I Asked ChatGPT Which First Jobs Billionaires Had: The Answers Were Surprising
Written by
Emily Fowler
Edited by
Levi Leidy
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Even the world’s richest founders had to start somewhere, and just like most average Americans, their earliest work experiences were sometimes surprisingly ordinary.
GOBankingRates asked ChatGPT to dig into the first jobs of some of the world’s most successful people, and the answers show how even the humblest beginnings can lead to extraordinary success. These early roles may not have all been glamorous, but they obviously taught lessons that shaped these billionaires’ work ethic and entrepreneurial instincts.
Jeff Bezos
“He worked at McDonald’s as a teenager”, said ChatGPT, which apparently taught him discipline, efficiency and the importance of a well-run system, something he went on to apply when building Amazon.
Elon Musk
According to the artificial intelligence (AI), Musk had various early jobs including programming and making software games to sell. This started as early as age 12, when he “developed a space-themed video game called Blastar and sold it for $500.”
Bill Gates
Gates had a part-time job programming while in high school, at just 16. According to Biography.com, however, his entrepreneurial spirit started even earlier. At the age of 15, along with school friend Paul Allen, he made $20,000 from a program they developed to monitor traffic patterns, which they called “Traf-o-Data.”
Warren Buffett
Legendary investor Buffett started by delivering newspapers and reselling golf balls. ChatGPT noted that these early ventures taught him skills that would become the foundation of his career, including hard work, resourcefulness and spotting opportunities.
Sara Blakely
ChatGPT told me that Spanx founder Blakely’s first jobs included working at Walt Disney World and selling fax machines door-to-door. The Disney part wasn’t quite accurate, though: according to CNBC, at 5 foot, 6 inches, she was actually two inches too tall to play the chipmunk role they wanted.
Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg created software and games in high school, but his first “formal” job was building software, specifically Synapse, which recommended music to users. These early projects, ChatGPT said, helped him develop the skills and vision that would later drive Facebook.
Richard Branson
With an entrepreneurial streak that started young, Branson “ran a student magazine and then a mail-order record business”, according to the chatbot and backed up by Biography.com. The record company, called Virgin even back then, was only started to bankroll the magazine, but made enough money for Branson to open first a record shop, then a recording studio.
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