Richest 250 2021: From Kylie Jenner to Howard Hughes, take our quiz to see if you have billionaire potential
From the Loaded Geek to the Happy Divorcee, we’ve compiled a handy quiz to work out what kind of billionaire you'll be when you strike it rich.
Have you ever worked out of a garage? Do you still use the word ‘Mummy’?
Well, you could be perfectly primed to strike it rich – very rich.
This Saturday The Weekend Australian releases 2021’s much-anticipated edition of The List: Australia’s Richest 250, the ultimate guide to the seriously wealthy.
We’ve analysed their habits and secrets to work out how a billionaire is made, and now you can find out if you’ve got what it takes.
Take the quiz and share with your friends to find out which billionaire archetype suits you best — and don’t be offended if you turn out to be a future Reclusive Tycoon (think Howard Hughes, the dashing and charismatic American industrialist who in the 1950s began locking himself in a series of bunkers to concentrate on growing his fingernails).
We’d probably all prefer to think of ourselves as a Hardworking Child of Fortune (like Kylie Jenner, who no matter what you’ve heard is entirely self-made and has built her cosmetics fortune on pure elbow-grease).
Turns out every billionaire has a type.
There’s The Charity Queen, like Melinda Gates, who’s transformed staggering wealth into a philanthropic empire that's having profound effects on global vaccination rates.
Elon Musk is the ultimate embodiment of another billionaire archetype, The Impresario, guided by the philosophy that business is about work, play and the pursuit of wildly ambitious and possibly foolhardy dreams.
In their old age, many billionaires revert to another archetype, Senior Citizen Kane. The SCKs (like British racing tycoon Bernie Ecclestone) display serious difficulty in letting go, doggedly showing up at work every day and wielding their very considerable power.
Then there are the Bomb-Throwers. Think Richard Branson: entirely self-made, richer than God and blissfully free from care about what anyone thinks of them. Bomb-Throwers gravitate towards politics but seldom have any interest in actually standing for election.
The most dynamic billionaires are the Loaded Geeks. Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian is the perfect example: he’s turned all those weekends playing video games in his bedroom into a fortune, collecting a superstar wife and a truckload of clout along the way.
Want to be a Billionaire By 30? You probably should have started in uni – if not primary school. Mark Zuckerberg got to Harvard, founded TheFacebook, then ditched the degree and the The and turned himself into one of the world’s most powerful individuals.
Here’s a slightly easier path. The Happy Divorcee: just snag yourself one of the above-mentioned archetypes, put up with him/her for as long as you make each other happy, and then ride off into the sunset with someone else.
MacKenzie Scott busted her ex-husband, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, cheating and has never looked back, dumping him and his surname and collecting a nice chemistry teacher, US$50 billion and a truly radiant smile. She’s never looked happier.
The List: Australia’s Richest 250 is published by The Weekend Australian on Saturday, March 20.