#ThrowbackThursday: Top 6 Most Powerful CEOs of 2014

Most people, when get out of college, have at least two prospects before them. One is to find a nice job somewhere and the other is to start on their own. They can either be employed or become the employer. Now most of us are not prone to taking risks when it comes to our finances, but a little risk at the right time, can provide you a much stronger financial status in the long run. We all wish to be among the 10% of startups that flourish and to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs; I bring you Forbes’ Top 6 most powerful CEOs of 2014 and where they were previously. To make you see the light, I will delve into the past that was not so favorable to all of them. Like any startup, big or small, they had to face the music and strive to make it work. See what you can learn from their examples and then implement it to make your own dreams come true.

Bill Gates

Current Position: Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; former CEO and Chairman, Microsoft

Net Worth: $78.8 Billion

Forbes Ranking: No. 6 on World’s Most Powerful 2014.

Bill Gates has been America’s wealthiest man overall since 1995, except for 2008 when he was beaten by Warren Buffett and Carlos Slim. Today, he’s known as an inventor, a business magnate and a philanthropist, but his beginnings were not very humble either. He was the grandson of JW Maxwell, president of the national bank, and a programming genius who studied at Harvard. He later opened a computer software company of his own in collaboration with Paul Allen, his partner-in-crime at the Lakeside School.

Michael Duke

Current Position: CEO Wal-mart Stores

Total Compensation: $5,643,677

Forbes Ranking: No. 10 on World’s Most Powerful in 2014.

Michael Terry Duke was the fourth CEO of Wal-mart who served between 2009 and 2013. He joined the company in 1995 and ascended the ladder to the position of chief officer after fourteen years. Unfortunately, there is no background info shared with the public but we do know how hard he worked while his tenure as the president of Wal-Mart. He still serves on the community advisory board of Arvest Bank and board of directors for the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

Warren Buffett

Current Position: CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

Net Worth: $65.2 Billion

Forbes Ranking: No. 13 on World’s Most Powerful.

Buffett an American investor, business magnate and philanthropist is considered as the most successful investor in the 20th century. He is ranked as one of the world’s wealthiest person and also one of the most influential people in the world. Buffett is also known as the “Wizard of Omaha” because of his adherence to the value investing philosophy as personally he was frugal inspite of all that wealth.

As a child, he always had interest in making and saving money. He used to do door to door selling of chewing gums, coke and magazines. Moreover he has also worked at a grocery store with his grandfather. He kept on making money even in the high school by selling stamps, newspapers and golf balls. Now he is the largest shareholder, CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012 and was successfully treated.

Jeff Bezos

Current Position: CEO, Amazon.com

Net Worth: $30.2 Billion

Forbes Ranking: No. 15 on World’s Most Powerful; No. 18 on the Billionaire List 2014.

Bezos an American business tycoon and investor played vital role in the growth of e-commerce industry. He is the CEO and founder of the famous Amazon.com, an online merchant of books initially and now offering huge variety of products. He made Amazon.com the largest retailer on the internet. After graduating from Princeton in electrical engineering degree and computer science he started working with the Wall Street, where he learnt that internet is going to be the rapid growing industry. After quitting his job he moved to Seattle and founded his very own online bookstore Amazon in 1995 which is doing amazing business until now. In 2012, he was named as the “Businessperson of The Year” by Fortune.

Besoz spent his youth working at a U.S Atomic Energy Commission ranch with his maternal grandfather. He had mechanical abilities since childhood because as a toddler he even tried dismantling his crib.

Rex Tillerson

Position: CEO, Exxon Mobil

Total Compensation: $8,138,329

Forbes Ranking: No. 16 on World’s Most Powerful.

Tillerson is the CEO, president and the chairman of the Exxon Mobile Corporation. It is the largest non-state oil and gas company with the operations widely spread in six continents. It had dropped its position from No.1 to No. 5 largest company in 2013 according to the Forbes Global 2000. He has received his civil engineering degree from the University of Texas and was named as the “Distinguished Engineering Graduate” in 2006.

He is also a member of the executive committee and ex-chairman of the American Petroleum Institute. Moreover, he received his honorary doctorate engineering degree in 2011 from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Larry Page

Position: CEO, Google

Net Worth: $31.6 Billion

Forbes Ranking: No. 17 on World’s Most Powerful; No. 17 billionaire 2014.

Lawrence “Larry” Page, an American business tycoon and a computer scientist is the co-founder of the most famous Google, along with Sergey Brin. Larry Page was made the CEO of Google in 2011. He is ranked as one of the wealthiest person according to Forbes list ranking at No.19. He also invented Google Page Rank which is the foundation of Google search ranking algorithms.

He holds Bachelors of Science in computer engineering from the University of Michigan and Masters of Science in computer science from the University of Stanford.

As a child he was always messing around with computers and Popular Science magazines all over the place. His attraction for computers started at the age of 6 and he was the first kid in his elementary school to submit the assignment on Word Processor.