Italy’s most successful modern entrepreneur made his fortune by staying in touch with his inner child and living as a real-life Willy Wonka. Michele Ferrero, creator of the global brand Nutella, was a shy, humble man who died never having given a newspaper interview. His estimated net worth was $26.5 billion and he ranked 22nd on a recent Forbes list of billionaires—his empire built, as the magazine very simply stated, from “chocolates.”

His most delectable invention, Nutella, a creamy chocolate hazelnut spread, has been part of the collective memory of Italian children for the past 50 years, as comforting and beloved a mainstay of their world as Oreos and Coca Cola are for American kids. And today this holds true well beyond Italy’s borders, as Nutella is an international phenomenon that has truly captivated the world’s taste buds: 2014’s estimated global sales in 53 countries were 365,000,000 kg. That’s 2.2 million pounds a day!