10 Most Inspiring Start-Up Stories

Succeeding as an entrepreneur can be challenging -- especially when you're first starting out. Other professionals might suggest you go to school or attend a class here and there to help you navigate the cut-throat world of commerce. But is formal education all it really takes to be a good entrepreneur?

Not necessarily. Sometimes, what you really need is a strong will-power and powerful motivation. Here are ten inspiring startup stories of businessmen and women who, despite poverty, rejection, lack of education, and business experience, built celebrated business empires.

1. Jack Ma - Alibaba

A native of Hangzhou, China, Jack Ma has gone through his fair share of rejection. He was denied four times before being admitted into college. After graduating in 1988, he was turned down for job after job.

Eventually, Ma managed to raise $20,000 to build an online directory for Chinese businesses in 1995. This was the start of Alibaba. An online eCommerce marketplace, Alibaba has made him one of the richest people in the world. His estimated net worth is about $43 billion.

2. Andy Thornton - Andy Thornton Ltd.

Poverty certainly didn't keep Andy Thornton from turning out a success story. Growing up, his family lived out of a trolleybus before moving onto a farm in Lincolnshire. Andy loved woodwork from a young age, and his skill eventually got him into Loughborough University. There, he earned a degree in Education, hoping to become a woodwork teacher.

Instead of teaching, he started auctioning architectural salvage like doors, panels, pub tops, and stained glass windows. He shipped these parts from England to America and made big profits. As of 2008, Thornton's company, Andy Thornton Ltd., employs 180 people and has a GDP of about ?18 million.

3. Broderick Steve Harvey - Steve Harvey Global

"Family Feud" host Steve Harvey has had to break a lot of barriers in his career before founding Steve Harvey Global, including homelessness. After working as an autoworker, a boxer, an insurance salesman, a mailman, and a carpet cleaner, he got his break when he performed his first stand-up comedy on April 16, 1990.

Since then he's hosted "It's Showtime at the Apollo," "Me and the Boys," and "Little Big Shots." He finally started Steve Harvey Global in 2017, an entertainment company with numerous subsidiaries.

4. Sophia Amoruso - Nasty Gal

In 2006, Sophia Amoruso, founded the vintage clothing line Nasty Gal on eBay. Amoruso went through quite a lot before her breakthrough into the market. She shoplifted, hitchhiked, and stole leftovers from waste bins just to survive.

After starting her business, Amoruso's revenue jumped from $223,000 in 2008 to about $23 million in 2011.

5. Steve Jobs - APPLE Inc.

IT legend, Steve Jobs, worked hard to save up and collaborate with Steve Wozniak to found Apple. He was worth $1 million when he was 23, $10 million when he turned 24, and over $100 million by the time he turned 25.

But even Jobs' road to success wasn't without its potholes. After losing his company to an employee, he started another company and merged with APPLE to give us the IOS we know and love today.

6. Mike Adenuga Jnr. - Globacom Telecommunications.

Born on April 29, 1953, Mike became one of the greatest African businessmen of our time. From humble beginnings, he's now considered one of the richest black men in the world.

Mike worked as a taxi cab driver and a security guard to support his education in the U.S. Afterward, he traveled back to Nigeria and worked his way up in the oil industry. In 2006, Mike launched Globacom which now competes with telecom giants across West Africa. Dr. Mike Adenuga currently controls Africa's largest business empire which comprises oil and gas, telecoms, aviation, real estate, and banking.

7. Jan Koum - WhatsApp

After teaching himself how to code, Jan was rejected by Facebook on a job search, but in 2009 he created an app (WhatsApp) which Facebook acquired for $19 billion in 2014. He accumulated over $9 billion from all his business deals, etching his name into entrepreneurship history.

8. Oprah Winfrey - Oprah Winfrey Show

Born to a single teenage mother, Oprah had a rough childhood, often growing up without basic necessities. She ran away from home at the age of 13 after being molested for years by her uncle, cousin, and a family friend.

She was later sent to school, but Winfrey got her big break when she was featured on A.M Chicago. Eventually, the show was rebranded to be the Oprah Winfrey Show. She's currently the richest African-American woman with a net worth of about $2.9 billion.

9. Pierre Omidyar - eBay

This man created a website to auction his unwanted personal belongings but noticed that it gained massive traffic as the demand for useless products was so high.

Later on, he re-branded the website to eBay and became a billionaire practically overnight. He founded other companies and is currently worth over $11 billion.

10. Bill Gates - Microsoft

Gates is said to have been a billionaire long before he became the CEO of one of the most influential tech giants worldwide. He supposedly built software and made a $20,000 sale at the age of 15.

He had been good with mathematics in school - a talent which drove him to his passion for computers and programming at an early age of 13. In 1975, Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen. The software company went on to become the biggest technology corporation in the world to date.

Life for a small business owner can pose so many challenges but these entrepreneurs have changed the narrative over the years. If they can make it, so can you.