What’s in a name? According to Shakespeare, a name is not the sum of the person, just as “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.
While the romance of this statement holds appeal, the truth is that names can hold just as much power as anything else – particularly for people born with the “right” last name.
Recent data from Bloomberg Markets magazine has highlighted just how much influence a name can have, with a significant amount of the world’s richest people sharing their last names.
Specifically, the Bloomberg Billionaires list reveals that four of the 10 richest people are from the same families – Koch and Walton – while six of the top 12 people have one of these names.
While the list of 200 billionaires evens out beyond these richest of the rich, there are still many names that show up twice or more.
As well as Koch and Walton, these names include Mars, Albrecht, Wertheimer, Kwok, Marinho, Rausing, Hartono and Johnson.
This data suggests that heritage plays a big part in the wealth formula. Indeed, when the data is narrowed down to those people who have inherited their fortunes, 66 people’s names jump off the page.
These include the Walton’s and the Mars’, as well as Theo Albrecht Jr and Australia’s own Gina Rinehart (as the 39th wealthiest billionaire) and James Packer.
Getting The Right Start For Riches
Although there are now more self-made billionaires than ever before, the fact that there are still so many families – represented by repeating names on the list – highlights how much of a role inheritance can play.
After all, these people are set up with the financial means to do almost anything they want, and often that includes earning more money.
Gina Rinehart and James Packer are two examples close to home, both continuing to carry the legacy of their inheritance into the business world. The same can be said for other families, which means that their wealth continues to grow.
The 2011 Forbes 400 list, for example, noted that families made up 30% of the world’s richest people and accounted for “slightly more than $346 billion”. Almost all of the people and families outlined on the list were still building up their wealth.
While these efforts could be borne out of a sense of family responsibility or personal interests, US trust-fund kid Jamie Johnson (heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune) has another perspective on why the rich may want to work instead of enjoying their fortunes.
“I think people who don’t work don’t really have interesting and meaningful lives. More than anything it hurts them,” he explained in an interview about his documentary Born Rich.
“When you’re born rich people just associate you with what you’ve been given, but the truth is every individual feels better when you create something on your own. Everyone takes pride in the work they do. Everyone likes to be active and be creative.”
Johnson, who spent a lot of time researching and discussing inheritance of the documentary, added that working had the potential to bring out better qualities in the super rich.
“I think if you’re entirely idle you’re not going to have an interesting life. Then, you do have a huge sense of entitlement and you do just embrace all the power that’s been given to you that you haven’t earned,” he said.
“Then you become arrogant and you become elitist and I don’t think those are good qualities, necessarily.”
While not everyone who inherits wealth could approach work for the same reasons Johnson outlines, it does go a long way in explaining motivations.
It’s also a much more comforting explanation for why the rich stay rich, when compared to views that it is about creating a “family legacy” and maintaining financial standing.
But it is also true that these people have some major head starts over anyone else building up wealth. A significant body of research has established that the family name someone carries can have a significant effect on the opportunities available to them and the likelihood of success.
Simply put: people are more likely to take a risk or offer to help someone whose name (and family reputation) indicates they come from wealth.
The flipside, however, is that this dynamic is changing. More and more self-made billionaires and millionaires are making it onto the esteemed Rich Lists that come out sporadically every year.
Even more interesting is the fact that the richest billionaire – Bill Gates – is often considered a “self-made man”, and so are the other top seven people on Bloomberg’s Billionaires list.
So while a name can get people the start they need, working hard can lead to the same result – or even better.
The post The Value Of A Name appeared first on Quid.