The American Dream in Numbers: These Are the 5 Greatest Self-Made Icons

To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, Forbes published a list of the 250 greatest living self-made Americans. The American Dream rests on the idea that anyone can succeed. Here is the top 5.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, Forbes is publishing a list of the 250 greatest living self-made Americans. No silver spoon, but pure willpower and a touch of guts. This is the reality of icons who worked their way to the top with their own hands. This is the top 5.

5. LeBron James

His teenage mother struggled to find stable work and a permanent place to live, causing him to move more than ten times in three years. At the age of nine, he moved in with the family of a local football coach, who introduced him to basketball. In 2003, he was selected for the NBA straight from high school and became the first active basketball player to become a billionaire.

4. Thomas Peterffy

In 1965, 21-year-old Peterffy arrived at the airport virtually penniless after fleeing communist Hungary in the hope of living with his father. When he was rejected by his father with 100 dollars, he found work as a programmer. He rose to become one of the first in automated digital trading with his company, Interactive Brokers.

3. David Stewart

His father worked as a mechanic, cleaner, and garbage collector to support eight children during the time of racial segregation. As a teenager, he advocated for equal access to public services. Later, he became a co-founder of World Wide Technology, today one of the largest IT service providers in the world.

2. Harold Hamm

As the thirteenth child of a poor farmer in Oklahoma, Hamm's first memory is picking tomatoes barefoot in the soil; he started working at a young age. He started his own transport company that transported water to and from oil fields. With a loan, he started his first oil drilling in 1971, becoming a key figure in the American oil industry.

1 Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey grew up with a teenage mother on a farm in Mississippi. At fourteen, she had a son who died shortly afterward. Through an education program, she gained access to better education, where her talent for speaking and debating was noticed. In 1984, she took over a struggling talk show in Chicago, which she built into a media company that became known nationwide.

The full list features a diverse mix of sectors from business, entertainment, sports, politics, and science, with names like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sara Blakely, Rihanna, Michael Jordan, and Barack Obama. Curious? Watch it here.