4. Len Ainsworth

Founder of Aristocrat Leisure

Incident: Thought of Making Poker Machines

One of the greatest names in the poker industry, Len started his career by running his father’s dentistry business. One day he was presented with the idea of building a poker machine and it worked as the perfect propeller for his entrepreneurial career. “There was huge demand for the machines and I thought if we made them for a year we could get enough money to go back and make dental chairs and units,” says Len. He never went back to dentistry after setting on a roll of building poker machines.