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Famous Entrepreneurs

Who is on your list of most famous entrepreneurs?

Is it Benjamin Franklin or Ben & Jerry? How about Henry Ford or Bill Gates? Or could it be the new young entrepreneurs shaping our world today like those featured in “Cool, Determined & Under 30″ the October issue of Inc. Magazine. Famous entrepreneurs, both historical and contemporary, reveal ideas, key lessons, inspiration and passion through their life stories.

Business Entrepreneur has set out to create the most compelling list of famous entrepreneurs we know. On a regular basis, we will introduce a new entrepreneur with a little biography and description of their accomplishments. We hope to develop the most complete list of famous entrepreneurs with an initial goal of listing at least 100 famous entrepreneurs.

Oh yeah, this is in no particular order.

The Most Comprehensive List of Famous Entrepreneurs (the beginning…)

1. Bill Gates
Like him or not? Bill Gates is considered one of the wealthiest men alive. The founding of Microsoft changed the way the world thinks and interacts. Even though Microsoft had the good fortune of being associated with the stock market boom of the 1990’s he built an empire. He has had to battle the big bad government and their antitrust suit and has lived to tell about it.

2. Henry Ford
Henry Ford’s passion and excitement for the automobile industry still lives today through many people who work for Ford, drive Ford automobiles and in lives in the minds and hearts of many entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs like Ford consistently fascinate us with their advancement and unique ideas and passion for what they do - two traits that you find in all entrepreneurs.

3. Oprah Winfrey
Oprah’s career began in broadcasting when she was 17, she anchored the news when she was 19 - kind of explains the rest of her story. A few short years later she moved to Chicago to host AM Chicago - it only took her one month to achieve #1 ratings, beating out Phil Donahue.A year later the show was renamed to the Oprah Winfrey Show - the rest is modern history. But the talk show was her job, nothing really entrepreneurial about it - but wait she created her own entertainment, media empire right before our eyes. She founded Harpo Studios which employs 250 people and is involved in television, film production, magazine publishing and online media. She also owns the Oxygen Media which broadcasts the Oxygen Network to more than 54 million viewers. Oh yeah, did I mention O Magazine and Oprah.com? She owns them as well. This is some of what makes her the most admired entrepreneur out there.

Open to comments, editions and discussion… See you tomorrow.