How many billionaires were born into wealth? And how many of them worked to become a self-made billionaire?
This question can be answered through Forbe's self-made score, which is used to differentiate how people became wealthy. Each billionaire on the Forbes billionaire list is assigned a self-made score.
The scoring system is 1-10, 1-5 is those who have inherited their wealth 1 is someone who is not working to increase it at all and 5 is someone who inherited a small or medium-sized business and has worked to build it to a ten-digit fortune.
6 is someone who was hired into the business, not someone who created it.
7-10 are those who are considered self-made, if they have a score of 7-8 they are self-made but they had a helping hand being from a wealthy/middle-class background.
9 is someone who “rose from little to nothing”
A score of 10 is someone who grew up poor but who also overcame significant obstacles.
In the list of self-made billionaires, how many of them are women? How did they make their wealth? And who are the richest self-made women?
Diane Hendricks is the richest self-made woman
Self-made score: 9
Source of Wealth: Building supplies
Net Worth: £16.2 billion GBP
- Diane is the chairwoman of ABC Supply, which is one the largest distributors of roofing and windows in the USA.
- She co-founded the company in the 1970s.
- ABC Supply earned £1 billion in annual sales for the first time in 1998.
- ABC Supply has over 900 branches and in 2023 she made £16.2 billion in revenue.
- She has spent millions on local economic development, rebuilding entire blocks and bringing in many new businesses into development.
Judy Love is one of the wealthiest female self-made billionaires in the world
Self-made score: 9
Source of Wealth: Gas stations, convenience stores
Net Worth: £9.1 billion GBP
- Judy and her husband foundered the truck stop and convenience store chain named Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores in 1964.
- They leased their first gas station in Watonga, Oklahoma using a £4000 loan from her husband’s family.
- Love’s has more than 644 stores in 42 states, and earns an estimated revenue of £18 billion.
Judy Faulkner is a top self-made female billionaire
Self-made score: 8
Source of Wealth: Healthcare software
Net Worth: £5.9 billion GBP
- Judy is the founder of a medical record software company called Epic Systems, she created it in her basement in 1979.
- She wrote the original code for the software herself.
- Her company supports the medical records of over 250 million patients and is used by top medical centres such as Johns Hopkins and Mayo Clinic
- Faulkner signed the Giving Pledge in 2015 and has agreed to eventually give 99% of her assets to a charitable organisation.
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Thai Lee is a self-made billionaire
Self-made score: 9
Source of Wealth: IT provider
Net Worth: £5.3 billion GBP
- Thai Lee is the CEO of IT provider SHI International, which is worth £11 billion.
- SHI International has 20,000+ customers, including Boeing and AT&T.
- Born in Bangkok, grew up in South Korea and then moved to the USA for high school.
- Due to English not being her first language she ruled out a professional that involved writing and speaking. She instead focused on biology and economics.
- She knew she would have the best chance of success if she started her own business due to the fact that she failed in all other professions.
Elizabeth Uihlein has become a self-made billionaire
Self-made score: 7
Source of Wealth: Packaging materials
Net Worth: £5.1 billion GBP
- She is the president of Uline, which is North America's biggest distributor of shipping, packaging and industrial supplies.
- She and her husband started Uline in their basement in 1980, it has now grown to have over 8500 employees.
- Elizabeth and her husband are major donors to conservative causes and organisations.
Lynda Resnick is a female self-made billionaire
Self-made score: 8
Source of Wealth: Agriculture
Net Worth: £4.3 billion GBP
- Lynda co-founded the Wonderful Company with her husband, where they began farming fruits and nuts.
- The Wonderful Company is among the largest farming companies in the US.
- Lynda dropped out of college at 19 to open an ad agency and her now husband met her through being a client of her business.
- Lynda co-runs Wonderful and focuses on philanthropy, her family has pledged more than £2 billion to charitable causes.
Marian Ilitch is one of the top richest self-made women
Self-made score: 9
Source of Wealth: Restaurants
Net Worth: £3.5 billion GBP
- Marian and her husband co-founded Little Caesars Pizza in 1959.
- Little Caesars Pizza is the third largest pizza chain by total sales in the US, annually it makes over £5 billion in sales.
- Marian also owns the Detroit Red Wings NHL team and MotorCity Casino Hotel.
- In the early days of their business, her husband paid for Rosa Park's rent for years and gave away free pizzas.
Gail Miller has become a part of the top 10 richest self-made billionaires
Self-made score: 7
Source of Wealth: Car dealerships
Net Worth: £3.4 billion GBP
- She owns the Larry H. Miller Group, which is in the real estate, healthcare, finance and entertainment industry.
- They turned a Toyota dealership into the eighth-largest auto dealership in the USA.
- They bought the Utah Jazz NBA team in 1986 for $22 million USD and in 2020 they sold it for $1.66 billion USD.
Johnelle Hunt is a female who has become a self-made billionaire
Self-made score: 7
Source of Wealth: Trucking
Net Worth: £3.4 billion GBP
- In 1961 Johnelle and her late husband sold their family home and took out a loan to begin a rice hull packing operation.
- Within 8 years they brought five trucks and seven trailers, launching their trucking firm J.B. Hunt Transport Services.
- Their business is now one of the biggest transportation companies in the USA, with £9.8 billion in sales.
Eren Ozmen is a self-made billionaire, making her one of the richest women who are self-made
Self-made score: 9
Source of Wealth: Aerospace
Net Worth: £2.8 billion GBP
- Eren Ozmen is president and majority owner of an aerospace and defence company called Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC).
- SNC’s spacecraft is contacted by NASA for seven cargo missions to the International Space Station.
- Ozmen and her husband Fatih, are both Turkish immigrants and they used their house as collateral to get a loan and take control of SNC in a management buyout.
- Ozmen sold baklava and cleaned SNC’s office building to put herself through business school.
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