If you're looking for clues to life's curious work-related conundrums, you may find the answers in Steve Coomber and Marc Woods' new book Where do all the paperclips go?

Extract taken from Where do all the paperclips go?...and 127 other business and career conundrums by Steve Coomber and Marc Woods. Published by Capstone Publishing Ltd.

Not that easy. But easier than it used to be. There are more billionaires than ever, from more nations than ever. The annual look at billionaires in Forbes magazine revealed 946 billionaires in 2007, with 178 newly minted billionaires joining the list.

While the average age of billionaires is coming down, it still takes time to accumulate such riches - 62 years on average. Two-thirds of all that wealth is self-made from scratch. And the rich are getting richer, with total net wealth up by $900 billion to $3.5 trillion. That's more than the UK's annual GDP.

By the time this book is published the richest man on the planet is likely to be either Microsoft founder Bill Gates, or Mexican telecoms magnate Carlos Slim Helu, with investment guru Warren Buffett close behind.

The UK's not the best place to become a millionaire though; the majority of the world's billionaires come from the US, with close to 30 in the UK. In terms of newcomers, the best place to be is Russia.

As for how billionaires make their money, the Forbes list covers just about every business sector. You could write a bestseller, like JK Rowling did, corner the world's computing operating systems, like Bill Gates, or venture into flat pack furniture, as per IKEA's Ingvar Kamprad.

Interestingly, both Kamprad and Buffett, two of the four richest people on the planet, are famously frugal. Buffett, for example, still lives in the house he bought in 1958 for $31,500. The thrifty Kamprad, who once described himself as a 'Swedish Scotsman', flies economy, eats modestly, dresses casually and has been known to haggle at his local market.

Extract taken from Where do all the paperclips go?...and 127 other business and career conundrums by Steve Coomber and Marc Woods. Published by Capstone Publishing Ltd.