Imagine you’re the richest person in the world. Richer than the richest man, Bill Gates himself- for a mere 3 days. And then you lose almost 99% of your wealth!
What do you do?
You can choose to be dejected, or to rise back up and rebuild your fortune, one Lego block at a time.
“Losing 99% of my wealth taught me to value money again”, said Son as he began to rebuild his empire. If the Hall of Prophecy existed in real-life, Son’s orb would have predicted how he would go on to become the “Japanese Bill Gates” and a front runner in shaping Japan’s technology and investment landscape.
Renowned for his bold investment moves and high-risk appetite, Son’s story is a story about perseverance and grit. Sit back and enjoy your monthly dosage of ‘Stories that Inspire’.
“Life is too short to do anything small.” -Masayoshi Son
Born in 1957 to Korean immigrants, Masayoshi Son moved to the US with a rudimentary knowledge of English and ended up studying Economics at the University of California, Berkley. He made his first million dollars by importing Pac Man and Space Invader video games to the US and renting it to local bars and restaurants.
In 1981, he returned to Japan and set up SoftBank with two part-time workers and a small office to distribute packaged software. Soon, SoftBank diversified into publishing and telecom. By thelate 80s, SoftBank allowed subscribers to choose telephone with the lowest rates for domestic and long-distance calls that were enormously popular.
In 1996, the company invested in $100 million in a then-struggling startup called Yahoo! and other tech companies as SoftBank’s valuations began soaring.
However, trouble arose when Son lost $70 billion of his $78 billion fortune in one fateful day during the 2000 dot-com crash that wiped out 93% of SoftBank’s market value. But, Son was not one to give up. In a career-defining move, Son invested $30 million in a little-known Chinese company called Alibaba, which grew to an astonishing $130 billion over time.
Today, SoftBank’s investments include companies like Uber, Slack, SoFi, DoorDash and its Vision Fund is the largest technology venture in the world.
SoftBank was founded in September 1981 as SOFTBANK Corp by then-24-year-old Masayoshi Son
Masayoshi Son
Masayoshi Son was the founder of SoftBank Corp. In 1981, it operated as a software vendor, becoming a major telecommunications operator in Japan and later morphing into SoftBank Group Corp., an investment holding company.
, initially as a software distributor. The company entered the publishing business in May 1982 with the launches of the Oh! PC and Oh! MZ magazines, about NEC and Sharp computers respectively.
As the tech market crashed, SoftBank's stock plummeted, leading to a personal loss for Son estimated at around $70 billion — the most significant financial loss suffered by an individual.
However, trouble arose when Son lost $70 billion of his $78 billion fortune in one fateful day during the 2000 dot-com crash that wiped out 93% of SoftBank's market value.
TOKYO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group (9984. T) , opens new tab booked a $5.2 billion quarterly loss on Thursday, its fourth straight quarter in the red, as the Japanese giant took a hit from the bankruptcy of WeWork, once one of its highest-flying investments.
“Masa”, as he is known to friends, was the Japanese founder of the world's biggest technology investment company, SoftBank. He had made some of the most inspired — and risky — bets on young technology projects in history.
Historians say he was the richest person to have ever lived. Today, his wealth would be worth more than 400 billion USD. Mansa Musa came to power in 1312 CE. Mansa Musa's new trade works made the already wealthy country the wealthiest in Africa, which mostly came from gold, ivory, and unique salt.
On September 27, 2021, after Tesla stock surged, Forbes announced that Musk had a net worth of over $200 billion, and was the richest person in the world. In November 2021, Musk became the first person to have a net worth of more than $300 billion.
Japanese investment holding firm SoftBank Group Corp has largely cleared its ownership in e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, concluding one of the most successful deals in China's internet industry and a holding that spanned about 23 years.
SoftBank took a ¥183 billion hit from the weaker yen, largely because of its US dollar-denominated liabilities. Analysts on average had estimated a group net income of ¥203.4 billion. SoftBank Group Corp's shares tumbled after its flagship Vision Fund reported another loss with the drop in valuations at WeWork Inc.
Neumann, who had built the company to a valuation of $47 billion within a decade, was also paid eye-watering sums upon his exit, namely a $185 million noncompete agreement, a $106 million settlement payment, and $578 million received for shares sold by Neumann to longtime investor SoftBank.
Even after WeWork had to pull its planned IPO in 2019, SoftBank stepped up with a $9.5 billion rescue package. Son defended his decision in a presentation that included a “hypothetical” path to profitability for WeWork.
But Son's fairytale didn't last long. After the dot-com bubble burst, his company Softbank's shares plunged 75 percent in two months and was 93 percent lower by the end of 2000. The business almost went bankrupt and Son ended up losing USD 70 billion, the highest ever recorded financial loss for a person in history.
A WeWork co-working office. WeWork Inc.'s bankruptcy filing caps a years-long saga that revealed breathtaking flaws in the investment style of Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, damaging his professional reputation far beyond the money he lost.
According to Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg lost the most money since the beginning of the year out of the "ultra-rich" tracked on the outlet's Billionaires Index: a whopping $71 billion. Musk's net worth dropped by $6 billion, Bill and Melinda Gates lost $27 and $26 billion, and Jeff Bezos shed $46 billion.
How much is Mansa Musa worth today? With camel-loads of gold and salt, Mansa Musa's net worth has been valued by modern-day scholars to be around $400 to $415 billion in modern money. John D.
Introduction: My name is Allyn Kozey, I am a outstanding, colorful, adventurous, encouraging, zealous, tender, helpful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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