The best way to predict a future is to create it.
Rome was not built in a day, goes a time-tested aphorism. Every single successful entrepreneur you see out there has a story to tell.
The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is the ability and willingness to do beyond the ordinary. Here is a list of 7 successful entrepreneurs who started with nothing.
JOHN PAUL DEJORIA
Dejoria is entirely self-made.He is the founder of Paul Mitchell line of hair care products but his early life was nothing but rosy.
He started his career as a truck driver,janitor and even sold Christmas cards door-to-door.He was fired from his first job in haircare.
In 1980,he formed John Paul Mitchell Systems with hairdresser Paul Mitchell,with a loan of just $700.He is currently worth $2.8 billion
JAN KOUM
Nobody in this generation can do without Whatsapp as it makes communication easier.All thanls to Koum who invented the communication app in 2009.
Koum was born into poverty but he began to learn about computers from an early age. At 18,he already had high-level computing skills and in 1997, he began to work for Yahoo as an Infrastructure Engineer.
He launched Whatsapp to great acclaim after buying his first smartphone and having the idea for a product which allows people to send messages between mobile phones via the web regardless of what country they are in. Koum is now worth $10.8 billion.
HOWARD SCHULTZ
Howard Schultz is the founder of Starbucks but his family didn’t have much money while he was growing up. He paid for college with government loans and money earned from part-time jobs. He was also the first person in his family to go to college.
It was while working for a coffee company that Schultz first came into contact with the Starbucks brand. He visited a branch of the new company in Seattle. Soon after, he joined the company as Marketing Director. In 1985, Schultz left Starbucks and decided to open his own coffee house. He raised the $500,000 he needed to open the first store and started his business. Two years later, the original Starbucks management decided to sell its retail unit to Schultz and Starbucks as we know it today was born. Schultz is now worth in excess of $4.9 billion.
OPRAH WINFREY
The powerful woman we know today as a talk-show host, writer, campaigner, Golden Globe winner and global icon was actually born into poverty in rural Mississippi and raised in inner-city Milwaukee. Yet she didn’t let her background define her future.
After a troubled childhood, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school. By 19, she was co-anchor for the local evening news.
Soon after, she became a daytime talk-show host and went on to launch her own production company. By 32 years-old, Winfrey was a millionaire. By 2000, she had a net worth of $800 million, making Winfrey the richest African American of the 20th century. By 2008, her yearly income had increased to $275 million. By 2014, Forbes claimed that Winfrey had a net worth in excess of $2.6 billion.
DO WON CHANG
Won Chang might not be a household name around the world, but his fashion chain ‘Forever 21’ certainly is.
Before launching the retail empire in 1984, Won Chang worked as a janitor at a gas station and in a coffee shop when he first moved to America from South Korea.
The first store he opened with his wife was 900 square feet in LA, and they opened with only $11,000 in savings, plunging it all into the business. At first the shop was called Fashion 21 and customers mainly came from the Korean American community. But soon the customer base expanded and after a name change to Forever 21, the business flew. It’s now an international, 790-store empire and Do Won Chang is said to be worth $3 billion.
RALPH LAUREN
Household name and fashion industry titan, Ralph Lauren, graduated from high school in the Bronx, New York but later dropped out of college to join the US Army.
He was working as a Sales Assistant at US menswear store, Brooks Brothers, when he began to wonder if men were ready for something more colourful, specifically when it came to ties.
In 1967, he decided to try his hand at running his own business and he started selling ties. In his first year of trading, he sold $500,000 worth of merchandise. He started Polo the next year.
The Ralph Lauren Corporation is now a global multibillion-dollar enterprise and Lauren is a household name, counting A-list models and actors as close friends. Lauren’s wealth is presenrly worth $7.1 billion.
He was born and raised in New York City. Jay-Z first began his musical career after founding the record label Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995 and subsequently released his debut studio album “Reasonable” Doubt in 1996. The album was released to widespread acclaim and solidified his standing in the music industry.
Shawn Corey Carter
Shawn Corey Carter popularly called Jay-Z was born and raised in New York City. Jay-Z first began his musical career after founding the record label Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995 and subsequently released his debut studio album “Reasonable” Doubt in 1996. The album was released to widespread acclaim and solidified his standing in the music industry.
Jay Z was a smart boy who lost his way at age 11 when his father walked out on the family.
At age 20, he met Jaz-O, an older performer who was his mentor in the music business. He recorded a song with Jay-O titled ‘The Originator’.The song gave Jay Z the opportunity to go on the MTV raps show and this was his first shot at stardom. Jay Z’s current networth is $1.4billion.
