Amedeo Giannini sold a fruit business for $100,000 in his twenties and started the Bank of Italy, pioneering branch banking to expand beyond one location. He financed California farms, Walt Disney's Snow White, and the Golden Gate Bridge. He never took more than $50,000 a year and owned no shares of the bank that became Bank of America, the world's largest.
Amedeo Giannini, fruit stand wholesaler. By the time he's in his mid-20s, he's able to sell his share of the business for $100,000, then decides to create his own bank, and he calls it the Bank of Italy. He never pays himself more than $50,000 a year in salary. He also doesn't own any equity in this bank. At that time, the bank business was a local business. He realizes that it sucks to have different banks in every place because I can't expand. So he becomes the first guy to do the bank branch models. So it becomes very, very successful. He's basically pioneering interstate banking. He helps fund a bunch of interesting things, providing credit to all the farmers, the vineyards. He funds and finances personally Walt Disney's Snow White. He funds the Golden Gate Bridge. And over time, he ends up merging with another bank, Bank of America, which becomes the biggest bank on earth. He still never takes more than $50,000 a year salary, and he dies in 1949 not owning a single share of the bank that he founded. And his philosophy was that serving the needs of others is the only legitimate business.
