20 Billionaires Who Actually Started Off Poor
Rags To Riches
Most of the world's wealthiest people were born pretty darn wealthy to begin with. But the American Dream can come true—just ask any of these true self-made billionaires.
Oprah Winfrey
Net Worth: ~ $2.8 billion
Oprah Winfrey isn't just the world's most beloved billionaire—she also started from the very bottom. Born to a single, teenage mom in Mississippi, Winfrey didn't even have basic amenities like running water or electricity at times in her childhood.
Then came TheOprah Winfrey Show. By 2003, she became the world's first Black billionaire.
Howard Schultz
Net Worth: ~ $3.2 billion
Howard Schultz grew up in Brooklyn's Canarsie housing projects.
He eventually got a university degree in communications, and at age 29, landed a job at a small Seattle coffee company called Starbucks as their director of retail operations and marketing.
He revolutionized the company—and the coffee business in the US as we know it.
Ralph Lauren
Net Worth: ~ $7.4 billion
Born to first-generation immigrants in the Bronx, Ralph Lauren loved clothes from a young age, but his family didn't have the money for them. He resented every hand-me-down he got from his brothers and wanted to make his own clothes.
Lauren started working for a tie company at 28. He asked for—and got—his own line of ties immediately. His first full collection came the next year, and he never looked back.
Larry Ellison
Net Worth: ~ $158.9 billion
Given up for adoption after contracting pneumonia at nine months old, Larry Ellison was adopted by a middle-class couple in Chicago. Though he never finished university, he attended, where he discovered he was a natural with computers.
We still can't tell you what his software company, Oracle Corporation, does—but it made him a billionaire.
