I’ve always been keenly interested in the stories of entertainers, especially rappers, who make their way from an utterly destitute and dangerous youth to a very successful level of wealth (and often flaunt it quite shamelessly, to the chagrin of many… but I can sort of understand the motivation, when you’ve come from such a background where you felt downtrodden much of your life)
But you never hear the story of the formerly gang-bangin’, crack-slingin’, kid from the ghetto who ends up getting his Harvard Law degree, or starts a Fortune 500 company. I know both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates dropped out of college, but they also don’t come from really poor, troubled backgrounds.
They don’t necessarily have to be someone who has attained rapper-level wealth, but the “guy who had some drug problems but is now holding down a 9-5 and keeping a family in the suburbs” stories, while admirable, wouldn’t quite count. I’m looking for something that could veritably be called a rags-to-riches story that doesn’t involve the entertainment biz or winning the lotto. Whether firsthand, secondhand, or from a book you read.
Are you specifically interested in African-American role models? If so, how about Ben Carson? He is the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Regarding his background, he said, “I was definitely an at-risk kid growing up. You know, my parents got divorced early on. My mother only had a third-grade education, was illiterate, worked as a domestic two to three jobs at a time because she didn’t want to be on welfare. I was considered the dummy in the classroom when I was in 5th grade, and I just didn’t believe that I could do the work, so I engaged myself, you know, by creating disturbances.”
Sorta kinda, but not exactly. He didn’t grow up “in the ghetto” and while he wasn’t exactly living the high life as a child in Indonesia, compared to most people his family was privileged.
In his introduction to “Dreams of My Father,” Obama even mentions that one of the editors at the publishing house helpfully pointed out to him that a difference between him and a lot of black Americans was that he “didn’t grow up poor.” (I’m mangling this anecdote a little, but I’m too lazy to go look it up.)
First thing that springs to mind is the story of “Honest” Ed Mirvish, which most Torontonians know pretty well.
His family wasn’t totally broke, but they were still pretty damn poor, and when his father died while he was still in his teens, he dropped out of school so that he could work to support his family. Bit by bit managed to build an empire that at the time of his death included the famous Honest Ed’s store and a substantial portion of the Toronto theatre scene (both in terms of real estate and stage production).
He loved to share the wealth, too. He’d have a giant turkey giveaway at Honest Ed’s every Christmas, and he’d throw a street party for his birthday each year with free rides and hot dogs and music.
Dave Thomas - founder of Wendy’s. Never graduated from high school (he got his GED in 1992 - and his graduating class voted him most likely to succeed - sucker bet). Grew up during the depression moving from state to state while his father looked for work.
Wally "famous"Amos comes immediately to mind. There was of course no ghetto in Tallahassee, Florida in the late '30s (grinding poverty though, they had a heaping helping of) but he did move to New York City at 12.
There was a story a couple years back about a girl who was homeless, parentless and continued going to school and made it to college. I can’t remember her name, but it was a truly inspirational story. Damn…couldn’t find it on Google.