The 2009 List Of Tech Billionaires And How Much They Lost

Forbes released its list of the world’s billionaires and it looks like the U.S. tech billionaires took a pretty hefty hit from the economic crisis. The 40 tech billionaires we identified on the list collectively lost $81.5 billion compared to their standing in last year’s list. That is a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.4 trillion in net worth that disappeared from the entire Forbes’ list, which also saw the total number of billionaires drop to 793 from 1,125, the first year-to-year decrease since 2003.

2009 Rank (2008)	Name (Company)	Net Worth	Change From 2008
#1 (#3)	William Gates III (Microsoft)	$40.0 billion	-$18.0 billion
#4 (#14)	Larry Ellison (Oracle)	$22.5 billion	-$2.5 billion
#17 (#65)	Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg)	$16 billion	+$5 billion
#29 (#40)	Michael Dell (Dell)	$12.3 billion	-$4.1 billion
#26 (#32)	Sergey Brin (Google)	$12 billion	-$6.7 billion
#26 (#33)	Larry Page (Google)	$11 billion	-$4 billion
#29 (#43)	Steven Ballmer (Microsoft)	$11 billion	-$4 billion
#32 (#41)	Paul Allen (Microsoft)	$10.5 billion	-$5.5 billion
#68 (#110)	Jeffrey Bezos (Amazon)	$6.8 billion	-$1.4 billion
#119 (#142)	Eric Schmidt (Google)	$4.4 billion	-$2.2 billion
#132 (#109)	Rupert Murdoch (News Corp.)	$4 billion	-$4.3 billion
#146 (#87)	Charles Ergen (EchoStar)	$3.9 billion	-$5.6 billion
#156 (#120)	Pierre Omidyar (Ebay)	$3.6 billion	-$4.4 billion
#178 (#189)	Steven Jobs (Apple)	$3.4 billion	-$2 billion
#196 (#236)	John Sall (SAS Institute)	$3.1 billion	-$1.3 billion
#205 (#277)	George Lucas (LucasArts)	$3.0 billion	-$0.9 billion
#246 (#288)	Gordon Moore (Intel)	$2.6 billion	-$1.1 billion
#261 (#462)	David Sun (Kingston Technologies)	$2.5 billion	0
#261 (#462)	John Tu (Kingston Technologies)	$2.5 billion	0
#296 (#446)	Mark Cuban (Broadcast.com)	$2.3 billion	-$0.3 billion
#296 (#307)	Ray Dolby (Dolby)	$2.3 billion	-$1.2 billion
#397 (#286)	Jeffrey Skoll (Ebay)	$1.8 billion	-$1.8 billion
#430 (#503)	William Randolph Hearst III (Media, Kleiner Perkins)	$1.7 billion	-$0.7 billion
#468 (#652)	Thomas Siebel (Siebel Systems)	$1.5 billion	-$0.4 billion
#522 (#605)	Andreas von Bechtolsheim (Sun, Google investor)	$1.4 billion	-$0.6 billion
#522 (#533)	Omid Kordestani (Google)	$1.4 billion	-$0.8 billion
#559 (#652)	Henry Samueli (Broadcom)	$1.3 billion	-$0.6 billion
#559 (#462)	Craig McCaw (McCaw Cellular)	$1.3 billion	-$1.2 billion
#559 (#743)	Irwin Jacobs (Qualcomm)	$1.3 billion	-$0.3 billion
#559 (#785)	Todd Wagner (Broadcast.com)	$1.3 billion	-$0.2 billion
#601 (#707)	L. John Doerr (Kleiner Perkins)	$1.2 billion	-$0.5 billion
#601 (#677)	Henry Nicholas III (Broadcom)	$1.2 billion	-$0.6 billion
#601 (#461)	David Filo (Yahoo)	$1.2 billion	-$1.3 billion
#647 (#785)	Vinod Khosla (Kleiner Perkins)	$1.1 billion	-$0.4 billion
#701 (#137)	Sumner Redstone (Viacom)	$1 billion	-$5.8 billion
#701 (#897)	Scott Cook (Intuit)	$1 billion	-$0.3 billion
#701 (#897)	David Duffield (PeopleSoft)	$1 billion	-$0.3 billion
#701 (#897)	Barry Diller (IAC)	$1 billion	-$0.3 billion
#701 (#847)	Richard Egan (EMC)	$1 billion	-$0.4 billion
#701 (#785)	Theodore Waitt (Gateway)	$1 billion	-$0.5 billion
40 names	Totals	$203.4 billion	-$81.5 billion

The Rabbit and The Turtle Race

Remember the famous Rabbit-Turtle race (Tortoise and the Hare)? We all know that at the end of the story the Rabbit was not able to win the race against the Turtle.

Well, this is actually not the end of the story. After a disgraceful loss to the Turtle, the Rabbit decided to have a race again. This time, he decided, he would not take a nap.

The race started & soon the Rabbit was far away from the sight of the Turtle & all the spectators. This time he didn't stop & defeated the Turtle by a big margin.

The Turtle lost the race this time; however, he didn't give up. He challenged the Rabbit again on a different racetrack. The Rabbit, full of confidence, accepted it. He knew the reason he lost earlier: his laziness during the first race. He was able to win the second race because he was able to work on it.

The Third Race started. The Rabbit, like always, soon disappeared. Everyone was laughing at the Turtle but the Rabbit didn't want to stop to see why & kept on running as fast as he could. He wanted to defeat the Turtle by a much bigger margin than the earlier race. Suddenly, he came to a river. He was not able to make out how to cross it & was forced to stop.

After some time the Turtle reached the river & very confidently stepped into it. He swam much faster than he could ever run. Within no time he crossed the river & moved towards the finishing point while the Rabbit helplessly looked on as the Turtle won the race.

The story does not end here.

After the first race, the Rabbit learned that he lost it because of his laziness.

After second race, the Turtle learned that he lost the race because his opponent was actually good at running.

After the third race, the Rabbit learned that being faster is not enough; one should have brains as well to complete the task.

The Rabbit & the Turtle decided to run again. This time it was just running & not a race.

While running, until they reached the river, the Rabbit put the Turtle on his back. Once they needed to cross the river, the Turtle put the Rabbit on his back. After crossing the river, the Rabbit again put the Turtle on his back & both of them reached the finishing point in less time than ever.

What did they learn?

They both learned that with teamwork they can finish the same task quicker & both of them can enjoy the reward. During the time they were competing against one another, just one of them was able to win after wasting a lot of time & energy.



HERE SHOW HOW IMPORTANT IS THE TEAMWORK,
TEAM, Together Everyone Achieve More

"Look at your past. Your past has determined where you are at this moment. What you do today will determine where you are tomorrow. Are you moving forward or standing still?" --Tom Hopkins

Remember we control our Destiny.