Ask HN: Are there notable “self-made” who came from nothing?

The underdog success story always link back to a significant role model like mom, dad, uncle, friend of family. For example, mom was an educated school teacher (Daymond John from Shark Tank). Self-made traces back to a support system and growing up without worrying about abuse or food on the table. Are there people who actually made it out of extreme poverty (way below your country's income threshold of poverty) to millionaire without waiting until 60 for your 401k/IRA to "mature"? If so, who and how?

I'm curious. Half for reassurance and the other part of me am interested to find role models outside of gary v, gary tan, gary keller.

Andrew Carnegie was born into poverty and became one of the richest people in the world in the late 19th / early 20th century.

Benjamin Franklin. Went from being a runaway boy to the only person to sign all four documents of the founding of the United States. He dropped out of second grade and taught himself math and reading/writing. He says in his autobiography how he taught himself to write: just rote copying of other people's writing.

His family was not wealthy, but he did have a solid upbringing in a stable family and knew a trade at the professional level by the age of 17, plus has apprenticed at several other trades. He says that his apprenticeship at many trades helped his ability to do science as he could build the experiments himself without asking for help.

Fredrick Douglas. Black slave in Maryland. Was taught the alphabet, but that's about all. Taught himself words by going up to white boys and saying "I know more words than you do." The other boy would respond "yea, how about this word and this word and this word?" Fredrick: "oh, wow, you are right."

Seems to have escaped to the North by writing his own papers. Ended up as an absolutely amazing writer. See his autobiography "The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, an American Slave." Amazingly well-written.