From First Jobs to Billionaire Status attracts us in several ways. Of course, it is interesting to see someone lead the lavish lifestyle that everyone adores. Yet, it becomes more interesting to see how they began in the beginning of their career. For example, Oprah Winfrey began her career in broadcasting with modest beginnings, starting as a newsreader for a local radio station at just 16 years old.
By 19, she had become the co-anchor of the local evening news. Her emotionally resonant and timely delivery soon paved the way for her transition into daytime talk shows. After transforming a low-rated local talk show in Chicago into the top-ranked program, she established herself as a media mogul and founded her own production company. Thus, we chose a list of people who began as common people. However, they became big shots in life as they moved ahead. Here goes our list:
1. Michael Bloomberg
From First Jobs to Billionaire Status includes Michael Bloomberg on the top. Bloomberg, who is best known for his investing and political career, first started out working odd jobs in the neighborhood, including shoveling snow, mowing lawns, selling Christmas wreaths door-to-door, and working for a small electronics company. As a student at Johns Hopkins University and born to middle-class parents, he worked his way up through student loans and working as a parking attendant.
He eventually graduated from Harvard with an MBA and got his start on Wall Street at Salomon Brothers. Bloomberg’s hard work paid off as he is now one of the richest people in America.
2. Bill Gates
The Microsoft founder got his first job as a computer programmer for TRW during his senior year in high school and was always fascinated by computers in his early days in high school. Although computer programming wasn’t a government or well-paying job for Gates at the time, his passion helped him get ahead. The Harvard dropout pursued his passion for tech from a young age and has now emerged as one of the richest people in the world.
In 2008, he stepped down from the day-to-day running of Microsoft to focus on his philanthropy through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which works to improve education, fight hunger, and develop vaccines.
3. Oprah Winfrey
The renowned broadcaster started out as a grocery store clerk at her father’s Nashville store and worked her way up through menial jobs to become one of television’s most popular faces.
Winfrey later made the switch to broadcasting, reading the news for a local radio station at age 16. At 19, she was a co-anchor of the local evening news. Her often emotional, timely delivery eventually led her to move into the daytime talk show arena, and after taking a third-rate local talk show in Chicago to number one, she became a media powerhouse and started her own production company.
4. Warren Buffett
The 94-year-old billionaire got his start selling glue at a young age. His multibillion-dollar empire began when he was a boy.
At 13, he got his first job as a paperboy, waking up at 4:30 a.m. to deliver The Washington Post. A budding businessman and enthusiast, Buffett even had his motorcycle tax deductible. He started a pinball machine business as a teenager, looking for business opportunities wherever he went, and graduated from college with $10,000 in profits from his business ventures.
He made his first investment (his father was a stockbroker) at age 11, and even filed his first tax return for his paper route at age 13, claiming a $35 tax deduction for his bicycle. Today, he’s worth more than $160 billion.
5. Jeff Bezos
From First Jobs to Billionaire Status also has Jeff Bezos. The popular founder of Amazon and one of the world’s richest billionaires worked as a grill operator at McDonald’s in his early years. Before he founded Amazon and began selling everything from books to newspaper subscriptions, he worked summer jobs flipping burgers at McDonald’s, where he learned the ropes and his desire to become a successful businessman was evident from an early age.
Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos’ Early Years: From McDonald’s Grill Operator to Billionaire
Bezos started working at a fast-food chain in Miami when he was 16 and often said that the experience taught him the most important lesson of his business: moving things quickly from vendor to customer without damage. “My first week on the job, a 5-gallon, wall-mounted ketchup dispenser got stuck open in the kitchen and spilled a huge amount of ketchup into every hard-to-reach crevice in the kitchen,” Bezos told author Cody Tates. “Since I was the new guy, they gave me a cleaning solution and said, ‘Keep going!’”
Today, he is the second-richest person in the world, according to Forbes, with a net worth of $216 billion (behind Elon Musk — $311 billion).