A pure multi-tasker who has clearly shown his talent in politics, business, and is a renowned author and a television personality it is none other than the famous Kevin O’Leary, who has a net worth of 400 million dollars which is quite a big amount. Some of you may know him through the name of soft key international or the television show, “Dragons Den” and “Shark Tank” as he is the founder of these.
Early Life
Kevin’s full name is Terence Thomas Kevin O’Leary which is quite a big name; he was born in the beautiful place Montreal, Quebec, Canada on July 9, 1954. His father is from an Irish accent and his mother is from a Lebanese accent. And Leary holds an Irish passport and citizenship due to his parental heritage. After his parents’ divorce and his father’s death, his mother married an economist Gorge Kanawaty.
As his stepfather worked in UN International Labor Organization, Leary grew up moving around the world which includes Tunisia, Cyprus, and Cambodia. As his mother was a great and talented investor she taught him lots of stuff including how to save one-third of his money for the future.
And as his stepfather advised him to attend a university before pursuing his desired career as a photographer, because of this he pursued graduation. This school time was the turning point where he grew interested in business and investing. During the year 1977 Kevin graduated from the University of Waterloo and pursued an MBA degree from Ivey business school during year 1980.
Business Career
While Kevin was pursuing his MBA he did an internship with the company named Nabisco, and worked as an assistant brand manager for cat food brand. He claims that this internship has helped him to earn skills that helped him later. After his internship, he stepped his foot as a television producer, and also is the co-founder of an independent television production company named special event television (SET) with his MBA classmates.
Later on, Kevin’s share in the venture was bought by one of the partner for 25,000 dollar. In 1986 after the sales of his share in SET he started a software company named soft key in a basement building of Toronto with his business partner’s John Freeman and Gary Babcock.
When a banker withdrew their commitment money of 2,50,000 dollars, Kevin was forced to use his 25000 dollars which he got from the sales of his share, and a 10000 dollar as a loan from his mother to establish the company, which was formed as publishing and distributing company of CD-ROM-based personal computer software for Macintosh and Windows computers.
This company also produced a number of educational software products which increased their fame by the year 1993 and also has started to acquire rival companies such as WordStar and Spinnaker software. During the year 1995, he acquired the learning company (TLC) for around 606 million dollars after that SoftKey adopted the name TLC. Later in the year of 1999 TLC was bought by Mattel for 4.2 billion dollars.
Kevin also became a co-investor and director of the company named Storage Now, in the year of 2003. This company is known well for its climate controlled storage facilities. After lots of effective developments, Storage Now has become Canada’s third-largest operator of storage services.
Personal Life
During the year of 1990 Kevin married, Linda. Around 2011 the couple separated but soon after two years they resumed their marriage. Linda now works as the VP of the marketing sector for O’Leary wines. They have two children where one among them named Trevor is a music producer and DJ, and the other named Savannah is a Multimedia Producer at the Huffington Post.
O’Leary has several houses but the primary residence and tax residency is in Toronto, Ontario. He also has a cottage in Muskoka and houses in Boston, Geneva, and Switzerland. He is also a great lifelong photographer and has conducted several exhibitions where he donated the proceedings to charity. Kevin is also known to be a great fan of the football team named New England patriots which he claims to have watched all of their games.
Politics
O’Leary officially entered politics on January 18, 2017. And also during his official campaign, he was quite easily compared with Donald Trump as both of them was wealthy business men’s and gained recognition through television. And on April 26, 2017 O’Leary officially withdrew from the leadership race.
Other Ventures
In the year of 2011, September Kevin released his first book named “Cold Hard Truth: on business, money and life”. He also released 2 follow ups too. From his appearance in the 2 TV shows named “Share Tank” and “Dragons Den” he gained a beautiful nickname as “Mr. Wonderful”.
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Conclusion
Kevin O’Leary a man who tried so hard to start an establishment has now grown to a level where he earns around 400 million dollars as a net worth. This teaches us that a person’s desire to achieve what they love will surely make them get it and this is what Paulo Coelho meant in alchemist when he said that “And, when you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
