1. Five Entrepreneurs Who Deserve Biographical Movies
An entrepreneur is a person who takes up the risk of setting up a
business and develops it in a manner that is profitable. There will be
certain characteristics that are common among many successful
entrepreneurs. What could be the driving factor that is common among
them? What makes them so famous for their achievements? It’s
passion.
And unless, biopics are made depicting the entrepreneurial journey of
successful entrepreneurs, many of us would fail to understand the
issues faced by them in their companies’ initial stages or even day to
day. Movies like JOBS, The Social Network has depicted the lives of
Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg whose entrepreneurial ventures have
created a huge impact in each of our lives. Another 5 such
entrepreneurs who deserve their own biopics are listed below.
1. Thomas Edison
The 1940 biographical movie titled “Young Tom Edison” shows the early
life of the inventor, there has been no biopic made to depict his life
through adulthood. He has led a very interesting life by publishing his
own newspaper “Grand Trunk Herald” at the age of 15. Due to his
heroic act of saving a station agent’s son, he became a telegraph
operator. At the age of 19 in the year 1866, he became an employee at
Western Union Company in Kentucky but he lost that job eventually
when one of his experiments led to sulphuric acid penetrating through
the floorboards and onto his boss’s desk.
Although he had a number of inventions, the first one that gained him
recognition on a wide scale was the phonograph, the first instrument
that could record someone’s voice and play it back. And this instrument
was invented by a man whose hearing was poor! He also has 2,332
patents worldwide out of which 1,093 patents were in the United

2. States. Some of his greatest inventions are Electric Lamp, Ore
Separator, Kinetographic Camera, and Alkaline Battery among many
others. In the year 1876, he set up his invention factory in Menlo Park
where he discovered the famous electric light bulb. After the success at
Menlo Park and with the money he earned, Edison built a new
laboratory complex which was bigger and better equipped in West
Orange, New Jersey.
On the personal front, Edison was married twice and had 6 children one
of whom became the Governor of New Jersey. He proposed his wife
through Morse code that he had taught her. Henry Ford and Harvey
Firestone were some of the significant figures who had close relations
with Edison.
2. Richard Branson
He drove a tank into New York’s Times Square and fired a canon at the
Coca-Cola sign. Sailed the Sex Pistols in a boat so that they could
serenade the House of Commons with the banned song “God Save the
Queen”. Made a public appearance wearing a $10,000 bridal silk gown.
Was the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in a Hot Air
balloon. All these are just some of the instances in Sir Richard Charles
Nicholas Branson’s life that makes it worth being portrayed on
celluloid.
In the year 1968, at the age of 18 he launched his first successful
business; a magazine named Student. He hoped that the magazine
could be the voice of young activists. And the first Virgin business
launched in the year 1970 and after that there was no stopping. The
Founder of Virgin Group is not only a respected entrepreneur but also
an adventure junkie who has broken records. One such record was that
he was the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in the largest
hot air balloon in the year 1987. In the year 1991, he flew from Japan to
Arctic Canada at a speed of 394km/hour.

3. 3. Jeff Bezos
The pioneer of the e-commerce industry grew up in a middle class
family and often showed intense scientific interests. After graduating
from Princeton University, he worked at D.E.Shaw & Co. In the year
1994 he left the company in order to develop amazon.com
Initially, he named the company Cadabra Inc. which was often misheard
as Cadaver Inc. and thus he had to rename it as Amazon.
By analyzing a report on the future of Internet, Bezos first created a list
of 20 products that could be sold online and he narrowed this list down
to books. What started as an e-commerce website for books now is an
e-tailer for a number of products ranging from electronics to fashion.
He is also the founder of Blue Origin, a company that is dedicated to
decreasing the cost and increasing the safety of the spaceflight.
Recent speculations state that he and Richard Branson are in a
discussion for commercial spaceflight opportunities that could be made
available to civilians. To prevent any other company from shaping the
digital book future, he invented Kindle.
Having established himself as the e-commerce emperor and also re-
invented the book trade, Bezos long-term plan is to establish a
permanent human colony in space one day.
4. Bill Gates
Born in the year 1955, the man who challenged his University
professors that he would be a millionaire by the age of 30 and he
became a billionaire by the age of 31.
He was born to an eminent lawyer and a schoolteacher and was an
argumentative but brilliant child. Realizing his potential, his parents
enrolled him into a private school known for its academic excellence
and this was where Gates was first introduced to a computer. By the

4. age of 13, he had begun computer programming with his childhood
friend and the co-founder of Microsoft- Paul Allen.
He was accepted into Harvard University but he dropped out of the
college to Microsoft. And through the years, the company has
undergone various cycles of transformation under his leadership.
Thanks to Microsoft and many other companies, the vision of “a
computer on every desktop and in every home” has become a reality in
many parts of the world. The man is not only the Richest Person in the
world according to Forbes but he is also a philanthropist whose “Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation” has helped solve many problems relating to
agriculture, healthcare.
He is known for his humble personality and although he did not
graduate from Harvard University, he was awarded the Honorary
Doctorate degree from the University. His jovial nature can be
witnessed in his speech at the commencement ceremony at the
University when he said “I'm a bad influence. That's why I was invited
to speak at your graduation," he said at the commencement ceremony.
"If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today."
His personal blog: gatesnotes.com shares his experiences of his
meetings with people, the books he reads and all that he is learning.
5. Elon Musk
The mastermind behind companies such as PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla
Motors spent most of his childhood in Pretoria, South Africa before
moving to Canada at the age of 17. His Alma Mater includes Queen’s
University and Wharton Business School in University of Pennsylvania.
He joined Stanford University to obtain a PhD in physics but left after
two days to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations.
His first ever entrepreneurial venture was Zip2, a software company
that he founded with his brother. The company developed and

5. marketed a city guide that was useful to the newspaper publishing
industry. In March 1999, he along with Peter Thiel founded X.com, an
online financial services and e-mail payment company which later
merged with Confinity that operated a subsidiary called PayPal. SpaceX
was his third entrepreneurial venture that focuses on advancing the
state of rocket technology. Contrary to popular belief, Musk is not the
founder of Tesla Motors but he did contribute major funding for the
company’s Series A. The company’s primary goal is to commercialize
electric cars.
His philanthropic efforts led to Musk Foundation that focuses on
science education, pediatric health, and clean energy. He was the
inspiration of Iron Man as stated by Jon Favreau in one his articles.