Success stories of the richest people who started from scratch

The stories of the richest people are enviable. Everything seems to have been easy for them. Some do indeed have parental capital and a large inheritance behind them. But success stories are many and varied, and many people really did it all themselves. The following examples are about that.

Michael Rubin

This man’s name isn’t much on the radar. However, the founder of Kynetic is among the ten richest people on the planet. He really did it all himself, having started on his path to success at a young age. As a child, Michael sold plant seeds to neighbours. At 10, he hired a crew of peers to shovel snow from the neighbours. At 14 the lad opened his own shop and at 23 he had a $50m company.

Oprah Winfrey

The path of the world-famous TV presenter has been a tough one. Born into a family of a maid and a miner, Oprah grew up in poverty. From the age of 6, she settled with her grandmother in the middle of nowhere. She was sexually abused at an early age and at 14 she gave birth to a child who soon died. However, poverty and squalor in her surroundings did not stop the girl. She worked hard from the age of 17, becoming a reporter. Her own show has existed since 1986 and Oprah launched her own channel in 2011.

Lee Kashin

Asia’s richest man with a fortune of over $34 billion heads the Cheung Kong Group and Hutchison Whampoa. Lee Kashin has had an entrepreneurial streak since childhood and is also a hard worker. He was born into a poor teacher’s family. Even as a boy, he sold watch straps. And in his teens he started working full time in a factory. The shift was 16 hours. After that, the boy attended night school. Lee Kashin’s first business was selling plastic flowers. And later he managed to set up his own company.

Sergey Brin

The co-founder of Google is one of the richest people in the world at the age of 48. Jewish by nationality, he was born in the Soviet Union. His parents were mathematicians. In 1979, when Seryozha was 5 years old, they emigrated to the USA. Together with Larry Page (who incidentally is also one of the world’s top 10 richest people), Brin invented the Google search engine, which proved a goldmine for young people.

Amancio Ortega

Although the name is nowhere near as well-known as Ilon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, Amancio Ortega has surpassed these men in terms of success. He has been voted by Forbes magazine as the richest man on the planet. The founder of Inditex (owner of many brands and clothing chains, including Zara) was born into a simple, poor family. His father was a railway worker and his mother a servant. Amão didn’t even manage to finish school because of his family’s poverty. At 13, he was already working as a delivery boy in a clothes shop. While working in these shops he tried his hand as an apprentice and became seriously interested in clothes making. This helped him understand the direction of his business.

So you don’t necessarily have to be born into a billionaire’s family to be successful and wealthy. And the examples of successful people prove it.