- [Narrator] Some people believe
it's the root of all evil, while others say it
makes the world go round. There are those that
say it brings happiness, and others who blame all
the world's problems on it. But no matter what you think about it, we all want be rich enough to live the life we want worry free. So that begs the question, how do we become as rich as the
richest people in the world? What sort of habits and
behaviors do they have that allow them to accrue
such gigantic wealth. From the effective habits of
the world's current richest man to the life of the richest man in history, who you've probably never heard of, this is a day in the life
of the richest man ever. (electronic music)
- Amazing. - [Narrator] To join the
ranks of the super-rich, it's obvious you need a good routine that will allow you to work hard and at the peak of your physical
and mental capabilities. Let's take a look at
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, a man who's made around 100 billion from his well-known businesses. He starts the day with
breakfast and exercise, and manages his time meticulously, breaking the entire day up
into five minute chunks. It's this organization and preparation that allows him to
maximize his productivity and keep on top of his workload, and as a result he now lives
an extremely lavish lifestyle. Bill Gates is so rich he actually admits he wouldn't be able to spend
it all, even if he tried. But while Gates might
be unimaginably rich, he doesn't come close to
being the richest person ever. That title is reserved for a relatively unknown
person, coming up soon. In fact, Gates isn't even
the richest man alive today. The richest man alive
is no longer Bill Gates, but the founder and CEO
of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. Here's Jeff in 1999 in
his very first office, starting out at Amazon
using a door propped up with two by fours as a desk. From his humble beginnings,
Jeff now runs a gigantic company that is worth over $800 billion and sells pretty much
everything under the sun, from streaming TV
services to space travel. Owning over 16% of all
Amazon shares in existence, Bezos is worth around 140 billion. So, how did Bezos do it? One crucial reason is
his military discipline and highly organized daily routine. Bezos starts each day early. This is actually pretty common
among successful people. Apple CEO Tim Cook even
gets up at 3:45 a.m. But Bezos wakes up naturally,
with no alarm clock. He spends the first couple of hours of his day pottering around. He has a coffee and reads the newspaper. He has breakfast with his kids, and has been known to eat
some extravagant meals. Bezos likes to try new things, like eating octopus for breakfast. He's even been known
to like eating iguana. He says it's good for the brain. But he also enjoys a greasy
burger from a food truck, or at least he does when he wants to make himself look like a human. As his morning moves on, he has his first important
meetings of the day. His hardest decisions are always
made first, at 10:00 a.m., when his brain is most
alert and proactive. As the day wears on, he takes
on easier and easier tasks, that are more fitting to
the way the human brain naturally gets tired and
affected by decision fatigue. Bezos keeps his afternoons free from high-intensity appointments, and if an emergency
pops up in the evening, he'll put it off until
10:00 a.m. the next day, when his brain is firing
on all cylinders again. By 5:00 p.m. he clocks off, and spends the rest of the day unwinding, making sure he does the
dishes after dinner. He reserves some time for hobbies too, and has made a cameo
appearance in Star Trek, as well as totally normal
hobbies like piloting submarines. When Bezos' day is over, he goes to bed, making sure he has enough time to get a full eight hours of sleep before he does the whole
thing all over again. So it's likely his razor-sharp routine and commitment to a small number of high-quality decisions each day has helped him amass his personal fortune. Of course, paying his
employees very low wages and dodging millions in tax
might help a little too. But despite how insanely wealthy he is, Jeff Bezos is far from being
the richest person in history. That title goes to a man
who had the equivalent of $400 billion dollars
relative to today's prices, four times as much as Bill Gates and over two and a half
times as much as Jeff Bezos. The richest man ever was wealthy
beyond your wildest dreams, and you've probably never heard his name. This man was the 10th
ruler of the Mali Empire, and his name was Kankan Musa,
better known as Mansa Musa, the richest man in human history. This is what we think he looked like. So, what would a day in
his life have been like? He never kept a diary or if
he did, we haven't found it, so his day to day life was
never officially recorded. But that doesn't mean we
can't take an educated guess based on the evidence uncovered by historians and archaeologists. The first thing Mansa Musa
would likely have done is look out of his window
to survey his vast empire. At its peak, this empire
spanned 439,400 square miles and stretched across land occupied by 10 of the 54 countries in Africa today. That's almost five times
bigger than the United Kingdom and had a population of over 20 million, no small feat in those days. The Mali empire lasted from 1235 to 1600, so it's fair to say it had a decent run. Across the empire, the majority of people spoke a similar language
and had a similar culture, and its cultural legacy
can still be seen today. As he would have lived in a palace, his morning routine probably
involved looking out the window and surveying his royal complex. Most of the wealth was
in the form of salt, a very valuable commodity
back then, and gold, and so he probably saw
plenty of shining monuments and heaps of salt being
carried by donkeys. The palace he woke up in was undoubtedly the height of luxury. As a lover of gold, it's fair to assume he
owned a few pieces himself. In fact, the evidence
suggests this guy would've put the Donald and his little
hotel chain to shame. Getting ready would have been easy, as he had a small army of
slaves working for him, slaves who would've dressed
him in his royal robes and prepared him a luxury breakfast. No records of his diet have been kept, but it would likely have
involved local staples like onions, tomatoes,
eggplant, yams, mangoes, bananas, or watermelon, fit for a king. After breakfast, he probably
would have read a book. This was a king with a
reputation for wisdom. He was extremely dedicated
to education and learning, and the morning would have been the ideal time to relax with a good book. But Mansa Musa wasn't just concerned with learning about the world. He put his ideas into
practice and was committed to helping the lives of his subjects. Like Bill Gates, Mansa Musa was also an extremely charitable man who would give to the poor at
every opportunity he could. He dramatically improved
the education standards of the people in his
empire by building schools, universities, and libraries
where people could learn about science, philosophy,
poetry, mathematics, and the most cutting-edge
knowledge of the day. He might not have been an
angel, and he did own slaves, but he was certainly not selfish, and he wasn't one of those rulers who's only out for himself. So, what would the rest
of the day have in store for Mansa Musa, the
richest person in history? Well, as with most politicians, he would have had regular
meetings with his advisors, who would give him advice
on running his vast empire. Many of his policies
would have been influenced by his personal beliefs, and unlike most of the
richest people alive today, this guy was extremely religious. Mansa Musa lived his
life as a devout Muslim and used his immense
wealth to spread Islam. Some modern scholars think he
could be at least partially responsible for the global
size and spread of Islam today. In the evening, it's quite
likely Musa would have gone for a visit to his local mosque, or perhaps even his
personal mosque, to pray. As an incredibly devout Muslim, it would be amazing if he
didn't visit the mosque on at least a weekly basis. When he went on his Hajj, the
Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, he spread the Muslim religion
to wherever he visited, and brought with him a gigantic
procession of servants, bodyguards and assistants on a journey that would have taken months. His pilgrimage was the stuff of legend, and his entourage numbered
many thousands of people. Everywhere he went he took gold and handed it out to crowds he met. In fact, during his Hajj,
he gave so much out in Cairo that the value of gold plummeted, and the Egyptian economy tanked. On his way home, he had to
buy back some of his gold and take out loans with
a huge interest rate to help stabilise their economy. Some say Mansa Musa even
built a brand new mosque on his journey every
Friday, the Muslim holy day. I personally prefer a good
movie and a bag of chips, but to each their own. As he wanted to spread his religion to as many people as he possibly could, this was a pretty smart idea. Give people a load of gold
to get them to like you, then build a mosque so that they'll think, hey, this guy seems cool,
I'll give his religion a try. And his message certainly had appeal. 14th century Islam was actually way ahead of 14th century Christianity. In Europe, Christianity
was busy hating science, and accusing everyone of
sorcery or witchcraft. While Europe was burning
people at the stake and trying to cure the
plague by reading the Bible, Islam was encouraging free thinking, science and mathematics. After visiting the Mosque, Mansa Musa would probably have gone home to have dinner with his family. It's not known exactly
how many wives he had, but his favorite was a
woman called Inari Kunate, who accompanied Musa on his Hajj, along with 500 maids in waiting. When you've had the life that Musa had, I'm sure it's something you would mention at the dinner table. Musa would probably take great pleasure in boring his children with stories about the charity he provided,
the gold he gave away, and all the spectacular
buildings he erected. His kids were probably sick
and tired of hearing that story of how he built the University of Sankore. Dad's are always the same, eh? And once dinner was over, I doubt Mansa Musa would've
offered to do the dishes. Mansa Musa's kids eventually
took over from him when he died sometime in the late 1340s. Nobody knows exactly what he died from, but it was probably natural causes. His son succeeded him, but his
reign lasted only four years. Mansa Musa's family ended up squabbling over the inheritance and the
empire fell into disrepair. Finally, his life's work fell apart, but the Mali Empire left an important mark on world history in the
750 years that followed. Mansa Musa's personal wealth was valued at $400 billion in today's money, meaning that even now the richest man ever was not the CEO of big tech company or a banker born into the right family. He was an African emperor you've probably only just heard of. Who knows if the world will
ever see a man like him again? Have you heard of Mansa Musa? Why do you think this powerful king has been left out of our history books? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section down below, and thanks for watching. (electronic music)
