What is the easiest way to become a billionaire?

According to a recent study, there are 2,208 billionaires in the world. And, FYI their average wealth is $4.1bill (£3.1bill). 

Working 9 til 5 is not going to make you a billion. Most billionaires are self-made, starting a business which turned out to be hugely successful. Think: Jeff Benzo founder of Amazon, Mark Zuckerburg founder of Facebook, Bill Gates founder of Microsoft. 

A self-made fortune, begins with an idea, starting a business to test it and raising money from investors to scale it up. You, as the founder, will be the main shareholder and will benefit as the value of your business rises. Usually each round of investment leads to your company becoming more valuable because you have more money to expand, think: marketing, staffing, offices, ... 

A billionaire ‘status’ doesn't mean they have billions in cash. It’s the value of everything they own and for many a large chunk of this will be shares in their company aka ‘equity’. Take founder of Amazon Jeff Benzo, his net worth is over $110 bill making him the richest man in the world. As the founder he is the top shareholder owning 16% of Amazon and so most of his worth is in shares not cash.