GREAT PEOPLE GROWN FROM POOR CHILDHOOD

Poverty is not a handicap for people who are willing to accept challenges.

Novak Djokovic

"My parents did everything they could give me and my brothers a carefree childhood, despite the fact that we lived through two wars, 1992 and 1999, and in between times we had an embargo on everything, so people would have to queue for milk and bread. The economy was non-existent and often it was just a matter of survival ... In the state of emergency we learned to appreciate and value life itself." Djokovic told The Guardian.

Djokovic is the top tennis player in the world winning many titles. His net worth now is $144 million.

David Murdock

Murdock, a drop out of high school in the ninth grade and worked at a gas station before being drafted into the army in 1943. After serving in world war II, Murdock found himself homeless with little more than a dollar to his name. David Murdock worth $2 billion is the chairman of Dole Food Products and Castle & Cooke. He owns residential and commercial properties in different parts of USA. He has a collection of Arabian horses. The 95 year old has also donated heavily to longevity research and vows to live until he is 125.

Mohad Altrad  

EY World Entrepreneur of the year 2015 and Montpellier rugby club president Mohad Altrad is worth $2.5 billion. Of his past he said once: "I had no special dream, only the ambition not to accept my initial destiny." He came from a humble beginning, born an orphaned Bedouin in the Syrian desert. Raised by his grandmother he was not allowed to go to school. Still he attended school here and there. Eventually he won a scholarship to study in France. Having no money and no knowledge of French he lived in France with one meal a day. He, however, managed to earn an undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics and then a Ph.D in computer science. In 1985 after a short spell of work in a tech firm and the Abudhabi National Oil Company he bought a bankrupt scaffolding company in France. With his partner he created the leading scaffolding company in the world.

(Indebted to the article by Shannon McKeogh and lovemoney.com)

KV George

kvgeorgein@gmail.com