Billionaire Wisdom: 10 inspiring quotes from the world’s most successful entrepreneurs

The world’s richest billionaires come from varied backgrounds, industries, generations and countries.

They’re tech entrepreneurs, a fashion magnate, probably the world’s savviest ever investor, a pioneering industrialist and a space-watching Twitter hot head – hi Elon.

What sets them apart, however, is their canny ability to make money. They’re not just good at it, they’re the best in the world at it. Possibly ever. From pioneering inventions to repeated shrewd business moves they’re billionaires for a reason.

Can we learn anything from them? Without a doubt.

Check out these pearls of wisdom from the world’s top 10 richest billionaires.

10) Sergey Brin

The computer scientist and Google co-founder is famed for creating a culture of innovation, experimentation and developing creative technology on his way to an $80.5bn fortune. The secret? Not being confined by rules, apparently.

“Too many rules stifle innovation.”

S.Brin

9) Mukesh Ambani

The chairman of Reliance Industries has interest in telecoms, retail, oil and gas and petrochemicals.

And he just bought Dubai’s most expensive private villa ever. FOR THE SECOND TIME.

How did he turn this into an $83.9bn fortune? Hard work. Lots of hard work. 

“It is important to remember that there are no overnight successes. You will need to be dedicated, single-minded, and there is no substitute to hard work.”

M. Ambani

Larry Page, billionaire Google founder

8) Larry Page

How do you make $84bn and become one of the world’s richest billionaires? It sounds counterintuitive, but the Google co-founder says money motivation is not the way.

“If we were motivated by money, we would have sold the company a long time ago and ended up on a beach.”

L. Page

Larry Ellison

7) Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison gave up the CEO role at Oracle nearly 10 years ago, after 37 years at the helm. Still the CTO and owner of about 35% of the company he knows the importance of being different in the boardroom and the marketplace. An $87.4bn bank balance proves him right. 

“If you do everything that everyone else does in business, you’re going to lose. The only way to really be ahead is to ‘be different’.”

L.Ellison

Warren Buffett

6) Warren Buffet

The former chewing gum and door-to-door salesman has come a long way and made many billions. $95.5bn to be precise. His best rule for aspiring billionaires – don’t lose money. Simple.

“Rule No. 1 is never lose money. Rule No. 2 is never forget Rule No. 1.”

W.Buffet

Bill Gates

5) Bill Gates

Software developer and Microsoft founder Gates has spent much of the past thirty years recognised as one of the world’s richest billionaires and is now a leading philanthropist with a personal net worth estimated at $99.8bn. Follow his advice and learn more from setbacks than success. 

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”.

B.Gates

Gautam Adani

4) Gautam Adani

Port development business leader and industrialist Gautam Adani thinks long-term vision over short-term profit is a key characteristic of a leader. It is a belief that has carried him to a $124.4bn fortune. 

“I am not attracted to those politicians who are short on vision and only want to make money. I like those who have vision.”

G.Adani

Jeff Bezos

3) Jeff Bezos

Shopkeeper and online retail mogul Bezos has built Amazon into an all-conquering online shopping giant with a personal net worth estimated at $130.4bn. How? Building a reputation. 

“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”

J.Bezos

Bernard Arnault

2) Bernard Arnault

Growth, growth, growth. If it is good enough for luxury goods specialist Bernard Arnault and his family then it is good enough for any aspiring entrepreneur or lesser billionaires. It has taken the Arnault family to an estimated $147.8bn.

“The goal of a start-up is not to stay a start-up. The goal of a start-up is to grow and to become, if possible, a large company.”

B.Arnault

Elon Musk is the world's richest billionaire

1) Elon Musk

A personal fortune of $207.7bn, Tesla and SpaceX optimistic for the future the world hanging on his every tweet and the title of the world’s richest man. It is fair to say Elon Musk knows a thing or two about making money. As the quote shows he has a single-minded determination to go his own way.

“If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.”

E.Musk


This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

This story has been published from an article published online in Arabian Business on 16th October 2022, without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.


For informative and light-hearted news and views on the world of real estate, follow overwrite.ai on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our NewsBites blog, updated weekly.


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The stock market’s biggest ‘unicorn’ failure

Investors have rained cash on Uber, Airbnb and other unprofitable companies.

Any one of these 15 money-losing companies could become the stock market’s biggest ‘unicorn’ failure ever.

David Rush holds a Guinness world record for cramming 100 candles into his mouth and lighting them. 

Sandeep Singh Kaila spun a basketball on a toothbrush for a record 1 minute and 8.15 seconds. Neville Sharp emitted a 112.4 decibel burp.

If those zany stunts can make it into the Guinness Book of World Records, there should be a category for something really important — the world’s biggest startup company failure.

There is certainly no shortage of contenders for this dubious honor.

Before 2015, the biggest bankruptcies (by funding) were Solyndra ($1.2 billion), Abound Solar ($614 million), and Better Place ($675 million). 

WebVan got a lot of publicity when it received $275 million in venture capital funding and failed in 2001 after three years of operation. More recently, Theranos received $500 million in venture capital funding and was a well-publicized disaster, with CEO Elizabeth Holmes and president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani both convicted of multiple counts of fraud.

Those failures are large, but the cumulative losses of many startups that have not yet gone bankrupt are orders of magnitude larger. 

The table below shows the funds raised by the 15 biggest money-losing startups in the U.S. Cumulatively they raised $93.8 billion in startup funds and have lost $135.1 billion.

Only one of these 15 companies has ever had a profitable quarter — Airbnb had a $378 million profit on $2.1 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2022. 

All of the other startups in the table have recent losses that exceed 10% of revenue and most exceed 30%.

Any hopeful arguments that profitability is just around the corner ring hollow when every company is at least nine years old and two are more than 20 years old. 

At some point, investors will say, “Enough is enough” and realize that it is a sunk-cost fallacy to throw good money after bad.

Eleven of the 15 companies in the table have raised more money than was raised by any bankrupt startup. 

The two biggest losers so far are Uber and WeWork.

So far, Uber has cumulative losses of $31.7 billion and WeWork $20.7 billion, with no end in sight. Uber’s stock price is down about 35% from its 52-week high. WeWork is down 71% and is now officially a penny stock.

Losses have to be financed and it is increasingly difficult for these companies to do so. 

Uber has cumulative losses of $31.7 billion  and WeWork $20.7 billion. Most of these so-called unicorn startups have seen their share prices fall more than 50% in the past year, and many of these stocks are down more than 90%. 

Most of these so-called unicorn startups have seen their share prices fall more than 50% in the past year, and many of these stocks are down more than 90%. WeWork isn’t the only unicorn turning into a penny stock.

These stock-price declines will make it increasingly difficult and expensive to issue more stock in order to raise funds to cover ongoing losses. Meanwhile, rising interest rates are increasing the cost of servicing existing debt and making it difficult and expensive to issue even more debt.

Many unicorns will surely soon go bankrupt or be acquired at fire-sale prices. A failure of Uber or WeWork would be 10 times larger than the previous records for lost venture-capital funding.

A wave of unicorn failures would send tremors through financial markets, but it is unlikely that the federal government would use a “too-big-too-fail” excuse to intervene.

Although the startups in the table are U.S. companies, unicorn startups in other countries have similar problems: European startups (Delivery Hero DHER, -0.90%, Deliveroo ROO, –2.44%, and Wise WISE, -0.78% ); Chinese ones (Didi DIDIY, -5.50%, Kuaishou 1024, -3.44%, Billi Billi , and Pinduoduo PDD, -2.60% ); Indian ones (Ola , Paytm , and Zomato 543320, -1.29% ), and Singaporean ones (Grab and SEA ) also have multi-billion dollar cumulative losses. 

New records among unicorn companies will likely soon be set all over the world — but they won’t be as benign as records for candle stuffing, basketball spinning, and burping.


This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

Jeffrey Lee Funk and Gary Smith writes for Market Watch.

This story has been published from an article on 14th September 2022, without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.


For informative and light-hearted news and views on the world of real estate, follow overwrite.ai on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.


overwrite.ai | the AI writing assistant for real estate | Sign up for your Free 7 Day Trial.

Top 10 Most Cringeworthy Real Estate Typos

Everyone makes typos. Even the best writers get caught out. But when real estate agents are entrusted to sell properties worth millions of dollars, there really is no excuse for not paying attention to the smallest detail. 

Especially with the range of technologies out there that can help. Some blunders you simply can’t ignore. 

The ones that cause clients to doubt an agent’s professionalism, and reflect poorly on the agency they represent. These typos are very awkward because they are so very public.

One place where these awkward misprints are usually found is in a property’s public listing description.

Any experienced agent will tell you that the property writeup is a critical part of the listing process. An engaging description will not only set you apart from other agents and their marketing. It will serve to hook prospective leads and set you up with that all-important client relationship.

We’ve assembled a list of the most common slip-ups found in real estate write-ups.

Forget embarrassing Typos: use an AI writing assistant

Cut To Bloopers

1. SEPERATE …

Don’t be the reason to build a wall between you and your client – it should be ‘separate’

2. ACCOMODATION …

It’s a mouthful alright – it should be ‘accommodation’

3. FORMALLY…

Remember who said it first – it should be ‘formerly‘ 

4. PRINCIPLE…

Principles are for theoretical physicists. For foremost features – it should be ‘principal‘

5. DUEL …

Let’s hope there are no fights to settle – it should be ‘dual’

6. SORT AFTER …

If you want to remain in demand, don’t make this mistake – it should be ‘sought-after’

7. STAINLESS STEAL …

Best to not get in trouble with the law – it should be ‘steel’

8. INDEPENDANT …

Sloppy errors will have you singled out – it should be ‘independent’

9. EXTENTION …

Is this really the ‘extent’ of your spelling skills? – it should be ‘extension’

10. VOLTED …

You could be in for a shock if you get this one wrong – when it should be ‘vaulted’

Saving Face

Whilst we’re all human and make mistakes, clients are within their rights to expect their agent to cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i’ when transacting their home.

Sometimes the typos or grammos go unnoticed but many of them do not.

Although they may appear trivial, research has shown they can have a real impact on your credibility as a professional agent. There are plenty of other agents a client can choose from so why give them an excuse to shop around.

Grammar Rules in Real Estate

Real-estate agents better take out that red pen. An article in The Wall Street Journal quoted that:

“It’s not just English teachers who notice misspellings in luxury-home listings; typos and missing commas can slow sales and drag down prices.

An analysis of listings priced at $1 million and up shows that “perfect” listings—written in full sentences without spelling or grammatical errors—sell three days faster and are 10% more likely to sell for more than their list price.”

Sanette Tanaka
Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Write better, read better, sell faster

And for the estate agents reading this, there are some great efficiency tools to help you. Intelligently automated writing assistants like overwrite.ai mean agents no longer have to worry about silly typos or bad grammar. The agent enters the key property particulars using the intuitive, user-friendly platform, and the property description is created in seconds.


For informative and light-hearted news and views on the world of real estate, follow overwrite.ai on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.


overwrite.ai | the AI writing assistant for estate agents | Sign up for your Free 7 Day Trial.

MENA’s Biggest AI Event Pulls in Top Entrepreneurs

Leading AI and Tech Entrepreneurs gather in a few weeks to discuss innovation and investment, at the Middle East’s biggest technology event.

AI Everything aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the state of AI technology and it’s long-term potential, while spotlighting rising stars.

And overwrite.ai Founder and CEO Ayman Alashkar, will be speaking across 3 days of exciting panels with fellow visionaries from a range of industries.

Did you know that each year the global real estate industry wastes more than 16 million hours, and US$2.5 Billion, manually writing real estate marketing content?  That’s enough to make 625 thousand trips to the Moon and back.   

overwrite.ai has fixed that. We are a leading AI writing assistant for the real estate industry. An efficiency tool. Augmenting human capability by instantly creating localised, high-quality Real Estate marketing content.   

And we are doing to the property marketing industry, what Docusign has done for document management. Total disruption.

“Dubai is epitomised by its passion for growth and innovation.

The AI Everything event puts Dubai on the map, highlighting the region’s enormous talent pool and potential.

Ayman Alashkar, CEO & Founder, overwrite.ai

A real estate economist and AI strategist with +20years’ experience as an asset manager, investor, developer and banker, Ayman founded the business in 2020.

To learn more about us and our ground breaking technology, meet us at Za’abeel Hall 7, stand P-B126.

We’re giving away 15 FREE 5-day passes. Email us at contact@overwrite.ai for the chance to win your FREE GUEST PASS.

Meet the rising tech entrepreneurs at AI Everything and North Star

Ayman will be taking part in 3 brilliant panel sessions. Watch him on

10th October @ the 10x Stage

Panel Discussion: Funding Winter? Availability and levels from seed to C today

  • Is the pool of cash for startups drying up and why? 
  • Pre-seed and seed challenges and how to get around them 
  • Bootstrapping pros and cons 
  • So you’re on your way: series B, series C buy in trends and downrounds 
  • Are any verticals bucking the trend or more less impacted at least? 

Moderator: Aby Sam Thomas, Editor in Chief, Entrepreneur Middle East (AE) 

Panelists: 

12th October @ the Rising Stage

Panel Discussion: Insight & Experience: Spreading inspiration and innovation – the ripple effect of successful ventures   

  • Build a business, birth a sector 
  • Sink or swim – when you swim, you swim far and wide 
  • Better than an MBA, the school of doing  
  • Inspiring and enabling leaders, defining new sectors, creating prosperity 
  • Stories from those who have flown the nest 

Panelists: 

Hear from leading tech startup entrepreneurs at #AiEverything and #NorthStar

13th October @ the Pitch Stage

Panel Discussion: What is prop-tech? The length and breadth of this sector and solutions 

  • Why has prop-tech not been in the spotlight as much as other “smart” products and services? 
  • What kinds of efficiencies and opportunities does prop-tech offer various stakeholders? 
  • Overview of our panelists propositions 
  • Imagining the future of the property market leveraging the latest and emerging prop-tech 

Panelists: 


Win one of 15 FREE 5-day passes that we’re giving away. Email us at contact@overwrite.ai for the chance to win your FREE GUEST PASS.



For informative and light-hearted news and views on the world of real estate, follow overwrite.ai on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.


overwrite.ai | the AI writing assistant for estate agents | Sign up for your Free 7 Day Trial.

Real Estate Agent insults buyer with emoji and loses deal 😂

Real estate agent responded with laughing emojis to an A$2.6million offer.

An Aussie real estate agent has been slammed for sending a laughing emoji in response to a potential buyer’s offer for a multi million-dollar property in Sydney.

In a text message exchange shared on Reddit, the agent asked the potential buyer to give him an offer he could ‘work with’ for the property.

The buyer responded with an offer of A$ 2.6million dollars and a 14-day settlement period, only to be told by the agent the figure was laughable and ‘wouldn’t fly’.  

‘I just sold (another property) for about A$ 2.7million, on 695 square metres,’ the agent replied, adding insult with a second laughing emoji. 

How the dialogue played out…

The bidder politely replied that while the emoji didn’t offend them, it might insult other customers.

‘I don’t  mind the laughing emoji but others may not appreciate it. Thanks anyway. Good luck,’ he wrote.

‘No disrespect intended,’ the agent replied.  

‘An escort rejecting your mother’s credit card has more professionalism than this. Keep it up Sydney Real Estate!’ Posted the prospective home buyer alongside a screenshot of the message exchange.

Not The Only One

The post was flooded with stories of other shocking behaviour from other real estate agents.

One person said their real estate agent used their open home to throw himself a birthday party. 

Here’s how it went:

‘He posted on Facebook ‘Hey guys, come on down this open house, it’s my birthday, let’s party!’ the person wrote.

‘I confronted him about what in the f**k he was doing, ‘Aw, I was just having some fun’.

‘Same thing happened to us bidding on a house. It was listed for “offers over A$ 610k” and we offered A$ 615k over the phone. The agent just laughed,’ another said.

‘A toddler pretending to be a real estate agent would do a better job than this,’ one said. 

Say What?

How far have you gone with your responses to “silly” client offers? We’d love to hear in the comments below!


This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners. 

Eliza McPhee is a writer for Daily Mail, Australia

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.


For informative and light-hearted news and views on the world of real estate, follow overwrite.ai on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.


overwrite.ai | the AI writing assistant for estate agents | Sign up for your Free 7 Day Trial.