If you're a billionaire, why are you a billionaire?
" That question does not go away. " “If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire?” That was a question put to a room full of very wealthy people at the 2025 Wall Street Journal Innovator Awards in New York City on October 29 by 23-year-old musician Billie Eilish. Eilish herself had just given $11.5 million from her Hit Me Hard and Soft World Tour to climate change and Palestinian children, but her question was not meant as a recruitment pitch for other donors. Eilish was seriously asking. Among those in the audience were Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg. They have donated 99% of their lifetime earnings from owning Facebook to a medical research initiative in Chicago. That left them with a bare minimum of $2.2 billion to scrape by on. Becoming a billionaire seems easier these days. Certainly quicker. You don’t have to slowly acquire railroad stocks on market dips, like Warren Buffett. That could take half a century. You just learn to code and...
