Successful entrepreneurs are rare.
Nine out of every 10 startups fail, according to funding firm Y Combinator. And U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data reveals 45% of new businesses flop within four years.
Yet some folks are able to overcome the odds. It's hard not to cheer for these underdogs - some of whom come from the most unlikely circumstances and end up millionaires or billionaires.
We put together a list of five of the most compelling rags-to-riches startup stories that have "hit movie material" written all over them...
The "John Paul Mitchell" Story
In 1954, at the age of 10, John Paul DeJoria sold Christmas cards and newspapers to help support his family. In turn, his family sent him into foster care. At one point, De Joria joined a gang. Eventually he enlisted in the military.
With a $700 loan, DeJoria created John Paul Mitchell Systems in 1980 with Paul Mitchell. While living out of his car, DeJoria hawked the haircare products door-to-door in Los Angeles.
Today, John Paul Mitchell products are sold exclusively by salons. DeJoria also founded Patron Tequila, which sells 2 million cases a year. Bacardi bought a majority stake in the tequila stock for undisclosed amount of money in 2008.
With John Paul Mitchell and Patron combined, DeJoria himself is worth more than $4 billion.
John Paul DeJoria's biographical movie title: "Untangled."
The "ModCloth" Story
In 2002, Susan Gregg had a dormitory closet stuffed with corduroy pants, tweed jackets, miniskirts, and patent leather saddle shoes. She needed a means to capitalize from her pricey pre-occupation with vintage clothes.
So Gregg created ModCloth - a website with which she could sell pieces of her collection in order to give her closet (and her roommate) a little breathing space.
Little did Gregg realize ModCloth would become a large online fashion retailer within a few years. The site became a showroom for the world's most imaginative and trend-setting designers. In no time, Susan had her own personal collection of vintage attire up for sale, as well as collections from other independent gatherers (which doubled her income).
In 2006 - four years after its initial inception - ModCloth expanded to offices in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Today, the company produces its own unique line of clothing and décor. It continues to offer advertisement space to up-and-coming designers and suppliers around the world.
Susan Gregg's movie would be titled "Full Rhinestone Jacket."
Money Morning readers, continue to find out what billionaire once walked on stilts and ate fire for extra cash...
The "Tastefully Simple" Story
In 1995, Jill Blashack Strahan started her gourmet food company with only a few thousand dollars in savings, a backyard shed for storage, and a pool table on which to package her products.
Strahan had a reputation for being an exceptional cook. Her stroke of genius was to peddle her goods at taste-testing parties. Because of this imaginative and personal approach to advertisement, sales for Strahan's business, Tastefully Simple, began to pick up.
Strahan continued to provide incomparable tasting-testing experiences and simple, delicious food preparation solutions. That's how she made Tastefully Simple the $120 million business it is today.
The title of Jill Blashack Strahan's movie would be "Fried Green Tomatoes at Jill's Backyard Shed."
The "Cirque du Soleil" Story
Canadian-born Guy Laliberté began his circus career busking on the streets. He walked on stilts, ate fire, and played the accordion.
Considering his later achievements, he probably performed these activities simultaneously...
He founded Gilles Ste-Croix circus with a small group of friends. In 1987, he gambled by bringing the successful troupe from Quebec to the Los Angeles Arts Festival, with no return fare.
The bet paid off. The circus group was eventually brought to Las Vegas, where they became the world famous Cirque du Soleil we know today. Now Laliberté is the CEO of Cirque with a total worth of $2.5 billion.
The name of Guy Laliberté's film? "Cirque du So Lucky."
The "WhatsApp" Story
Jan Koum was born and raised in a village in Kiev, Ukraine. He was the only child of a housewife and a construction laborer. The family lived in a house that did not have hot water but did have a phone his family was too scared to use - they feared it was tapped by the U.S. government.
Koum immigrated to America in 1992 with his mother at the age of 16. Two years later, he was a self-taught expert computer hacker. In February 2014, Koum sold his mobile messaging application, WhatsApp, to Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for $19 billion.
Jan Koum's movie would be titled "кросівки" - which is Ukrainian for "sneakers."
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