There are many journeys to success, and numerous life stories to prove it. While some entrepreneurs pursue an MBA or are groomed for entrepreneurship at a young age, others have more unconventional career paths and started their own business after much professional maneuvering.
Many of the most famous entrepreneurs today had extremely humble beginnings, while others were rather successful in a particular field but decided to pursue their own business endeavors instead. Here are some of the most surprising and fascinating first jobs of some of the most powerful business moguls of our day.
Warren Buffett – chewing gum salesman and newspaper boy
Many of us know of Warren Buffett as a lucrative multi-billionaire investor, but he had a variety of odd jobs throughout his childhood and high school years. As a kid, Buffett sold chewing gum and Coke door-to-door, moonlighted at his grandfather’s grocery story, detailed cars and in high school made a steady income delivering newspapers. On his first tax filing in 1944, Buffett deducted $35 for the bicycle and watch he used on his paper route.
Martha Stewart – model and stockbroker
The head of the massive Martha Stewart media empire was once a Jersey girl who babysat the children of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and other players for the Yankees. She began modeling at the age of 13, and continued all the way through her twenties to help pay for her education at Barnard College. After college her career took a dramatic turn many don’t know about: she worked as a stockbroker for five years. It was only after this that she began a catering business that would lead her down the path of home and lifestyle business.
Andrew Carnegie – bobbin boy at a cotton mill
The legendary industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, was born into a very modest weaver’s family in Scotland. His parents moved to Pennsylvania in search of a better life, and Carnegie took his first job at the age of 14 as a “bobbin boy” in a Pittsburgh cotton factory. He worked 12 hours a day changing thread spools (every day except Sunday) for $1.20 a week. His uncle later set him up with a job as a telegraph messenger boy, which allowed Carnegie to network with a lot of influential men and build a career in the railroad industry while still in his teens.
George Lucas – aspiring racecar driver
While this career never came to fruition, it’s too fascinating not to share. George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars saga and the Lucasfilms production company, was once determined to be a racecar driver. He used to hang out in garages and even drove in risky underground racing circuits in high school. When he was 18, Lucas got in a disastrous car accident that caused his car to flip over and his career goals to take a few sharp turns as well.
Michael Bloomberg – parking lot attendant
Michael Bloomberg, the business magnate and mayor of New York City, grew up in a middle-class home in Massachusetts. He helped pay for his college degree at Johns Hopkins University by working as a parking lot attendant. He went on to get his MBA from Harvard, worked on Wall Street and eventually founded the illustrious information and news service called Bloomberg LP.
Oprah Winfrey – grocery store clerk
Oprah’s path to success is exemplary of the phrase “humble beginnings.” She was born to an unmarried teenage mother, and spent her early years enduring immense poverty and various forms of abuse. Oprah’s first job was working in a small grocery store in Nashville at the age of 16, and shortly after that, she started delivering the news on her local radio station, which kick-started her career in broadcasting.
Giorgio Armani – window dresser at a department store
Giorgio Armani wasn’t always the king of men’s fashion. Armani studied medicine in Milan but broke off his studies halfway through and served in an army infirmary for several years. After this experience Armani followed his passion for clothing by working as an assistant photographer, window dresser and displayer for a department store. His keen eye for fashion quickly accelerated his career, and eventually led him to launch his own clothing line.
Henry Ford – local watch repairman
Henry Ford was born on a farm in Michigan, and at the age of 15 his father gifted him a pocket watch. The inquisitive young Ford took the watch apart and put it back together again, and quickly developed a reputation as a neighborhood watch repairman. His attraction to timepieces represented an early affinity for mechanical engineering, which he fostered further while apprenticing for a machinist at the age of 15.
Jeff Bezos – rancher
Many know Jeff Bezos as the founder and CEO of Amazon, the most successful e-commerce site in the world. However, his first job was working for his grandfather, who owned a ranch in rural Texas. He helped his grandfather run ranch operations every summer for 12 years, and during high school gained interest in computers and engineering.
Josie Natori – VP of Investment at Merrill Lynch
Josie Natori, the founder and CEO of the wildly successful Natori women’s lingerie and sleepwear line, was once a Wall Street hotshot. Natori emigrated from the Philippines as a child and worked her way up in the finance world to become the first female VP of Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch. Over time, Natori felt restless in this career and started selling some of her homemade lingerie pieces to Bloomingdale’s—a decision that catalyzed an entirely new business adventure.
Janet Robinson – elementary school teacher
Janet Robinson, the former President and CEO of The New York Times, played a huge role in transitioning The New York Times (and journalism as a whole) into the digital era. Before she worked in journalism, however, Janet Robinson was an elementary school teacher for 11 years.
Thomas Edison – candy and newspaper seller on a train
The life of Thomas Edison, as is common amongst inventors, was riddled with difficulties and failures. Edison grew up in Michigan, and his family struggled to make ends meet. He took a job selling candy and newspapers on a train, and even sold vegetables to supplement his revenue. Eventually Edison got the exclusive right to sell newspapers on the road, and this became one of 14 businesses that he would launch during his eventful life (the most famous of which being General Electric).
Walt Disney – ambulance driver
A dedicated patriot, Walt Disney was determined to join the military during World War I. He dropped out of high school at 16, but was rejected from the army for being underage. Disney joined the Red Cross instead and was sent to France for a year, where he served as an ambulance driver. It wasn’t until his return from the war that Disney began pursuing his career as a cartoonist and animator.
John Harvey Kellogg – doctor
John Harvey Kellogg, best known for his creation of breakfast cereals, was undoubtedly one of the quirkiest entrepreneurs of all time. He was the chief physician at the Western Health Reform Institute of Battle Creek, where he promoted nutrition and healthy living. Doctor Kellogg had a lot of rather strange beliefs about health, arguing that sex and masturbation caused cancer, epilepsy and insanity, and that people should have yogurt enemas on a daily basis. His corn flakes were one of the many byproducts of his interest in nutrition, and luckily they became significantly more popular than his health teachings.
Researched and co-written by Rochelle Bailis