How billionaires live it up

The Eurozone may be in crisis, the US teetering on the brink of a double dip recession and even Australia struggling to get back to surplus, but that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of enormously wealthy entrepreneurs out there.

One business leader set to become exceptionally rich next year is Mark Zuckerberg, who is set to launch Facebook’s IPO.

But how did Zuckerberg become quite so wealthy? Here are 10 things the Facebook founder did to build his billions.

As far as Weekend Reads knows, Zuckerberg’s extravagance extends only to some fairly fancy runners and appearances on Saturday Night Live.

However, some billionaires have rather more expensive tastes, with this interesting Forbes series illustrating the popularity of yachts and art among the super-wealthy. 

Not all business leaders have such traditional tastes, however. How about, for example, buying a Star Wars costume for $320,000 at auction or being the unnamed Australian businesswoman who owns a $9 million iPhone 4S.

Of course, your business actually has to hit the big time before you’re able to afford ancient sculptures and John Lennon’s teeth. As this great CNN Money piece suggests, the choice is get big or get bought.

With Christmas around the corner, here are some great sales tips for the festive period, while here is an insightful tale of how a fashion start-up managed to attract 200,000 Facebook fans in a single year.

Haven’t got that winning idea yet? Then it is worth casting your eye over this list of America’s most promising companies and checking out the six gadgets that need to be invented by someone, somewhere.