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?

I'm not wealthy by some standards but i feel like one. Grew up in poverty, dad died young from alcoholism, stepdad raised us on his factory worker's wage. Married fairly young at 22 to a financially and emotionally abusive man who refused to work and grabbed the money from my low paid jobs i did so we could eat. Limped along like this for 10yrs until i felt DD was neglected and suffering :( i left at 32 with nothing but DD and a banger car, my confidence shot. 7yrs on i have gone from a zero hours contract on min wage to a nice fat wage by clawing my way up the ladder relentlessly. I own my own gorgeous historic house and want for nothing.

My brother.
Emigrated from Ireland to US, at one stage early on food stamps. Started his own business- worth tens of millions.

Yes, I had a friend who, when I met her was working in a call centre on min wage. She then got into recruitment, set up her own business ( found a gap in the market) and is now a millionaire! Well done her...

Would love to know what kinds of businesses when people say 'started a business'? @Winterscoming77 @StaxAttacks and others... when I was young I used to have tons of ideas for businesses but came from a risk adverse background so never turned into anything, kind of regret it now later in life (with nowt much to show!)

My friend recruits staff for UHNW individuals - what would have in the olden days been called, eg maid/butler. So the modern equivalent. Clever her tapping into the people with the money!

Many of my friends' parents fled Nazi Germany/Hungary/Poland and came here with literally nothing, starving. Lots went to the east end of London, went into business and just worked their arses off to provide for their families and became really successful.

Not riches exactly but a good success story. I left school at 16 with 10 GCSE’s, only 8 grade C or above, started working via a YTS £29.50 per week, I’ve worked incredibly hard and in a good year I earn £250k, still have a good 10 years of work left, house is worth £1.3m

Five years ago, my husband and I were working very low paid jobs, I was in care, and my husband was driving tractors on minimum wage. Both of us were doing 60 hours a week.

Started a business, bought a digger, and got a few lucky contracts. We now have a mid-size construction company with 70 employees, I'm a qualified civil engineer, and my husband has an MBA.

There are still opportunities in this country for those who want them. However, this government are doing their best to make them few and far between.

Yes but they all either skirted with the law or totally ignored it.

Nothing too much here but had quite a poor childhood - food was sparse and my mum said I only had two dresses when I was really little: one I wore and one in the wash!

Left school at 15 with no qualifications (exactly as my husband did) but have ALWAYS worked hard (have four jobs now aged 60!) and now own our own home outright (worth nearly £600,000), own rental properties and have savings. Not bad for two “thickos” 😄

I think being poor is the motivation. Being poor sucks. If you have nothing to start with what have you got to lose by taking risks ?

I think rags to riches people have the ability to spot opportunities and gaps and are excellent communicators with a Streak of ruthlessness. They have had to stand on their own two feet a a young age and can shrug off knocks and set backs .

It's surprising where a lot of multi millionaires / billionaires have come from .

Three people, only one went to uno.

One was a child of an alcoholic mother, no father on the scene, spent most of his childhood sofa surfing in dubious houses.

One was a child of a mother who was both disabled and a hoarder, plus a brother with SEN. Father died when he was seven, left home at fifteen, retired a multi millionaire in his 40s. He was involved in the IT and comms boom. Started a company, sold it for millions.

My ex boss, dropped out of uni in the first term, started tech company on his kitchen table. Really down to earth guy.

Haha no but I do know of her

Started off as a reflexologist and got into doing social media for that busienss then did social media for others then grew that agency then started specialising in on platform and training other busieness owners then built online communities and do business coaching.

I used to work for a billionaire, from what he and his family told me (they were all very open, I was working in the family home). It was a case of right product at the right time and a lot of hard work! I think some people have a character that means no matter what happens they will make a success of their life.

A friend from the east end of London, who grew up with nothing. No university, started work at 14. Eventually a hobby became a business which he sold for multi millions

Successful business owners have told me that to cope in the early years of business, you must be able to get 7 hours sleep, if you are the anxious type you will never survive.

You may only ever need one good idea or take something already existing and elevate it. Richard Branson did that with Virgin records and planes, though he had a supportive background, he dropped out of school.

The successful people I know, and I like to count myself in a bit, left school and home early, had to support themselves or fail.

I don't think rags-to-riches stories are that unusual in the UK.

@Winterscoming77
Ah I’m so sorry others called you such awful names - that’s so wrong 😡

Wish you could do another AMA ! (Any other mn’s that could join me in politely asking this impressive op too?! Love a rags to riches RL story as XH (severely V abuse) left me too single mother and crazy in debt as he lived. complete almost unbelievable lie /‘life’ for years and all at mine and DC expense (well debt)! I just never got to the ‘riches’ part of my story in fact no way near 😩😆

So you became qualified in five years?

I don't understand how you got contracts from buying a digger. Did you rent out the digger? Do the work yourselves? Unqualified or qualified?

@ParsnipPuree

The strength of this generation particularly after what they went through is hard to comprehend. It's amazing.

I went from being an only child to a single mother, living in a council flat to marrying a millionaire, if that counts?

*Iamnotalemon
*
Yes that generation was amazing. I can't help feeling though that our kids generation is not as driven, which is sad because that sounds as if sometimes success stems from real hardship.

Friend of mine's dad is a self made millionaire, from a coal mining background.