Every year I read the Sunday Times Rich List and every year it briefly transports me into a fantasy world.

Silly numbers are bandied about – fortunes have risen £550million to £1.45billion, or they’ve fallen £100million to just £1.5billion in a year – and separate lists are composed of subgroups such as the 50 Young Rich, including tennis ace Andy Murray, who was recently married to Sussex’s own Kim Sears.

It’s fascinating to read how such vast fortunes have been made.

Sussex’s own billionaires and millionaires form a microcosm of the drive and talent that has put entrepreneurs at the heart of this annual wealth fest, while its aristocrats demonstrate that despite inherited money and assets they still need an entrepreneurial spirit to keep them afloat these days.

New entries this year include Paul Rooney, who owns Horsham-based estate agency Arun, the South East’s largest independent chain of estate agents, and is worth £110million, and Eric Heerema, a Dutch investor and wine buff who owns and runs the successful Nyetimber vineyard in West Sussex, who has a fortune valued at £100million.

Even richer at £150million is Sussex-based property magnate Michael Hunt, who built the £1 billion Nissan UK operation.

The Earl of March, the son of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, who owns the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex, has transformed the estate into a unique sporting venue and in 2013 saw sales hit £67.2 million, with their fortune valued at £100 million.

Higher up the list, with a fortune valued at £250 million, is Viscount Cowdray and the Pearson Family, which owns the Cowdray estate in Sussex and a £50 million stake in the Pearson media group.

Further up still are Simon Cowell, the Brighton-born music mogul, with £325 million, Hastings-born music impresario Simon Fuller, who has £395 million, and former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, who has a combined fortune with wife Nancy Shevell of £730million.

Right up at the other end of the scale, at No 14, is Sussex’s richest, Tetra Pak supremo Hans Rausing, who lives in Wadhurst, and family, who have a fortune of £6.4 billion.

Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson, whose airline is based in Sussex, and his family, are at No 20, with £4.1billion.

It’s all too easy to sneer at wealth and label it as greed, yet it remains everyone’s dream.

Who doesn’t buy a lottery ticket in the hope of becoming a millionaire?

Yes, even idealists who want the nation’s wealth divided more equally will bet a couple of quid a week on winning the jackpot.

I say all credit to the honest entrepreneurial spirit, which is very alive and kicking in the 21st century.

I admire these people because they have flourished during the recession, credit crunch and times of austerity.

It’s a tough call to keep going when the going gets tough, particularly when you have employees depending on you for their livelihoods, or to find new markets, as some aristocrats have done.

They have turned their existing assets into new wealth – easier when you have the assets in the first place, I admit, but still – it takes ambition and vision to reinvent an estate, and not a small amount of pride-swallowing to open up your home to the public.

But the entry I find most intriguing is No 121 – Richard Elman and family, who enjoy a fortune of £930 million through their Noble Group, which deals in commodities.

Hong Kong-based Elman, 75, dropped out of school in Brighton at 15, and, according to a CNN interview, went to work in a scrap metal yard.

“I was a total failure in school,” he said. “When you fail all your O levels, what do you do with your life? I didn’t have a clue.

“My parents had found this job for me and I took to it, naturally.

“And I have not looked back since. My father … he was hugely disappointed. He was highly intellectual.

“But ultimately I think he recognised … suddenly I had some success and I think he was quite proud.”

He added that his father had taught him that whatever happens in life, you cannot take away education – that if you only have physical possessions, they can be taken away from you, but if you are trained, you can go anywhere in the world and make a living.

Wise words from someone who found out the hard way but still made his choices work for him.

It’s not so easy for youngsters these days to make it without an education but perhaps the reason the Sunday Times Rich List is ultimately a bible of ambition is that people like Richard Elman can inspire teenagers leaving school this summer without the qualifications they wanted to still aim high.