Do you know any real life rags to riches stories?

[YourRedFinch]

We hear so much about rags to riches stories in the media and movies, but I wonder if anyone has seen this happen in real life. Do you know someone who went from struggling financially to achieving great success? Or maybe you’ve experienced something like this yourself?

I’d love to hear real-life examples - what made the difference for them? Was it hard work, luck, or something else entirely?

My dad was raised with nothing. Village primary school in the north east, first person in his family to go to university and lived in a room in someone’s house at uni and worked his way through. He always made it clear it was both hard work and luck. He deliberately pursued a career that would provide financial stability, became a chemical engineer and ended up a millionaire. He did prioritise his career choices - so we moved abroad when he wouldn’t have chosen to, in order to further his career etc. and was always sensible with money to make sure he always had financial stability.
I always heard - I had 27pence in my bank when I left university…he never took loans or credit cards and always worked really hard, but of course luck played a role.

I think I'm one ~ grew up very low income/fairly abusive home. No exams, straight into NMW customer service role. Figured out I was pretty good at it, got promoted quite a few times, started job hopping strategically and landed working at a pretty high level in a fairly lucrative industry earning low six figures. Definitely a mixture of luck and determination ~ 7 years of unappreciated slog and low wages (under 50k) doing all the things you're not supposed to do (loads of extra, unpaid hours, working through holidays, answering my phone at midnight) followed by 3 years of very rapid salary and career growth.

Yes - grew up one of six siblings in a 2 bedroom council house in a notoriously tough town. Had to drop out of a levels due to accidental teenage pregnancy and shotgun wedding. Went to uni while working and supporting a family, started own business, went on to become a multimillionaire.

Was/is a workaholic and sacrificed relationships in favour of work. Doesn't know how to not work 50+ hours a week, long past the time it was necessary. It depends what your priorities are, whether you term that success.

Yes so many as I'm from a family of South Asian immigrants and they all came here with nothing most of the family are millionaires now, did jobs like factory work, bought property, typically bought a corner shop/shops then just more property. Most of them still work 70-80 hrs a week running their shops when they don't need to and own lots of assets.

I’m from a nice family but managed to get myself in a whole lot of debt when my kids were little and I ended up a single mum with all the debt in my name - nearly £100k worth. I started my own business in 2010 and went on to have multiple 6 figure businesses and one that has made over £3m from starting with absolutely nothing. I did try and do an AMA as thought it might be interesting but got nothing but abuse and called a fraud and a liar.

i ended up with an amazing new husband and a fabulous family and a million pound house so im happy its all worked out for us.

When I met my friend. She was a single mum of one, she lived in a small rental house, getting by from doing nails from home.

About 8 years after I met her, she got together with a friend of a friend. Turns out he's a self made very wealthy man.

She moved into a huge house with him, they got married, he took on her child as his own and she then started her own successful business and so pays her way.

She's absolutely rolling in it. It's not really changed her, thankfully. ☺️

Well done for getting out of the debt :)

That's mumsnet for you. I've also very much been called out as a liar when answering questions like 'how much do you earn vs bills' kind of threads because obviously, higher earners are not allowed to exist on here 😉

My dad. Grew up in abject poverty, was taken out of school at 9 to work as his father had left and they needed another income. Would literally hunt for food because otherwise they’d have starved. Worked 2-3 jobs as a young man and slept maybe 4 hours a night. Started his own business in his 20s and it took off, providing wealth for him and my mum, and generational wealth for his children and grandchildren.

Funnily enough, he was never educated. Just hardworking and very intelligent. He’s in his late 80s now and is running two businesses- he’s never retired.

Like everyone else, he’s not without his faults and often put his desire for success (more specifically- his desire for people to see and recognise his success) above his wife and family.

I would love you to do this AMA personally.

Tony Pidgley went from being a Barnados kid to the founder and CEO of Berkeley Group, a major development company. Didn't know his personally but I have a number of friends who did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Pidgley

Actually I know a few property developers who started with nothing and now have a lot (and a few who have lost it again! Risky business).

My grandfather had to leave school early to sell stuff door to door, and ended up owning a lot of properties and leaving trusts for all his kids. Granted the properties were in a cheaper area in a northern city and worth a lot less than they would be now, but still...
I didn't know him but apparently he worked incredibly hard.

You might have meant to post here, OP? https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/media_requests

hth

I was born into poverty now wealthy. I have invested in property. I’ve taken risks others are adverse to.

I know a lot of more riches to rags stories.

My ex went to school with Tony P junior. He was very driven too, and they were travellers.

I knew someone who won the lottery which isn’t quite the same as working your way up. I believe she frittered most of it away in the end though.

Is your first name Lisa?

I have a friend from school who came from a poor refugee family, her dad was on incapacity benefit and they lived in a council flat. She became a single mum as a teenager and got her own council flat, living on benefits (before UC, she wasn't required to seek work) and got into so much debt she filed for bankruptcy. But then she met a well off man working in finance, who she married and took her DC on as his own, and they had 2 more dcs. They weren't rich but could afford a nice house in London and pay private school fees. Then she learned about investing and did very well with some single company stocks (so very high risk), and is now a multimillionaire. Most people think the family money comes from her DH (she is a sahm) but now the majority of it has come from her investments.

How is marrying 'well', a rags to riches story! 🤦‍♀️

@swissco but where did she get the money from for her investments if she had a lot of debt?

A relative, struggled to establish themselves with a steady income when first married, got made redundant, was hiding outstanding bills from his wife.

Then got a job which he turned out to be really good at, ended up earning a massive salary, being headhunted etc, put the kids through private school, lovely house, lovely holidays.

He was good company in his precarious days, but turned into a prat for a while, though he seems to have come around again now.

On hearing that DH's friend had won over £10m on the lottery, my friend sent me a fascinating article written by an accountant who was also a psychologist, who had a special interest in advising people who'd had unexpected windfalls.

Apparently some 80% of them blow the lot within five years. A windfall produces a huge and sudden change which transforms their personal relationships, often for the worse. (Imagine trying to figure out which of your friends and family to give money to, and how much, and how you'd feel if they seem ungrateful, or OTOH if they always suck up to you just because you gave them money. Imagine wondering which of your new friends like you for who you are and which of them like you because you treat them. Should you be expected to buy every single round in the pub? Imagine wondering whether your new partner is a gold-digger. How do you teach your kids the value of money if they never have to work for it?) As a result, people unconsciously try to get back to what they're familiar with. Those of us who have never been in that situation think they're stupid for squandering so much money, but I can understand why they do.

I wouldn't want it. It would be stressful. Apparently people DO cope well with more modest windfalls which just ratchet them up to a slightly more comfortable position. Such a win makes them happier without creating anxiety or driving a wedge between them and their friends/family. So for example, going from significant debt to being debt-free, or going from having no prospect of ever owning your own home to having a small house, or suddenly being able to buy a house with a lovely garden instead of a tiny patio, or being able to retire five years early. I can well imagine enjoying such a win.

(DH's friend did manage to live happily with his win, though there were some awkward aspects of it.)

Her debts were written off in the bankruptcy I believe.

Sometime in the 80s I visited my hometown and met a guy I knew in a nightclub. He had just returned from travelling in India, was recovering from pleurisy, was off his face on drink & drugs and looked like death warmed up.

A few years later and when a mutual friend asked if I'd heard what happened to him, I assumed he'd died. But no, years earlier he'd worked as a maintenance engineer in a mill. Whilst in India he'd learnt that there was demand for textile machinery - and as the local mills were closing down he could recondition and export the old industrial looms and everything else they needed. After a few deals he'd moved into large premises and had rapidly become a millionaire.

A friend of mine from an ordinary family has hundreds of employees in the company he started. I assume he now has lots of money. I knew he set up the company, but I didn't know the details until I saw his company mentioned in a newspaper. He never talks about it.

I know a man who was raised in a tent with dirt floors, ate on those tin camping plates and rarely went to primary school.
But he decided he’d never be poor again and worked hard in agriculture, then real estate, then real estate development and then became a multi-millionaire.
And remarkably, remained a very kind man.
He now lives on the golf course he built.
Life really can be rough sometimes.

A friend was raised by a very low earning single mum who had another child with significant additional needs. Friend took several risks, is now a multi millionaire and his lovely mum now has a home for life and his brother has financial security for life for carers etc.