[jeffreyrogers]

You could play this game with virtually any billionaire[0]. Everyone who gets that wealthy does it by leveraging other people. That's the whole point of forming a company. Self made in this context obviously means did it from the ground up.

The fact is, he started some speculative mining ventures that found massive mineral deposits. That's self made.

[0]: Marc Rich might be an exception. His company was basically him and a telephone for a while, but he was still leveraging his relationships with other commodities firms, which are themselves massive employers.