20 ‘Rags to Riches’ Stories That Are Completely Bogus
Rich people love to talk about how they worked so hard for their money, but fail to mention that their parents also worked hard for their money and their grandparents.
They love to tell these stories to try and relate to us common folks, but don't see how their stories don't relate to any of us, because we don't have a rich mom and dad to hold our hands the entire way.
Over at r/AskReddit, we found some of the richest people and how they lied about their "rags to riches" stories.
1.
Ayn Rand. Claimed to come from nothing but grew up in a wealthy family in Russia (to be fair they DID get all their stuff taken from them by the Soviet Union government though) but got constant handouts and connections through her parents when she came to America. u/OldMastodon5363
2.
Didn’t kylie Jenner get an award for ‘youngest self made billionaire’ or something ridiculous when we all know she didn’t do that herself. u/Barn_Brat
3.
Drake who grew up in a "ghetto" (in Canada) yet could afford to play hockey as a kid, was on TV at 15 because of connections, and his first concert was as the opening for Ice Cube. Definitely didn't "start from the bottom." u/annoyedperson420X
4.
Trump used to claim that he got his start with "a small loan of 1 million dollars" but in fact he was given over 400 million dollars and a Manhattan real estate portfolio worth nearly a billion dollars. u/CarlSpencer
5.
Jeff Bezos was a hedge fund manager and VP at a banking firm before he founded amazon. His grandparents were well-to-do energy politicians. u/SweetCosmicPope
6.
Ed Sheeran. There was even a false story he was "homeless" in his early career, no doubt pushed by his record label. Reality: he went to private school and has rich parents. u/theboldgobolder
7.
Bill Gates starting Microsoft in his garage. His mother was the child of a banker who was the child of a Federal Reserve chairman. She was also on the board of IBM, University of Washington, a major bank, and United Way. His father was a lawyer. u/norbertus
8.
Every young person that the news always puts articles out about who are like “this is how I managed to buy a home at 22”. They’re rich. That’s always the answer. They work a 9-5 and they save €50 a week, their parents left them €100,000 and they don’t order takeaways. If we can do it so can you! u/Spooky_Cron
9.
Musk likes to play around with the whole I came from nothing stick. But doesn't tell you his father owned a god damn diamond mine. u/Lizzy_Of_Galtar
11.
Billie Eilish. People think she did it herself as a young teen but her family has been in the industry for years. u/gummybearghost
13.
Mao Zedong. His father was a very wealthy farmer. Matter of fact, the wealthiest of his region. u/SatisfactionSenior65
14.
Ariana Grande for sure. Don't know if she's exactly considered "rags to riches" necessarily. But she had a ton, A TON, of support and funding from her family and peers since childhood within the theatre and entertainment industry. u/GreenerPeach01
15.
Conor McGregor. A lot of people seem to think he was homeless. He wasn't. I grew up around the corner from his family home. His family wasn't rich, but they certainly weren't poor either. u/agingercow
16.
Not really well known for being rich but Charles Darwin. In fact the only way you could focus on discovering and researching the laws of nature was if you were rich back then because you needed the time and resources (money and a ship, which also cost money) to do anything other than work for pay and not starving to death. But Charles colleague (forgot his name) encouraged Charles to publish his theory of evolution book. and he did go from rags to riches by selling his animal specimens to Darwin but then got poor again after investing in railroads (there’s a line named after him that’s near New Zealand). u/Blueberry_Clouds
17.
Watching the Arnold documentary series on Netflix, I saw as Arnie was trying to break into acting he was already a millionaire, not from bodybuilding, but from real estate. Never knew that. Obviously he still came from a small Austrian village to become a famous bodybuilder and millionaire real estate mogul, before becoming a movie star. u/whitniverse
18.
Jewel. Back in the 90s, people fell in love with the songwriter-poet-in-a-trailer-becomes-a-superstar story. They left out the part where she lived in a trailer intentionally and had her boyfriend write her breakout single. u/DudeBroggieHouser
19.
Dave Ramsey. Fucking turd burglar was an idiot with his riches from real estate and then got rich giving people common sense advice of how not to go broke like he did and maybe by the time they are 70 they might be able to retire comfortably. Give up all personal happiness so you can have a good retirement is basically his philosophy unless you are working a 150,000+ salary job. u/GVFQT
20.
Dwayne Johnson loves to talk about how at one point he only had six dollars to his name. What he leaves out is that he did that with experience playing (under a scholarship) for an elite college football program and with a father and grandfather who were famous professional wrestlers and whose former boss would bend over backwards to do them favors and give Dwayne an open invitation. u/jayhof52
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