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Mar 25, 2023 · 19 famous figures who went from rags to riches. Erin McDowell. Updated. Mar 25, 2023, 11:57 AM PDT. Dolly Parton grew up in a poor family in rural Appalachia. Mark Humphrey/AP Images. These...
- Henry Blodget
Aug 5, 2015 · Some of the world's wealthiest people started out dirt poor. These 17 rags-to-riches stories remind us that through determination, grit, and a little bit of luck anyone can overcome their...
- Jack London. Jack London never knew for certain who his father was. His mother attempted suicide while pregnant with him, and his later research found that the man who was believed to be his father claimed to be impotent.
- John D. Rockefeller. The man who eventually became the richest in America was the son of a con-man, philanderer, bigamist, and accused rapist who eventually abandoned his family after several moves, most of them to avoid debtors.
- Harland Sanders. Harland Sanders was born on an Indiana farm, which his father struggled to operate after breaking a leg, eventually taking work as a butcher in Henryville, Indiana.
- Cornelius Vanderbilt. The still vast Vanderbilt fortune, which touches every American state in some manner or another, began with a single impoverished boy with minimal education.
- Catherine I
- Andrew Carnegie
- The Hongwu Emperor
- Justin I
- Biddy Mason
- Henry Miller
- Charles Dickens
The life of Empress Catherine I of Russia could easily be confused with something out of a fairy tale. The future queen was born in 1684 into a family of Lithuanian peasants, and was orphaned at the age of 3 after both her parents died from the plague. Taken in by a pastor, she spent her youth as a housemaid in Marienburg in modern day Latvia. Afte...
Often described as the quintessential “rags to riches” tale, the story of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie’s rise begins in 1835 in a small one-room home in Dunfermline, Scotland. Born into a family of destitute laborers, Carnegie received little schooling before his family emigrated to America in 1848. Arriving in Pennsylvania, the 13-year-old soon g...
In one of history’s most unlikely rises to power, a Chinese peasant brought down the Mongols and established the Ming Dynasty. The story begins in the 14th century, when a young orphan named Zhu Yuangzhang joined a monastery in a desperate attempt to avoid starvation. Following a stint as a mendicant beggar, the young wanderer took up with a band o...
Most Byzantine emperors gained power through a strict line of succession, but Justin I managed to take the throne by sheer force of will. A peasant by birth, this self-made royal spent his youth as a sheepherder in the Balkans. Hoping to find fortune and adventure, he eventually struck out for Constantinople in the late 4th century. Arriving in the...
Although she was born a slave, Bridget “Biddy” Mason eventually found fortune as one of America’s first female real estate tycoons. Following a youth spent in bondage in Mississippi, Mason travelled to Utah in 1847 after her owner converted to Mormonism. The family later moved to California, where Mason petitioned for and won her freedom in 1856. M...
Though he came to America as a penniless immigrant, Henry Miller became one of the nation’s biggest landowners and helped shape the history of the western frontier. Born Heinrich Alfred Kreiser, this future cattle baron left his home in Germany at 14 and arrived stateside in 1846. He eventually moved to California, taking on the moniker “Henry Mill...
Famed novelist Charles Dickens often depicted characters navigating their way through hardscrabble childhoods, and it turns out these fictional stories weren’t so different from his own youth in 1820s England. While Dickens was able to attend school as a child, his father squandered the family finances and was eventually sent to prison for not payi...
- YouTuber Casey Neistat lived on his friend’s couch: Left home and had a kid at ~16, went to New York, lived on his friends couch, made movies with his brother, moved to YouTube, and now is a multi-millionaire who has owned a company.
- Ed Sheeran had next to no money: Moved to the states trying to make it in music with next to no money and somehow Jamie Foxx saw one of his performances at a small bar.
- Snoop Dogg was arrested for selling drugs: Snoop Dogg is considered a West Coast king but it wasn’t always an easily won title. Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr.
- The founder of Cirque du Soleil worked on the street: The Canadian-born Guy Laliberté began his circus career busking on the streets: playing accordion, walking on stilts and eating fire.
Oct 22, 2015 · These 20 stories remind us that it's possible to overcome just about anything, from parents passing away, to extreme poverty, and more.
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Rags to riches (also rags-to-riches) refers to any situation in which a person rises from poverty to wealth, and in some cases from absolute obscurity to heights of fame, fortune and celebrity—sometimes instantly.
