Aspiring Business Magnate / Billionaire

SquirtLebitda

You'll never become a billionaire doing a 9-5. Start a company, sell it, and repeat. Invest in real estate. Play the long game. Be frugal. Contribute to society, in fact you will have to change it.

Be frugal, no thanks. The point is to push yourself so you never have to be.

There are frugal billionaires but nobody has ever become a billionaire by being frugal. The millionaire next door works if you want to retire early in middle america. It doesn’t create fuck you money. 

Method 4: Marry a billionaire/business magnate/heir.

OP, you mentioned you're a "humble student." Drop that mindset if you're at an Ivy or another school populated by old money, and try to network with the rich. Build an aura of prestige and you might find an easy path into that world

Method 1 & 2 are the most realistic methods I could think of for someone that doesn't come from money.

Both require either an enormous intellect or the capacity to grind into the late hours of the night consistently for 6-7 days a week with barely any family or love life outside of occasional prostitutes, most times it requires both + being born into generational wealth too. 

When I was younger I really wanted to work in a top hedge fund because I was convinced I loved money, only to realize I love family, friends, leisure and drinking more and that was okay.

Most of us on this website could drop everything we're doing and study for the GMAT for years to get a perfect score, get a nice MBA join a HF or PE firm and grind consistently until we're billionaires in our 50s or close or go back to college and learn computer science at MIT and start our own tech or quant firm with similar results, its kinda trippy if you think about, you could drop everything now and map out how to get to limitless wealth but we're mostly deciding not to.

jackleebusn

Actual answer using data:

Based off of Real-Time Forbes Billionaires

https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#7fb759b53d78

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----- Method 1 -----

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Tech Founder CEO with a company valuation of $10 Billion or more.

Or $5 Billion+ but you need higher % ownership.

This usually means your company has at least Series C round (and each round gets harder to fundraise from seed)

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- Usually the easiest way is to get into YC and do a B2B SaaS.

- Easiest way to get into YC is to be an MIT/Stanford grad (or Ivy League)

with FANG internships or FANG / Seed / Series A-C work experience as an engineer or product manager.

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Examples:

Alexandr Wang, 26 (Scale CEO, 2016-Present)

Henrique Dubugras, 27 (Brex CEO, 2017-Present)

Ryan Breslow, 28 (Bolt Founder, 2014-Present)

Dylan Field, 30 (Figma CEO, 2012-Present)

Palmer Luckey, 30 (Oculus Founder/Anduril Founder)

Evan Spiegel, 33 (Snap CEO, 2011-Present)

Zach Perret, 35 (Plaid CEO, 2013-Present)

Patrick Collison, 35 (Stripe CEO, 2009-Present)

Brian Chesky, 40 (Airbnb CEO, 2009-Present)

Brian Armstrong, 40 (Coinbase CEO, 2012-Present)

Drew Houston 40 (Dropbox CEO, 2008-Present)

Ben Silbermann 40 (Pinterest CEO, 2011-Present)

Sytses Sijbrandij 43 (Gitlab CEO, 2014-Present)

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You get the point

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---- Method 2 ----

Most common way is to get into Hedge Fund / Private Equity and start your own *successful* fund.

You'll be in your 50s/60s if you ever become a billionaire, or on rare occasion, in your 30s or 40s.

Impossible to be self-made while in your 20s for obvious reasons

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----- Method 3 -----

Large ownership in an international conglomerate / commodities producer or supplier / real estate.

This makes up the vast majority of billionaires (family-owned businesses producing a non-Western countries raw materials)

“Vitalik Buterin is the co-creator of Ethereum, a blockchain platform for decentralized financial applications. He became the world's youngest crypto billionaire at age 27 when Ether, Ethereum's native cryptocurrency, first crossed $3,000 per coin in May 2021.”