The Most Successful Founders Are Greedy (But Not For Money)

What do Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs all have in common?

All three of them are, or were, highly successful founders driven by power.

"Nearly all the most successful founders are revolutionaries," Y Combinator founder Paul Graham recently tweeted. "They want power, not money. That makes them hard to stop."

Graham is likely referring to Gates, Zuckerberg, and Jobs.

Gates, the world's second most richest person, has said he has no use for money.

"Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point," Gates said in an interview earlier this year with The Telegraph. "Its utility is entirely in building an organization and getting the resources out to the poorest in the world."

The only way to ensure his place in history is by impacting the world in a truly meaningful way. As of January 2013, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given away $28 billion, with more than $8 million of that going toward improving global health.

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg has famously said that money does not motivate him.

"We don't build services to make money," Zuckerberg wrote in Facebook's IPO prospectus. "We make money to build better services."

Now, Facebook is the most popular social network in the world. And with that comes a lot of power. Zuckerberg has recently used his clout to support New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's reelection campaign, and is even starting his own political group.

Jobs had a similar sentiment toward money. The Apple co-founder disliked people who put profits first, and only cared about money to the extent that it would help Apple make great products.

Now, Apple is one of the most admired company's in the world.