The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.

While inheriting a billion dollars is still the easiest way to land on our list of the world's wealthiest, it certainly isn't the most common. Almost two-thirds of the world's 946 billionaires made their fortunes from scratch, relying on grit and determination, and not good genes.

Fifty of these self-made tycoons are college or high school dropouts. The most famous billionaire dropout is Microsoft's Bill Gates, who finally got his honorary degree from Harvard University in June, 30 years after quitting the prestigious school to sell software. ''I did the best of everyone who failed,'' joked the world's richest man in his official graduation address. With failure like that, who needs success?

Other billionaires, such as media maven Oprah Winfrey, made their fortunes against far greater odds. Born in rural Mississippi, she spent her early years living in poverty on her grandmother's farm. Wanting a way out, she moved to Wisconsin to be with her mother, but was sexually molested by her male relatives. At age 14, she reportedly gave birth to a premature baby who died. Only after moving to Nashville to be with her father did her luck finally start to turn.

In Pictures: 10 Rags To Riches Billionaires

In honor of the world's self-made billionaires, we're recounting 10 of our favorite real-life Horatio Alger tales.

The stories of these bootstrapping billionaires are as diverse as the 10 individuals themselves. They range in age from 40 to 91, hail from diverse industries such as fashion and oil, and live in five different countries. Russia's richest man, Roman Abramovich, was an orphan. Apple's iconic Steve Jobs was adopted. Jobs dropped out of Reed College when he couldn't pay the tuition; his net worth today could support nearly 40,000 students at Reed for four years. Three others, including Ralph Lauren, are also college dropouts.

Another five are high school or grade school dropouts, proving that street smarts can often trump book smarts. The U.K.'s publishing magnate Richard Desmond, for instance, quit high school when he realized he could make more money working in the cloakroom of a club; at age 16, he borrowed his older brother's suit to get a sales job. He's been selling ever since, peddling music, porn and celebrity titles including OK! magazine.

Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing dropped out of school at age 15, after his father died, to work in a factory. Kirk Kerkorian quit during the eighth grade to take up boxing. He later flew airplanes on daredevil missions across the Atlantic during World War II, before sinking his money into his own airline and reinvesting profits in Las Vegas.

Sin City has also been good to Sheldon Adelson. The son of a Boston cabdriver borrowed $200 at age 12 to start selling newspapers; he later held stints as a mortgage broker, investment advisor and financial consultant. The high school dropout and Broadway enthusiast studied voice in his teens, but it was another kind of stage that called him--trade shows, where he made his first fortune.

Adelson later gambled on casinos in Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore, and took his Las Vegas Sands (nyse: LVS - news - people ) public in December 2004. Says Adelson, ''I loved being the outsider.''

Good luck and good timing is also helpful when creating vast fortunes from scratch. James Cayne, for instance, moved to New York to play bridge full-time; he was spotted by Wall Street legend Alan "Ace" Greenberg, who was impressed by Cayne's card skills and hired him to be a stockbroker at his firm Bear Stearns (nyse: BSC - news - people ). Cayne is now chairman.

The world's wealthiest novelist, J.K. Rowling, was on welfare raising her little girl when her agent called to tell her that Bloomsbury would publish her book about an adolescent wizard named Harry Potter.

One thing is for sure: There is no lack of chutzpah among our rags to riches bunch.

http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/22/billionaires-gates-winfrey-biz-cz_ts_0626rags2riches.html

If you have $1 BILLION, you would be in pretty good shape.  To put that number in perspective, if someone were to give you $1 a second, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it would take them 32 years to give you one billion dollars.

Righteous bucks, dude.

 I am impressed at such quick math skills for a man of your age.

Anyone want to give me a million of that billion so I can buy a small home in southern California?   

 shelly, if i were you, i would start a blog with a donation button on it. i hear that works really well for raising money for personal expenses.

 I dont know.. I dont have the link for my "heater fund" anymore, but I dont think we got any donations did we?

 true, but i have heard that some people are successful doing that. i am just saying... might be worth a shot.

how about this.... i will send you one dollar per week for a million weeks. i think i can afford that, and i will be contributing to the wealth of a fellow dog lover. just please, remember the little people when you get rich. 

You are poor for a reason; You are rich for a reason.

That's the real saying.

My Dad was kicked out at 17yrs old living in his car playing music gigs and now he owns his own company making almost half a million a year. Didn't go to college, didn't get a PENNY from his dead parents... he did it on his own "rags to riches"

If you are poor... like dirt dirt poor. You were either born into poverty, didn't get an education, or are pure lazy.

If you are rich... like really really rich. You either interited it, got a great education, or are extremely motivated.

 sounds great... thanks for your support!

Pomeranian <3

If you are poor... like dirt dirt poor. You were either born into poverty, didn't get an education, or are pure lazy.

WRONG. There are other reasons people scrape to get by, like crappy luck. Here is another really big one: a HEALTH CRISIS.

A child is born with a serious complication and is shipped to one of the world's best hospitals for treatment. During the first week of that child's life the medical expenses are more than what his parents paid for their house. What about insurance? LOL Insurance covers many things---but not everything and there are deductibles and "out of pocket" this and that and even a max on certain things. Two weeks in the hospital and the parents have a HUGE bill even with insurance---plus they have other costs. Mom and Dad have been staying at a nearby hotel to be close to the newborn, eating in the big city, and burning up cell phone minutes to call relatives. Dad has also taken time off work....it all adds up.

Even if the kid leaves the hospital after two weeks and needs no other additional special medical care for the next year, this family's bills can be overwhelming and take 10+ years to pay.

 I do think the poor and middle class have a diferent thought process than the rich, however, that doesn't always mean that the ones who are rich have the "rich" thought process, take Paris Hilton for example, nor do all the "poor" have the poor and middle class thought process.  Stuff happens. At one time Donald Trump was 9 billion in debt.  He could look  at the bums on the streat and they were 9 billion dollars richer than him.  Yet somehow he climbed out of that pit.  There are other storied of people who have done something like that.

So, the question is, how do the rich think diferently than the poor.  Now, I say diferently because neither thought process is better or worse.  It is like a highway.  If I wanted to go to Florida I would go south on I-75. but not if I wanted to go to South Carolina. (I live in south GA) The problem occurs when people on the highway to South Carolina, think they are going to Florida. 

  So, what is the thought process of the rich?  Well, there are many books that talk about it.  The one thing I have noticed about the rich people in my life is that they create *passive* rather than active income.  What that means is that they have money coming in that they don't have to manage every moment of the day.  Most people have to go to work, they worked for a while to create something that could work without them.
 Then they go and do it again.  That way if one thing stops working they still have other things to fall back on. 

Another thing is how they manage their money.  Did you know that you will  find more millionaires living in a middle class neighborhood and driving a truck than you will find in the more upper class neighborhoods?  For more information, read 'The Millionaire Next Door'  I gotta go.

polarexpress

Pomeranian <3

If you are poor... like dirt dirt poor. You were either born into poverty, didn't get an education, or are pure lazy.

WRONG. There are other reasons people scrape to get by, like crappy luck. Here is another really big one: a HEALTH CRISIS.

And this is why it is important to have SHORT & LONG TERM DISABILITY INSURANCE

And your example is not the norm. That is beyond extreme... I wouldn't wish or expect that out of "most" families.

I still stand by my opinion... dirt dirt dirt dirt poor I'm talking. Like HOMELESS pretty much.

And this is why it is important to have SHORT & LONG TERM DISABILITY INSURANCE

who can afford that? most people i know have a hard enough time afford regular health insurance.  

cyclefiend2000

 

And this is why it is important to have SHORT & LONG TERM DISABILITY INSURANCE

who can afford that? most people i know have a hard enough time afford regular health insurance.  

and this is why i only work for companies that offer it for free or cheap... that is like beyond better than health insurance even. If I could pick health insurance over disability I'd totally pick disability... b/c when your sick the OTHER bills still keep on coming...

i really think if you are dirt poor there is a reason you are dirt poor. REASON. you can't just BE poor that's what I'm saying... some people like to use the excuse that the whole world is after them and they make it impossible. if you are sitting there living off of collection b/c ur too darn lazy to get a job at McDonalds well then I don't feel bad for you.

You are poor for a REASON; and you are rich for a REASON

Respectfully, your youth and inexperience are showing again.  There are many reasons someone may end up in a situation of poverty.  Some of those variables are under your control some of them aren't.  There are issues of employment losses, medical expenses, mental illness, abuse, and hosts of others that can impact your economic status.  A personal example is a couple that I know.  MIddle aged, both employed long term for two different organizations.  They had health insurance.  They lost their house to a knee replacement allergic reaction to titanium.  He now has a ceramic knee and things will improve, but the loss of their house was a major monetary set back especially when they had been planning to retire in a few years.......