Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal is a Saudi Arabian multi-billionaire entrepreneur and grandson of Saudi Arabia’s first monarch, King Ibn Saud, and nephew of the last King, Abdullah Saud. His father, Prince Talal, was Saudi Arabia finance minister and his mother, Princess Mona Al Sold, was the daughter of the first Prime Minister of Lebanon, Riad Al Solh, who was murdered in Amman in 1951.

According to Forbes, he is the 41st richest man on planet with a $17,3 billions net worth in 2016.

In his teenage years, Al-Waleed was rebellious at the point to be enrolled in a military school by his parents.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from California’s Menlo College in 1979 and in 1985 he received a master’s degree in Social Science from New York’s Syracuse University.

After graduated from college, Al-Waleed borrowed $30,000 from his father to start an investment company which failed in the first year. So he was forced to start from scratch.

He returned to Saudi Arabia in 1980, experiencing the nation’s economic boom.
He started being a local representative for international companies that were investing in Saudi Arabia with enormous foreign direct investments (FDI). For every conducted deal he could received a commission that ranged from 5% to 30% per transaction.
His first contract came in 1982 when he was commissioned to construct a club for South Korean-based company.
In that moment, Prince Al-Waleed had enough cash to slowly build a modest real estate portfolio, The Kingdom Holdings Company, and, thanks to Saudi Arabia no income taxes, he amassed a personal net worth of $1 billion by 1989.

In the 80s, he could diversified his own company Kingdom Holdings investment portfolio.
One of his most remarkable investment was the acquisition of 7% equity stake of United Saudi Commercial Bank, a traded local bank that was collapsing.
Through a hostile takeover, he worked with the shareholders of the bank to change his management and overall direction.
The strategy was successful and the bank survived. Then Al-Waleed acquired that bank through Kingdom’s largest financial institution, Samba Financial Group.

In 90s his name began to be known in western business world.
In those years, Citigroup (now Citycorp) had a lot of financial problems and could’t pay its many loans.
Everybody though it was the end of the bank, but Al-Waleed didn’t and purchased 4,9% stake of the company at the price of $207 millions. In fact, Citigroup didn’t failed and now is Kingdom Holdings investments core part (almost half of Citicorp belongs to the Prince).

Kingdom Holdings Company, his very own company (95%) founded in 1980, has a very diversified portfolio with equity stakes in many worldwide companies like AOL, Apple (until 2005), Amazon, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Disneyland Paris, Fox News, Twitter. Its market capitalization is more than $1 billion.

Al-Waleed bin Talal is also big filantropist, he has a lot of charity activities in Middle East, Asia and Africa. They said he donates almost $100 millions per year to increase education in the world, filling up cultural and sanitary gaps between West and East in the world.

Volkswagen was born in the 30s of the previous century when Adolf Hitler decided to create a vehicle for the German population.

The project was ordered to Ferdinand Porsche and the request was to create a car that cost less than 1000 marks, could carry five passenger (or three soldiers and a machine gun), could reach at least 100 km/h (63 mph) and consumed seven liter of gasoline per 100 km/h (63 miles).

The first Volkswagen was presented for the first time at the Berlin Exhibition in 1936 and was soon affectionately called “Maggiolino”.

The Second World War stopped the development of the company which restarted at the end of the war thanks to the help on Ivan Hirts.

The German car manufacturer went very well in 50s and 60s with models like Maggiolino and Transporter, but the real revolution came in 1974 with the introduction of the Volkswagen Golf and Volkswagen Scirocco in market.

Today the Volkswagen is still the most loved car in the world with his style, comfort and high-security level.

The Volkswagen Group is a German multinational corporation with headquarter in Wolfsburg. It includes 12 big car brands from 7 different countries: Audi, which was bought from Daimler-Benz in 1964; Porsche, bought in 2012; Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti, all three bought in 1998; then Seat, Skoda, Scania AB, Men SE and, obviously, Volkswagen cars.

In fiscal year 2018, the Volkswagen Group increased its deliveries to costumers worldwide by 0,9% year-on-year, achieving a new record of 10,8 millions vehicles sold. Including the Chinese joint ventures, the group employed an average of 655,7 thousand people during 2018, with an increase of 3,4% year-on-year. The income statement records sales revenue of €235,8 billions in fiscal year 2018, exceeding the prior-year figure by €6.3 billions. The operating profit before special items records €17,1 billions, on level of the previous year.

Shawn Corey Carter, aka Jay-Z, was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 4th 1970. Rapper and entrepreneur, he became one of the most influential hip-hop figure in the 90s and in the early 21st century.

In his career he sold more than 100 millions albums only in the US, won 22 Grammys, debuted 13 times in Billboard 200 and being nominated by MTV Best Rapper of All Time in 2006.

He is also mentor of many greatest artists like Rihanna, his wife Beyoncè, Mariah Carey, Shakira, Kylie Minogue, Rita Ora, Romeo Santos, Big Sean, Dj Khaled an Kanye West.

He started in 1996 founding Roc-A-Fella Records with two friends to release his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, which sold more than 3 million copies in the States.

A string of successful album followed through 2003: Hard Knok Life: Vol.2 (1998), which won a grammy for the best rap album; Blueprint 1 and The Black Album (2003).

In 2004 he assumed the presidency of Def-Jam Recordings becoming the most highly placed African-American executives in the music industry.

He returned in 2009 with Blueprint 3 featuring Kanye West and Timbaland, generating songs like Empire State of Mind with Alicia Keys and Run This Town with Rihanna.

Then: Watch The Throne in 2011 with the song Niggas In Paris with Kanye West and No Church In The Wild; Magna Carta Holy Grail in 2013 which includes the song Suit and Tie with Justin Timberlake and 4:44 in 2017.

Worthy single of being mentioned are Forever Young with Mr. Hudson & The Library, Drunk in Love and Everything is Love with his wife, Beyoncè.

His Net Worth is $1 Billion and has a very diversified portfolio: $310 millions in Armand de Brignac, champagne; $100 millions in D’Ussè, cognac; $75 millions in Roc Nation, entertainment company; $100 millions in Tidal, streaming service; $50 millions in Real Estates; $70 millions in Art collections; $75 millions in music rights and $220 millions in cash and investments.

It is not a crazy idea checking our environment for hidden cameras or microphones.

Surveillance sets are getting cheaper and easier to use and people are worried of Big Brother invading their privacy after cameras/microphones have been found in airbnb rentals, public bathrooms and gym locker rooms.

Companies are spending billions on surveillance (4 billion of dollars by 2023, according to the technology market research firm Strategy Analitics) and microdevices can be stashed in hard-to-spot places like clocks or water bottles.

Everybody can do a basic inspection of the environment like turning off the lights and, with the use of a flashlight, see if the lens of a camera shines back. Other, but expensive, method could be buying radio frequency detectors that can pick up signals emitted by these devices.