Rich Weirdos: 13 eccentric Billionaire Businessmen
The rich have their own quirks. Billionaires impress not only with huge incomes, but also with oddities. The founders of giant corporations have repeatedly surprised society with eccentric actions. Elon Musk, Richard Branson and other famous world-class businessmen sometimes do things that contradict common sense. Learn about the strange ventures of the rich and famous from our material.
Jack Dorsey recently announced that he is stepping down as CEO of Twitter. The entrepreneur is considered a bit eccentric, and there is something for that. The 45-year-old businessman's fortune is estimated at 10 billion pounds (about 985 billion rubles). The rich man has unusual hobbies: he is a professional masseur, likes to take a cold shower, fasts on weekends and meditates for several hours in a row.
Dorsey is not the only billionaire with oddities. Many of the richest people in the world are eccentric, surprising everyone around. Here are 13 rich people who have done very strange things.
The adventurous founder of Virgin Corporation once tried to expand the company's field of activity by breeding parrots. But the birds began to multiply faster than he had time to sell them.
The founder of the American automobile giant was friends with inventor Thomas Edison. Ford managed to catch the scientist's last breath on his deathbed by collecting air in a test tube. It is now kept in a museum.
KFC owner Harland Sanders started a fast food business with a gas station. He gave up his career as a lawyer after getting into a fight in the courtroom. And once an entrepreneur arranged a shootout with a business competitor.
In 1977, Bill Gates was arrested in New Mexico for driving without a driver's license and running a red light. He admitted that he remembers the license plates of his employees' cars in order to track their movements. In addition, the billionaire has a strange hobby - climbing garbage dumps.
One day, the former CEO of Microsoft hired strippers for a party. But that was before he met his future wife Melinda.
The billionaire businessman lives in a house he bought in 1958 for 23,000 pounds (about 2.3 million rubles). He drinks five cans of Cola every day, joking that a quarter consists of sweet soda.
One of the first owners of McDonald's forbade the heads of his company to hire secretaries. Kroc believed that this way they would be more active, since they would have to answer the phone on their own.
Very smart, but a little eccentric, the late Apple owner washed his feet in the toilet to get rid of stress, and rarely used the shower. Jobs' strange diet included such an incredible amount of carrots that his skin turned orange. By the way, the billionaire did not leave anything to his daughter.
The founder of Ikea owned billions, but was very economical. He often bought clothes at flea markets and used tea bags several times.
The oil magnate was so stingy that he installed a paid payphone for guests in his mansion. He paid the ransom for his 16-year-old grandson only when the kidnappers cut off the teenager's ear.
The richest woman in the world at one time, was a big miser. Green bought broken cookies because they cost less than the whole. The American entrepreneur always slept with a gun strapped to her arm.
The engineer and multimillionaire was an iconic figure of the 19th century in the UK. His height was only 1.52 m, and the rich man did not like it very much. That's why Brunel always wore a 20 cm tall top hat. Every day the rich man smoked 40 cigars!
The American businessman, pilot and inventor became a hermit at the end of his life. He spent the last years in dark hotel rooms, being naked there because he was afraid of germs.
The head of Tesla and SpaceX is famous for his turbulent personal life. He married and divorced his wife Talula Riley twice! In 2020, the billionaire had a seventh son from Canadian singer Grimes, whom he named Ex Ash A-Tvelv (X A‑XII).
Not knowing where to spend money, millionaires often make absurd purchases. Sometimes these trinkets are so strange that you inadvertently begin to doubt the adequacy of people.