Bill Gates vs. Alice Walton

When Gates was a kid, he spent so much time reading that his parents finally forbade him from bringing books to the dinner table. Gates took a break from classes his senior year in high school to do programming with his friend Paul Allen at a power plant in North Bonneville, Washington.

After graduating from Trinity College in 1971, Walton briefly worked for Walmart as a buyer of children's clothes. Her art collecting career began when she was 11 and bought a 25-cent print of Picasso's "Blue Nude".