The amazing story of former teacher Mark Pentecost went viral earlier this week. After years teaching high school math, Pentecost purchased his very own island off the coast of Florida. The $14.5 million real estate purchase is believed to be one of the largest in state history. How does a teacher make that much money? By starting his own direct sales company focusing on “slimming body wraps people can wear under their clothes”.

After daydreaming about our own island for most of the morning, we started wondering about history’s most surprising rags to riches stories. Some worked hard to achieve their riches, other got incredibly lucky. Either way, it’s interesting to see how people made their way from the poorhouse to the penthouse.

People Who Made Their Own Fortunes from Virtually Nothing

In the past, we’ve talked about the founder of the Pet Rock and Bill Gates. But those two had advantages the people on this list didn’t have. This time we only included those who earned fortunes in the face of overwhelming poverty and odds.

Sam Walton

Sam Walton’s rise to wealth is a classic American success story. Born in Oklahoma just before the Great Depression, Walton had to start work at an early age to help earn money for his family. He sold magazines, worked on farms, and delivered newspapers but somehow managed to stay in school. At 26 years old, Walton had earned an economics degree from the University of Missouri and was managing a variety store. Using his own savings and a loan from his father-in-law, Walton purchased his own store in Arkansas, which he grew into the now famous Walmart chain.

Li Ka-Shing

Li Ka-Shing fled communist China with his family in 1940. Living in Hong Kong, the family suffered additional hardship when his father died of tuberculosis just a few years later. Ka-Shing quit school and got a job at a plastics factory. A mere ten years later, Ka-Shing had saved enough to start his own company, Cheung Kong Industries. Ka-Shing diversified his company’s interests into real estate, banking, and much more. The result has made Li Ka-Shing one of Asia’s wealthiest people with a net worth of over $27 billion.

Joy Mangano

The subject of a soon to be released David O. Russell film starring Jennifer Lawerence, Joy Mangano was a single mother struggling to make ends meet. Mangano also loved to tinker and invent things, leading her to create the best-selling Miracle Mop. Sales were slow initially but routine appearances on QVC fueled by Mangano’s enthusiasm for the product quickly made it a success. By 1999, Mangano decided to sell her company, Ingenious Designs, to the Home Shopping Network (HSN). She still regularly appears on HSN where she can sell up to $1 million an hour, often moving more than $150 million worth of products annually.