Do You Know Who the Modern Day Great Gatsby Is? Find Out This and More about the Homeless Billionaire.
Most billionaires are easy to spot, right?
They’re busy building rockets and satellites…
Parking their yacht off the coast of Monaco….
Polishing lambos in their eight-car garage, and getting married for the… fifth time.
But, not this guy.
No, he’s a mysterious modern-day Great Gatsby… for whom the world is his Daisy.
A man so dead-set finding solutions for the issues his “daisy” faces, that he devotes millions of dollars to his cause every year.
His name isn’t one that rings many bells for people… A sort of unknown, but super-well connected guy at the convergence of wealth and deep thought.
He was dubbed the “Homeless Billionaire” after selling off his personal real estate assets in the early 2000’s to live life as a luxurious nomad – hopping from one hotel to the other for more than a decade.
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Financially speaking, he had a pretty comfortable life; his mother was a German actress, and his father was a world renowned art collector – personal friends with Pablo Picasso.
He got a great education – despite getting kicked out of boarding school for challenging his teachers in class… actually, he was expelled for trying to start some kind of revolution at the school….Needless to say he’s always gone against the grain.
After graduating NYU he took his $250k trust fund and began investing – mostly in real estate.
Through some serious business savvy, he went from $250k and no properties, to $1.7 billion dollars and thousands of properties, which is what put this Gatsby in a position to save his “Daisy” and change the world… which is exactly what he’s trying to do.
Today, we’re telling you the story of The Homeless Billionaire – Nicolas Berggruen
He wasn’t always focused on saving the world of course, as we said he was a hot-shot real estate investor in the beginning – but by the time he was approaching 50, things began to shift.
Now, there’s a pretty good chance his quest to become a father played a role in this – something Elon Musk actually encouraged him to do – after all, becoming a parent is the kind of thing that makes one think about the larger issues in life.
If you are a parent yourself, don’t forget to check out 10 Things To Teach Your Kids (Part 1).
Back in 2016, Nicolas Berggruen welcomed two children into the world.
And how’s this for going against the grain: no wife, no girlfriend, no problem.
Berggruen actually hired two surrogates and with his sperm and egg donations from a mystery woman, his children Olympia and Alexander were born… three weeks apart.
Despite their unusual conception, both kids are full brother and sister…talk about some weird future billionaire shit.
Yep, this guy is a pretty interesting character – he’s probably best known for his A-list events at Davos and the lavish pre-Oscars bash he would throw every year at Chateau Marmont in LA… except this gatsby shows up to his parties.
He’s also got a knack for fixing major problems –
One of his biggest business successes is when he bought the bankrupt German department store chain Karstadt for one euro… saving upwards of 25,000 jobs… injecting almost 500 million euro into in over five years and pulling the brand out of bankruptcy.
Hm… maybe that’s what he thinks he can save the world. But, he’s certainly not trying to do it alone.
In 2010, with 100 million of his own dollars, he founded The Berggruen Institute – an independent think tank devoted to reshaping social and political institutions for the 21st century – and the many transformations it requires.
Think tanks are basically just a group of scholars working together to research and do things like help governments form public or economic policies.
In Nicolas Berggruen’s own words, “We are totally independent, we can think very long-term, and we can focus on key ideas that will improve humanity… We may never get there but we are willing to take the risk.”
Through the institute he has assembled some majorly smart people – global thinkers and doers – to tackle the toughest issues we face as a global society.
But… How Will He Do It?
The same way you eat an elephant, my friend… one bite at a time.
Nicolas Berggruen isn’t coming at this like some kind of amatuer; the institute is sectioned off into four main branches
First up, there’s The Transformation of the Human which is where things get… cyborg-y. So this group focuses mainly on artificial intelligence and how AI kind of challenges the idea of what it means to be human.
The goal is to grow our understanding in this realm and then be able to create AI in a way that allows humans and technology to thrive side by side… instead of humans being replaced by robots and some kind of terminator situation going down in 10 years.
Next, there’s The Future of Capitalism branch which – as the name suggests – is dedicated to reimagining capitalism. They explore ways global capitalism could be reshaped regionally, nationally and internationally to – hopefully – reduce the wealth gap that gets wider every year.
And – before you ask – No, Nicolas Berggruen isn’t anti-capitalism.. I mean he is a billionaire, but he’s paying more attention to this than any of his mega-wealthy peers, which isn’t a bad thing.
Then there’s The Future of Democracy branch which is all about bringing together great thinkers and leaders to try and figure out how to re-shape democracy… nbd, right?
But look at it like this: democracy first became a thing in about 508 BC – a lot has changed – and governments aren’t so great at keeping up, so this branch is looking to redesign democracy to match the world we’re living in – and one of their suggestions is citizenship in a stateless global society – interesting, huh?
The fourth branch is committed to The Planetary issues we’re facing.. Because you know what problems don’t give a crap about national borders? Plastic in the ocean… carbon in the atmosphere… rising sea levels.
These are global problems, and as global citizens, they affect us all; the planetary branch focuses on recognizing the fact that we’re incredibly intertwined and dependent – not only on each other – but on Earth and its processes, too.
Each branch of the institute also has a fellowship program –
Basically the think tank has teamed up with some heavy-hitting research schools – Like Harvard in the US – Oxford in the UK – and Peking University in China – and this year 42 fellows are hard at work.
Scholars from these schools are hand-picked, given funding and the opportunity to work and study at the institutes’ campuses in the US and China…. And soon enough, Italy.
Nicolas Berggruen has already set up shop in LA and in Beijing – but in September 2021 he finalized the sale of the institute’s European hub – the historic Casa dei Tri Oci in Venice.
These Berggruen scholars write books, produce academic papers and deliver lectures to hash out the ideas cultivated at the institute – all with the same goal of changing the world as we know it.
Of course, not everyone is jazzed about the ideas coming out of the Institute – but it does add to the conversation, and that’s really the important part, right? We need more ideas, not less
And – all of this sounds pretty big on its own, but on top of the fellowship, every year, Berggruen awards a $1 million philosophy and culture prize.
It’s given to thinkers who’ve made some major achievements and shared ideas that shape the world – Berggruen actually announced this year’s recipient a couple of weeks ago in Venice.
Between the institute’s fellowship program… the $1 million dollar annual scholarship… and signing Warren Buffet’s Giving Pledge, this guy is seriously giving back…
He’s just going about it in such an interesting way.
Here at ALUX we talk a lot about building leverage… stacking skills… adding value
And you do that through education right? But in this case, the education, skills and knowledge isn’t even his.
Now, don’t get us wrong, we’re sure he’s a supremely smart guy with a ton of experience… but not enough to single-handedly change the world.
Because he’s a billionaire, Berggruen has the luxury of stacking skills – by straight up buying them – in order to be in a position to make the world a better place.
Think about it – he works with leading universities, selects the brightest and most visionary of the bunch and invites them to live and work on his campuses – providing them with whatever they need to get shit done… It’s pretty dope.
But, what works for billionaires like Nicolas Berggruen, doesn’t necessarily work for future billionaires, like yourself.
And while your approach would be different, the idea is the same – to stack skills, build knowledge and create more leverage for yourself…
Becoming a powerhouse of value… and we’d be honoured to be a part of your journey in building that for yourself.
Over the last few months we’ve developed a new premium education experience called Learning Mastery – specifically designed to guide you through effectively teaching yourself… anything.
In it, we break down the fundamentals, show you how to increase your reading speed, improve comprehension and hack your memory to recall information at will.
After the 21-day course you will become a life-long learner, ready to teach yourself any and every skill… helping you to navigate the great transformations coming your way.
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See you on the inside, Aluxer.
