Quantum Fund / Soros Fund Management

In 1947, a 17-year-old boy fled Hungary with no money, no connections, and no plan beyond getting to England. He had just survived the Nazi occupation of Budapest and escaped the rising communist regime. That boy was George Soros. Forty-five years later, he would break the Bank of England and become one of the greatest investors in history.

George Soros was born Dzjchdzhe Shorash in Budapest on August 12, 1930. His father, Tivadar, was a lawyer and well-known Esperanto author who raised his son to speak the language.

In 1936, Soros's family changed their name from the German-Jewish "Schwartz" to "Soros," as protective camouflage in increasingly antisemitic Hungary. Tivadar liked the new name because it is a palindrome and because of its meaning. In Hungarian, soros means "next"; in Esperanto it means "will soar."

The communists were tightening their grip on Hungary and he wanted out. He wanted opportunity, and he believed England could give it to him. He stopped first in Bern, Switzerland, to attend the Universal Congress of Esperanto, then made his way to London. In London, he worked odd jobs to survive.

The Philosopher Before the Trader

In 1949, Soros enrolled at the London School of Economics (LSE). LSE leaned socialist at the time, but it also housed two free-market believers who would shape the rest of his life: economist Friedrich von Hayek, and philosopher Karl Popper.

Popper became his mentor and pushed Soros to build a framework for how the world works. A grand theory. Soros took that challenge seriously, and decades later, that same framework became the tool he used to make billions and cement his name as one of the greatest investors ever.

He finished his coursework in two years but stuck around a third year, walking away with a bachelor's and a master's in philosophy.

LSE taught Soros nothing about the financial markets, but he had a hunch there was real money to be made in investing. He had no connections. So he cold mailed every investment bank in London. One firm bit. Singer & Friedlander offered him a trainee spot.

He took it.