From Nothing To Everything: How These American Dreamers Climbed To The Pinnacles Of Success. |
America has always strived to be the land of opportunity, a place where the only limitations on your ambition are your own grit and ability, not your background and anyone who works hard can build a better future for themselves. The unflinching belief that anyone can succeed has its roots in the nation’s founding 250 years ago. While some say the American Dream is fast becoming a thing of the past and that hard work and grit are no longer enough to improve one’s lot, there is no doubt that millions of people in this country have built their own successes. In honor of the semiquincentennial, Forbes has ranked the 250 people who we believe best embody this spirit of upward mobility, individuals who started with next-to-nothing and succeeded beyond measure.
Here we present the top ten self-made people in the U.S., the revolutionaries who came from the humblest of beginnings to rise to the top of American business, culture and politics. Among them are two politicians, two immigrants, a country western singer who grew up without electricity, an oil tycoon whose parents were sharecroppers and an NBA star who moved a dozen times as a kid when his teen mom struggled to support him.
The most inspiring story of all belongs to the list’s No. 1, Oprah Winfrey. A Black woman born in the final years of segregation who survived poverty, rape and the loss of a baby at age 14 to not only become a billionaire, but one of the nation’s most influential voices and tastemaker who has helped turn dozens of books into bestsellers and helped launch the careers of folks like Sara Blakely, whose innovative shapewear Spanx took off after being named to the then TV host’s annual holiday gift list. (Oprah later invested in the brand), and Dr. Oz, the current head of Medicare and Medicaid, who made his name as a recurring guest on her talk show.
The Vice-President was raised in Ohio’s Rust Belt, where he faced financial struggles and family instability due to his absent father and his mother’s drug addiction. Raised by his grandmother, who owned 19 handguns and provided tough love, he served in the Iraq War as a Marine, then earned a law degree from Yale and became a venture capitalist. His memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, garnered national attention and turned into a movie. He was elected to the Senate in 2022 before joining President Trump’s ticket in 2024.
#9. Diane Hendricks, 79
Hendricks became a teen mother at age 17, forcing her to drop out of school. She later worked as a Playboy Bunny to support her child before meeting her second husband Ken. The pair cofounded ABC Supply, one of the world’s largest construction supply firms, and ran it together until 2007, when he died after falling through a roof where he was checking construction.
Clinton’s father died before he was born and he grew up in a household afflicted by poverty and domestic abuse. He later got a scholarship to Georgetown University, won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship and attended Yale Law School. He became a law professor before being elected Arkansas Attorney General, then governor, then the 42nd president.
The country singer grew up “dirt poor” with her 11 siblings in a Tennessee shack without running water or electricity. She moved to Nashville after high school, using her songwriting talent to pen top 10 hits for the likes of Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr. before becoming a star in her own right.
After immigrating at age 16 from Ukraine to California, Koum and his mom moved into a small two-bedroom apartment where they relied on government assistance. He signed the deal to sell WhatsApp, which he cofounded, to Meta at the same building where he once stood in line to collect food stamps.
His teen mom struggled to find steady work or a stable home, leading to him moving a dozen times in three years. At nine, the fatherless Akron, Ohio native moved in with the family of a local football coach, who introduced him to basketball. Drafted to the pros in 2003 right out of high school, “King James” became the first active NBA player to become a billionaire.
#4. Thomas Peterffy, 81
In 1965, a 21-year-old Peterffy arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport nearly penniless after fleeing Communist Hungary, hoping to live with his father. Turned away with $100, he got a job as a programmer and eventually saved enough to buy a seat on the American stock exchange. He went on to pioneer automated digital trading with his firm Interactive Brokers.
#3. David Steward, 74
The tech billionaire’s father worked as a mechanic, janitor and trash collector to support eight children. Growing up in segregated Missouri, Steward was part of a group that pushed his town to integrate its swimming pools as a teenager. He walked on to his high school basketball team and earned a college scholarship. Even after he first cofounded World Wide Technology, now one of the largest IT services companies on the planet, he sometimes went without a paycheck and once watched his car get repossessed.
The 13th child of Oklahoma sharecroppers, Hamm's earliest memory is picking tomatoes with his bare feet in the red Oklahoma dirt. He eventually started his own trucking company hauling water to and from oilfields, then in 1971 took out a loan to drill his first well. The billionaire fracking pioneer helped turn the U.S. into the world’s biggest oil producer.
#1. Oprah Winfrey, 72
Born to a teen mother, Winfrey grew up on a rural Mississippi farm without indoor plumbing. At 9 she was raped by a cousin; at 14 she gave birth to a son, who died soon thereafter. Thanks to a federal program, she attended a rich suburban school where she discovered a knack for public speaking and debate, which earned her a part-time radio gig and, later, a scholarship to Tennessee State University. In 1984, she took over a struggling morning talk show in Chicago and eventually turned it into a national media brand.