Chung Ju-yung grew up on a poor farm in Korea, where his family expected him to spend his life working the land. But even as a teenager, Chung dreamed of leaving home and finding something better. He tried running away more than once. His father kept bringing him back, determined that his eldest son would … Read more
When Jan Koum arrived in America as a teenager, he and his mother had very little money. They relied on food stamps to get by, and Koum took a job cleaning floors at a grocery store to help support them. Years later, he applied for a job at Facebook and was turned down. But that … Read more
Sheldon Yellen was in his final year of high school when his family nearly lost their home in Detroit because of unpaid property taxes. His mother was raising four boys on welfare, and money had been tight for as long as he could remember. Yellen had been working since childhood, but his part-time earnings weren’t … Read more
In 1957, Momofuku Ando was 47 years old and facing financial ruin. A credit union he’d been involved with had collapsed, taking nearly everything he’d worked for with it. All he had left was his home in Ikeda, a city near Osaka, Japan. After years of trying to build successful businesses, he was suddenly facing … Read more
Dean Forbes thought professional football was going to be his future. As a teenager growing up in southeast London, he was playing in Crystal Palace’s youth system and working toward a career in the sport. But injuries and his eventual release from the club ended that dream when he was just 17. His family was … Read more
Mohed Altrad grew up in the Syrian desert in a Bedouin family with very little money. He was orphaned at a young age, and even getting an education was a struggle. As a child, he was initially denied the opportunity to attend school. But Altrad wanted to learn, so he began teaching himself to read … Read more
In 1930, 22-year-old George Jenkins walked away from a job that most people his age would have been thrilled to have. He was managing a major Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Winter Haven, Florida, but he was growing frustrated. Jenkins had ideas about how stores should operate, how employees should be treated and how customers … Read more
Art Williams was earning about $10,000 a year coaching high school football in Georgia when his father’s sudden death made him take a closer look at life insurance. He wanted to understand how families protected themselves financially and why some policies cost so much more than others. The more he learned, the more convinced he … Read more
In 1907, a 16-year-old boy named Sidney Weinberg walked into the offices of Goldman Sachs looking for work. He didn’t have a university degree, wealthy relatives or any experience in banking. He was simply a teenager who needed a job. Goldman Sachs hired him for $5 a week as an assistant to the janitor. His … Read more
Before Lee Su-jin became a billionaire, he spent his days cleaning rooms at a small motel in Seoul, South Korea. The job wasn’t glamorous. He changed sheets, scrubbed bathrooms, cleaned up after guests, and worked long hours for relatively little money. But there was one advantage. The motel provided somewhere for him to sleep, which … Read more
When Coss Marte went to prison, he was overweight, and a doctor had warned him that his health could cut his life short. Before his arrest, Marte had been running a multimillion-dollar drug operation on New York’s Lower East Side. Now he was behind bars, dealing with the consequences of his choices and a serious … Read more
During his final year of high school, Everette Taylor was sleeping in a car that didn’t even run. He was still trying to finish school in Richmond, Virginia, but he didn’t have a reliable place to live. When he needed somewhere safe to spend time, he often went to the Broad Rock Branch Library. There, … Read more
When Hedayat Osyan arrived in Australia in 2010, he had no family waiting for him, spoke very little English, and had no idea how he was going to build a life in his new country. He had fled Afghanistan as a teenager, leaving behind his mother and two younger siblings. After a dangerous journey that … Read more
In 1976, Lillian Lincoln Lambert walked into her boss’s office expecting to discuss the small cleaning company she had started on the side. Instead, she walked out knowing she was about to lose her job. Lambert had been honest with her employer about her plans. She didn’t want him hearing from someone else that she … Read more
In October 1938, Chester Carlson stood in a tiny makeshift laboratory in Queens, New York, staring at a piece of wax paper. Something extraordinary had just happened. He and his assistant had successfully copied an image without using photographic chemicals. It was a rough experiment involving a metal plate, sulfur, electricity, and powder, but Carlson … Read more
Long before Eren Ozmen became the owner of an aerospace company worth billions, she was cleaning its offices at night. She was a graduate student from Turkey, studying for her MBA at the University of Nevada, Reno. Money was tight, and she worked several jobs to pay her expenses, including making baklava to sell at … Read more
In 1997, Patrick Awuah had a successful career at Microsoft, a comfortable life in Seattle, and a future that looked pretty secure. He had spent eight years working at one of the world’s biggest technology companies, helping develop software during the early days of the internet. But something had been on his mind since the … Read more
Frank Robinson had spent years trying to persuade helicopter manufacturers to build a smaller, less expensive machine. He believed there were customers who wanted to fly helicopters but could not afford the aircraft already available. His employers weren’t convinced. In 1973, he left Hughes Helicopters and started his own company, using his California home as … Read more