Not every billionaire was born into wealth. Many of the world’s richest people started life in poverty, facing hardship, loss and rejection long before they ever built companies or appeared on rich lists. In this Cinema Awards Archive special feature, we look at 19 remarkable rags‑to‑riches billionaires who rose from difficult beginnings to create some of the most powerful brands, tech giants and media empires on the planet.
1. Larry Ellison – From College
Dropout to Tech Titan
Larry Ellison was born to a
struggling single mother in Brooklyn and was raised by his aunt and uncle in
Chicago. After his aunt passed away, Ellison dropped out of college, moved to
California and worked odd jobs to make ends meet for the next eight years. In
1977, after years of struggling, he founded software company Oracle. The
business went on to become one of the largest technology companies in the
world, and Ellison has said he had all the disadvantages necessary for success.
As of May 2025, Ellison is the
fourth‑wealthiest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires
Index, with an estimated net worth of around $173 billion, and he is also
ranked as the fourth‑wealthiest person by Forbes, with an estimated net worth
of $192 billion. Ellison is also known for his ownership of 98% of Lānaʻi, the sixth‑largest island in
the Hawaiian Islands.
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2. Amancio Ortega – From Shop
Credit to Fast Fashion Giant
Amancio Ortega is responsible for
creating fast fashion giant Zara and was briefly the richest man in the world
in 2015. However, he had to fight for his billions. Amancio Ortega Gaona is a
Spanish billionaire businessman, born 28 March 1936. He is the founder and
former chairman of the Inditex fashion group, best known for its chains of Zara
and Bershka clothing and accessories shops.
He is considered a pioneer in fast
fashion. As of May 2025, Ortega had a net worth of about $124.5 billion, making
him the second‑wealthiest person in Europe after Bernard Arnault and the 15th‑wealthiest
in the world. For a brief period in 2015, he was the richest man in the world,
surpassing Bill Gates when his net worth peaked at $80 billion as Inditex’s
stock surged.
The mogul reportedly had a tough
upbringing in post‑war Spain, where his father’s earnings often didn’t cover
the monthly food bill and his mother had to beg for credit at local shops.
Ortega dropped out of school at around 14 and worked as a messenger boy before
joining a small company that made shirts. There he got the idea to mass‑produce
clothing cheaply.
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3. Jensen Huang – From Minimum
Wage Jobs to AI Billionaire
Jensen Huang was born 17 February
1963. He is a Taiwanese‑American businessman, electrical engineer and
philanthropist, and the president, co‑founder and chief executive officer (CEO)
of Nvidia, the world’s largest semiconductor company. Huang was born in Taiwan
and moved to the US when he was nine years old.
As a teenager he worked scrubbing
toilets and later as a waiter at Denny’s, where he earned just $2.65 an hour.
But after graduating from Stanford in 1992 and co‑founding Nvidia the following
year, his fortunes changed forever. Huang has served as the company’s CEO ever
since and owns about 3.6% of its stock.
Although Nvidia had brushes with
bankruptcy in its early days, it has gone on to surpass Apple as one of the
world’s most valuable businesses, making Huang one of the richest people on the
planet. As of May 2025, Forbes estimated his net worth at around $100.2
billion.
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4. Li Ka‑shing – From Factory
Floors to Asia’s Rich List
Li Ka‑shing is now one of the
richest men in Asia, but his life hasn’t always been so bountiful. Growing up
in Hong Kong, Li’s father died when he was just 15, forcing him to leave school
and work 16‑hour days in a plastics factory to support his family. This gave
him the drive to start his own company, Cheung Kong Industries, which initially
made plastics.
Li now invests in a wide array of
industries, including transportation, real estate, financial services, retail
and energy and utilities. In July 2023 he was the 33rd richest person in the
world, with an estimated net wealth of about $37.7 billion. In the March 2024
Forbes list of The Richest People in the World, Li Ka‑shing was ranked 38th
with a net worth of $37.3 billion.
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5. François Pinault – Bullied
for Being Poor, Boss of Luxury
François Pinault, born 21 August
1936, is a French billionaire businessman, founder of the luxury group Kering
and the investment holding company Artémis. Pinault was a high school dropout.
The mogul was reportedly bullied so badly for being poor that he left school,
but it didn’t seem to affect his business smarts.
He went on to start Kering
(formerly PPR), a luxury fashion conglomerate that now owns brands including
Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen. His son, François‑Henri
Pinault, has been married to actress Salma Hayek since 2009. In 2024, Forbes
estimated Pinault’s net worth at about $31.6 billion, ranking him as the 54th‑richest
person in the world.
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6. Harold Hamm – Farm Kid to
Fracking Pioneer
Harold Glenn Hamm, born 11 December
1945, is an American business magnate in the oil and gas business. He is known
for pioneering the fracking of shale oil resources. Growing up on a farm in
Oklahoma with 13 kids, money was tight in the Hamm household, but youngest son
Harold was a hard worker.
From milking cows and gathering
eggs to picking cotton and helping out at a gas station, Hamm worked odd jobs
and managed to save enough money to buy a water pump truck when he was 20 years
old. That was just the beginning. After transporting water to and from oil
fields, he went on to create Continental Resources, an oil and gas company that
has since netted him a massive fortune.
As of February 4, 2022, Hamm’s net
worth was estimated at about $18.5 billion, making him one of the wealthiest
people in the world. He is the founder and chairman of Continental Resources.
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7. Jan Koum – From Food Stamps
to WhatsApp Sale
Jan Borysovych Koum, born 24
February 1976, is a Ukrainian‑American billionaire businessman and computer
programmer. He is the co‑founder and former CEO of WhatsApp, a mobile messaging
app. When Koum came to the US from Ukraine as a teenager, his family struggled
to stay above the poverty line and relied on food stamps to get by.
Despite his tough upbringing, Koum
worked hard at school and in 2009 he co‑founded real‑time messaging service
WhatsApp. The app was so successful that Facebook bought it for a massive $19.6
billion in 2014. According to Forbes, he had an estimated net worth of about
$15.2 billion as of October 2023, making him one of the richest people in the
world. Koum was ranked 44th on the Forbes list of richest Americans in 2023.
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8. Shahid Khan – Dishwashing to
NFL and Premier League Clubs
Shahid Rafiq Khan, born 18 July
1950, is a Pakistani‑American billionaire businessman and sports tycoon. Khan
is the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL)
and Fulham F.C. of the Premier League, and co‑owner of the professional
wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) along with his son Tony Khan.
Born in Pakistan to a middle‑class
family, Khan moved to the US as a teen to study. He reportedly slept in a YMCA
hostel that cost $2 a night, washing dishes for $1.20 an hour to make ends
meet. But his hard work paid off. He bought auto parts firm Flex‑N‑Gate in 1980
after previously working at the company and designing a one‑piece truck bumper
that was hugely successful.
In 2024, he ranked 55th in the
Forbes 400 list of richest Americans and was the 167th richest person in the
world. As of January 2025, Khan’s personal net worth is about $13.3 billion.
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9. Roman Abramovich – Orphaned
in Russia, Billionaire Investor
Roman Abramovich is a Russian‑Israeli
business oligarch and politician, born 24 October 1966. He is the former owner
of Chelsea, a Premier League football club in London, and is the primary owner
of private investment company Millhouse.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
in 2022, which resulted in hefty sanctions against wealthy Russians with ties
to the Putin regime, Abramovich was best known for his superyacht and his two‑decade
ownership of Chelsea FC. But life wasn’t always so sweet. Born into poverty in
southern Russia and orphaned at age two, he was raised by extended family.
After leaving school he started his
own company producing plastic toys with his first wife, Olga Lysova, before
moving into the oil business and even pig farms. According to Forbes,
Abramovich’s net worth was about $14.5 billion in 2021, making him one of the
richest people in Israel. His wealth later dropped to around $6.9 billion in
2022 before rising again to roughly $9.2 billion in 2023.
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10. Ralph Lauren – From Bullied
Teen to Fashion Icon
Ralph Lauren, born 14 October 1939,
is an American fashion designer, philanthropist and billionaire businessman,
best known for founding the Ralph Lauren brand, a global multibillion‑dollar
enterprise. Born Ralph Lifshitz to Jewish immigrant parents, he decided to
change his surname after being bullied at school.
He reportedly dreamed of escaping
his poor background, even writing in his high school yearbook in 1957 that his
life goal was to become a millionaire. He has achieved that goal and much more.
Lauren has amassed a net worth of around $9.2 billion thanks to his eponymous
fashion house, which began when he designed a line of neckties that was
accepted by Bloomingdale’s in the late 1960s. As of May 2025, his net worth was
estimated at about $10.9 billion.
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11. Ken Langone – “Unpromising”
Student Who Helped Build Home Depot
Kenneth Gerard Langone is an
American billionaire businessman best known for organizing financing for the
founders of The Home Depot. He was born 16 September 1935. When Langone was in
high school, his principal advised his parents not to waste their money sending
the “unpromising” student to college. Thankfully, they disagreed.
His Italian‑immigrant parents, who
worked as a plumber and cafeteria worker, mortgaged their house to send him to
school. Once there, Langone worked as a caddy, butcher and ditch digger to stay
afloat, before joining a financial services company on Wall Street. He made an
early investment in Home Depot in 1978 and the rest is history. Today, he’s
worth around $8.7 billion.
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12. Rocco Commisso – Accordion
Player to Cable TV Powerhouse
Rocco Benito Commisso, born 25
November 1949, is an Italian‑born American billionaire businessman and the
founder, chairman and CEO of Mediacom, the fifth‑largest cable television
company in the US. He emigrated from Italy at the age of 12, arriving in New
York with his penniless parents.
He reportedly got into a good
school thanks to his ability to play the accordion, before winning a full
scholarship that enabled him to study at Columbia University. After graduating
with an MBA from Columbia Business School, he started working at Chase Manhattan
Bank (now JPMorgan Chase) before founding cable company Mediacom in 1995.
Almost 30 years on, Commisso has a net worth of about $7.5 billion.
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13. Steve Bisciotti – Basement
Start‑up to NFL Franchise Owner
Stephen J. Bisciotti, born 10 April
1960, is an American business executive and the current majority owner of the
Baltimore Ravens of the NFL. He founded Aerotek, the largest privately owned
staffing and recruiting company in the US, based in Hanover, Maryland, and co‑founded
Allegis Group, an international talent management firm headquartered in
Maryland.
Although he came from a middle‑class
family, money became incredibly tight after his father sadly died from
leukaemia when Bisciotti was just eight years old. His grandfather, who had
worked as a salesman for Ford, was left to support the family, and Steve worked
odd jobs to pay his way through college.
After graduating, he and his cousin
launched the staffing company Aerotek, working out of a basement with second‑hand
equipment. The business quickly grew into the Allegis Group, now a multibillion‑dollar
company that has earned Bisciotti a fortune of about $6.9 billion.
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14. George Soros – War Survivor
to Legendary Investor
George Soros is an American
investor and philanthropist, born 12 August 1930. His legendary trading has
made him billions—almost $25 billion at his peak—but the path to success was
not easy. As a teenager, Soros posed as the godson of an employee of the Hungarian
Ministry of Agriculture to stay safe during the Nazi occupation of Hungary.
In the late 1940s, he escaped to
London, where he worked two jobs as a waiter and railway porter to put himself
through the London School of Economics. In 1992, he reportedly made $1 billion
by shorting the British pound and became known as the man who broke the Bank of
England.
As of May 2025, he has a net worth
of about $7.2 billion, having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society
Foundations, of which around $15 billion has already been
distributed—representing roughly 64% of his original fortune. In 2020, Forbes
called Soros the “most generous giver” in terms of percentage of net worth.
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15. Oprah Winfrey – From Rural
Poverty to Media Empire
Oprah Gail Winfrey, born 29 January
1954, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author and
media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show,
broadcast from Chicago.
She might now roll with A‑list
celebs and own multiple mansions, but Oprah Winfrey had a tough start to life.
Born into a poor family in Mississippi, where she suffered shocking abuse,
Winfrey was determined to break away, earning herself a scholarship to
Tennessee State University.
At just 19, she became the first
African‑American TV correspondent in the state and went on to host her own
show, launch a magazine and start her own network. Forbes’ list of The World’s
Billionaires listed Winfrey as the world’s only Black billionaire from 2004 to
2006 and as the first Black woman billionaire in the world, a milestone reached
in 2003. Today, she is worth around $3 billion.
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16. Howard Schultz – Blood
Donations to Global Coffee Brand
Howard Schultz, born 19 July 1953,
is an American businessman and author who served as chairman and CEO of
Starbucks from 1986 to 2000, from 2008 to 2017 and as interim CEO from 2022 to
2023. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz grew up in a Brooklyn housing project
where crime was rife.
His family was so cash‑strapped
that Schultz once sold his blood while studying at Northern Michigan
University, and his parents couldn’t afford to attend his graduation. After
college, he worked as a door‑to‑door salesman before joining a European
homewares company. One of its clients was a little‑known coffee shop in Seattle
called Starbucks.
Not long after, Schultz took over
the business and turned it into the global coffee chain it is today. He is
currently worth around $2.9 billion.
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17. Jay‑Z – From Housing
Projects to Hip‑Hop Billionaire
Shawn Corey Carter, born 4 December
1969 and known professionally as Jay‑Z, is an American rapper, businessman and
record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip‑hop, he was named the greatest
rapper of all time by Billboard and Vibe in 2023.
Jay‑Z has amassed a fortune through
his music career and business empire. Born in Brooklyn’s Bedford–Stuyvesant
neighbourhood and raised by a single mother in public housing, he fell in love
with rap after hearing it as a child and began filling ring binders with
lyrics.
His big break came in 1998 with his
hit “Hard Knock Life,” kick‑starting a hugely successful career as both a
rapper and entrepreneur. As of May 2025, he is the wealthiest musical artist in
the world with a net worth of about $2.5 billion.
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18. Guy Laliberté – Street
Performer to Cirque du Soleil Billionaire
Guy Laliberté, born 2 September
1959, is a Canadian billionaire businessman and poker player. Along with Gilles
Ste‑Croix, he is the co‑founder of Cirque du Soleil, launched in 1984.
Who knew that clowning around could
make you a billionaire? Laliberté started life as a Canadian street performer
but gave it up to work at a hydroelectric dam. When the dam’s employees went on
strike, he returned to performance to make ends meet, busking as an accordion
player, stilt walker and fire‑eater.
In 1984, he co‑founded Cirque du
Soleil with a group of colleagues. What was originally meant to be a one‑year
project became a global phenomenon. By 2020, Laliberté had sold 100% of his
stock in the company, making a fortune in the process. He is currently worth
around $1.2 billion.
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19. J.K. Rowling – Single Parent
on Benefits to Billionaire Author
Joanne Rowling, born 31 July 1965
and known by her pen name J.K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist.
She is the author of Harry Potter, a seven‑volume fantasy novel series
published from 1997 to 2007.
The world’s first billionaire
author, Rowling has accumulated her massive net worth through the Harry Potter
book series and its enormous media franchise. Before her first novel was
published in 1997, she lived in relative poverty, recovering from the death of
her mother and a recent divorce.
A single parent, she received just
a small weekly amount from social security and later described herself as being
as poor “as it’s possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless.” All
that changed when Harry Potter became a global sensation, sparking one of the
biggest franchises in history and turning Rowling into a billionaire. She is
currently worth around $1 billion.
These 19 stories prove that a difficult
start in life does not have to define the finish line. From housing projects
and factory floors to street performances and small family shops, each of these
billionaires turned hardship into fuel, building world‑changing companies and
legacies along the way.
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