rags to riche

7/29/2019 Rags to Riche

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In a time of rising inequality and sluggish growth, rags to riches

stories are harder than ever to come by. Indeed, many of the richest

people in the world were born into their wealth.

That makes it even more essential that we remember the people

who started with nothing, and through hard work, talent, grit, and a

bit of luck, managed to rise to the very top.

These 20 stories remind us that it's possible to overcome just about

anything, from parents passing away, to extreme poverty, and

more.

Maria Das Gracas Silva Foster escaped a Brazilian

shantytown to become Petrobras' first female CEO

financialtimes/FlickrThe current head of

Brazilian oil giant Petrobras spent her childhood in Morro do

Adeus, an extremely poor neighborhood that became a shantytown.

Her mother worked constantly and her father was an alcoholic. She

collected cans and paper to make extra money.

She started as an intern at Petrobras in 1978, but broke through

barriers to become the company's first female head of field

engineering. Bloomberg reports that her tireless work ethic has

earned her the nicknameCaveirao, for the armored vehicles police

use to clean up crime ridden Brazilian neighborhoods. She became

the company's first female CEO in February.


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Source:Bloomberg

Do Won Chang worked three jobs to make ends meet

before starting Forever 21

LAEDCorp via YouTubeDo Won Chang and

his wife, Jin Sook, moved to America from Korea in 1981. When

they first arrived, Do Won was forced to work three jobs at the same

time to support them, as a janitor, a gas station attendant, and in a

coffee shop. Eventually, they were able to open their first clothing

store in 1984.

That one store grew into Forever 21, which pioneered fast fashion

and is now a multi-national, 480 store empire that generates

around $3 billion in sales a year. It's a family business, with the

couple's daughters Linda and Esther helping to run the company.

Source:Forbes

Harold Simmons grew up in a shack without electricity

and became a multi-billionaire
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ForbesNow a billionaire several times

over, Harold Simmons grew up in the extremely rural town of

Golden, Texas, where he lived in a "shack" that had no plumbing or

electricity. He still managed to make it to the University of Texas,

and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. and masters in

Economics.

His first venture was a series of drugstores, the first of which was

almost entirely financed with a loan. That became a 100 store chain

that he sold to Eckerd for $50 million. From there he went on to

become a master of the corporate buyout. He currently owns 6

companies traded on the NYSE, including Titanium Metals

Corporation, the world's largest producer of titanium.

Source:Forbes,D Magazine

Zdenek Bakala fled communist Czechoslovakia with only

$50 and is now a coal magnate

YouTube/TuckIn 1980, when he was 19

years old, Bakala fled communist Czechoslovakia with a $50 dollar
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bill wrapped in plastic wrap hidden in a sandwich. He made it to

Lake Tahoe, where he washed dishes at a Harrah's casino.

He eventually got an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and

an MBA from Dartmouth. He went into banking, and eventually

back to his home company, opening Credit Suisse First Boston's

first officer in Prague after the Wall fell. presides over a coal

company with a $2.52 billion market cap and eight production sites

across Central Europe, which broke ground on the first privately

owned coal mine in Central Europe since 1992.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

George Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary to

become one of the world's most successful investors

Wikimedia CommonsGeorge Soros

survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary after his father paid a

government employee, whose Jewish wife he had helped hide in the

countryside, to let him pose as his godson. After the war, he escaped

the country, which had come under communist rule, in 1947, to stay

with relatives in London. Soros put himself through the London

School of Economics by working as a waiter and railway porter.

After graduating, Soros sold goods at a souvenir shop before writing

managing directors at merchant banks in London until he finally

got a job. That was the beginning of a long and enormouslysuccessful career in finance, including his famous bet against the
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British pound in 1992, which earned him more than a billion dollars

in profit in one swoop.

Source:Soros: The Life And Times Of A Messianic Billionaire, The

Telegraph

Guy Lalibert ate fire on the streets before introducing

Cirque du Soleil to the world

mission_canada/FlickrThe Canadian-born

Lalibert began his circus career busking on the streets: playing

accordion, walking on stilts and eating fire. He gambled by bringinga successful troupe from Quebec to the Los Angeles Arts Festival in

1987, with no return fare. The bet paid off, and the circus group was

eventually brought to Las Vegas, where they became the world

famous Cirque du Soleil we know today.

Today, Lalibert is the CEO of Cirque, a professional poker player

and space tourist, with a total net-worth of $2.5 billion.

Source: Celebs101

John Paul DeJoria lived in his car before John Paul

Mitchell Systems took off
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REUTERS/Eric HendersonAs a first

generation American, DeJoria had it rough from the beginning. His

German and Italian parents divorced when he was two, and he sold

Christmas cards and newspapers to help support his family before

he turned 10. He was eventually sent to live in a foster home in Los

Angeles.

DeJoria spent some time as an L.A. gang member before joining the

military. After trying his hand as an employee for Redken

Laboratories, he took a $700 dollar loan and created John Paul

Mitchell Systems. He hawked the company's shampoo door-to-

door, living out of his car while doing so. But the quality of the

product could not be denied, and now JPM Systems is worth over

$900 million annually. He also created Patron Tequila and has ahand in a variety of industries, from diamonds to music.

Source:Forbes

Ursula Burns grew up in a housing project on Manhattan's

Lower East Side and now runs Xerox

Before the Lower East Side was cool, it
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was a hub for gangs. Burns was raised by her single mother in a

housing project there. Her mother ran a daycare center out of her

home and ironed shirts so that she could afford to send Ursula to

Catholic school. She went to NYU, and from there became an intern

at Xerox.

She's now Xerox's CEO and chairwoman. Burns is the first African-

American woman to lead a Fortune 500 Company.

Source:Bloomberg

Howard Schultz grew up in the Brooklyn projects beforebecoming CEO of Starbucks

REUTERS/Robert SorboSchultz grew up in

the Bayview projects of Canarsie, Brooklyn. He always wanted to

climb "over the fence" and go beyond the lifestyle provided by his

truck-driving father. Despite destitution, he excelled at sports and

earned a football scholarship to the University of Northern

Michigan.

After graduating with a degree in communications, Schultz went to

work for Xerox before discovering a small coffee shop called

Starbucks. Enamored with the coffee, he left Xerox to become the

company's chief executive in 1987. After beginning with 60 shops,

Starbucks now has over 16,000 outlets worldwide, giving Schultz a

net worth of $1.5 billion. He even went on hiatus and came back as

CEO to lead Starbucks out of a decline.
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Source:Mirror News

Li Ka-shing quit school at 15 to work in a plastics factory

and is now the world's richest East Asian

The family of Li Ka-shing fled mainland

China for Hong Kong in 1940, and Li's father died of tuberculosis

when he was just 15. Quitting school to work to support his family,

Li made plastics and later plastic flowers for U.S. export.

By 1950 Li was able to start his own company, Cheung KongIndustries. While at first manufacturing plastics, the company later

moved into real estate. Similarly, Li expanded his ownership of

different companies, and today has his hand in banking, cellular

phones, satellite television, cement production, retail outlets, hotels,

domestic transportation, airports, electric power, steel production,

ports and shipping, and investing in cool apps, among other

industries.

Source:Harvard Business Publishing

Francois Pinault was a high school dropout who now leads

luxury goods group PPR
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FlickrPinault quit high school in 1947

after being teased for his poor background. He joined his family's

timber trading business and in the 1970s began buying up smaller

firms. His ruthless business tactics including slashing jobs and

selling his timber company only to buy it back at a fraction of the

cost when the market crashed gave him a reputation as a

"predator." He had similar tactics in the real estate business, and

did well buying French junk bonds and taking government money

to save businesses from bankruptcy.

His self-made worth helped him start PPR, a luxury goods group

that sells brands like Gucci and Stella McCartney. At one point the

richest man in France, Pinault and his family are now worth anestimated $13 billion, and have historic homes around the world.

Source:xfinity

Leonardo Del Vecchio was an orphaned factory worker

whose eyeglasses empire today makes Ray-Bans and

Oakleys

Getty ImagesDel Vecchio was one of five
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children who could not be supported by his widowed mother. After

growing up in an orphanage, he went to work in a factory making

molds for auto parts and eyeglass frames, where he lost part of his

finger.

At 23, he opened his own molding shop. That eyeglass frame shop

expanded to the world's largest maker of sunglasses and

prescription eyeware. Luxottica makes brands like Ray-Ban and

Oakley, with 6,000 retail shops like Sunglass Hut and LensCrafters.

His estimated net worth is now $11.5 billion dollars.

Source:Forbes

Kirk Kerkorian went from boxer and Royal Air Force pilot

to Las Vegas mega-resort owner

scenestriz5/FlickrKerkorian, who learned

English on the streets, dropped out of 8th grade to become a boxer.

His family was a casualty of the Great Depression, and Kerkorian

went about finding skills to help bring income home. He became a

daredevil pilot for the Royal Air Force during World War II,

delivering supplies over the Atlantic on routes that would crash one

in four planes.

From the money he made running supplies, Kerkorian became a

high roller on the craps table and eventually a real estate magnate in

Las Vegas: he bought The Flamingo and built The International andMGM Grand, stalwarts of the Vegas scene. He's worth a few billion
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dollars today.

Source:Smart Money Daily

Sheldon Adelson is another Las Vegas hotels magnate who

tried his hand at a few industries

the7eye.org/FlickrAdelson grew up in

tenement housing in Massachusetts, where he shared a bedroom

with his parents and three siblings. His father was a Lithuanian taxi

driver and his mother had a knitting store. When he was 12 years

old, he started selling newspapers and a few years later ran avending machine scheme on the same corner.

Adelson tried his hand at a few different industries, from packing

hotel toiletries to mortgage brokering. His biggest break came from

developing a computer trade show. He turned that wealth into a

purchase of the Sands Hotel & Casino, and later the mega-resort

The Venetian.

Source:Minyanville

Ingvar Kamprad was born in a small village in Sweden and

created a mail-order business that became IKEA
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APKamprad lived the farm life growing

up. But he always had a knack for business, buying matches in bulk

from Stockholm to sell to his neighbors. He later expanded to fish,

Christmas decorations, and pens.

Not satisfied with the small stuff, Kamprad took money from his

father (a reward for good grades) and created a mail-order business

that eventually became IKEA (the name comes from his initials plus

those of his village and family farm). Furniture became the

company's biggest seller, and Kamprad's use of local manufacturers

kept his prices low. Once one of the world's richest men, his net

worth has fallen recently to a an estimated $3 billion.

Source:Smart Money Daily

Roman Abramovich was an orphan who turned an

expensive wedding gift into an oil empire

REUTERS/Eddie KeoghAfter his parents

died when he was just four, the Russian Abramovich was raised by

his uncle and grandmother. Abramovich got his first break from an

expensive wedding gift from his in-laws. He dropped out of college
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to pursue his entrepreneurial interests, which at first included

selling plastic ducks out of an apartment in Moscow.

He managed a take over of oil giant Sibneft at a bargain price in

1995. He continued to flip his investments into even larger

acquisitions, including Russian Aluminum and steelmaker Evraz

Group. Over the years Abramovich has been accused of shady

dealings, from paying out bribes and protection money to having a

role in the gang feuds over aluminum smelters. It seems that being

ruthless has paid off for the billionaire: he now owns the largest

private yacht in the world, as well as a ton of other cool stuff. He's

also the owner of the Chelsea Football Club.

Source:Hubpages

Richard Desmond went from living above a garage to

creating an empire that published magazines like

Penthouse

Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesDesmondgrew up the son of a single mother after his parents divorced. The

two of them lived above a garage, during which time Desmond

described himself as "very fat and very lonely." He quit school at 14

to focus on being a drummer, working as a coat-checker to help pay

bills. Though he never became rich from his own musical talents, he

later opened his own record shops.

Eventually Desmond published his first magazine, International
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Musician and Recording World. The Desmond magazine empire

would expand to publications like a British version of Penthouse

and Ok!, a worldwide favorite. He now owns publications around

the globe and is involved in philanthropic work.

Source: The Observer

J.K. Rowling lived on welfare before creating the Harry

Potter franchise

In the early 1990s, Rowling had just

gotten divorced and was living on welfare with a dependent child.

She completed most of the first "Harry Potter" book in cafes, as

walking around with her daughter, Jessica, was the best way to get

her to sleep.

The "Harry Potter" franchise has become a worldwide success and

J.K. Rowling is now worth an estimated $1 billion.

Source:Biography

Before Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart, he milked cows

and sold magazines in Oklahoma
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Walton's family lived on a farm in

Oklahoma during the Great Depression. In order to make ends

meet, he helped his family out by milking the cow and driving the

milk out to customers. He also delivered newspapers and sold

magazine subscriptions.

By 26, he was managing a variety store after graduating from the

University of Missouri with a B.A. in economics. He used $5,000

from the army and a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law to buy a

Ben Franklin variety store in Arkansas. He expanded the chain, and

then went on to found Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. He died in 1992,

leaving the company to his wife and children.

Source:Biography

Oprah Winfrey turned a life of hardship into inspiration

for a multi-billion-dollar empire

AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank

GunnOprah spent the first six years of her life living with her

grandmother wearing dresses made out of potato sacks. After being
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molested by two members of her family and a family friend, she ran

away from home at age 13. At 14, her newborn child died shortly

after he was born. She went back to live with her mother, but it

wasn't until her mother sent her to live with her father that she

turned her life around.

She got a full scholarship to college, won a beauty pageant where

she was discovered by a radio station and the rest is history. The

Oprah name became an empire, and according to Forbes she is

worth $2.7 billion.

Inspirational Life Quotes

Just know, when you truly want success, youll never give up on it.

No matter how bad the situation may get. - Unknown

Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get

you where you want to go, no one else. Les Brown

I dont regret the things Ive done, I regret the things I didnt do

when I had the chance. Unknown

Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is

what makes life meaningful. - Joshua J. Marine
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Its hard to wait around for something you know might never

happen; but its harder to give up when you know its everything youwant. Unknown

One of the most important keys to Success is having the discipline

to do what you know you should do, even when you dont feel like

doing it. - Unknown

Good things come to those who wait greater things come to

those who get off their ass and do anything to make it

happen. - Unknown

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is thespiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace &

gratitude. - Denis Waitley

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than

your fear of failure. Bill Cosby

Go where you are celebrated not tolerated. If they cant see the

real value of you, its time for a new start. Unknown

Dont be afraid to stand for what you believe in, even if that means

standing alone.. - Unknown
http://addicted2success.com/success-advice/5-ways-to-destroy-the-illusion-of-fear/http://addicted2success.com/success-advice/5-ways-to-destroy-the-illusion-of-fear/


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The best revenge is massive success. Frank Sinatra

Forget all the reasons it wont work and believe the one reason thatit will. - Unknown

I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. Its because of

them Im doing it myself. Albert Einstein

The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you havent

found it yet, keep looking. Dont settle. Steve Jobs

Life is short, live it. Love is rare, grab it. Anger is bad, dump it. Fear

is awful, face it. Memories are sweet, cherish it. Unknown

When you say Its hard, it actually means Im not strong enough

to fight for it. Stop saying its hard. Think positive! - Unknown

Life is like photography. You need the negatives to

develop. - Unknown

Dont worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when

you dont even try. Jack Canfield
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The pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow. For

every challenge encountered there is opportunity for

growth. - Unknown

Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build

theirs. Farrah Gray

The only thing that stands between you and your dream is the will

to try and the belief that it is actually possible. Joel Brown

Self confidence is the most attractive quality a person can have.

how can anyone see how awesome you are if you cant see it

yourself? Unknown

We learn something from everyone who passes through our lives..

Some lessons are painful, some are painless.. but, all are

priceless. - Unknown

Being happy doesnt mean that everything is perfect. it means that

youve decided to look beyond the imperfections. - Unknown

Nobody ever wrote down a plan to be broke, fat, lazy, or stupid.

Those things are what happen when you dont have a plan.

Larry Winget
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Three things you cannot recover in life: the WORD after its said,

the MOMENT after its missed and the TIME after its gone. Be

Careful! Unknown

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone

can start from now and make a brand new ending. Carl Bard

When the past calls, let it go to voicemail, believe me, it has

nothing new to say. - Unknown

Rule #1 of life. Do what makes YOU happy. - Unknown

Walk away from anything or anyone who takes away from your joy.

Life is too short to put up with fools. Unknown

Love what you have. Need what you want. Accept what you

receive. Give what you can. Always remember, what goes around,

comes around Unknwon

Just remember there is someone out there that is more than happy

with less than what you have. Unknown

The biggest failure you can have in life is making the mistake of

never trying at all. Unknown


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Life has two rules: #1 Never quit #2 Always remember rule #

1. - Unknown

No one is going to hand me success. I must go out & get it myself.

Thats why Im here. To dominate. To conquer. Both the world, and

myself. - Unknown

rags to riche

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