You do not have to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth to achieve much in life, although it certainly helps. However, many of today's billionaires had a very modest start. Growth in poverty did not prevent these executives, celebrities and business experts from reaching the pinnacle of success - and this should not stop you.
If you need some inspiration to start your own business, or want to learn how to become a billionaire, see how these famous people got to the top.
Oprah Winfrey
Family wealth is no secret of unprecedented success. Now its capital is estimated at $ 3.1 billion, according to Forbes. Oprah Winfrey was born to a single teenage mother in Mississippi. In an interview with Barbara Walters, she said that in her childhood she had neither water supply nor electricity.
By focusing on school, participating in beauty contests, and then working on a radio station, Winfrey was able to enter the world of media. She became successful on television as the host of a local talk show in Baltimore.
Howard Schulz
Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schulz helped the company become successful - a giant coffee retailer with 23,000 retail stores in 73 countries and a market value of about $ 85 billion, according to Forbes. However, this businessman, who boasts a fortune of $ 2.9 billion, was not born of wealth.
In an interview with Dr. Mukund Rajan of the Group’s Executive Board, Schultz spoke about his childhood and how it feels to grow up in poverty.
“When I was 7 years old, I experienced something that deeply influenced me,” he said. “And it's a scar and a shame to be a poor child living in government-subsidized housing.”
This difficulty seemed to motivate Schultz to become the person he is today.
Ralph Lauren
Known for his polo shirts and high-end ties, the fashion brand Ralph Lauren is easily recognizable. But did you know that there was a time when the famous fashion designer could not even afford clothes?
“As a child, I always liked fashionable clothes, but I didn’t have money to buy them,” Lauren told Oprah Winfrey, a billionaire colleague, in an interview in 2002. “When I received gifts from my brothers, I had the energy that made me to say that I want to get my own things, to make my own statement. ”
His company is now a fashion brand with a market value of almost $ 8 billion, according to Forbes. As for Lauren, his capital is $ 5.9 billion and he is considered one of the richest people in the fashion world.
Larry allison
Oracle founder and former CEO Larry Ellison was born in New York, but grew up in the lower middle class community on the south side of Chicago.
“I will never again complain about living in a bad area after moving from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to an even worse area on the south side of Chicago,” Ellison said in an interview published on the Academy of Achievements website. “After the ninth month of my life, I kept my mouth shut about the area.”
Allison was raised by his cousin and cousin, who was once successful in real estate, but lost everything in depression.
Although his childhood was poor, Ellison is now a $ 61.8 billion multi-billionaire. And Oracle has a market value of nearly $ 183 billion, Forbes reports.
Kenneth Langone
The billionaire entrepreneur and investor Kenneth Langone, who helped create the Home Depot, is also from a poor family.
In a 2013 interview with OneWire published on Business Insider, Langone said he had a “charming life” as a child, but not because of his material possessions. In fact, his mother worked in a cafeteria. However, Langone enjoyed unconditional love, which later helped him overcome his failures and prevent them from breaking him.
Today he has a capital of $ 3 billion, according to Forbes. And he is proud of this fact.
Sheldon Adelson
He is chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, the largest casino company in America, but Sheldon Adelson had to make his fortune of $ 35.2 billion from scratch. He was born into a family of East European Jewish immigrants and grew up in a harsh area of Boston, sharing a one-room apartment with his parents and three brothers and sisters.
In a 2010 Nightline interview, Adelson explained how his rude upbringing helped him become an astute businessman.
“My parents were poor,” he said. - When they died in 1985, with a difference of 11 days, they did not even have $ 100 in the bank. They gave everything to their children. ”
To honor his legacy, he donated over $ 50 million to Jewish schools in Las Vegas and Boston, and another $ 50 million to the World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
Alan Jerry
While he has a net worth of $ 1.4 billion today, Alan Jerry grew up in Liberty, New York, during the Depression. Jerry's father, a frozen food merchant, often tried to feed his family on his paycheck.
Jerry later dropped out of high school to serve in the Marine Corps during World War II. he used his GI Bill advantages to study television repair, and in 1956 he invested $ 1,500 to open a cable company in his hometown. Decades later, his business turned into 64 cable systems in 18 states. He sold Time Warner in 1996 for $ 2.7 billion, including $ 900 million in personal profit.
Jerry used the money to start his Granite Associates venture capital fund and invested in the construction of the Bethel Forest Arts Center.
John Paul Degoria
Founder of a $ 3.3 billion global hair care brand. In a 2011 interview with Forbes, John Paul Degoria, who grew up with a foster family, discussed the number of poor people in the Los Angeles area of Echo Park.
“We did not know that we were really going through difficult times because everyone had the same experience,” he said. "I remember one day in high school, on Friday, my mother came home from work and told my brother and me:" You know, we only have 27 cents, but we have food in the refrigerator, we have our little one the kindergarten is behind, and we are happy, so we are rich. '”
John Paul Degoria was homeless twice before joining forces with Paul Mitchell in 1980 to create a billion-dollar hair care brand. Now he uses his fortune to do charity work, and was even named 2017 philanthropist Variety.
Harold Hamm
The youngest of 13 children, Harold Hamm was raised by Oklahoma sharecroppers who made him work by picking barefoot cotton. The founder, chairman and CEO of the Continental Resources oil company now has a fortune of $ 10.1 billion, but at the age of 16 he had to get a job at a gas station to support his loved ones.
Despite his family’s financial difficulties, in a 2014 Forbes interview, Hamm revealed that he was inspired by his colleague Enid Oakle.
“He had this piece of clay that he smacked like a child,” Hamm said. “It was clear that he succeeded because it was his passion, his art, and the point was that we all could succeed if we followed our passion in life.”
Joanne Rowling
In a 2013 interview with the London Daily Mail, Joan Rowling shared her concerns as a single parent before Harry Potter books turned her into the highest paid author in the world.
“I remember that I refused food 20 years ago so my daughter could eat,” she said. “I remember the days when there was literally no money.”
These times are long gone since the author earned $ 95 million between June 2016 and June 2017, according to Forbes. Now she is engaged in charity, Rowling loves to give so much that it is estimated that $ 160 million in charity contributed to her fall from the status of a billionaire in 2012.
Today, Rowling's fortune is up to $ 1 billion, according to Celebrity Net Worth.