Not a familiar household name, the Fuggers were an influential family that made a significant impact about 500 years ago. When reviewing the list of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, it’s tempting to focus only on the last 100 years or so and discount the value of studying business leaders of the distant past.  Jakob Fugger was a leading German entrepreneur of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and his influence persists to this day. Born in 1459 as the tenth of eleven children, Jakob Fugger had the...

American history is filled with examples of entrepreneurs who became wealthy through hard work and a knack for innovation. Only a handful, however, have fundamentally changed the world. Nearly 75 years after his death, millions drive vehicles bearing his name, and 1.2 billion people around the world drive cars. Before Ford, motorcars were expensive toys for the rich. His industrial innovations made the automobile affordable for the working classes and accelerated the country’s expansion. It’s interesting to consider what may be the “clicking point” for Henry Ford. His family...

The story of Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the earliest American entrepreneurial successes, is a tale of intense lifelong competition. Starting with his first job as an 11-year-old ferry boat attendant, Cornelius built a shipping and railroad empire that exceeded anything the world had seen before. Because of his ruthless tactics, Vanderbilt generated controversy, criticism, and admiration in equal measure, and was the wealthiest person in America at the time of his death. Vanderbilt was born in 1794 in Staten Island, New York, to a middle-class lifestyle on his father’s...