Why do people keep track of these things? It must be important in the grand scheme of things, because they do. Here’s a column about George Lindemann Florida Billionaire. It talks about other people as well, of course, but George made his money in a variety of ways. More than some of the others, he apparently developed a really good idea, and then sold it for massive amounts of money. Several times. To wit:

George Lindemann, 66, Palm Beach. Ranks 348th, up from 378th last year. Net worth: unchanged at $1.2-billion. Sold soft contact lens patent for $60-million in 1971. Started Vision Cable, sold for $220-million 1982. Sold Metro Mobile cell service to Bell Atlantic for $2.6-billion in 1992. Current chief of natural gas company Southern Union, plus owns 19 Spanish-language radio stations.

That, ladies and gentlemen is what I call di-vers-i-fi-ca-tion.