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The Wild and Crazy Career Paths of 5 Self-Made Billionaires (Infographic) Epic entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Mark Cuban and Elon Musk started young and started up often.

By Catherine Clifford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Virgin Empire founder Richard Branson's first job was selling Christmas trees. NBA Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's first job was selling garbage bags. Las Vegas Sands Corporation CEO Sheldon Adelson's first job was selling newspapers. Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky's first job was selling carpets. And Elon Musk, the founder of Telsa Motors and PayPal, started his working life writing video games.

From their humble beginnings, all of these self-made billionaires have changed course scores of times. The infographic below, generated by San Francisco-based startup organization Funders and Founders, shows just how many different businesses these legendary entrepreneurs launched.

Related: After $2.3 Billion Sale, Entrepreneur Shares the Secret to Growing His Business

Funders and Founders also analyzed all 1,426 billionaires in the world. From there, the company segmented out the 960 that are self made and determined that 830 of them earned their wealth from more than one business.

Click to Enlarge+

The Wild and Crazy Career Paths of 5 Self-Made Billionaires (Infographic)

Source: Funders and Founders
Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

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