While Kylie Jenner has been crowned the World's Youngest Self Made Billionaire in Forbes, we thought we'd take a look at some of the world's billionaires who came from nothing and really did make it for themselves.
Kylie Jenner at the Grammys 2019 / Photo Credit: Image Press Agency/ SIPA USA/PA Images
Oprah Winfrey
Winfrey was born to a single teen mother, Vernita Lee, in Mississippi and spent the first six years of her life living in poverty with her grandmother. She spent a lot of her younger years moving between her mother and biological father Vernon Winfrey.
She attended high school in Milwaukee but found success in an education programme, Upward Bound. She moved to an affluent, suburban high school where she shared a bus with other African-American classmates who who the children of other classmates parents. She started stealing from her mother to try and impress her peers with money, she was soon sent back to live with Vernon in Nashville and Veronica didn't take her back. Vernon took Oprah's education seriously and she became an donors student, voted most popular girl and joined the speech team at her high school in Nashville.
She later secured a scholarship at Tennessee State through winning an oratory contest. She studied communication and got her first job in a grocery store. She won a beauty contest at 17 and caught the eye of the local radio station who hired her to work. This job led to her being co-anchor at Baltimore's radio station and worked her way up to hosting the highest rated talk show in Chicago. She signed a deal with King World and started her show The Oprah Winfrey Show. She started producing and acting and in 2019 she is now worth $2.6 Billion.
Mark Cuban
Cuban gre up in a working class family and started selling garbage bags at the age of 12 which he used to buy a pair of basketball shoes. At 16 he started running Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspapers from Cleveland to Pittsburgh. He enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh instead of attending high school. He had a few different jobs whilst studying and transferred to :Indiana University and graduated from the Kelley School of Business with a Bachelors of Science degree in Management. He started up his own business, MicroSolutions and then sold it in 1990 and made approximately $2 Billion. Since then he has made and sold other businesses and made different investments in technology and sports. He is now worth $3.9 Billion.
Howard Schultz
Schultz grew up in a housing authority with his brother and sister. He went to high school and got a sports scholarship for Northern Michigan University but soon decided against playing sports. He graduated with a bachelors degree in speech communication. He worked as a salesman and sales representative and soon became a manager for a coffee manufacturer. He later joined Starbucks as Director of Marketing and travelled to Milan. He noticed the difference in the coffee shops there and the ones where he worked and try to encourage a change. His bosses didn't want to pick in up so he quit in 1985. He received help with he finances to start his own coffee business and a year later he had the money to open his first shop Il Giornale. The original Starbucks management sold their retail unit to Schultz two years later for $3.8 Million. He used the Starbucks name and expanded massively over the United States and then other countries. He is now worth $3.9 Billion.
John Paul DeJoria
DeJori was born in California and by the age of two his parents had divorced. He started selling newspapers and Christmas cards when he was nine years old with his brother to help support his family. His mother wasn't able to support two children and they were sent to a foster home. He spent time in the United States Navy and had various jobs afterwards. He started working in haircare but was fired from his first job. He then created John Paul Mitchell Systems with Paul Mitchell and lived in his car.
Nine years later he co-founded Patrón Spirits Company, became a partner in a nightclub chain and has connection with plenty of other companies. He started producing and acting and has been in television shows and adverts. He is now with $3.6 Billion.
Shahid Khan
Khan was born in Pakistan into a middle class family and moved to the States when he was 16 to study at the University of Illinois. He spent his first night in the University YMCA for $2 a night and he was paid $1.20 an hour for washing dishes. He graduated with a Bachellors of Science degree in Industrial Engineering.
He worked for a car manufacturing company while studying and was hired as the engineering director when he graduated. He started up his on business, Bumper Works. He nought the company he worked for and grew the businesses as one. He started supplying some of the biggest car manufacturers and the company grew in sales to $2 Billion in 2010. He has since been involved with sports team and bought Fulham Football Club in 2013. He is now worth $7 Billion.
Jan Koum
Koum was born in Ukraine and lived with his mother and grandmother to California where they got on a social support programme to help them get a small apartment. He worked in a store as a cleaner to help with bills and when he was 18 he got into programming. He went to San Jose State University and had a job alongside. He joined a group of hackers where he met two friends who would later create Napster and later was hired by Yahoo. Him and Brian Acton left the company and travelled.
In 2009 Koum and a friend spoke about creating an app and they chose the name 'Whatsapp'. In 2014, he joined Mark Zuckerberg on the Facebook board and the social network site bought Whatsapp for $19 Billion. Jan Koum is now worth $9.2 Billion.
Roman Abramovich
Roman lost both of his parents at a young age and was raised by family members mostly in Northern Russia. He started his business whilst serving in the army. He did a lot of sales jobs and sold different products and after he built up his wealth he started investing in different companies, he founded five companies and now owns Chelsea FC. He is worth $13 Billion.
Of course, Kylie Jenner is a motivated and talented woman, but the use of the world 'self made' might not be quite right. Would she really have been selling all of those lip kits if it wasn't for the family name?
By Vienna Bottoms
Tagged in Oprah Winfrey Kylie Jenner