There is no denying that there are a large number of billionaires in the world today. A number of now-billionaires come from humble beginnings, ranging from novelists to corporate magnates.
Some millionaires’ early lives included peddling bhajiyas and labouring as a junk dealer before becoming well-known characters.
1. Karsanbhai Patel
He used to create and sell detergent powder for $3 per kilogramme, as he was born from a farming family. He is now the founder of Nirma, a company with 17,000 workers and a market capitalization of over 7,000 crores.
2. Howard Schultz
When he took over Starbucks, there were only 60 locations. He became the company’s CEO in 1987 and helped it grow to over 16,000 locations globally.
3. Tim Cook
He formerly worked as Apple’s chief operations officer under Steve Jobs, the company’s co-founder. He is now the company’s chief executive officer, and his net worth has surpassed $1 billion.
4. Dilip Shanghvi
He was born into a Gujarati middle-class family and worked as a pharmacy and pharmaceutical distributor. Sun Pharmaceuticals, his company, was founded with a capital of $10,000.
5. Elon Musk
He sold his first product, a video game that he created himself, for $500 when he was 12 years old. His estimated net worth is $156.9 billion.
6. J.K. Rowling
Her present net worth exceeds $1 billion as the author of the popular Harry Potter series of seven novels.
7. Kalpana Saroj
She rose from a disadvantaged family to become one of the country’s most powerful businesswomen. She now has a $112 million empire that is fast expanding.
8. Oprah Winfrey
She received a scholarship to Tennessee State University despite coming from a disadvantaged home. She relocated to Chicago in 1983 to work on her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show.
9. Reed Hastings
In 1997, he and a former Pure Software employee co-founded Netflix, which offered customers in the United States flat-rate movie rental-by-mail. Netflix produced $7.16 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2021.
10. Anil Agarwal
He worked as a scrap dealer in Mumbai after leaving Patna at the age of 19. He is now the chairman and founder of Vedanta Resources Limited, a company with a net worth of $3 billion.
11. Ralph Lauren
Before starting his own necktie line, he worked as a clerk at Brooks Brothers. He sold $500,000 worth of ties in 1967. He now owns a multibillion-dollar global corporation.
12. Sergey Brin
He was a co-founder of Google and served as the president of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., until 2019. His current net worth is estimated to be around $100 billion.
13. Narayana Murthy
He founded Infosys with a $14 billion revenue after relying on his wife’s $10,000 money in 1981.
14. Jeff Bezos
His current net worth is roughly $19,830 crores as the founder and CEO of the multinational technology giant Amazon.
15. Susan Wojcicki
She is the CEO of YouTube and has a net worth of $580 million.
16. Patricia Narayan
She began her journey by selling pickles, jams, and squashes after being abused by her drug addict husband. She is now the director of the Sandeepha Restaurant Group.
17. Mark Zuckerberg
His net worth is $12,670 crores, and he co-founded Facebook.
18. Peter Thiel
Co-founder of PayPal, his net worth is $540 crores.
19. Indra Nooyi
She started her career as a receptionist and struggled to afford a formal suit for her first job interview. She is now the CEO of PepsiCo. Her current net worth is believed to be $16.4 million.
20. Bill Gates
His estimated net worth is $124 billion, thanks to his co-founding of Microsoft Corporation with his late childhood friend Paul Allen.
21. Richard Branson
He started the Virgin Group in 1970, which now has over 400 enterprises in diverse sectors. His net worth is estimated to be $4.8 billion.
Who do you think looked the best in their earlier days?
