Forbes favorite Billionaires

According to Forbes' website, almost two-thirds of the world's billionaires made their fortunes from scratch. Fifty are college or high school dropouts. The most famous billionaire dropout is Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, who left Harvard to sell software. Thirty years later he was given an honorary degree from his alma-mater. I guess the world of Academia still doesn't get it. Seems the horse without a cart can run faster and farther.

Other billionaires, such as Oprah Winfrey, made their fortunes against far greater odds. Born in rural Mississippi, she spent her early years living in poverty on her grandmother's farm. Wanting a way out, she moved to Wisconsin to be with her mother, but was sexually molested by her male relatives. At age 14, she reportedly gave birth to a premature baby who died. Only after moving to Nashville to be with her father did her luck finally start to turn. At the age of 19, she became the youngest person and the first African-American woman to anchor the news at Nashville's WTVF-TV. She then relocated to Baltimore's WJZ-TV to co-anchor the Six O'Clock News and later went on to become co-host of its local talk show, People Are Talking.

In 1984, Oprah moved to Chicago to host WLS-TV's morning talk show, AM Chicago, and the rest is history. Within two years, AM Chicago became the Oprah Winfrey show and went into national syndication and that's really when her Empire started. I say this because it's what sets Oprah apart from other hosts who are 'employed' by a network. Oprah saw the unprecedented success of her impact in the talk show arena, and became her own boss.

The Oprah Winfrey Show has remained the number one talk show for 22 consecutive seasons. Produced by her own production company, Harpo Productions, Inc.