Amazing Life Story of George Soros

By | July 20, 2018 3:55 pm

Source

George Soros is a billionaire; ranking as the 29th richest man in the world by Forbes. Soros’ climb to become one of the wealthiest men in the world is a tale of survival, perseverance, hard-work, and faith in oneself. His story is a motivational story that should inspire you to believe in yourself no matter the odds.

Early Life
George Soros was born Gyorgy Schwartz in Budapest, Hungary, to a well-to-do middle class family of non-conformist Jews. His father was a lawyer while his mother was a housewife. In 1936, Soros family changed their name from the Jewish sounding Schwartz to Soros to protect themselves from the rising anti-Semitic wind that was blowing across Hungary with the rise of the Nazis in nearby German.

In 1944, Nazi Germany occupied Hungary. Young Soros was a 13 year old lad when this happened. Due to the foresight of George Soros’ father Teodoro (formerly Tivadar) who had changed their names to Christian names and later purchased falsified documents claiming the family to be Christians, the Soros family survived the Nazi occupation though they had to split up.

Education beyond Budapest
After the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, the Soros family reunited and in 1947 the family immigrated to England. Here Soros enrolled into the London School of Economics where he studied philosophy; earning a Bachelor of Science in 1951, and a Master of Science also in Philosophy in 1954.

After graduation, Soros did some odd jobs like selling an assortment of fancy goods on the seaside of London, and also pawning off stuffs to souvenir shops. Soros did these odd jobs until he landed a Job at Singer and Friedlander in 1954, the same year he earned is Masters. Landing this job wasn’t easy as Soros virtually wrote to all the banks and financial institutions in England because S&F got back to him with an offer to work as a clerk.

A Career path to the U.S
George Soros worked as a clerk in Singer and Friedlander for two years until in 1956 – based on the advice of a colleague at S&F – Robert Mayer, Soros migrated to the United States of America; landing in New York where he got a job with F.M. Mayer as an arbitrary trader. Soros worked for F.M. Mayer from 1956 to 1959 before moving over to Wertheim and Co where he worked as a European Securities

Analyst

During this period, European Stocks and Securities were becoming popular in the United States, and Soros used the period to develop his trading and investment skills and to propagate his economic theory of Reflexivity of the stock market which argued that just like the theory of Relativity in Physics, that markets fluctuate when ideas influence market events and also when market events influence ideas.

Road to Success

The road to success for George Soros started while he was Vice President at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder where he worked from 1963 to 1973. Six years into his spell at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, in 1969 to be precise, Soros started a hedge fund which he called the Double Eagle hedge fund. Soros started this investment fund with $250,000 of his own money and $3.75 million of investors’ capital.

Soros established another fund which he called the Soros Fund Management in 1970. By 1973 George Soros was managing two funds, the Double Eagle Fund which now had $12 million, and Soros Fund which he later renamed to Quantum Fund. The two funds stood at parity with each having $12 million.

Though Soros could manage the two funds, but due to issues bordering on conflict of interest, Soros had to resign from Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder’s Double Eagle, and concentrated his energy in managing Quantum Fund.

Today, Quantum Fund stands at over $24 Billion making George Soros to be one of the richest men on earth. Soros is today seen as one of the greatest investor in history as his trading acumen propels money to generate money. In 1992, Soros made history by making a short sale of $10 Billion worth of Pound Sterling during the UK currency crisis. Soros made a personal profit of $1 billion and was popularly referred to as the man who broke the Bank of England.

Life as a Billionaire
In one of his writings, Soros wrote that his success in the financial market has bestowed upon him a greater degree of independence than most people, and that it affords him the liberty to do the things he loves doing. One of the things Soros love doing is giving to philanthropic causes.

Soros is noted as a foremost philanthropist who has given generously to causes that supports the emancipation and upliftment of the downtrodden. It is said that Soros has given away over $12 billion to charity cumulatively.

Soros is also the founder of Open Society Foundations which is a network of foundations with reaches in over 100 countries where they carry out charity works.

Conclusion
Since 1979 when George Soros started his philanthropic drive, he has never looked back. Because of his experience as a child, Soros has used his wealth to fight the cause of the downtrodden and the discriminated. Soros rise to financial power is a testimony of our ability as humans to rise above every situation no matter the circumstances of life we find ourselves.

George Soros did it because he believed in himself and learnt the principles of investment. You too can do it if you take out time to study and learn these same principles. Learning these principles will give you the knowledge enhanced opportunity to become the next billionaire in the world’s richest list.

Category: Motivational Stories

About Bramesh

Bramesh Bhandari has been actively trading the Indian Stock Markets since over 15+ Years. His primary strategies are his interpretations and applications of Gann And Astro Methodologies developed over the past decade.

Leave a Reply