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Born Into Luxury: How Howard Hughes Got His Start

Article Overview: “I’m not a paranoid deranged millionaire. Goddamit, I’m a billionaire.” While he was perhaps known more for his eccentricities and womanizing than his good business sense, Howard Hughes was indeed one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 20th century. He managed to turn his $1 million inheritance into a $2 billion fortune. Equivalent to $6.6 billion in today’s dollars, Howard Hughes was and still would be considered one of the richest men in the world.

Born Into Luxury: How Howard Hughes Got His Start

“I’m not a paranoid deranged millionaire. Goddamit, I’m a billionaire.”

While he was perhaps known more for his eccentricities and womanizing than his good business sense, Howard Hughes was indeed one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 20th century. He managed to turn his $1 million inheritance into a $2 billion fortune. Equivalent to $6.6 billion in today’s dollars, Howard Hughes was and still would be considered one of the richest men in the world.

He was born in Houston, Texas on Christmas Eve, 1905 to entrepreneur parents Allene and Howard Hughes Sr.. His father had invented the dual cone roller bit, a revolutionary rotary oil drilling device that went on to make the family a small fortune. They created the Hughes Tool Co. to commercialize the invention. When his parents later died within two years of each other, fighting ensued between the remaining family members over the inheritance of the company and the wealth the family had amassed. Hughes Jr. instructed his lawyers to buy out his relatives and the teenager eventually attained control over both the money and the company when he became a legal adult in 1924.

Ever an ambitious child, Hughes said once, “I intend to be the greatest golfer in the world, the finest film producer in Hollywood, the greatest pilot in the world, and the richest man in the world.” Encouraging his education, Hughes’ parents sent him to two of the finer schools in Massachusetts and California. But, Hughes was always better at golf than he was school. His father later arranged for him to study math and engineering at the California Institute of Technology and Rice University by making donations to the schools, but Hughes never managed to attend any school long enough to earn a diploma. It was in California where Hughes’s passion for filmmaking was inspired as he spent much time with his uncle, Rupert Hughes, a screenwriter for Samuel Goldwyn’s movie studios.

Incidents in his early life would greatly affect Hughes in his later years. His obsession with cleanliness stemmed from a parental encouragement to be anti-social. His mother disapproved of him making friends because she believed that other people were disease-carriers. In 1917, Hughes’ hometown of Houston also experienced one of the US’s worst race riots, with 17 people left for dead. It is speculated that this incident was a prime factor behind Hughes’ racist attitudes.

In 1925, Hughes married his first wife, a Houston socialite named Ella Rice. They decided to move to California in order for Hughes to begin pursuing his passion for film. Rice and Hughes would later divorce, with Hughes beginning a string of affairs with famous actresses, including Jean Harlow, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Jane Greer, Rita Hayworth and others. He was also often romantically linked to men, including Errol Flynn and Cary Grant.

After hiring a young former race-car driver turned accountant by the name of Noah Dietrich to run the family company, Hughes had freed up his time to begin embarking on his true goal of creating a name for himself.

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Article Tags: allene, business sense, california institute of technology, christmas eve, dual cone, eccentricities, film producer, good business, howard hughes, hughes jr, legal adult, oil drilling, rice university, richest man in the world, richest men in the world, roller bit, rupert hughes, small fortune, successful entrepreneurs, tool co



Related Forum Posts
Re: Defining ones self! - Welcome Howard! In all honesty, from the most successful entrepreneurs that I've met and profiled, most of them don't care about their titles - it's more about building a and a high quality team than it is worrying about what to call yourself. Just some food for thought.
Quote of the Day - "Expect more than others think possible. - "Expect more than others think possible. Care more than others think wise." - Howard Schultz, goo.gl/SLcI4
Entrepreneurs to profile - Here are my suggestions: Howard Schultz, Founder of Starbucks Jason Jiang, Founder of Focus Media
Re: Defining oneself! - Hi Howard, Welcome to the forum. Not sure I can help you with your request for a title as I still haven't got around to thinking up one for myself yet; it's definitely not a priority for my sort of business... What sort of business are you setting up?
Re: Should you hire ambitious workers or employees with no goals - According to Guy Kawasaki, he says "you should only hire and keep people that you'd hustle over to and engage in a conversation...Life is too short to work with people you don't naturally like-especially in a young, small organization" ("The Art of the Start" pg 112). I think the reverse is also true and I wouldn't want to work for anyone I didn't like or want to talk to if I saw him/her outside of the office. In addition, Kawasaki also says "Steve Jobs has a saying that A players hire A players; B players hire C players; and C players hire D players...This trickle-down effect causes bozo explosions in companies. If there is one thing a CEO must do, it's hire a management team that is better than he is" ("The Art of the Start" pg 101). Kawasaki's quote is definitely in favor of hiring the ambitious worker, but do most CEO's even have the humility to admit that someone is better than them?


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