionaire within the shortest time frames. But be warned — their results aren't easy to replicate.

SEE ALSO: Meet John Collison, the 27-year-old Harvard dropout whose tech startup turned him into the youngest self-made billionaire in the world

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Eduardo Saverin — 1 year

Eduardo Saverin's saga, from co-founding Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 to getting squeezed out of the company a year later, was dramatized in the movie "The Social Network."

Despite working at Facebook for less than a year, Saverin retained a minority stake in the company, which translated into more than $1 billion by 2010. Today, Saverin is worth more than $9 billion.

Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy — 3 years

Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy founded Snapchat in 2011 after they came with the idea of a photo-sharing app in which the pictures disappear.

By 2014, their sizable stock holdings put their net worths over $1 billion, and the 20-somethings appeared on the Forbes billionaires list one year later.

Sean Parker — 1.5 years

Sean Parker may have co-founded the pioneering music-sharing site Napster, but it was his brief stint as president of Facebook that earned him billionaire status.

Parker served as Facebook's first president for a little over a year starting in 2004. He left the company in early 2006, but retained nearly 70 million Facebook shares, according to Bloomberg. He sold about 3.5 million of them ahead of Facebook's 2012 initial public offering, putting him firmly in billionaire territory.

• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had a fun weekend, which he documented on Twitter.
• Bezos' festivities included making pancakes with singer Ciara and her husband Russell Wilson, going to the movies, and tweeting with The Rock.

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Even the CEO of one of the most valuable tech companies in the world needs to let his invisible hair down every once in awhile.

This past weekend, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made pancakes with singer Ciara and her husband Russell Wilson, the quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks.

The reason for the breakfast shindig is still unclear: Business proposition or just a bonding of breakfast lovers?

Bezos also took his kids to see Rampage, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's latest action flick, and snapped a photo of his best impression of the wrestler-turned-actor.

Smolder = The Rock-approved.

As you can see, Bezos (and his recent Twitter game) reminds us that he is, in fact, a regular joe. Just another regular joe, with a net worth of $119 billion. 

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Whether you want to launch an empire or become the best in your field, who better to consult than those who have achieved the peak of professional and financial success?

That's why we've rounded up 25 books by self-made billionaires. From the business insights of Bill Gates to the leadership lessons of Richard Branson, the wisdom collected in these pages extends far beyond the classroom.

Learn how these masters of industry achieved the impossible, in their own words.

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'The Virgin Way' by Richard Branson

Although Branson confesses he's never read a book on leadership, his nearly 50-year entrepreneurial career has taught him a thing or two about building a business.

In "The Virgin Way," the billionaire founder of Virgin Group offers lessons on management and entrepreneurialism, including the importance of listening to others and hiring the right people. Branson is honest about his successes as well as his failures, such as underestimating Coke's influence when he tried to launch Virgin Cola in the 1990s.

Overall, the book is a compelling glimpse into the life of someone who's never shied away from a challenge.

Find it here »

'Onward' by Howard Schultz

After resigning as Starbucks CEO in 2000, Schultz returned to the post in 2008, just as the company was struggling through a financial crisis. "Onward" details how the billionaire brought the global coffee chain back to life.

Readers will learn how Schultz made tough decisions — like temporarily shutting down more than 7,000 US stores — in order to help Starbucks grow without neglecting its core values.

They'll learn, too, about Schultz as a person, as he weaves together his unique business strategy with anecdotes about growing up in Brooklyn, New York. It's an honest and passionate recounting that will inspire entrepreneurs and everyone else to be brave in the face of adversity.

Find it here »

'How to Win at the Sport of Business' by Mark Cuban

In "How to Win at the Sport of Business," Dallas Mavericks owner and "Shark Tank" investor Cuban fleshes out his best insights on entrepreneurialism from his personal blog.

He writes candidly about how he progressed from sleeping on his friends' couches in his 20s to owning his own company and becoming a multibillionaire. It's a story of commitment and perseverance — Cuban writes that even though he didn't know much about computers, he beat his competition because he spent so much time learning about the software his company sold. 

Find it here »

• Billionaires and millionaires in the US include people from all over the world.
• Through a combination of ambition and hard work, many immigrants living in the US, such as Elon Musk (Tesla), Sergey Brin (Google), and Pierre Omidyar (eBay) have risen to be some of the richest people in the world. 

Moving to a new country is a big risk. Beyond the obvious barriers of distance, language, and culture, new residents often face prejudice and worse when moving to a new country simply to survive — nevermind thrive. Who will be there to rescue you if you fail in a foreign land? What kind of safety net will you have?

Through a combination of ambition, skill, and luck (and, in several cases, a knack for computer science), many American immigrants have risen to the highest and most exclusive echelon of society.

Here are 15 immigrants who struck it rich after the big move:

SEE ALSO: Here's where immigrants are moving to in the US

1. Celine Dion

Net Worth: $400 million

Country of Origin: Canada

The French Canadian pop star may not in the financial stratosphere as some of the tech giants on this list, the Las Vegas mainstay known for "My Heart Will Go On" has done pretty well for herself.

2. Bharat Desai

Net Worth: $1.2 Billion

Country of Origin: Kenya

Born in Kenya and raised in India, Desai came to the US to work for Tata Consultancy Services. He and his wife, Neerja Sethi, then started their own consulting firm, Syntel, in their suburban Detroit apartment with just $2,000.

3. Eren Ozmen

Net Worth: $1.46 billion

Country of Origin: Turkey

This self-made woman emigrated from her native Turkey to pursue an advanced degree at the University of Nevada. Since then, she has amassed a fortune from owning and running Sierra Nevada Corp., a private defense and aerospace company whose clients range from NASA to the U.S. Air Force, with her husband.

• WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum is leaving Facebook, which acquired his company in 2014 for $19 billion.
• Koum, who will leave before his stock award fully vests, could be losing out on as much as $1 billion, Bloomberg reported.
• He has so far sold over $7 billion in Facebook stock.

WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum announced on Monday that he planned to resign from Facebook — and he might be leaving a lot of money on the table.

Depending on when Koum's last day at Facebook is, he might lose out on as much as $1 billion in stock awards, Bloomberg reported, citing regulatory filings.

Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion, making Koum and his cofounder Brian Acton billionaires.

Usually, stock awards after a merger are distributed on a four-year "vesting cliff"— if you last all four years, you get your entire stock grant. Both Koum and Acton, who quit Facebook in September, will have left the company within that time.

According to Bloomberg, Koum still has three vesting dates through the end of the year: one in May, one in August, and the final one in November. The value of the shares he would get if he still worked at Facebook is just under $1 billion at Facebook's current share price.

Koum will also leave Facebook's board of directors, the company confirmed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Don't cry for Koum, though — he has already sold about $7.1 billion worth of Facebook shares, according to Courtney Yu, the director of research at Equilar, which tracks board compensation. Koum still holds over 11 million shares of Facebook, worth over $2 billion as of Tuesday.

So he's got plenty of money, even if he is leaving stock on the table.

In his goodbye note, posted on Facebook on Monday, Koum said he planned to collect "rare air-cooled Porsches."

Here's his full note:

"It's been almost a decade since Brian and I started WhatsApp, and it's been an amazing journey with some of the best people. But it is time for me to move on. I've been blessed to work with such an incredibly small team and see how a crazy amount of focus can produce an app used by so many people all over the world.

"I'm leaving at a time when people are using WhatsApp in more ways than I could have imagined. The team is stronger than ever and it'll continue to do amazing things. I'm taking some time off to do things I enjoy outside of technology, such as collecting rare air-cooled Porsches, working on my cars and playing ultimate frisbee. And I'll still be cheering WhatsApp on — just from the outside. Thanks to everyone who has made this journey possible."

Rob Price and Matt Weinberger contributed reporting.

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• John Paul is a luxury concierge service that is available 24/7 to its millionaire and billionaire clients.
• While most requests are for hard-to-get tickets or restaurant tables, the service has also handled numerous extravagant requests.
• One of the most extravagant requests was for a client who asked to watch the Monaco Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious races in the world, from a vantage point "no one else could get."
• John Paul arranged for the client to watch the race from a yacht and get an audience with Prince Albert II of Monaco.

As a luxury concierge service to ultra-wealthy people around the world, John Paul has seen some strange and extravagant requests.

The net-worth of the company's clients usually stretches from $30 million to $260 million, with a few that go even higher. Their clientele is well-traveled and educated. Once you've traveled to every island hotspot and stayed in private villas, it takes something extra to get a "wow" from clients.

In recent years, according to Amber Treshnell, John Paul's CEO of Americas, the company has helped fly in a client's favorite lasagna from Venice for a Christmas Eve celebration, arranged a visit with Santa in the Arctic Circle for a client's children, and help craft a wedding proposal dinner in Dubai at At.mosphere, the tallest restaurant in the world.

"We are constantly challenged with finding things that are not searchable on the internet. These are people who have traveled the world, been to many exciting destinations, and they want the next best thing,"  a concierge at John Paul for last 11 years told Business Insider.

"No is not an option. So long as it is legal and ethical, we can do it."

The concierge, who John Paul asked to keep his name confidential out of respect for his privacy, helped work on possibly the most extravagant request the company has ever fulfilled, which came during the Monaco Grand Prix, considered one of the most prestigious Formula One races in the world.

The client wanted to attend the Grand Prix, but was not satisfied with viewing it from the perfect balcony, according to the concierge. He wanted "something nobody else can get."

The concierge helped arrange for the client to watch the race from an ultra-luxury yacht. Not only that, but the concierges were able to get the client an audience with Prince Albert II of Monaco.

"Our client was over the moon when we presented this idea. He could never have done that himself. But, with our connections, we were able to make it happen," he said.

Providing that experience, according to the concierge, was "ultra, ultra expensive" and required 24/7 work to make happen.

"The logistics are quite layered and detailed," he said. "Of course, first there is a moment of panic. How do we take this client request and make it happen? You work backwards and make the steps."

Concierges, according to John Paul, see their value in their connections and network. When a request like the Monaco Grand Prix comes in, the concierge said he begins by combing his Rolodex for "someone who knows someone who knows someone." If his connections come up empty, he will contact concierges at other John Paul offices so they can tap into their networks.

Once they have a connection that can make the experience happen, the team puts everything through several layers of vetting. With millionaire and billionaire clients, there is always the risk that someone is trying to steal clients' money. John Paul prides itself on its vetting abilities.

"We don't want to put our clients in danger because they are coming to us as the authority on providing them with access that is unquestionably honest and straightforward," he said. "We don't want them to worry about that access."

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