WhatsApp has been in the news lately because of the $19 billion Facebook is paying to acquire it. I don’t have a smart phone, so I don’t use the app they created, but I am interested in the story of Jan Koum, the CEO and cofounder of WhatsApp. He was born in the Ukraine and — because of anti-Semitism and the unstable political situation there — immigrated to California with his mother when he was 16. They worked but needed public help for food and housing. When WhatsApp signed the deal with Facebook they did it in front of the building where he had previously gone for food stamps. Forbes has the details in Exclusive: The Rags-To-Riches Tale Of How Jan Koum Built WhatsApp Into Facebook’s New $19 Billion Baby. Yay, Jan!
Another famous rags-to-riches story, of course, was J. K. Rowling. She was a single mother needing government help for a while. But then she started writing the Harry Potter series and became a multimillionaire within five years.
Both of those stories warm my heart. What about you?
February 22, 2014
Yes, stories of people who go from rags to riches are always fascinating. Sometimes it’s because of sheer hard work and determination, sometimes it’s just a matter of luck. I think in J K Rowling’s case it was partly luck, because she had no idea Harry Potter would seize people’s imagination in the way he did.
Another recent example here is Jack Monroe, a gay mum who was penniless a few years back and is now quite famous as a food blogger, author and Guardian journalist.
I just looked her up. Thank you for telling me about her.
I am fascinated by both rags to riches and riches to rags stories and I can cite a number of them from each category. Oddly enough, the latter brings out the best in people and they become somehow better human beings than the former. In my story series I have written about cases from each type.
There is then the freeloader phenomenon which is very common here, in the form of the spouse and/or children becoming obnoxious characters because one spouse goes from rags to riches!
Human beings fascinate me.
They fascinate me too!
not sure it was all just good luck for rowling. i understand she pounded the pavement herself going from publisher to publisher… all of which turned her down repeatedly.
finally one took! that’s hard work and striving on in spite of rejection!
don’t you know those other foolish publishers are kicking themselves now!!!
another rags to riches is our very own ‘pioneer woman’ … ree drummond. who turned her witty and delicious blog into a mini empire… now with books and an hgtv cooking show that airs constantly. she lives on a ranch as she says is “in the middle of nowhere” here in our state up by the oklahoma panhandle. she home schools and is a real sweetheart.
i suppose with all our picky political problems and our tendency to dislike and ill treat emmigrants always at first … i.e. irish. italian. russian. mexican…. the list goes on…
we still lift the lamp beside the golden door…
and they still have the chance to live their dream… whether american or foreign.
as in the boys in the garage that gave us this idea of a machine to blog!!! LOLOL!
love you monk.
love your posts. ?
it’s still a working ranch.
how did the question mark get there??? HAHAHA. i love your posts. period!
what’s happening? it’s still a working ranch… that was up above.
i’m going to have to get with those boys in the garage.
Yes, writing Harry Potter was a lot of work for Rowling, and creating WhatsApp was a lot of work and uncertainty for Koum too. The important thing is there are still a lot of opportunities for people who are willing to work for their dreams. I wish even more were successful.
I use Bert’s Bees lip balm at a big price. It has no petroleum in it like Chap Stick. It’s worth not “eating” petroleum.
Bert was selling his honey on the street. A woman helped him market many bees wax products. It’s a multi-million $$ business now.
The power of marketing! Good for that lady — and Bert.
a number of “rags to riches” folk in New Zealand – probably all around the world…
along with folk who had a “boring” job and thought of something else they could do, more profitably than they are doing right now…
it’s about taking a chance…
One of my favorite books is Be a Free Range Human: Escape the 9-5, Create a Life You Love and Still Pay the Bills by Marianne Cantwell. She has a lot of great stories of people who have created lives they love. It’s not just about money. I already have the life I love, and I love reading about people who have theirs too.