Forbes keeps track of the wealthiest of the wealthy and strives to record all the people who have at least 10 digits on their net worth.
The business magazine founded in 1917 has the public regularly waiting for who ends up in the Forbes 400, Forbes Global 2000 and The World’s Billionaires.
Along with Fortune and Bloomberg Businessweek, the three monitors who’s who in the financial world, and have a say about whether a billionaire’s star is falling or rising.
However, the list that they have been making are based on criteria which could fall as vague on several occasions. In their attempt to spotlight the financial wealth of companies and individuals, some intangibles which can not be measured are overlooked.
Usually, people holding power and control over a certain domain or state are underestimated and often purposely not included in such lists. There are a few other criterias which provide gaps and “technicalities” for a billionaire to remain unseen by these business media entities.
Could it be possible, in this technological era, for a simple, yet very powerful and successful individual to slip through the eyes of these agencies?
James Richman, private investment genius who traces his roots from a small town called Smarde of Tukums region in Latvia, has been silently doing this through his conscious effort to preserve his private life.
Why the true world’s wealthiests avoid the limelight
The media is said to have a way of distorting news purposely or not. The importance of media, in general, has not been said enough. However, it also has a tendency to encroach one’s personal life to the point wherein very personal matters are divulged to the public when it could have been best to be left alone and resolved privately.
James Richman deems it best to stay distant from the media. Doing so serves the best interest of the private investment firm, JJ Richman, which he has personally managed for over a decade. It has also proven wonders as the profits of the private investment fund have reportedly been regularly increasing for the past ten years.
The reclusive billionaire, along with many other billionaires such as Ilham Aliyev, the Rothschilds, the Sauds all have one thing in common – they all avoid the use of social media. For his part, Richman barely gives any interviews and even then, as long as they are about his work of enriching the world and lives of others, instead of his private and personal life.
Leading a simple life
James Richman has never lived a life of grandiosity even if his net worth permits him to. Richman has had a very eventful life with plenty of shares of hardships and sad experiences. Growing up in the post soviet Latvia, he never got the caprices of being rich at a young age.
He was accustomed to manual labor in his adolescence. He knows how hard it is to earn a living and does not splurge on less meaningful things. He does have an expensive hobby though, philanthropy.
Although James’ chosen impact investments have been worth several million already, he has chosen to undertake them behind a cloud of anonymity. He is seemingly content with pouring in a hefty amount of funds to a project which is well thought of and is assured of being profitable both financially and socially.
James’ persona and lifestyle contribute to the fact that he has slipped under the radar of many financial status listings. Yet, this does not reflect a fraction of the man’s true worth in terms of assets and his contributions to improve the way mankind lives.