Billionaire Philipp Anschutz: the success story of an industrial magnate


Philip Anschutz was born in Kansas, USA. Initially worked with his father, who was an oil driller, then separated and started his own business. This billionaire entrepreneur, one of the ten richest people in the United States, is also known as a modest, unpretentious person who is fond of historical literature and loves to quote Napoleon.

  • FULL NAME: Philip Anschutz.
  • Date of Birth: December 28, 1939.
  • Education: higher, University of Kansas.
  • Work in business: 1967 – present.
  • Current state: 18 billion dollars.

Philipp Anschutz is not just an industrial magnate. This is a unique person who has made a successful career in several areas at once. He had to deal with oil, railways and even agriculture. The talented entrepreneur everywhere showed remarkable organizational skills, business ingenuity and ingenuity. He became a billionaire through hard work.

Brief information

The entrepreneur never informed the public about his nationality. However, judging by the name of the mother (Marion Pfister), the future billionaire had German roots. The father of young Philip was engaged in drilling oil wells. He searched for oil, obeying intuition, and not without success. After graduating from a local university, Anschutz began working with his parent. In the future, in addition to oil, he was engaged in such areas of activity as:

  • railway business;
  • entertainment industry;
  • television communications;
  • professional sports.

Anschutz is a famous owner of theaters and entertainment centers, football and hockey teams, cinemas. But for the first time he showed his entrepreneurial abilities during the joint work with his father on the extraction of “black gold”.

Figure 1. Prominent businessman

Figure 1. Prominent businessman

It is interesting! Friends and relatives characterize Philip as an extremely modest, delicate and even timid person in everyday life. He is distinguished by religiosity, often goes to the temple and does not like to give interviews to journalists.

Anschutz’s early career

When the future tycoon was just starting his professional career, nothing foreshadowed dizzying success. On the contrary, things went very badly. When Philip “went into free swimming” and began to work separately from his father, he almost went bankrupt. To top it off, a huge fire broke out in the oil wells of Anschutz Jr. The talented young man did not lose his head and agreed with the owners of neighboring plots that he was fully responsible for the fire in exchange for oil, which could be found on the territory of burning wells. After that, Anschutz quickly eliminated the fire, using the services of professionals. From that moment on, his affairs quickly improved. The entrepreneur quickly changed areas of activity, for example:

  • managed a railway company (late 1980s – early 1990s);
  • founded America’s largest cable telecommunications network;
  • acquired three football teams and one team of hockey players;
  • bought up a large number of theaters and cinemas that worked at a loss.

In parallel, he actively acquired agricultural land and livestock. The current position of a businessman is the head of a large company Anschutz Corporation.

When a fierce fire raged at the wells of a businessman, the future billionaire, without thinking twice, invited Hollywood producers there; they did not hesitate to pay the enterprising young man a lot of money for the unique footage of the documentary chronicle. It was this profit that later helped the businessman to make his fortune.

Figure 2. Working moments

Figure 2. Working moments

Difficulties on the way to success

His path to success was not smooth and easy. Friends and relatives of the billionaire claim that:

  • in his youth, no one took Anschutz seriously, he was always in the shadow of his father, a famous oilman;
  • innate modesty and decency often made the entrepreneur suffer from unscrupulous competitors;
  • due to his shy nature, the billionaire feels internal discomfort all his life due to the increased attention of the press to his person;
  • frequent change of activity required from Anschutz great flexibility, mobility and the ability to quickly switch from one job to another, so the billionaire, in fact, had to study all his life.

Despite the huge fortune, the businessman is not going to stop there. He wakes up at 4:30 a.m. every day, works out regularly to keep fit, and plans to create the largest entertainment industry empire by merging all the money-losing theaters and cinemas into one chain.

Main achievements and titles

Figure 3. The head of the sports and oil empire

Figure 3. The head of the sports and oil empire

According to the famous Forbes magazine, the oil tycoon is ranked 6th in the list of “400 richest people in the United States.” Also, his name is included in the list of the hundred most famous business minds in the world. Subordinates secretly recognize Anschutz as the quietest leader, because he never raises his voice to his employees. The entrepreneur considers Napoleon his main idol and often takes his policies as a basis, planning his own work.

Philipp Anschutz’s company was one of the first to lay fiber optic cable for the Internet using railway lines. In his essay for Forbes, the billionaire recalls that when about $ 1 billion was spent on laying communication lines, and there were no customers, he began to worry a little. But later such investments more than justified themselves.

The businessman built 100 unique venues for sports and performances by musicians and artists. Mr. Anschutz always comes up with interesting and promising projects. For example, he builds wind farms, believing that there is currently a growing interest in clean energy.

Business in the topic: Generation of electricity from wind.

Personal life

Philip is married, his fiancee is called Nancy, they raised their only son Christian. In everyday life, a billionaire is distinguished by unpretentiousness. He does not like to spend time idly, he visits the gym every day and jogs, he is fond of football and tennis.

Anschutz has many true friends. They characterize the entrepreneur as a sympathetic, modest person who does not suffer from “star fever”. The tycoon likes to take part in mass cultural and sporting events, including the annual marathon.

Anschutz is a man who managed to make a huge fortune without connections and influential relatives (although at first the entrepreneur was actively supported by his father). In work and in his personal life, he used to rely solely on himself. It was this position in life that contributed to Philip’s outstanding success in business. His motto is to always work, always move and never stop.