Rags to riches stories always motivate and inspire people. Even if you don’t want immense wealth, these stories will demonstrate to you, that with action and perseverance, you too can have what you desire.
Some of these stories you may have heard of, but it’s good to be reminded.
1. Chris Gardner
Like most rags to riches stories, Chris Gardner’s consists of many ups and downs. When he was a child, his father left him. His mother remarried, to a man who was anything but a father figure. He made Chris’ life and his mother’s life a living hell. Chris was chased out of the house and really had nowhere to go. He eventually found a place in the Navy.
After the Navy, he became a medical supplies salesman. He then had a child with his wife, Sherry. His career in the medical industry was doing well for him then, but the future was uncertain. The industry was changing, so Chris had to look to somewhere else for employment.
One day Chris saw a man parking a red Ferrari. He went up to him to ask what he did for a living. The man told Chris he was a stock broker. That’s all Chris needed to hear. Now he wanted to pursue a career as a stock broker.
Chris left his job as a supplies salesman. He had little money and his wife left him. Chris had no job, no money, no wife, and no home. But he did have his son. His son gave him immense motivation to do what he had to secure a better life.
The two of them were homeless and slept wherever they could, including a bathroom at the subway station. While they were homeless, Chris studied for the licensing exam, which he passed.
They were still struggling, but they had more hope than ever before. Chris got a job at Bear Sterns in San Francisco. He made cold calls to get new clients and worked as many hours as he possibly could.
As Chris worked harder, their situation began to get better. They were able to find a place to live and Chris was starting to earn more money. In 1987, Chris was able to start his own brokerage firm called Gardner Rich & Co. in Chicago.
There is much more to Chris’ story, enough to fill a book and make a movie out of. I recommend you research more about him.
2. Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey was born in Ontario, Canada. He grew up with his mother and father and with an older brother and two older sisters. In the beginning things for the Carrey were doing okay. Jim’s father, Percy was supporting his family as an accountant. But when Jim was a young teenager, the family’s situation began to deteriorate.
They all had to relocate to Scarborough, another town in Ontario. To help make ends meet all of them took up jobs at the Titan Wheels Factory, including Jim. They worked in the janitorial and security departments. While working an eight hour shift Jim was still attending school.
They eventually moved on from the factory but things still didn’t get any better. The family was living out of a camper van. Jim decided enough is enough and took a shot at comedy, his main passion.
Jim did a few stand-up routines at local comedy clubs and was instantly hooked. At sixteen he dropped out of high school and performed celebrity impressions. Then he made a major choice to move to Los Angeles.
In LA he performed a regular gig at The Comedy Store. His talent impressed many people including Rodney Dangerfield.
Jim didn’t stop at stand-up. He began to look around for work in other areas of entertainment. He landed a part on a short-lived sitcom called The Duck Factory. After that, Jim played a few more parts in some movies.
Jim also did a film entitled, Earth Girls Are Easy. One of his costars, Damon Wayans called his brother Keenen. Keenen was creating a show called In Living Color. Jim joined the cast of In Living Color. This became Jim’s breakout role because of his many memorable characters.
After this show, Jim moved into bigger film roles. His hits included Ace Ventura, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber. Jim became one of the highest paid comedians and actors in Hollywood history.
3. H. Wayne Huizenga
Wayne was born in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois to Harry and Jean Huizenga. When Wayne was in his early teens, he along with his father, mother, and younger sister moved to Florida.
His father, Harry, wasn’t an ideal male figure. He was abusive to his wife Jean. They were close to a divorce until they moved to Florida. The move was Harry’s plan to save the marriage and start over.
But Harry didn’t really want to change. He still was abusive to both Jean and their children. It was tough for all of them but Wayne didn’t let this stop him. He used it as motivation to get a better life.
After high school, Wayne moved back to Chicago and tried attending college but dropped out after about a year and a half. Wayne then enlisted in the Army reserves. He trained with them for about a year.
After Army training, Wayne moved back to Florida, where he moved towards the waste management industry. He bought a truck and began to take out the garbage in Broward county. Broward was seeing a huge population boom at this time.
In less than ten years, Wayne grew that one garbage truck into a fleet and a successful business. The business stretched across much of the southern part of Florida and eventually grew into Waste Management Inc.
WMI became one of the largest waste management firms in the United States. Wayne wasn’t settling down though, he wanted more.
Wayne set his sights on a new industry. One of his friends mentioned a small company called Blockbuster, which at the time only had a few stores. Wayne was intrigued when he visited one of the stores and decided to buy the company.
Wayne again turned another company into a huge success. Blockbuster grew and grew and eventually merged with Viacom for $8 billion. Wayne moved on to pursue more ventures, many which also have become very successful.
Through his career, Wayne has founded three Fortune 500 companies and has owned three professional sports teams.
4. Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey’s rags to riches story is probably one of the most well-known. Oprah was born to unwed, teenage parents in Mississippi. After Oprah was born, the two teenagers broke up.
For the first six years of Oprah’s life, she was raised by her grandmother, Hattie Mae Lee. Her grandmother was poor and couldn’t provide much, but did provide Oprah with a great ability, the ability to read before the age of three.
When Oprah was six, she moved to the inner city of Milwaukee to live with her mother, Vernita Lee.
Oprah still didn’t have much except her academics. She excelled in school and was even awarded a scholarship to attend Nicolet High School.
As Oprah grew older, she became a rebellious teenager, running away from home. Her mother decided to send Oprah to live with her father, Vernon in Tennessee.
Oprah continued to do well in school and other areas of life. Her success impressed WVOL, a local black radio station. She got a job with them to do the news part-time. This was Oprah’s first taste of the media world. She liked it very much and chose that as the industry where she wanted to pursue a career.
After the radio, Oprah moved to television. She worked as a news anchor for WLAC-TV in Nashville. There she was the first black female anchor and the youngest ever. Oprah then moved to Baltimore, Maryland where she became an anchor of the six o’clock news. Then she co-hosted a local talk show called People Are Talking.
Oprah then moved on to Chicago where she hosted a show called AM Chicago. At the time, the show was very low rated. Ms. Winfrey however took it to a whole new level. It became the highest rated talk show in Chicago.
After the success, the show was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and became nationally broadcasted. I guess you could say the rest is history.
Oprah has been nominated for an Academy Award, runs a successful magazine, TV show, website, and will launch her own cable network in 2009.
5. Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was one of the titans of the industrial age. But before this time he was a poor boy from Scotland.
His father, William, was a hand loom weaver. When the industrialization of society began to spread across the world, William’s job became obsolete. The family had difficulties making ends meet. Then like most people of their time, they decided to start a new life in America.
In 1848 when Andrew was thirteen, they arrived in the US. Andrew quickly got to work at a cotton mill. He worked six days a week and twelve hours each day. Three years later Andrew got another job as a telegraph messenger for the Ohio Telegraph Company.
Andrew quickly excelled at the job and showed a great work ethic. A man from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company offered him a job as his secretary and telegraph operator. With each new job, Andrew worked harder and harder and earned more money.
Andrew quickly became the superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the railroad company. Thomas Scott, the man who offered Andrew the job became his mentor. Thomas helped him with investing. Andrew early investments were very successful. With each profitable investment, Andrew put the money into another company.
These investments gave him enough capital to continue investing in other businesses and industries. Andrew remained with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and continued to advance his career there.
Andrew eventually started investing in the steel industry. Andrew moved away from the railroad industry but kept his contacts with those he met in the industry. His investments grew into a steel company that became one of the largest in America.
Andrew’s company was eventually bought out for the equivalent of 120 billion in 2007 dollars.
After this, Andrew became a philanthropist and donated a large amount of his fortune. His donations went to build schools and libraries across the country and the world.
Their stories may be different but they all demonstrate that your current circumstances cannot prevent you from where you want to be in the future.
Kurek Ashley doesn’t really consider himself a motivational speaker or a life coach, he considers himself a success coach. Kurek helps people and companies in harnessing their full potential for peak performance in all areas of their life. From their finances to their spirituality. He believes success can be achieved everywhere.
Who do you think is the best person to get you motivated? Think about it for a moment… The answer’s is quite simple. It’s YOU. Getting yourself to stop dreaming and start achieving ultimately comes down to you. Other people can give you advice, encouragement, and motivation but none of that will matter until you change yourself and take that first step towards a goal.
All right, so it’s the beginning of a new month. Maybe in March you didn’t accomplish everything you wanted to. I know I didn’t. Since we can’t go back in time let’s look to this month and make it our most productive month so far. Here are the steps you can take to do so.
