Maybe you think that your real economic worth is being undervalued these days – even disrespected – by the Powers That Be. Well, you’re hardly alone. Wait ’til you hear the tragic story of how Alwaleed bin Talal has been dissed.
He is Prince Alwaleed, a full-fledged member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family. The 57-year-old describes himself as the “world’s foremost value investor.” Indeed, the royal one owns sizable stakes in such premium properties as London’s posh Savoy Hotel, Apple computer, Citigroup, and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire. He’s even buying a soccer team. But is he getting the respect he’s due? No! At least not from Forbes magazine.
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In its annual ranking of the world’s superrich, Forbes relegates bin Talal way down to 26th place, estimating his wealth at a mere $20 billion.
An outrageous insult, shrieked the wounded prince, who dwells in a 420 room mansion in Riyadh, is flown around in his own Boeing 747 jumbo jet, has a yacht bigger than most hotels, and possesses 200 cars (including a collections of Rolls-Royces, Ferraris, and Lamborghinis). His true wealth, he explains in exasperation, is nearly $30 billion, which would rank him as the world’s 10th richest human – ahead of such run-of-the-mill billionaires as the Waltons of Walmart money, Michael Bloomberg, and Sheldon Adelson, a tacky casino operator, for god sake!
Prince Alwaleed was so rankled by the mis-ranking that he wrote to Steve Forbes himself, demanding that his name be removed entirely from Forbes plutocratic listing. Moreover, declared the piqued prince, he will not cooperate in the future with the magazine’s wealth valuation inspectors.
So, anytime you start feeling like you’re not getting your due, put your indignation in perspective by thinking of what this poor prince has been put through.
“I’m worth at least £20BILLION! Saudi prince blasts Forbes after they said he’s ‘only worth £13billion’ in rich list,” www.dailymail.co.uk, March 5, 2013.
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