Harold G Hamm

Prince of petroleum is $3.8 billion richer this year; shares of his publicly traded Continental Resources up 125% since last September. Youngest of 13 children grew up poor; parents picked cotton, raised entire family in one-bedroom Oklahoma house. First job: gas station attendant. Founded Harold Hamm Tank Truck Service 1966; firm became one of the largest oilfield fluid transporters in U.S. Started oil and gas exploration, production outfit Continental 1967; public last May. Drilling the Bakken Shale in North Dakota; company is the region's biggest leaseholder with 500,000 acres. Partner in gas processing firms Hiland Partners and Hiland Holdings. This year founded the Ames Astrobleme Museum, named after the crater in Oklahoma where he found a cache of high-quality oil created in part by destruction from a meteor strike 450 million years ago.