We all heard about the American dream. To do this, you do not need start-up capital, it is enough to be hardworking and devote all your energy to the implementation of the plan.
There are people who have confirmed that the American dream is not just a ready-made plot for a life-affirming film. It is feasible, and this is proved by the life stories of prominent personalities.
10. Francois Pinault
The future billionaire was born in the family of the owner of a small forest farm. He entered Saint-Marin College, but quickly abandoned him because of the ridicule of his classmates who laughed at his old clothes and accent.
From the age of 15, he worked with his father, never having received a higher education, then interrupted by casual work.
Realizing that he would not get rich here, in 1956 he went to Algeria. From there he returned with money. No one knows how he earned them. But they were enough to create their own company, which was engaged in timber trade.
Francois never hid that he listens to his intuition. So, in 1973, he decided to sell his company to the British for 30 million francs, and then bought it for ridiculous money.
He did not miss a single chance to get rich. He profitably invested his profit, earning more and more, absorbing one company after another.
When he got money, she began collecting art objects, although she admitted that she was not in the museum until the age of 30. He collected 2 thousand different works of artists.
His fortune for 2018 is about 27 billion.
9. David Murdoch
Now he owns a company that is one of the largest exporters of fruits and vegetables.
His fortune is about 3.1 billion dollars.
And once upon a time Murdoch had nothing. Having dropped out of school, he worked part time at a gas station, and in 1943 he went to war. After it was over, young David returned to Ohio. At that time, he had neither money nor housing.
Friends lent him money. On them he bought his first diner. This was the first step towards getting a billion-dollar fortune.
8. Jan Kum
His fortune is estimated at 6.6 billion dollars.
He is relatively young, he is only 43 years old. He was born in Ukraine, in an ordinary family.
At 16, he moved with his mother to the United States. It was not easy for them at the new place, sometimes they survived only due to the social benefits of their mother, who was also ill with cancer.
To provide himself with the most necessary, Kum had to work as a cleaner. But he was able to go to university and get a job at Yahoo, where Ian worked until 2007.
Kum got rich, having invented in 2009 the WhatsApp mobile application, the one that is now on almost every phone.
Mark Zuckerberg in 2014 offered Jan to purchase his application for $ 19 billion, which made him a billionaire. He, according to the terms of the transaction, was a member of the Facebook directors, but in the spring of 2018 announced his departure from the company.
7. Howard Schulz
He was born into a poor family. He was 7 years old when his father broke his leg, and the family was left without money. These financial difficulties forever remained in his memory. At 12, the boy was already selling newspapers.
Howard graduated from university and began working. Once, after tasting Starbucks coffee, he realized what a unique taste he had. Schultz decided to get into this campaign, and soon he succeeded, he was taken on as marketing director.
At that time, almost no one knew about real coffee, and Howard understood that the company had great prospects. He set about trying to create a caffeine network where people could gather to sit with friends. But the director refused him. Then Schultz quit, collected the necessary amount and opened his first coffee shop.
A year later, he was able to buy out Starbucks stores for 4 million, and as he developed, he opened more and more points throughout the country, inspiring Americans to drink real coffee.
In 2016, his fortune was estimated at 2.9 billion dollars.
6. Oprah Winfrey
Her mother worked as a maid, and her father as a miner. Her childhood passed next to her grandmother, who often quilted her with a rod for disobedience. At 6 years old, her mother took her, but Oprah's life did not improve on this. Uncles and brothers molested her, and at 9 she was raped.
Mother sent Oprah to live with her father. He paid great attention to her education. She graduated from university. In 1986, she developed her own program, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which made her one of the most famous and wealthy women in the United States.
Now her fortune is about 3 billion dollars.
5. Kevin Plank
The annual income of his company is about 2 billion a year, almost 6 thousand people work in it.
And he was born into a large family without a large income. Kevin was able to enter college only thanks to his successes in American football. While studying at the university, he also spent a lot of time on the field.
He moved a lot and sweated, and the T-shirts, which were then made from cotton, quickly got wet and prevented him from moving. Plank picked up another fabric for his T-shirt, with lycra and polyester.
After making sure that such a T-shirt is comfortable and lightweight, he decided to establish his own production by making an office in the basement of his grandmother. He distributed his first T-shirts among familiar players, gradually expanding his business.
4. Shahid Khan
He was born in Pakistan, but at age 16 went to the United States to study. The family raised $ 500 for him, but that would not be enough for a normal living. The boy worked as a dishwasher and at the same time studied, dreaming of getting rich.
In 1970, he got a job in a company manufacturing automobile parts, gradually climbing the corporate ladder. There he was able to come up with a new type of bumper, but the management of his company was in no hurry to introduce something new into production.
Khan realized that his idea would help him get rich, and opened his own company, taking a loan and adding his own savings. Its bumpers attracted the attention of major automakers.
Developing, buying up new companies, he managed to save 8.4 billion dollars, and now he is one of the richest Pakistanis.
3. John Paul Degoria
In 2016, his fortune was estimated at 3 billion dollars.
To this he went all his life, full of difficulties and failures. John grew up in a poor family, they did not have enough money even for the most necessary. At age 9, he began to earn money by distributing newspapers, but his mother still could not support him and his brother, giving them to an orphanage.
Growing up, he got married, a child was born in the family. When the baby was 2 years old, his wife left him. The man was left without money and with a child in his arms was on the street, where he lived for several days, until he was sheltered by a familiar biker.
The next 10 years, John went through many professions, until he founded his company. He was then 36 years old. She and her partner sold shampoos and hair conditioners.
It was not easy for John: he lived in a car, learned to live on $ 2 a day. And only after 2 years did the first profit appear. Gradually, the company grew, and its products were already sold in 30 countries.
2. Walt Disney
Walt was born into a large family, so poor that they could not buy pencils and paper for his son, and he painted with a stick on tar. From the age of 8, he helped his father by delivering letters and advertisements. After graduating from the Institute of Arts, he got a job in a restaurant company, where he worked for a penny.
In 1923, becoming interested in animation, Disney goes to Hollywood, and realizing that they will not hire him, he creates his own company. Walt took the garage from his uncle, borrowed money from his brother to buy paints and spotlights, and started working. Brother Roy supported him in everything.
For the first cartoon, the brothers, who became partners, received a small profit, after which the campaign began to develop.
Now the Disney company costs about 163 billion dollars, but Walt Disney died in 1966 from lung cancer, he was 65 years old.
1. Joan Rowling
The writer led an unremarkable life: a happy childhood surrounded by loving relatives, study, and a passion for books.
In adolescence, she faced the first problems: her grandmother died, her relationship with her father went wrong, her mother fell ill, whose disease progressed every year (multiple sclerosis).
But Joan was able to enter the University of Exeter, became a bachelor of arts and began working. Soon she began to write her novel. The girl’s mother died. This was a big blow for her.
Rowling left for Portugal, worked at the institute, and wrote a book in her free time. There she got married, gave birth to a child. But a couple of months after the birth of her daughter, her husband beat Joan and drove her out of the house.
She had no family, no money, no work, only a daughter and ready 3 chapters of the book. Then a miserable existence began, they, together with their daughter, lived on an allowance of 70 pounds.
Only the book helped her not to lose her mind, she devoted all her free time to her. She rewrote her first novel 15 times. By sending the book to publishers, Rowling received some refusals. Only a year later, they agreed to print it, and Harry Potter was waiting for a resounding success.
In 2007, she became the only English woman to be on the Forbes list of billionaires. She was able to earn more than $ 1 billion on her books.
In 2018, her income was calculated for the year, and they amounted to about 6.2 million dollars.