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Jean Paul Getty: An Example of a Determined and Prudent Business Leader Who Founded Getty Oil and Became a Billionaire

Being a billionaire does not give anyone the right to be a spendthrift. At least that's what Jean Paul Getty would say. Getty was one of the very first people in the world to ever have more than a billion dollars under to their name; and yet, Getty did not waste his money on luxuries alone.

Getty made sure that his billions would make several more billions and even more through the Getty Oil Company empire. Needless to say, Getty succeeded well beyond expectations and has been cited by Fortune Magazine as the 'world's richest man in the world' in 1957.

Jean Paul Getty - Growing a Company With a Steady Hand
Born in a fairly rich family in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1892, Jean Paul Getty grew up well-off, thanks to his father, George Franklin Getty, a business leader himself who had a petroleum business. Getty studied at the University of Southern California and at Magdalen College in Oxford, earning degrees in Economics and Political Science. Instead of just waiting for his father to turn over his business to him, Getty learned the ropes in the Getty family business the hard way - working in the oil fields whenever he was on vacation from school.

Later on, Getty put up his own oil company where he earned his first million dollars. Equipped with strategic business knowledge and skills, Getty grew his business to become the Getty Oil Company. Getty Oil was eventually included in Fortune's Top 10 Companies, having at the time the world's largest oil tanker fleet in the world and dominating oil concessions throughout North America and Arabia.

Having interests in the arts and the humanities other than his business, Getty established the Jean Getty Museum in Malibu, California in 1953. This is where he handed down his most prized collections of art and antiquities. The Jean Getty Museum still operates to this day, housing a billion dollars' worth of treasures.

Getty died of heart failure at age 83 in 1976, leaving more than $10 billion to his beneficiaries.

The Jean Paul Getty Quick Bio

Full name:  Jean Paul Getty

Birth date:  December 15, 1892 (deceased 1976)

Birthplace:  Minnesota

Company:  Getty Oil Company

Industry:  Utilities and Energy

Key success traits:  prudent, highly business-minded

Additional:
Even when he was already a billionaire, Getty showed how much he valued money, and how tight he was with it, when he installed a pay telephone in the Getty residence to save on telephone bills!

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