By Geron Kamberi
The biographies of successful and powerful figures in business and politics always spark curiosity and invite us to read more. Professor Adrian Civici’s book “Business Geniuses” (Vol. I & II) offers an engaging journey through the lives of some of the most influential minds in global business history – from Henry Ford, whose automobile reshaped distances and mobility, to Sam Altman of OpenAI, who reminds us that intelligence is no longer the monopoly of humans, but also of machines.
Behind every business genius, however, lie challenges, hardships and early failures. Vision and persistence are the boat and oars with which they navigate through storms in order to reach success.
Across 47 biographies of business geniuses from nearly every continent – America, Asia and Europe – the book presents, in a clear and accessible way, how these individuals rose to fame through their ideas and enterprises.
In Volume I, readers explore pioneers across industries such as steel, oil, banking and finance, fashion, food, automobiles, media, film, entertainment, cosmetics, postal services and e-commerce. The stories feature figures such as Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Napoleon Hill, Coco Chanel, Enzo Ferrari, Ferruccio Lamborghini, Walt Disney, Ray Kroc (McDonald’s), Harland Sanders (KFC), Hans Wilsdorf (Rolex), Soichiro Honda, Amancio Ortega (Zara), Michele Ferrero, Adi & Rudi Dassler (Adidas and Puma), Sam Walton (Walmart), Ralph Lauren, Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA), Ole Kirk Christiansen (LEGO), Jack Ma (Alibaba), Ren Zhengfei (Huawei), J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter), Arianna Huffington (Huffington Media) and Frederick Smith (FedEx).
Many of their surnames are now inseparably linked to the brands they created, which have become icons of a modern “religion” – consumerism – in free-market societies.
Volume II continues with other influential figures who shaped the 20th and 21st centuries through their business ideas and success: Aristotle Onassis (Olympic Airlines), Lee Byung-chul (Samsung), Akio Morita (Sony), Oprah Winfrey (media), Howard Schultz (Starbucks), Phil Knight (Nike), Peter Drucker (management), Adriano Olivetti, Hewlett & Packard, Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook/Meta), Sergey Brin & Larry Page (Google), Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg Media), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Giorgio Armani, Richard Branson (Virgin), Michael Dell, Steve Jobs (Apple), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla), and Sam Altman (OpenAI).
Although the book covers businesses connected to everyday life – food, clothing, cars, finance – it is especially worth pausing on the biographies of those shaping our 21st-century world through digital technologies: the internet, smartphones, social media and artificial intelligence. Naturally, names such as Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Sam Altman stand out.
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One of the most engaging stories is that of Google’s founders. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it,” a quote by Alan Kay, one of the most influential figures in computing, inspired Sergey Brin and Larry Page to create Google. Their idea was born in what is now known as Silicon Valley, around Stanford University in California. Coming from families of computer scientists and mathematicians, they shared not only academic excellence but also a deep-rooted exposure to technology.
What began as a PhD idea to download the entire web evolved into PageRank, the algorithm that became the foundation of Google’s success. While the internet had existed since 1991 thanks to Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau at CERN, search engines were still evolving. Brin and Page introduced a revolutionary concept: ranking pages by their links. This transformed the web from a static space into a dynamic ecosystem. Even the name “Google” – inspired by the mathematical term “googol,” suggested by their friend Sean Anderson – became part of everyday language. Today, “to google” is a verb used worldwide.
The biography of Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is equally compelling. From his Harvard years to building one of the world’s largest platforms, his story reflects how ordinary beginnings can lead to extraordinary outcomes. As a teenager, he created ZuckNet, a messaging system for his father’s dental clinic. Later, he developed Synapse, software that analyzed users’ music preferences. His Harvard project FaceMash led to the idea of Facebook. Despite early controversy and the closure of his first website, he went on to build Meta, now used by billions. The blue color of Facebook, originally linked to his color blindness, has become a global digital symbol.
Elon Musk’s biography reveals relentless ambition and resilience. From co-founding PayPal to leading SpaceX and Tesla, and launching ventures such as Neuralink and The Boring Company, Musk continuously challenges convention. His company Zip2 made him a millionaire at 27. SpaceX revolutionized space travel, while Starlink aims to provide global internet coverage.
Sam Altman’s journey brings us back to Silicon Valley. After selling his first startup, Loopt, he became president of Y Combinator, helping scale startups. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, whose products such as ChatGPT have transformed everyday life since 2022. His story reflects both excitement and concern over AI’s impact on work and society.
Through these biographies, the book shows how business, finance and academia interact. Ideas, like plants, need soil, sunlight and water to grow. The American academic, financial and entrepreneurial ecosystem has provided these conditions, allowing ideas to flourish globally.
At its core, biography is a personal story. What sets these figures apart is courage: the courage to fail, to attempt what others hesitate to try. The book is an invitation to see how dreams become ideas, and how ideas shape the world. An idea without courage remains a dream; persistence turns it into history.
Biography of Adrian Civici
Adrian Civici holds a PhD in Economics (ENSA Montpellier, France, 2002) and a PhD in Agricultural Economics (Agricultural University of Tirana, 1993). He became Associate Professor in 1995 and Full Professor in Economics in 2011.
Throughout his career, he has served as Head of the Department of Economics and Agricultural Policies, Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural Economics, Executive Director of the Center for Rural Studies and Sustainable Development, Advisor to the Minister of Finance, Director of Albania’s National Economic and Social Development Strategy, Advisor to the Government of Kosovo, and a member of the Supervisory Council of the Bank of Albania. He has held leadership roles at UET and is affiliated with several European academic and research institutions. In 2009, he was awarded the title Chevalier des Palmes Académiques by the French Presidency and the French Academy of Sciences.
About the Author
Geron Kamberi is an Associate Researcher on European Policies at the Center for the Study of Democracy and Governance (CSDG). Since 2007, he has collaborated with several Albanian think tanks focused on public policy analysis, particularly European integration.
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