While at first manufacturing plastics, the company later moved into real estate. export.īy 1950 Li was able to start his own company, Cheung Kong Industries. Quitting school to work to support his family, Li made plastics and later plastic flowers for U.S. The family of Li Ka-shing fled mainland China for Hong Kong in 1940, and Li’s father died of tuberculosis when he was just 15. Li Ka-shing quit school at 15 to work in a plastics factory and is now the world’s richest East Asian He even went on hiatus and came back as CEO to lead Starbucks out of a decline. After beginning with 60 shops, Starbucks now has over 16,000 outlets worldwide, giving Schultz a net worth of $1.1 billion. Enamored with the coffee, he left Xerox to become the company’s chief executive in 1987. Despite destitution, he excelled at sports and earned a football scholarship to the University of Northern Michigan.Īfter graduating with a degree in communications, Schultz went to work for Xerox before discovering a small coffee shop called Starbucks. He always wanted to climb "over the fence" and go beyond the lifestyle provided by his truck-driving father. Schultz grew up in the Bayview projects of Canarsie, Brooklyn. Howard Schultz grew up in the Brooklyn projects before discovering, and now leading, Starbucks She’s the first African-American woman to be the head of a Fortune 500 Company. She went to NYU, and from there became an intern at Xerox. Her mother ran a daycare center out of her home and ironed shirts so that she could afford to send Ursula to Catholic school. Burns was raised by her single mother in a housing project there. Ursula Burns grew up in a housing project on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and now runs Xeroxīefore the Lower East Side was cool, it was a hub for gangs. He also created Patron Tequila and has a hand in a variety of industries, from diamonds to music. But the quality of the product could not be denied, and now JPM Systems is worth over $900 million annually. He hawked the company’s shampoo door-to-door, living out of his car while doing so. After trying his hand as an employee for Redken Laboratories, he took a $700 dollar loan and created John Paul Mitchell Systems. He was eventually sent to live in a foster home in Los Angeles.ĭeJoria spent some time as an L.A. His German and Italian parents divorced when he was two, and he sold Christmas cards and newspapers to help support his family before he turned 10. John Paul DeJoria lived in his car before John Paul Mitchell Systems took offĪs a first generation American, DeJoria had it rough from the beginning. Today, Laliberté is the CEO of Cirque, a professional poker player and space tourist, with a total worth of $2.5 billion. The bet paid off, and the circus group was eventually brought to Las Vegas, where they became the world famous Cirque du Soleil we know today. He gambled by bringing a successful troupe from Quebec to the Los Angeles Arts Festival in 1987, with no return fare. The Canadian-born Laliberté began his circus career busking on the streets: playing accordion, walking on stilts and eating fire. Guy Laliberté ate fire on the streets before introducing Cirque du Soleil to the world Let us know which ones we missed in the comments. This list includes just a handful of the many "rags-to-riches" stories out there. Some of the world’s billionaires took themselves from the streets to the top of the Forbes’ list.ĭespite mounting evidence that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to build such wealth, these 15 incredible stories are proof that it is possible to overcome life’s toughest challenges and create something better for yourself.
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