Do You Plan to Go Big?
Aiming to sell out in a few years or having competitive desire and develop your brand? Planning out your long-term goals for the business is crucial before you decide to expand.

Are You A Risk Taker?
Billionaires have a seemingly avid appetite for risk. It's hard enough for many of us to muster the courage to abandon our cubicles and start a small company, let alone build an empire. And while the risks pile up as businesses expand, billionaires have a confidence bordering on arrogance that checks their fear and doubt.

Do You Have A Vision?
Empire building isn't just about goal-setting and pinpoint execution. Superstars like Bill Gates and Sam Walton are bona fide revolutionaries. Self-made billionaires don't dominate industries they transform them, and spawn new ones. That takes more than intelligence, courage and luck; it takes imagination and vision.

Are You Inspired By Creativity, Or More Process-Oriented?
Many entrepreneurs start companies based on raw creativity and new niche. But such creativity can get in the way when it comes time to install and live within the systems and processes necessary to accommodate growth.

Are You Willing To Make Tough Decisions For The Growth Of The Company?
Your friends and family helped launch your business, but they may grow less useful as the business outgrows them. Sometime expansion requires making tough decision.

Do You Like Public Speaking?
Any significant size company needs a public face. Entrepreneurs who enjoy on public performances, shareholder meetings, television interviews have an easier time than those who prefer to stay out of the spotlight. If public speaking isn't your specialty but you still want to grow, find a confident alternate.

Are You A Consensus Builder?
The bigger your business, the more input you need from your business partners and associates. That means being willing and able to build consensus. Abstemious entrepreneurs should think about staying small.

Can You Delegate?
The bigger your business the less time you will have to interact with your employees. You will not be able to know what is going on in every department all the time. If you can not trust and delegate then forget about growing big.
 

Sergey Brin and Larry Page
Net Worth: $18.7 billion, $18.6 billion
Fortune: self made
United States
Met partner Larry Page in computer science Ph.D. program at Stanford. Brin emigrated from Russia, Page grew up in Michigan; both sons of professors. Dropped out of school to start Google in 1998 from friend's garage. Initially financed by Stanford endowment, angel investors K. Ram Shriram, Andy von Bechtolsheim. Raised another $25 million from venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital in 1999. Hired seasoned tech exec Eric Schmidt in 2001 to run operations. Took quirky ad-cum-search engine public 2004. Brin serves as president of technology, Page heads product division. Extending ad business into TV, cell phones, various online venues; bought Web video portal YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006. Switched Mountain View, Calif. headquarters to solar power last summer; part of plan to "do no evil." Hit all-time high of $740 a share in early November.

Jeffrey Bezos
Net Worth: $8.2 billion
Fortune: self-made
United States
Dot-com pioneer defies gravity, survives tech crash. Took company public in 1997 and expanded from bookselling into thousands of products online. Decade later books still big piece of virtual mall's $14.8 billion sales. Computer whiz worked at hedge funds after graduating from Princeton in 1989; quit before 30th birthday to sell books online from Seattle garage. Space cadet building base and testing center on 300,000 acres of Texas land for his Blue Origin commercial space-travel venture.

Pierre Omidyar
Net Worth: $7.7 billion
Fortune: self-made
United States
French-born computer programmer launched online auction Ebay in 1995. Today more than one million people use it as primary or secondary source of income. Handed exec control to Meg Whitman in 1998, remains chairman. Active blogger philanthropic via Omidyar Network; finances small businesses in developing economies, donates to nonprofits. Gave $100 million to alma mater Tufts in 2005.

Mike Lazaridis
Net Worth: $3.6 billion
Fortune: self-made
Canada
Founded BlackBerry maker Research In Motion while student at University of Waterloo. Company's co-chief executive, along with fellow billionaire James Balsillie, drives its technology and research. Both individuals' fortunes more than doubled in past year thanks to strength of RIM's stock and a 3-for-1 stock split. Threw an employee appreciation party that featured Van Halen at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto in November. Reportedly building a $13.2 million house just outside Waterloo on 76-acre property with private lake.

Jeffrey Skoll
Net Worth: $3.6 billion
Fortune: self-made
United States
Ebay's first president and full-time employee, Skoll remains its second-largest shareholder. He is no longer involved with the company, though, and has turned his attention to philanthropy and movies. Skoll was executive producer of An Inconvenient Truth, the global-warming documentary that featured former Vice President Al Gore. The film, which was made by Skoll's Participant Productions, won two Oscars in 2007. Skoll pumped gas in Toronto before getting an M.B.A. from Stanford in 1995.

James Balsillie
Net Worth: $3.4 billion
Fortune: self-made
Canada
Co-chief executive of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion with fellow billionaire Mike Lazaridis. Both individuals' fortunes more than doubled in the past year thanks to strength of RIM's stock and a 3-for-1 stock split. Donated $50 million to create a new school of international affairs in Waterloo, which will be named after him. This will support the nearby Centre for International Governance Innovation, a think tank he started. Failed in his bid to move NHL's Nashville Predators to Canada. Helped establish the Waterloo Regional Children's Museum and donates to other causes like Lazaridis' Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Competes in men's long-course triathlons.

David Filo and Jerry Yang
Net Worth: $2.5 billion, $2.3 billion
Fortune: self-made
United States
Met partner Jerry Yang as Stanford grad student, veered off Ph.D. path to form new portal; took Yahoo public 1996. Brought in "professional management" (Tim Koogle in 1995, then Warner Bros. chief Terry Semel in 2001). Semel quit under fire in 2007. Yang became chief executive for first time last June. Tough job. Turned down Micrsoft's offer to buy Yahoo for $45 billion in early February. Yang born in Taiwan. Filo expanding into China: bought 40% stake in Alibaba.com for $1 billion in 2005; public offering of Chinese business-to-business Web site likely. Yang aims to create a "stronger culture of winning" (or at least get a higher price out of Steve Ballmer). Filo runs tech.

Omid Kordestani
Net Worth: $2.2 billion
Fortune: self-made
United States
Google's 12th employee built a fortune that started with a game of ping-pong. Was at Netscape when he met Sergey Brin and Larry Page in 1999. They invited him over for ping-pong in a garage, and he bought everyone dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant. Now he leads sales and business development. Iranian immigrant got electrical engineering degree at San Jose State, did short stint at Hewlett-Packard. M.B.A. from Stanford, then startups (3DO, Go Corp.), Netscape. Became Google's "business founder" 1999 after Netscaper K. Ram Shriram joined board. Led $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube in 2006.

Todd Wagner
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Fortune: self-made
United States
Bored lawyer changed careers, created early Internet video outfit Broadcast.com with partner Mark Cuban. Sold to Yahoo in 1999 for $5.7 billion; company isn't visible today. Went Hollywood. With Cuban, owns stakes in 2929 Entertainment, Magnolia Pictures, Landmark Theatres, HDNet, Lion's Gate. Sold domestic rights for indie flick We Own the Night to Sony for record $11.5 million in May; manly mob drama stars Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg. Believes a few eco-entrepreneurs will become billionaires: "Someone who will figure out how to capitalize on these environmentally friendly trends in the coming decade."

Theodore Waitt
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Fortune: self-made
United States
Son of cattle brokers left U. of Iowa one semester short of degree to start PC maker with older brother Norman in 1985. Gateway rose to 4th-biggest player, shipped in Holstein-cow-patterned boxes in homage to origins. Norman quit 1991 as Dell direct-mail biz forced Gateway job cuts, store closings. Gateway, peak $30 billion market cap year-end 1999, sold to Acer for $710 million last August. Ted turned to hedge funds, real estate via Avalon Capital. Funds Genographic Project: uses DNA data to study human origins

Mark Zuckerberg
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Fortune: Self-made
United States
Tech's newest golden boy founded addictive social networking site Facebook in February 2004 from his Harvard dorm room. He left school for Silicon Valley that year. Microsoft paid $240 million last October for a 1.6% stake, giving the company an implied valuation of $15 billion. Some analysts and a few Facebook investors think that's high. We think Zuckerberg's stake is worth $1.5 billion. Regardless, Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire on Earth and possibly the youngest self-made billionaire ever.

Robin Li
Net Worth: $1.4 billion
Fortune: Self-made
China
Li got his start working at search engine pioneer Infoseek in Silicon Valley in the late 1990s. He launched Baidu.com in 2000 and took it public on Nasdaq in 2005. It is now China's most popular Internet search engine. Li has also announced plans to enter the e-commerce market.

Sameer Gehlaut
Net Worth: $1.2 billion
Fortune: Self-made
India
India's youngest self-made billionaire, Gehlaut turns 34 in early March 2008. An engineer from India's elite Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, he started online brokerage Indiabulls with two college pals in 1999; he still heads the company and is its largest shareholder. Early investors included steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and hedge fund Farallon Capital. He took Indiabulls public in 2004. The group moved into real estate and scooped up prized land in Mumbai in public auctions. That business, Indiabulls Real Estate, was spun off and listed in 2007.

Peter Thiel
Net Worth: $1.2 billion
Fortune: Self-made
United States
Thiel has been at the fore of some of Silicon Valley's biggest phenomena. He co-founded PayPal, which he sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. Two years later, he became Facebook's first outside investor, putting in $500,000. He enjoys running, hiking and surfing. A chess prodigy, he was ranked seventh in the U.S. at age 12.

                                                                                       
                                                                                                            Source: Forbes.com