Books Recommended by Forbes 2022’s Ten Wealthiest Billionaires List

How wealthy are they, their place in the list, and the books they read.

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Billionaires change places among the wealthiest man all the time. So much that Forbes Magazine created an interactive page, with everyday changes reflecting winners and losers since 5 pm EST of the previous trading day.

Just as in the Kentucky Derby’s at Louisville, the contestants change places, and Mark Zuckerberg, who last month was in sixth, dropped out of the race for the top ten after hi Meta Platforms plunged 26%, costing him $32 billion and placed him on the fourteenth place.

Hence, before it changes, here is the list of today, February 9, 2022’s wealthiest people in the world, their net worth, age, company, and where they live, as well as what book each one recommends reading.

1. Elon Musk

$239.3 Billion, Age-50, Company-Tesla & SpaceX, Country-United States

Recommended Book Life 3.0 By Max Tegmark

“What sort of future do you want? How will Artificial Intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology — from superintelligence to meaning, consciousness and the ultimate physical limits on life in the cosmos.” — New York Times

2 Bernard Arnault & family

$194.6 Billion, Age-72, Company-LVMH, Country-France

Recommended book: Good to Great By Jim Collins

After 21 persons researched, read, and coded 6,000 articles. Collins and his team explore a company’s transformation from mediocre to excellent, producing significant results and greatness, evolving into companies “Built to Last,” and explaining why “Good is the enemy of Great.”

3 Jeff Bezos

$187.3 Billion, Age-58, Company-Amazon, Country-United States

Recommended Book: The Innovator’s Dilemma By Clayton M. Christensen.

The Innovator’s Dilemma sets rules capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation and why successful companies can do everything right and still lose their market leadership or disappear entirely, missing “the next great wave.”

4. Bill Gates

$132.6 Billion, Age-66, Company-Microsoft, Country-United States

Recommended book: The Ride of a Lifetime By Robert Iger.

In this book, Iger relates his time as Walt Disney Company’s CEO and how, in his 15 years leading the company, Disney became one of the world’s largest media entertainment empires. During this time, he was responsible for Disney’s acquisition deals with Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox, and increasing the company’s value almost five times.

5. Larry Page

$118.0 Billion, Age-48, Company-Google, Country-United States

Recommended book: My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla By Nikola Tesla

“I read this autobiography and just about cried at the end, because he’s basically a failure. He couldn’t fund his research, many of the great things he invented — people don’t even know what they are today. And so I said, I don’t want to be like Tesla, I want to have an easy time getting things out into the world and make a real impact.” — Larry Page

6. Warren Buffett

$116.1 Billion, Age-91, Company-Berkshire Hathaway, Country-United States

Recommended Book: Intelligent Investor By Benjamin Graham

Economist Benjamin Graham, known as the father of value investing, is considered the top guru of finance and investment. In this book, the author explains that instead of watching the changing sentiments of the market, the wise investor should concentrate on the real-life performance and the dividends received from his companies. When the market price of a stock is less than its intrinsic value(price-value discrepancies). This book is considered one of the most important books on the topic.

7. Sergey Brin

$113.7 Billion, Age-48, Company-Google, Country-United States

Recommended Book: Solve for Happy By Mo Gawdat

Seventeen days after the death of his son Ali, the author began to write about happiness, inspired by his son’s philosophy, who two days before his death sat down as a wise old man and told his family that he loved and thanked them kindly for what they contributed to his life. Then ask each one some specific things to do. This Gawdat’s attempt to fulfill the task his song assigned him, to be and make others happy. To accomplish this, he created a movement (#onebillionhappy) to help one billion people become happier.

8. Larry Ellison

$110.7 Billion, Age-77, Business-Oracle, Country-United States

Recommended book: Lone Survivor By Marcus Luttrell

Based on the true story of four U.S. Navy SEALs who left their base in northern Afghanistan towards Pakistan to capture or kill an al-Qaeda hidden in a Taliban stronghold. Less than twenty-four hours later, only Luttrell remained alive after being blasted and left unconscious by a rocket grenade, blown over a cliff, but still armed and still breathing. And how he managed to fight the al-Qaeda assassins sent to finish him and crawled for seven miles to survive.

9. Steve Ballmer

$97.0 Billion, Age-65, Company-Microsoft, Country-United States

Recommended Book: Built to Last By Jim Collins.

This is a book about visionary companies. Collins writes about his six-year research on eighteen lasting companies, examined from their very beginnings to the present day. Asking, what makes the truly exceptional companies different from other companies? An analysis of General Electric, 3M, Merck, Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard, Walt Disney, Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble, among others?

10 Mukesh Ambani

$90.3 Billion, Age-64, Company-Reliance Industries, Country-India

Recommended book: Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World By Fareed Zakaria

On June 25, 2017, Zakaria predicted a “tiny” and “microscopic” threat that could trigger a global health crisis. In his book, he explains what could be the political, social, technological, and economic consequences of a post-pandemic world that may take years to unfold. He writes about the acceleration of natural and biological risks, the rise of digital life, and a new world order split between the United States and China.

Take Away

In the fast-moving world, we live in today, being informed and documented is a must. What better way to know what to read and be ahead of the rest than the books the wealthiest people in the world read and recommend.

From economy, business, and technology to biographies, life stories, and how to be happy, this list covers all the aspects one could ever wish for. It is a plus if some of the most influential people today recommend them.

No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.” ― Atwood H. Townsend

© Copyright Jose Luis Ontanon, 2022