From Rags to Riches: Self-made billionaires

From Kjell Inge Røkke of Norway, to China’s Zhou Qunfei, our featured billionaires were all operating without a safety net when they started out as entrepreneurs, yet made one wise business decision after another on the road to fame and fortune.

Driven to escape their challenging childhoods, some had a great idea for a company, others took an existing business practice and made it better, but something they all have in common is extraordinary entrepreneurial skill, outstanding work ethic and a consuming passion to make it big.

Each billionaire featured has a unique story to tell, their paths to success sometimes heroic, often unconventional and always fascinating. Two of our self-made billionaires are women, a rarity until recently in the world of extreme wealth, where the majority of the fairer sex attaining such riches did so via inheritance or through marriage.   

Male or female, from rich country or poor, these outstanding entrepreneurs stand as shining examples that it’s possible to start from scratch and have the sort of success in business that ends with your name on a billion-dollar bank account.