Then & Now: How 21 Famous Billionaires Looked Like Before They Became Rich

There’s no doubt about the fact that there are a great number of billionaires across the world today. From writers to business magnates, a number of now-billionaires come from a humble background.

From selling bhajiyas and working as a scrap dealer to becoming renowned personalities, this is how some billionaires looked in their early life.

1. Karsanbhai Patel

Born into a family of farmers, he used to make and sell detergent powder for ₹3 per kilogram. Today, he is the founder of Nirma which has 17,000 employees and worth over 7,000 crores.

2. Howard Schultz

When he took over Starbucks, it only had 60 shops at the time. In 1987, he became the company’s CEO and grew the company to more than 16,000 outlets worldwide.

3. Tim Cook

He previously served as Apple’s chief operating officer under its co-founder Steve Jobs. Today, he is the chief executive officer of the company and his net worth has passed the $1 billion mark.

4. Dilip Shanghvi

Born into a middle-class family in Gujarat, he used to work as a drug and medicine distributor. He started his company, Sun Pharmaceuticals, with a capital amount of ₹10,000.

5. Elon Musk

At the age of 12, he sold his first product for $500 which was a video game that he coded himself. His current net worth is about $156.9 billion.

6. J.K. Rowling

Author of the much-loved series of seven Harry Potter novels, her current net worth is over $1 billion.

7. Kalpana Saroj

Born to a poor family, she became one of the biggest entrepreneurs of the country. Today, she owns a $112 million empire that is growing rapidly.

8. Oprah Winfrey

Born into a poor family, she bagged a scholarship to Tennessee State University. In 1983, she moved to Chicago to work for her talk show called The Oprah Winfrey Show.

9. Reed Hastings

In 1997, him and a former Pure Software employee co-founded Netflix, offering flat rate movie rental-by-mail to customers in the US. In the first quarter of 2021, Netflix generated total revenue of over $7.16 billion.

10. Anil Agarwal

Leaving Patna for Mumbai at the tender age of 19, he used to work as a scrap dealer. He is now the founder and chairman of Vedanta Resources Limited, which has a total net worth of 3 billion.

11. Ralph Lauren

He earlier worked as a clerk at Brooks Brothers before developing a line of neckties. In 1967, he sold $500,000 worth of ties. Today, he owns a global multibillion-dollar enterprise.

12. Sergey Brin

Co-founder of Google, he was the president of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., until stepping down from the role in 2019. His current net worth is about $100.2 billion.

13. Narayana Murthy

Relying on his wife’s savings of ₹10,000 in 1981, he is now the founder of Infosys which gets $14 billion revenue.

14. Jeff Bezos

Founder and CEO of the multi-national technology company Amazon, his current net worth is around $19,830 crores.

15. Susan Wojcicki

CEO of YouTube, she has an estimated net worth of $580 million.

16. Patricia Narayan

After suffering abuse from her drug addict husband, she started her journey by selling pickles, jams and squashes. She is now the director of Sandeepha Chain restaurants.

17. Mark Zuckerberg

Known for co-founding Facebook, his net worth is 12,670 crores.

18. Peter Thiel

Co-founder of PayPal, his net worth is $540 crores.

19. Indra Nooyi

Earlier working as a receptionist to earn money and struggled to buy herself a formal suit for her first job interview, she is now the current CEO of PepsiCo. Her current estimated net worth is $16.4 million.