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Is there any truly rags to riches story? In modern times, at least? I remember stories about rich individuals who began with absolutely nothing. Many of wealth

Is there any truly rags to riches story? In modern times, at least? I remember stories about rich individuals who began with absolutely nothing. Many of wealthy today began with seed money, better liquidity, and a network of supporters. Jeff Bezos wasn't rich but he raised a sizable amount of money from friends and family.

marginalia_nu 4y ago
> Is there any truly rags to riches story? In modern times, at least Notch?
cocacola1 4y ago
Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eminem, Oprah, John Paul DeJoria, Ralph Lauren, Halle Berry, and Lloyd Blankfein come to mind off the top of my head.
- dmarcos 4y ago
  Also plenty of examples among athletes: Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenenisa Bekele, Pele, Messi, Eliud Kipchhoge to name a few
deleted 4y ago
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varelse 4y ago
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colechristensen 4y ago
Steve Jobs was adopted into a lower middle income family. There’s kind of a no true Scotsman thing going on where people will point out some advantage anybody who became very successful had and therefore they weren’t poor enough to count.
phil21 4y ago
Depends on your definition of rags and riches I suppose. By my definition, I know plenty of folks who grew up lower middle class or below, had no exceptional support from parents (many from single parent homes), zero assistance going to college (if they did at all), and otherwise lived lives ranging from unremarkable to living in poverty growing up. I can point to about a 3 or 4 of those types in my personal network who now are multi-millionaires. This is my definition of "made it" - but not many others. If your definition is billionaire, I imagine the list gets a lot smaller.
PurpleRamen 4y ago
Depends on riches and modern Times. There are many People in their 40-60s, who started by nothing, and worked themselves to the wealth of single or even ten millions. Which is by definition quite rich, just not super rich, which would be hundred millions or billions. And it seems for becoming super rich you, usually need a good seed you can grow even more. For which I don't remember any real example. Maybe some gangster, or politician how earned their wealth through some other means, like Putin.

marginalia_nu 4y ago

> Is there any truly rags to riches story? In modern times, at least Notch?

cocacola1 4y ago

Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eminem, Oprah, John Paul DeJoria, Ralph Lauren, Halle Berry, and Lloyd Blankfein come to mind off the top of my head.

dmarcos 4y ago
Also plenty of examples among athletes: Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenenisa Bekele, Pele, Messi, Eliud Kipchhoge to name a few

deleted 4y ago

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varelse 4y ago

[dead]

colechristensen 4y ago

Steve Jobs was adopted into a lower middle income family. There’s kind of a no true Scotsman thing going on where people will point out some advantage anybody who became very successful had and therefore they weren’t poor enough to count.

phil21 4y ago

Depends on your definition of rags and riches I suppose. By my definition, I know plenty of folks who grew up lower middle class or below, had no exceptional support from parents (many from single parent homes), zero assistance going to college (if they did at all), and otherwise lived lives ranging from unremarkable to living in poverty growing up. I can point to about a 3 or 4 of those types in my personal network who now are multi-millionaires. This is my definition of "made it" - but not many others. If your definition is billionaire, I imagine the list gets a lot smaller.

PurpleRamen 4y ago

Depends on riches and modern Times. There are many People in their 40-60s, who started by nothing, and worked themselves to the wealth of single or even ten millions. Which is by definition quite rich, just not super rich, which would be hundred millions or billions. And it seems for becoming super rich you, usually need a good seed you can grow even more. For which I don't remember any real example. Maybe some gangster, or politician how earned their wealth through some other means, like Putin.