Who are they?

What would you say to this man if you sat next to him on a plane... Nicely trimmed 'tache?

This guy has doned a suit and greased his hair but normally he sells you kebab?
Perhaps a model for SpecSavers?

A guy who took the wrong door in the hotel and ended up on stage in front of thousands of people?
A bodyguard to some 5 year old superstar?
A woman who lives for the weekend and the rodeo?

What if I put numbers in front of their names....

#22 Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud
#7 Mukesh Ambani
#16 Li Ka-shing
#19 David Koch
#24 David Thomson
#12 Alice Walton

You guessed it here is the entire list of the worlds billionaires as published by Forbes on the 11th of March.

Now chances are you won't be sitting next to one of these people on your next bus trip, or stand next to them in the queue for the cinema, but whats striking and whats interesting is that even if you did, the majority of us wouldn't recognise them.

Some of them have earned the money themselves. Some have inherited it. Some have found it in a bush beside the highway... or maybe not... I refuse to believe you stumble over that amount of money... in certain cases in which it is inherited it might not necessarily be through the hard-work and perspiration of the individual themselves....


Interestingly enough if you look up a lot of these names, many these people are also using their money to do good in the world instead of lavishly overspending on ridiculous non-essential things... I say many because obviously there is still the wastefulness of some...

Does the money make them happy... no...nothing we know makes them happier when they go to bed at night than someone who's just found a job, someone who's just written a poem or someone who has just seen the sun set... but for the majority of us we'll never understand the world they are living in... and apart from a select few we will not strive to accomplish it either...

Don't get me wrong... I like the list of the worlds Billionaires 2009. I don't think people should look down on people simply because they have money, simply because that is what drives them... nor should people worship the ground these people walk on... if there are lists for the best songs, lists for the best books, lists for the best restaurants... then why not for the worlds Billionaires... the majority of them are no more famous than you or I... they might purchase slightly more expensive things but also give more to charity... the world we live in is an intriguing place...

Here's a few lists I haven't seen though...
List of the world's happiest people... List of the world's greatest accomplishments ... list of the world's best friends... but I suppose these are far more difficult to set up standards to measure. :-) Thank god... Imagine the pressure of being the world's best friend... :-)