Where You Are Born Does Not Determine Who You Are. The World’s Most Successful People Have Demonstrated This Truth Through Their Own Lives and Efforts.
Howard Schultz: The Starbucks dream from the slums
Perhaps few people know that the chairman and CEO of Starbucks, the world's largest coffee group, grew up in a poor family in a Brooklyn, New York, slum. His impoverished childhood did not weaken young Schultz's determination to rise. He always wanted to ‘climb over the fence’ and see the world beyond the poor neighborhood where he lived with his truck-driver father.
As a student, Schultz excelled at sports and was admitted to Northern Michigan University on a football scholarship. After graduating in communications, Schultz worked for Xerox before establishing a small coffee shop called Starbucks. His passion for this beverage led him to leave Xerox and start his own company in 1987.
Starting with 60 stores, Starbucks has now increased that number to 17,600 worldwide. Howard Schultz himself has a net worth of nearly USD 3 billion and consistently ranks among the world's most successful CEOs in terms of wealth growth.
Ingvar Kamprad: From a match-selling boy to a billionaire
Ingvar Kamprad was born in Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, a poor rural village in Sweden. At just 5, Ingvar had his first successful business venture: selling matches to villagers. Starting with matches, he later moved into other goods, including seeds and pens, and acting as an intermediary for strawberry and fish sellers…
At the time, although only 13–14, Ingvar had already set clear business goals. At 17, he decided to establish IKEA with money saved from “small-time” business ventures plus a reward from his father.
IKEA began as a mail-order company, and today its name immediately brings to mind the world's most luxurious and successful furniture company.
Roman Abramovich: From orphan to Russia’s richest man
Roman Abramovich lost his mother at just 18 months old, and his father also died in an accident at a construction site when he was only 4. Abramovich was raised by an uncle in Komi and later by his maternal grandmother in Moscow. As a young man, he dropped out of university to pursue his entrepreneurial passion.
Abramovich started as a worker. From 1987 to 1989, Roman Abramovich was a mechanic at Mossepetsmontazh. He then organized the Yiut cooperative, specializing in plastic toys. In the early 1990s, now an entrepreneur, Roman Abramovich established a series of trading and oil-trading companies such as Mekong, Supertechnology Shishmaryev and Elita…
In 1995, he acquired oil giant Sibneft at a bargain price and continued taking over major companies, including steel group Evraz. Abramovich was also accused of bribery, money laundering, and involvement with the Russian mafia, but the matters were subsequently settled. He now owns the world’s largest yacht and English football club Chelsea.
From an Orphan, Roman Abramovich Became the Owner of an Oil Empire and Russia’s Richest Billionaire.
Leonardo Del Vecchio: From the poorhouse to Italy's eyewear king
Born into an impoverished family in Milan, Italy, Del Vecchio lost his father when he was still 4 months into his mother’s pregnancy. Unable to support them, his mother placed Del Vecchio and her 4 other children in an orphanage when he was a newborn.
As he grew up, young Vecchio became a worker in a workshop making frames for car parts and eyeglasses. He had an accident there and lost a finger.
At 23, he opened his own eyeglass frame shop, which later became Luxottica, the world’s largest eyewear manufacturer, with famous brands such as Ray-Ban and Oakley and 6,000 retail stores such as Sunglass Hut and LensCrafters. His estimated fortune is now USD 11.5 billion.
Sheldon Adelson: From newspaper delivery boy to Las Vegas magnate
Born into a poor family, with a taxi-driver father and a mother who knitted at home, Sheldon Adelson struggled from childhood. At a little over 10, he had to support himself by selling newspapers. Residents of the poor Dorchester neighborhood in Boston still remember the quick-witted boy selling newspapers daily.
Sheldon Adelson enrolled at City College but dropped out to earn a living, driven by his desire to make money. Besides spending a long time selling newspapers, he took all kinds of other jobs, from selling candy to handing out flyers…
Yet Sheldon Adelson was also highly alert to promising business opportunities. In the late 70s of the XX century, he recognized the coming boom in the personal computer industry. He decided to organize computer trade fairs, knowing many customers wanted to learn about and introduce computer products to the market.
In 1979, he founded Comdex, a company specializing in computer trade shows. Beginning in 1984, he built The Sands hotel and casino complex. The hotel served not only computer-show visitors; Sheldon Adelson also aspired to enter the market for visitors to Las Vegas casinos. Today, Sheldon has become a global casino magnate with an enormous fortune and a casino network stretching from Las Vegas (United States) to Macau (China).
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