17 Incredibly Amazing Larry Ellison Pictures That Tell His Billion-Dollar Success Story

Known to many as the Samurai Warrior of Silicon Valley, Larry Ellison has made himself a megalomaniac and a force to be reckoned with in Tech. Over the course of a four-decade plus career, Ellison turned Oracle from a small company into one of the companies powering close to about every sector of human existence. And in an industry marked by turbulence and near-constant change, Ellison has proved to be great leader as he clawed and grasped and battled to build Oracle into one of the biggest and most successful software makers in the world. Here is his life's success story in 21 pictures.

The early years

In the beginning: Larry Ellison as a toddler

Larry Ellisons' adopted parents

Ever the explorer: testing himself against the Rocky mountains

Larry hanging out with his classmates before he dropped out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Not really in rags, but still miles aways from his billion-dollar lifestyle: A grown Larry with his dad

Growing a billion-dollar empire

The beginnings of the billion-dollar empire: Ellison co-founded Software Development Labs (later Oracle) with late friend and business partner Robert Miner and Ed Oates in 1977

Plotting strategy with his founding team


The launch of the NT4: Larry Ellison's big mistake

Finally, the smell of success: He managed to build Oracle into a billion-dollar company, with head offices to match his new-found success

Larry Ellison's Billionaire Lifestyle

Larry Ellison and his fourth wife

Testing out his new private plane

 The Samurai Warrior' in his $200 million Japanese-styled mansion

The billion-dollar power "couple": the billionaire with one of his many girlfriends

Addicted to winning: the winner of the American cup - brought the trophy back to America after a 15-year trophy-less drought

Larry Ellison's $377 million yacht, the Rising Sun, is the 8th largest in the world

One of the billionaire's estate, complete with his own private golf-course

Watch this video for more on the incredible rags-to-riches success story of Larry Ellison:

Writing Your Success Story: When Things Don't Work Out, Do You Break?

Every great success story is usually preceded by a breakdown. Things don’t always seem to work out at some point. And the lengths of these points vary: it takes a year for some, months for others and years for most.

The only reason we usually end up talking about them though is because of the simple fact that the writers of these success stories never stopped writing when things seemed hardest.

The reason we like to see them, to hear them, to watch them and to want to be like them is simply because despite the periods of hardship that these people faced, they were always able to come back and complete their stories on their terms. That is why they are inspiring.

You have probably heard the story of Edison so many times that you don’t really appreciate what it means to try and fail 10,000 times. It is failure after failure and trial after trial. Talking about it is easy. Writing about it is also easy. But failing those many times and still having the courage to try again, that isn’t.

Failure is nasty. It’s bitter. It’s disgusting. But success isn’t. And the only way to get success is to get up and try again and again until you finally have a taste of the success that you want from life.

The Steve Jobs' success story has been termed one that can only happen in America. But we wouldn’t really be celebrating the guy as one of the greatest personalities of this century if he had stopped at building the first Apple machine. People wouldn’t be repeating his story so many times if it weren’t for the fact that he kept on investing in Pixar over and over again despite the fact that the company wasn’t making any money.

If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have had the financial muscle to make a total comeback to Apple and create the bounce-back of the century. And none of that would really have happened if he had decided to simply enjoy his wealth after being kicked out of Apple.

Michael Jordan is arguably one of the greatest sportsmen ever. Years after his retirement, he still makes over $80 million a year. But what really makes his story so wonderful to read and what makes him command so much respect is the fact that he had it in him to bounce back in style.

After being kicked out from high school team, he did the work and was able to be picked the next year. After his father died, he retired; but he found himself strong enough to go back to the game he loved. That first year back he didn’t really win the title, and many people were jeering saying that he was done and that his retirement had undone him. But he bounced back. He didn’t break. He bounced back and finished up his story. Time and time again when he felt it was incomplete, he went back and completed it. That is why many people consider him a legend.

Colonel Sanders had really done much in his life. He had tried a lot and failed. His wife left him because she thought he was a loser who could hold no job. He tried many ventures which succeeded for a time and then went under. He did this until he reached his retirement age. He received his retirement check from the US government as something to keep him comfortable as he waited to die.

To all, there was really nothing more to be done. He was old, he had lived well and had enjoyed some relative successes. Only he knew that there was still something more in him. There was more to his life story other than the “normal” life he had lived. Things had seemed to come to a standstill, but that is when he picked himself up and completed his success story by establishing one of the most successful franchising enterprises in American history. A billion dollar corporation resulted just out of an old man’s determination to write the last lines of his story on his own terms.

Things won’t always work out. Good things will not always happen. Things will not always happen perfectly according to the little plans in your head. This is a fact. It is just the way life is. However, the question is: will you break? Will you let the little extended dry patches deny you the opportunity to write your life’s story on your terms? When things don’t work out, will you crumble?

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Success Secrets: Your Special Problems Don’t Make you Special, Everybody Has Special Problems

You hear them all the time: all the special problems that people think guarantee them special treatment. Dysfunctional families, abusive parents, unsupportive neighbors, bad friends, bad luck, a bad economy, an unappreciative partner, a bad boss, homelessness… and the list goes on.

What these are, is simply petty excuses. They don’t make you special. They just make you like everyone else. They make you just part of the wider mass of normal human beings. Problems are everywhere, and yours don’t make you special!

There will always be someone with a worse problem and there will always be someone with a better problem. But none of that makes a difference. It is just how life is. None of that makes you deserve anyone’s pity. Because guess what, everybody thinks they deserve it too.

What really matters, and what really makes you special is the ability to deal with it. To forge on no matter how violently life pushes back. To keep in the game and to keep playing no matter how many times you lose. To take punch after punch without being knocked out. That… that is what makes you special.

I may not write about you. I may not know your success story. You may not experience the 15 minutes of fame. There may be no flashing lights, no accolades… no one may even know that you exist. But that sense of worth, that sense of knowing deep inside that no matter what, you are going to live. That no matter what, you are going to keep going after your dreams with a vengeance, that no matter what you are going to survive… that makes you extraordinary.

Let the masses whine. Let the masses seek for self-pity. Let the masses try hard to find excuses for not getting things done. But do not join them. Let them do what they want, let them cry as hard as they can, let them feel sorry for themselves but don’t let yourself be like every other average passerby in life.

It doesn’t mean that when it hurts you shouldn’t cry. Please do cry when you feel like. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t scream and give people your piece of mind. What’s the fun in living without that? It doesn’t mean that you should stop being human with human feelings. What it means is that when it is all said and done, you should have the heart, soul and mind to go after what you want with a vengeance. To be who you were meant to be without any compromises, apologies or excuses.

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Secrets To Success: Do What You Love Is The Worst Advice You Ever Got

It is the worst advice. It is the most stupid advice. And it will likely lead you to failure. Why? Because all successful people never became rich, successful or famous by doing what they love.

Any person who tells you that the secret to their success is “doing what you love” is simply telling you a lot of bull shit. He is telling you that because that is what looks cool and good. He tells you that because that is what success pop candy looks like. What is sad is that the majority of people get foolishly sold on this idea. They believe it and that is why there are so many miserable people in the world today.

Bill Gates did not become the richest man by doing what he loved. He loved math and he wanted to be a math professor. What led to his immense success? He stumbled upon computers, and suddenly he realized that he could do it better than most people. And with time, he ended up building a billion dollar empire. Not because he did what he had a passion for. Not because he ended up doing math all day!

George Soros, one of the most successful investors had a dream. He wanted to be a writer and a philosopher. So when he entered into the field of investing, his goal was to simply make $50, 000 so that he could concentrate on what he loved: writing and philosophy. He ended up sticking to investing because he discovered he was good at it. He also ended up making over a billion dollars in the process. And he ended up becoming one of the most successful investors of our time.

Mark Cuban started out as a computer salesman. He had been fired from several jobs before he discovered that he could sell computers and make a few dollars from them. Did he have a love for computers? Nope! He had a love for the freedom that came with money. He knew he had to work hard, and he worked hard. He learnt to code, to train and all those things, not because he had a natural love for them, but because it was at first necessary, and along the way, he discovered that he could do it better than most people. He ended up building his company into a multimillion dollar business: from ground to the top. He sold it. Started an internet company, not because he had a fondness for the internet, but because he saw an opportunity. Broadcast was born and he eventually became billionaire.

What about the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos? Did he love selling products? Did he naturally fall in love with the internet? Was his love for books so immense that he ended up forming Amazon? Absolutely not! He made a cross-country trip, discovered the increased use of the internet, heard about a Supreme Court ruling and then decided to leave his well-paying job to go to his garage and try out this little project he had. He was good on Wall Street, he loved science projects as a child, he was a good programmer and he must have had a love for these things or at least one of them. Were they the key to his success? Definitely NO!

Doing what you love is the key to success? Bullshit!

A Story About Success: Don’t Be The Hyena That Eats The Duck

You know of the story about the hyena and the duck? If you don’t, then here is how it goes…

The hyena is hungry and prays for the heavens to give him something to eat. After days of searching for a meal, he stumbles upon a duck’s eggs. From experience, he knows that they are nutritious and just what he needs. So, what he does is that he eats all of them.

While he is at it, he hears the duck approaching and so he goes and hides. And something amazing happens: the duck lays more eggs and again goes on its errands. The hyena, so grateful to the heavens for providing him with a meal, goes and eats all the eggs again. This happens for some time, and that is when the hyena stumbles upon a brilliant idea!

Instead of waiting every time for the duck to lay the eggs, why not just eat the whole duck and then get all the eggs that the duck is hiding in its belly? Brilliant, right? And it made perfect sense because it is absolutely not fair for the duck to keep on keeping the hyena waiting. 

And so the hyena, knowing that opportunity knocks only once, goes ahead and eats the duck. It’s obvious what happens next: he dies of hunger because he never really discovered where the duck was hiding its eggs. He died frustrated because he thought that the little duck had outsmarted him!

We see this happening every day. The entrepreneur who is so eager for success that he ends up over-stretching his business. There is the person who thinks that knowing all that he can about his or her business or profession is a waste of time. The start-up that is so eager to expand that it gets itself into some pretty bad contractual agreements. There is the business establishment that thinks that overcharging its customers is a great key to success. There are so many people who get “brilliant” ideas that end up causing them to crash and burn. And the success stories still continue to be written.

The Secret To Rigging The Game Of Success

Life is a game and it has its own rules. So is success. But unlike most games in which you get penalized, breaking the established rules of success and life may be what you need to hit a jackpot. The only problem is that, there is no guarantee that breaking the rules, following the rules or following your heart will guarantee you success in life. 

“Unless you have courage, a courage that keeps you going, always going, no matter what happens, there is no certainty of success. It is really an endurance race.”

-Henry Ford

But there is a way to totally rig the game in your favor. And that is to keep playing. You can never be certain of getting whatever you want unless you keep playing. Unless you manage to stand up each and every time you fall and unless you find your balance every time something trips you off, you can never really be sure of success.

The success stories of successful men in the world today are testament to this fact. Every once in a while people experience setbacks and more often than not, it is only by staying in the game that these people get to win big in the end. Walt Disney’s first business went bankrupt. Abraham Lincoln failed far much more times than any man could reasonably have persevered. Even Apple and Steve Jobs faced their huddles along the way. And so has Bill Gates and Microsoft – they have made super-blunders in some of the software they have come up with. Simon Cowell, after experiencing a period of initial success, became bankrupt and was forced to go back crawling to his mother’s house.

These are just but a few of some of the most successful people in the world. There are far much more success stories and many are still being written. And all of these real-life stories show that the only way to be sure of success in life and in business is to keep in the game. To keep on rolling with the punches and to keep at it.

If you fail, it doesn’t mean that it is over. If you experience setbacks, that is just but a small bump on your way to success. Don’t let the little distractions in life rob you of the success you deserve. Let them not rob you of the life that you want. Don’t, simply because if you do, then your story of success will never really be complete.

As long as you can breathe and as long as you are alive, stay in the game. Keep playing. This is the only way that you can be sure of success. It is the only way to rig the game in your favor. So, keep playing – no matter what. Keep at it, and you can be sure that life will have no other option but to give you all that you want.

5 Celebrity Rags To Riches Success Stories You Should Know

Fancy restaurants, exotic vacations and a lot of glitz and glamour is what most people usually associate celebrities with. However, to get to the level that they can afford these things, some of the celebrities have had to undergo a lot of poverty and suffering. Here is a glimpse at 5 Hollywood inspiring rags to riches success stories that you need to know.

# 1 The Sylvester Stallone Success Story

He was homeless. At some point, a Port Authority bus station was all he could afford as a home. He had to also sell some of his wife’s jewelry along the way as he chased his dream of being an actor. There is also the story of selling his dog for fifty bucks at a liquor store.

It was not just poverty that Sylvester Stallone had to deal with. There were also the rejections. More often than not, he got rejected for roles he auditioned for because “he spoke and looked funny.” The studio that bought Rocky didn't even want him playing the role in the first place! The only thing that made them relent was that he refused to sell the script to them unless he played the lead role. But that was way before he played Rocky and the other action films that brought him international stardom and recognition.

#2 The Hilary Swank Celebrity Success Story

She is the girl who lived in a trailer park. Hilary Swank’s dream to become an actor led she and her mother to move to Hollywood with only $75 to their name. That money wasn't enough for them to rent a house and for a while, they had to live in their car. Bookings and auditions were made through pay phones. But all that was before she strolled her way into two Oscars and a lot of money.

#3 The Carmen Electra Success Story

After her 1991 tour, Carmen Electra spent several years without a home in Hollywood while waiting for her “next break”. Things however nearly fell apart when her former boyfriend ran away with all the money she had at the time. As she admits, this made her to almost give up on the chances of her dreams coming true. But she didn’t. And now, she is not only celebrity, but a rich celebrity with all the glitz and the glamour that comes with it.

#4 The Djimon Hounsou Story

Before he became a famous fashion model and before he played a part in both Blood Diamonds and Gladiator, Djimon Hounsou lived in the streets. While he had hoped for a better life by his moving from Africa at the age of 13, he ended up in the streets.

As he says: “I lived on the streets for some time — fighting for survival, searching out nothing more than my daily necessities for a meager existence.”

But that was before he was discovered by a fashion designer on the streets. He got a break in modeling and as they say, the rest is history. He never looked back.

#5 The Susan Boyle Success Story

Everyone remembers he audition, especially the skepticism that was in the theatre when she walked onto the stage. She had never been married and at the time, she was unemployed. She had also never had much of her schooling and the pursuit of her dream had seen her sing in churches, local bars and singing competitions.

But that was before the Britain Got Talent audition. The audition video alone went viral and thus making her an instant international celebrity. She later went on to produce various number one albums that have earned her an excess of £22 million in personal fortune. She is now a celebrity with a lot of money. She is far away from being “Simple Susie”.

Susan Boyle Success Story: From Susie Simple To International Sensation

Susan Boyle spent her early years being called “Susie Simple”. She was bullied in school and a learning disability led to her dropping out of school early. With little educational qualifications, the only time that she was really employed was as a trainee cook. This was for only six months.

She had a dream to be a successful singer and she tried to make her dreams come true. She sang at every opportunity she got. She sang in churches, in local pubs and at every avenue that could give her a stage. She also took singing lessons and attended Edinburg Acting School.

Confident of her ability to sing, Susan Boyle used all her savings to pay for a professionally cut demo for her music. She sent these to record companies, radio talent competitions, local and national TV; but nothing came of it. She had had a dream but nothing seemed to be working out for her.

When she clocked 47, age wise, she almost believed that she was too old to pursue her dream of singing. She had given up on making her life a success story. In fact, she had even considered turning away from the opportunity to sing in the British Got Talent show. But her voice coach convinced her otherwise.

Her decision to walk onto the British Got Talent stage was the turning point of the Susan Boyle Success Story. Her audition clip went viral on YouTube and it is estimated that within 9 days of her audition, he videos had been watched over 100 million times.

After the show, she went on to release her first album which debut at the number one spot in charts all over the world. This was followed by other albums that were equally successful and thus cementing herself as an international celebrity. All the years of being “Susie Simple”, the Karaoke sessions in pubs and her determination to not give up on her dream finally paid up.

Because of her determination and hard work, Susan Boyle is now a millionaire, many times over. She has also lived to see her dream of becoming as successful as Elaine Paige come into reality. More importantly, her voice has colored many people’s homes and she has made her contribution to the world. Her’s is an inspiring success story for all people who are still working towards their dreams.

Stephen King Success Story: The Journey Of A Bestselling Author

With over 350 million novels sold, Stephen King is a real success story. It is more of a rags-to-riches success story for a man who was raised by a struggling single mother. For a time, this master storyteller  his brother and mother had to live off handouts from neighbors. As he says:

“My mother was a single parent. Her husband deserted her when I was 2, and she went through a lot of menial jobs. We were the little people. We were dragged from pillar to post, and there was none of this equal opportunity stuff going on at that time. We were latchkey kids before there were latchkey kids, and she was a female wage earner when, basically, women did scut work and cleaned up other people's messes.”

Stephen King was far from an overnight success. Although he started writing early in his life he had a long way to go before becoming the multi-million dollar writer that he is today. Early on, he was a struggling author, and as the earnings from his writings was not enough, he had to work as an industrial laundromat, a janitor and an English teacher in a public school. He struggled to pay his bills and wrote whenever he could.

Stephen King’s success story took a turn for the better when he finished writing the manuscript for Carrie. For this, he received a $2500 advance. The book did not disappoint when it got published. In fact, it was so successful that it ended up being adapted into a movie in 1976. That was not the best part though. The phone call that informed him of the sale of the rights to New American Library was. King was to get half of the $400,000 sale price!

What followed was a rollercoaster ride that saw Stephen King write over 50 novels. The novels have earned Stephen King both money and awards. He has over the years received: Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, British Fantasy Society Awards, an O. Henry Award, a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Canadian Booksellers Association Lifetime Achievement Award and the Grand Master Award. His is an inspiring success story for aspiring writers.

Stephen King Success Quotes

J.A. Konrath Success Story: The Journey Of Indie Publishing’s Most Vocal Champion

“In the ten years I was legacy published, I made about $450k. In the four years I've self-published, I've made over 1.1 million dollars.”

J.A. Konrath is one of the most vocal advocates of self-publishing. This is no surprise considering the frustrations that he encountered while trying to chase his dream of being a writer. His publisher even cancelled his contract for his books supposedly not “having promise”. Most of these books ended up on bestseller lists. Here is J.A. Konrath’s self publishing success story.

“ Those novels garnered over 500 rejections.”

During the ten years that Konrath was trying to jumpstart his career as an author, he wrote over 10 books. This is in addition to investing a lot of time and money not only to get his stories published, but also to promote them.

Years of struggle to make his dream to be a published author finally bore fruit when his first novel was accepted by a publisher. He signed the deal in 2002, but it was not until after 16 months that his book finally got published.

He had finally got published but the J.A Konrath success story had not yet really taken a positive dive. A few stores ordered hardcover copies of his work and given the pricing and the little support he got from the publishers, sales never really took off. This is despite Konrath dropping in on signings, hand-selling his hardcovers and using a big piece of his $33,000 advance in writing conferences and book fairs around the country.

He however continued writing in between. By 2005, he had finished another novel and was ready to get published. He however didn’t sell a lot of books and so there was really not a lot of support from his publishers. In an attempt to earn the trust of his publisher, he visited over 500 bookstores in 29 states just to prove that he could make the sales happen.

His efforts to make his self publishing success story complete prove futile. In fact, by 2007 when he gets out his fourth novel, his contract is cancelled. As he admits, that was a devastating blow to his writing dreams since it meant that there would be no more support from his publisher.

“But I soldier on”

With his contract cancelled and with no support from the publisher, Konrath’s success story went to a new level. He now had to rely on reorders from faithful fans and on sales that he did personally. His efforts bear fruits as he manages to get his books into multiple prints. This is however not enough to get his titles to be picked by another publisher.

He finally decided to change his name to Jack Killborn in the hope of attracting a new fan base. All the while, with the money he had spent on self promotion, his writing career seemed to end…

“Then this Kindle thing comes along.”

When the Kindle came and the opportunity to self publish came along, J.A. Konrath jumped at it. This is so because it simply meant that he not only had complete control over his work, but also that his work could get maximum exposure without necessarily spending a lot of money.

Self-publishing on the Kindle saw his sales go through the roof. It finally made his self publishing success story go a complete circle. He says:

“I got all of my rights back, and my six week Kindle total is $116,000, which is more than the first three-book deal I signed. For those same books.”

“Don't write hoping to quit your day job. Don't compare yourself to me, or anyone else. This is your journey, and it will be unique to you.”

“So far this month I've sold over 10,000 copies of Whiskey Sour. That was legacy published in 2004. From then until I got my rights back, Whiskey Sour sold about 35,000 ebooks. So in 24 days, on my own, I've sold about 1/3 of what my publisher took nine years to sell.”

“Read my blog, going back to 2005. I worked for twelve years and wrote a million words before making a dime, and it took another ten years for me to be making this much money. I've got over fifty ebooks. And I'll cop to a bit of egotism and say I've never met anyone who ever worked harder in their career than I did. So the snide answer would be: Bust your ass for twenty years, with very little reward.”

(J.A. Konrath Quotes)

Amanda Hocking Self Publishing Success Story: The 26 year Old Indie Author Bestseller

Amanda Hocking sold over 185, 000 books between July 2010 and January 1^st 2011. That is in less than 7 months! This is no mean feat for someone who had worked as a dishwasher and who had spent five and a half of her years working in group homes for the disabled just to pay the bills. This is also in addition to the fact that she had never been traditionally published. Her journey to becoming a self publishing success story was not easy though. Here is her journey as an indie author.

Amanda Hocking admits that she has always had a love for telling stories. As a kid, she told stories even before she could learn how to write. She started with writing on notebooks and by the time she got her first computer at age 11, she had enough material to write a novel.

Since Amanda’s dream and passion was writing, she took advantage of every opportunity she had to write and learn how to write. She attended English classes in high school, English and writing classes in community colleges and even attended a writing workshop for two years. This was while she still held a day job as a dishwasher and worked in group homes for people with disabilities, just to be able to pay her bills.

July was not her first attempt to be published. By then, she had written 12 books and she had been trying to get published for almost 8 years, getting rejection after rejection. When she finally heard about self-publishing, she chose to try it out simply because there was really nothing worse that could happen. She first published on Lulu, but that was not where her success story began to take a turn for the better. None of her eBooks at Lulu sold.

Her efforts at self publishing on Lulu proving to be no success, she later decided to self-publish on Kindle. That is when she started selling. By August 2010, she had sold enough copies to leave her day job and concentrate on her passion which is basically to write. Amanda Hocking’s success story continues to inspire many aspiring authors. This is in addition to the inspiration that she gives her readers through her books.

Mark Cuban Success Story: From Sleeping On The Floor to Over 2 Billion Dollars

“When I got to Dallas, I was struggling - sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment. I used to drive around, look at the big houses, and imagine what it would be like to live there.”

-Mark Cuban 

Mark Cuban rose from being the guy who got fired by bosses to become the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks. This is in addition to having a personal fortune of $2.4 billion. He is a self-made billionaire, and as is with all success stories of the self-made filthy rich, his journey to belonging to the exclusive class of billionaires was no easy feat. Here is his success story.

Mark Cuban’s success story began in earnest after he decided to move to Dallas in his 1977 Fiat X19. This was after having been fired several times. He and his friends had to share a 3 bed-roomed apartment, and since they were six, some of them had to sleep on the floor. As he puts it:

“We had only three bedrooms and three beds. I slept on the floor. I had no closet and no dresser. I just stacked my clothes in a corner. The place was a dump, and we just destroyed it even more.”

Starting out, he worked as a bartender for some time. Thereafter, he got lucky so far as his employment search efforts were concerned and got himself a job as a computer salesman. It was however not long before he got fired from the job – again!

That was the turning point in his life. He then made up his mind not to deal with bosses again. His first major venture after setting for Dallas was a business under the name MicroSolutions. In his new company, Mark started out acting as a salesperson, a trainer and also a programmer. As for the programming, he had to learn by himself on the job.

A few years down the line, his determination, effort and willingness to innovate and quickly adapt to change turned the business into a company generating in excess of $30 million in revenues. He was finally financially successful.

But the Mark Cuban success story does not end there. He later sold his company to CompuServe and the capital he got from it enabled him to start a venture that made him a billionaire. That was the founding of Broadcast.com, a company that he sold to Yahoo! for over $2 billion.

He still actively invests. He no longer looks at the big houses to admire them. In fact, he once even bought a mansion worth $15 million without even having looked at it! He also doesn’t sleep on the floor and as he says, he loves his life and loves living. Mark Cuban’s success story is a true “rags” to riches story.

The True Rags To Riches Success Story of Andrew Carnegie

“People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.”

-Andrew Carnegie

With a net worth of over $298.7 billion, Andrew Carnegie is certainly one of the richest men who has ever lived. This is by far no mediocre achievement for a man whose father could not find a job. In fact, by the time his father was on his deathbed, Carnegie was the only breadwinner for the family. He was by then 20 years old.

His rags-to-riches success story started after the family moved from Scotland in 1848. Shortly after settling in the country, he started working as a bobbin boy for a textile mill earning a meager $1.20 per week. His journey to success saw him tending to steam engines and boilers, becoming a messenger, personal telegrapher and working as a superintendent in a railroad company.

What is interesting about the Andrew Carnegie success story is that throughout the various stages in his early life, he continued to work despite the income from his investments bringing in more money than his salary. There was also nothing meteoric about his success story in that all along, he simply reinvested the money he earned.

By the time he formed Carnegie Steel, his wealth tube, Andrew Carnegie had invested in a sleeping car company, an oil company and various transportation companies among others. He later used his investments to form Carnegie Steel, a company which ended up making him the owner of the most extensive integrated iron and steel operations in the United States. He later sold his company for over $480 million.

The next stage of the Andrew Carnegie success story saw him devoting his life to philanthropy. He even wrote a book about it. Thanks to his determination, hard work and generous heart, we now have the Carnegie Hall, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Carnegie Hero Fund, Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh among many others.

His is a true rags-to-riches success story that shows that through sheer will and determination, any man or woman can rise to the top.

Andrew Carnegie Success Quotes:

“Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.”

"Anything in life worth having is worth working for.”

“The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.”

"Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.”

“Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.”

“There’s always room at the top in every pursuit.”