How to Be a Billionaire, TV review: Not quite a get-rich-quick guide
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The title of Channel 4's documentary How to Be a Billionaire makes the slightly irritating suggestion that a vast fortune is within all our grasps, but that pretence was soon given up.
Billionaires are a rare and elusive breed and this programme was only able to rustle up three of them to appear on camera: Russian media mogul-turned-trans-human futurist Dmitry Itskov, British Bebo founder Michael Birch and Indian entrepreneur Naveen Jain.
The easiest to relate to of the three was Hertfordshire boy Birch. He and his wife had come into $850m – in cash – overnight, after the sale of Bebo to AOL in 2008, but it took another three years before they began to feel comfortable with their sudden wealth. "It's hard to ever feel that you deserve to make a huge amount of money, in some ways," he said. "There's always an element of luck, but I think we did work to get it. You still feel a certain responsibility."
He and his wife now keep busy with a variety of charitable ventures, business investments and by building their own pub in San Francisco.
A full schedule, but still a lot less ambitious than the passion projects of our two other billionaires. Jain hopes to pioneer Moon tourism with his own space programme and Itskov is pouring his fortune into researching a way for humans to exist as immortal holograms
As for us mortals still residing on Planet Earth? In the spirit of the get-rich-quick guides that this was not, here are the bullet points. First, there's no substitute for hard work: even after making his billions, Jain won't allow himself a lie-in. Second, money can't buy you style – Mark Zuckerberg's flip-flops should have alerted you to that truism, but Birch's driving bandana was also a case in point. Third, and most importantly, there's no such thing as a crazy idea. Not if you're loaded, anyway.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments