Rich And Most Successful People Who Started Out at Rock Bottom

Time does change, all we have to do is have patience and keep pursuing our dream! Your dream, no matter how far and difficult it is, comes to you one day if you are devoted to it by all means. The history is full of such people who came out of nothing and made their own empire, far and beyond. They have proved that success is not the thing that one is born with but it is made. Let’s see some examples of billionaires who started at rock bottom and built a great empire from nothing but their own persistence and hard work.

Dhirubhai Ambani

Who knew that the third son of a school teacher from a small village of Gujarat would become one of the richest men in the world! Who knew a boy who dropped study after 10th standard to join his elder’s brother would become a great business tycoon! Who knew a petrol pump attendant who barely survived in a small room in Mumbai with his wife and children in 1960 would be ranked 138th richest person in the world in 2002, published by Forbes. Yes! It was Dhirubhai Ambani who started from nothing and reached a peak in the business world.

When he came back from Aden (Yemen) in 1957, he had just 500 rupees. It was a worthy amount of money though at that time. He sowed the seed of his business as a small trading venture of spices and fabrics and continued it for 8 years until he managed to become an owner of a small spinning mill at Naoda.

He believed in taking risks and being revolutionary. He turned his hand in oil and telecommunication sectors that eventually made him stand in the Reliance industry. He never thought about “enough”. He constantly made an effort to expand his businesses. In 1976-77, the Reliance industry had an annual turnover of 700 million. The name reliance had become so reputed that it had more than 58,000 investors by 1977. He also continued to enhance his company in the textile industry and Vimal. His success became known to the public when he took a rightful position beside India’s winning Prime Minister Indra Gandhi at the victory rally in 1980. He was also believed to be close to Pranab Mukherjee. 

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Despite his first heart attack in which his right hand was paralyzed, his Company continued to grow in various sectors. And by 1990, he put his firm leg in the petrochemicals, oil refining, telecommunication, and financial services. When he succumbed to the second stroke on 24 June 2002, his company’s estimated net worth was $2.9 billion.

J. K. Rowling

Most of us might not have heard the name of ‘J. K. Rowling’ but I do hope that many of you have heard, watched, and read the famous series of Harry Potter. Yup! It is J. K Rowling who has written the famous Harry Potter Series. She is the woman who has written the best selling series in the history of the UK and the USA and became the most respected and highest-paid author in the world.

Do you think that it all came to her like a piece of cake? Nope, not at all! She walked on a path of the thorn all along and got the success she always wanted to. She was a jobless divorcee who lived on welfare benefits to take care of her five months old daughter. A few years before, she had gone through a series of setbacks when her mother died from sclerosis and her relationship was broken down with his father.

In the hope to be out of grievances, she went to Portugal and took the job of English teacher for a year. But instead of getting out of trouble, she seemed to indulge in it more and more. She came back and decided to roll over the idea of writing Harry Potter that she had left soon after her mother died. This too didn’t go well. After a failed marriage and a baby to feed without a job, she found herself at the rock bottom. But she continued to write the book in the café while her daughter was asleep.

When J. k. Rowling finished some of the chapters of Harry Potter, she went for its publication but got rejections, not one or two times, but she got 12 rejections from major publication groups in Britain. She never shattered though nor accepted the debacle. Perhaps she was determined and confident enough this time. Her continuous effort bore fruit when a small publication accepted to publish her book. In the initial, the first 1000 chapters were published, and soon after others. It was being demanded more and soon her book became favorites of many across the country and overseas. Her book won many awards including the Nestle Smarties Book Prize and the British book award for children’s book of the year.

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This was even the beginning of her success; the peak had come when 500 million copies of the book had been sold worldwide and translated into 73 languages. Her book had later become chosen for the movie “Harry Potter” that made a billion-dollar business worldwide. The whole series of Harry Potter is the third highest-grossing movie franchise of all time.

Larry Ellison

What could you expect from the backbenchers who hate sitting in the classroom and staring at the textbooks? Let me guess; either study is quite boring for them or they are good at something else! Larry Ellison was the man of the latter category. He was adopted by her aunt and uncle “Lillian and Louis Ellison”. Larry spent his entire childhood in a two-room apartment. Thinking about programming and computers instead of being a bookworm was not easy for him when his father looked at Larry in Dismay and taunted that he would never achieve anything as a damn loser.

But Larry was a dark horse. Though he didn’t want to be a book worm, he was interested in other things. He was indeed a visionary; he used to see the future in computer and programming. He got a chance when his adoptive mother died during his final graduation year exams and he finally got into computer and programming.

Larry moved to California with all money left and for the next couple of years, he explored the various jobs and places across the country.  He gained the knowledge of basic computer skills, made a group of a few newbies like him, and started working on computer programming.

He started earning pretty good money but that was not enough to save a few bucks after all his expenses. He widened his gaze and initiated working on making a full database that facilitates various types of processes. And while working in a small company in the early 70s, he developed Oracle very first time. That was superior in terms of convenience, security, and multifunctional. Oracle was the first and biggest breakthrough of his life that he started nurturing for a better future.

Oracle was on the run, it had been demanded in the international market. And in 1977, Larry Ellison and former Amtex CEO Robert Miner put the seed of their company, named “Oracle”. From this point, a new chapter in his success began.

In 1980 when Oracle was established, there were only 8 employees including three co-founders (Larry himself, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates). At that time, the company’s net income was less than one million. He got a breakthrough after 7 years when IBM demanded oracle. Henceforth, the company income had been doubled in each passing year. It had become a public company with a public valuation of $31.5 and regarded as one of the fastest-growing companies in history. Despite its first losses in 1990 wherein the market value fell by 80 percent, it was strategically grown. And in the 2019 fiscal year, its annual net income has become 11.08 billion U.S. dollars.

Oprah Winfrey

‘How to earn success while circumstances are not in your favor’ can better be learned by Oprah Winfrey. Yeah! Oprah Winfrey was born to a single teenage mother in rural Mississippi. She felt that she was an undesired child as she was shuttling over her mother, father, and her grandmother. Mostly her grandmother raised her where she was bitten brutally and tormented. Living with a poverty-stricken family, she spent most of her childhood time alone. Her mother was a maid; she worked for a long hour; so unable to take care of her.  When she was 9, she was left at her cousin’s home where she was raped and suffered from sexual abuse from several other relatives including her mother’s boyfriend. She ran away from home when she was 13, and at the age of 14, she got pregnant but her baby died shortly after the birth due to immaturity. Henceforth, she moved with her father to Tennessee.

After so many setbacks, her life got into some positive things. Her father made the choice of a high priority education for her. Oprah said in an interview that it was my father who turned my life insisting that “I could be more than I was”. His affection for learning showed her the way.

She began high school education where she moved on her career path in public speaking and drama. She was even elected as a school president. She received a full scholarship after winning a public speaking contest. Once she graduated, she had a few broadcasting jobs before her name was coined in a talk show host called “People are talking”. She then joined as a host of A.M. Chicago, which later became the highest-rated talk show in Chicago. She didn’t only stick to talk shows but she also became an award-winning actress, a producer, a media mogul, and a philanthropist.

She never looked back; she climbed high on success and left behind all miseries. She became the talk show host of the highest-rated talk show “Oprah Winfrey Show” of all time in the history of the US. She also became the first African American and only black multi-billionaire in American history. She is a hugely significant philanthropist. Most people refer to her being the most powerful and influential woman in the world. It was the 2008 USA presidential election in which she had added millions of votes for former President Barack Obama. Now she is 66 years old and a pioneer of the tabloid talk show host.

Do Won Chang

Success is nothing but finding the bright side in full of darkness and utilizing given opportunity to utmost! Won Chang, the founder of forever 21, did the same to rise from rag to riches. 

Won Chang was born in a poor family in Korea. He migrated to the United States of America from South Korea in 1981. When he landed in the USA, he took three jobs simultaneously, one as a gas station clerk, second as a janitor, and third as a coffee shop employee to make his both ends meet and to take care of his parents. He was getting paid $3 per hour at the coffee shop. He lived in a tiny bedroom apartment with his wife. He couldn’t speak English very well though he got the job on the skill of superb coffee making.

Though he wanted to do some kind of business soon after he set foot on American soil, the idea of a garment shop popped up in his mind when he saw businessmen driving in his swankiest cars in town. He visioned so much money in the clothing industry. He decided to open the garment shop and after spending 3 years in the USA, he succeeded to open his own clothing store in 1984.

He worked for 8 to 19 hours to build his family business. His business was quickly growing by taking the benefits of Fast Fashion Forever 21. The new trend and styles of clothing were widely liked by young America. Taking advantage of that, he earned a huge profit and thereby succeeded to open a new shop every six months at a new location.  Soon he expanded his business overseas. Forever 21 became a multinational company with 800 shops in almost 57 countries. In 2015, as the company was at the peak of the sale, it had a net worth of $ 5.9 billion, according to Forbes. However, Forever 21 had fallen to $1.6 million each year before it filed the bankruptcy in 2019.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio, the winner of 54 awards including the best lead actor, best lead international actor, best actor, and several more, is the name that is ruling over millions of hearts worldwide. This actor starred in Titanic, Aviator, Wolf of Wall Street, Inception, and Revenant, the movies that are widely recognized and bagged several awards including Oscar.  He was nominated for the Academic Award for 168 times and was runner up in four.

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It is his success that is known to the people, but many of us hardly know that “Leonardo DiCaprio” climbed up the ladder of success on a very difficult path. His early childhood was full of pains. The actor himself revealed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that his childhood was poverty-stricken. He stated that he would never experiment with drugs despite spending 9 years of his life in a run-down Hollywood neighborhood where there was a major prostitution ring on his street corner along with crime and violence.

Leonardo DiCaprio was born on November 11, 1974, in Los Angeles, California. He was the only child of Irmelin and George DiCaprio. His parents got divorced when he was a toddler. He was mostly raised by his mother but he was close to his father, a comic book artist, and a distributor. DiCaprio had an interest in acting from childhood. He loved imitating people, acting around his parents of different characters.