While we all know how much all these famous people rake in, it’s difficult to imagine that some of them have worked their way up from the direst conditions. What you perceive now is the result of their own efforts solely, the result of strife and attempt. It’s dogged that does it, and here are some fine examples of what perseverance can do to your life. Pretty impressive, what will you say?
1. Leighton Meester
Leighton Meester is the one whose background shows nothing of what she is now. On the CW’s Gossip Girl you know her as a privileged Upper East Side teenager, but she was nothing of the kind actually. Meester was a jailbird from day one, being born in a Texas federal jail to mother Constance Meester – she was placed there for drug smuggling from Jamaica. Quite a long road to Hollywood!
2. Oprah Winfrey
Winfrey’s childhood was destitute and dangerous, Oprah being daughter of a single mother who was barely able to rub two dollars together. The girl’s life was far from safe, since the mother couldn’t furnish adequate supervision, and she fell victim to sexual molestation. Now Winfrey is worth $2.7 billion and can boast more clout than practically any other woman.
3. Eminem
Eminem’s background is public knowledge, it has even been filmed, and most people are aware that the singer, born Marshall Mathers, had no childhood to speak of. His mother, the only other member of the family, sought relief in drink and drugs, and they used to move around a lot. Little Marshall was mobbed and expressed all his angst in music, which caught on.
4. Demi Moore
Moore’s childhood was not one you would wish for yourself – a trailer park, an abusive father, a string of traumas. One day she decided she’d had enough and when she turned sixteen, she quit her high school and headed straight for Hollywood in search for a different fortune. When free from threats, she proved able to gain considerable fame as well as around $150 million to her name.
5. Jay Z
In his green years the famous rapper, by his own words, could think only about survival. He started a common troubled teenager from Brooklyn who had to resort to peddling drugs to make a living – it was a common thing around there those days. He confessed later that he wanted only to buy himself some clothes and improve his position a little. It’s lucky that he grew to be a more community-minded person!
6. Selena Gomez
Here’s another star who was brought up by a single mother. She was born when her mother was only 16, and then teen mom had to pull three jobs to earn a modicum of money. They used to have just enough to buy some gasoline and macaroni and cheese, that made Gomez’s usual diet in childhood.
7. J.K. Rowling
Before her Harry Potter saga, Rowling was a single mom who didn’t know where her next handful of bills would be coming from. It is only when she acted on her brilliant idea that she was able to turn around the wheel of fortune. Now she’s not looking back any more!
All of these luminaries chose not to conceal their life stories, and for a good reason. This goes to show that your prospective success hangs upon your own toiling in a fairly large degree. It is an inspiring thought, don’t you think so?
