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Bill Gates, now the world’s second richest man, first became a billionaire at the age of 31, making him the youngest man ever to have achieved this at the time. But as with all records they are there to be broken – a challenge which no fewer than 5 adolescent adults have now achieved.

Dispelling the myth that wealth and influence are accumulated over a lifetime, Forbes Rich List has revealed that this new generation of “game changers” have not only made their mark on Billionaires Row, but in some cases risen above long established members of the financial elite.

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#1 Mark Zuckerberg

Age: 27

Net Value: $13.5bn

The first of several US Citizens to appear in our list, Mark Zuckerberg is of course the headline making co-founder of Facebook. Following in the footsteps of Bill Gates, who also dropped out at Harvard University, Mr Zuckerberg is now considered to be one of the 50 most powerful people in the world.

As with the other Facebook Billionaires listed by Forbes, the story of their route to fame and fortune was told in the multi Oscar winning film The Social Network – which charts the 6 year journey that saw Facebook become a social revelation and entice over 500 million users worldwide.

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#2 Dustin Moskivitz

Age: 27

Net Value: $2.7bn

Another beneficiary of the Facebook revolution, Dustin was also a Harvard drop-out and is now listed as the World’s youngest Billionaire – beating his friend and one time Harvard roommate Mark Zuckerberg by just 8 days.

The third employee of Facebook, Mr Moskivitz appears to have been unimpressed by the dramatization of its story in The Social Network, with a statement attributed to him on the Question/ Answer website Quora that it had “rewritten (his past) in a way that emphasizes things that didn’t matter and leaves out things that really did”.

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#3 Prince Albert von Thurn und Taxis

Age: 28

Net Worth: $2bn

Socialite, “Petrol Head” and residing in a castle, Albert officially inherited his fortune in 2001 when he turned 18. Despite this Forbes points out that he had been appearing in various rich list rankings since the age of 8.

But while the fortune inherited by this gasoline driven bachelor means he can kick back and relax, the prince still found time to secure an M.A from the University of Edinburgh and make plans to create one of the largest solar power farms in the world.

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#4 Yang Huiyan

Age: 30

Net Value: $4.1bn

Created from scratch by her father, Yang Huiyan became the principle shareholder of Country Garden Holdings of Guangzhou, one of China’s largest property developers in 2007 – catapulting her to billionaire status. A graduate of Ohio State University (USA), where she studied Marketing & Logistics, Yang is reportedly a recluse when it comes to public life, working behind the scenes on the creation of development strategies at the firm.

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#5 Scott Duncan

Age: 28

Net Value: $3.1bn

While there seems to be more information available on his father Dan Duncan, once the richest man in Houston and founder of Enterprise Products, Scott Duncan has reportedly added a cool $300m to his fortune in the last twelve months as shares in the piping specialist rose by 10% in value.

Founded in 1968 with just two trucks, the company created by Scott Duncan’s father now operates over 50,000 miles of pipelines, 27bn cubic feet of national gas storage, 25 natural gas processing plants, 6 offshore platforms, 58 tow boats and 117 barges… so just the partridge in the pear tree missing then?

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Mark Zuckerberg: Picture (CC) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com

Net Worth Values according to Forbes Rich List October 2011

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Elsewhere on the Blog:

Who’s the Biggest Dragon in the Den?

Rise of the eBay Millionaire

Dirty Desk Space Running up £3.4bn Bill

Published by Simon on Wednesday, 19 October 2011 at 9:04 AM