Andrew Carnegie is widely regarded as one of the most prominent examples of the richest person who grew up in extreme poverty. Born in Scotland in 1835, he moved to the USA at age 12, working in a cotton mill before building a massive steel empire to become the world's richest man.
These celebrities and entrepreneurs endured hardship before they hit the big time. Francois Pinault, who is now worth $40 billion, was teased in school for being poor. Oprah Winfrey was born into a poor Mississippi family in 1954, but she's now worth $2.5 billion.
The proportion of those in the list who grew up poor or had little wealth remained constant at roughly 20 percent throughout the same period. Most individuals on the Forbes 400 list did not inherit the family business but rather made their own fortune.
The book chronicles the lives of many poor people who became famous including Marilyn Monroe, Babe Ruth, Malcolm X, Johnny Cash, Billie Holiday, Margaret Sanger, Charlie Chaplin, Richard Pryor, Steve McQueen, Stephen King, Dolly Parton, Oprah Winfrey, Jack London, and others.
Elon Musk, World's Richest Man, Nears $800B Net Worth, Trillionaire Status. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has pushed the boundaries of personal wealth and net worth.
Sarah Rector became a millionaire at just 12 years old after oil was discovered on her family's land in Oklahoma, making her the richest Black child in America. Her wealth grew so vast that the state legislature reclassified her as white to allow her to manage her fortune.
The media mogul and queen of daytime television became a self-made millionaire in 1986 at age 32. In 2003, she became the first black woman billionaire in history at age 49.
No single group holds exactly 90% of the world's wealth, but extreme concentration exists, with the top 10% of the world's population owning the vast majority, around 75-85% of global wealth, leaving the bottom 90% with a small fraction, while the richest 1% owns a huge chunk of that, sometimes as much as the bottom 90% or more combined, according to reports from the World Inequality Database and Oxfam.
Quiet wealth is living like a middle-class millionaire. You have serious assets and smart habits, but you blend in, on purpose. You value freedom and options over trophies and attention. Think about a small moment that tells a big story.
Based on Forbes, American singer Taylor Swift is the wealthiest female musician, with a net worth of US$1.6 billion as of 2024. Barbadian singer Rihanna became the first female musician to attain a billionaire status in 2021, with a net worth of $1.7 billion at that time.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $619 billion. After Musk is Larry Page, co-founder of Alphabet (Google).
As of late 2024 and into 2025, Elon Musk was the first person to reach a net worth exceeding $400 billion, primarily from his stakes in Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, with Larry Ellison briefly surpassing him in September 2025 due to Oracle's stock surge, though Musk generally remains the wealthiest individual.
In 2013, Pennsylvania resident Chris Reynolds became the world's first and only quadrillionaire for two minutes when a PayPal error credited his account with $92,233,720,368,547,800. The 56-year-old from Delaware County typically had around $1,000 from selling eBay car parts.
Did you know that even famous people where once broke and homeless? Such famous people include Dr. Phil, Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lopez, Jim Carrey and even Charlie Chaplin. These people were able to pull themselves into success.
Coming from a working-class family, Elba said he grew up without having much "at all," adding that he had spent more of his life being poor than he has been famous or successful.
