Larry Fink : How the BlackRock Founder Built the World’s Largest Asset Management Firm
Larry Fink’s journey to building BlackRock did not begin with dominance — it began with discipline shaped by failure. In the early stage of his career on Wall Street, Fink was a highly successful bond trader. He had a sharp understanding of fixed-income markets and rapidly gained credibility in the financial world. However, a major […]
Mohamed Alabbar: From 9 Kids in One Room to Building the World’s Tallest Tower and $130 Billion Empire
Mohamed Alabbar was born November 8, 1956, in the Rashidiya district of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He was the eldest of 12 children. His father was a dhow captain—commanding traditional Arabian trading vessels that sailed to Somalia and other African ports trading goods. Mohamed Alabbar’s childhood was defined by scarcity. Nine children slept in a […]
Sophia Amoruso: From Homeless Dumpster Diver to $100M Fashion Empire, Bankruptcy, and Epic Comeback
Sophia Amoruso was born April 20, 1984, in San Diego, California. Her childhood was turbulent—her parents divorced, she struggled with ADHD and depression, and by her teens, she’d dropped out of high school. She bounced between odd jobs, shoplifted for thrills, and lived in her car at various points. By age 22, Sophia was diagnosed […]
Sean Rad: Swiping Right on a Cultural Revolution
Sean Rad grew up in Los Angeles in an entrepreneurial Iranian-American family that encouraged risk-taking and innovation. From a young age, he was fascinated by how products influence human behavior. Before Tinder, Rad experimented with multiple startups, including Adly, a social media advertising platform that connected brands with celebrities on platforms like Twitter. These early ventures […]
Mark Zuckerberg: Scaling an Idea into Global Infrastructure
Mark Zuckerberg grew up in White Plains, New York, displaying early signs of technical brilliance. By the age of 12, he had already created a messaging software called “ZuckNet” for his father’s dental office. Programming wasn’t just a skill — it was instinctive curiosity. At Harvard University, he became known for building digital tools that connected […]
Oprah Winfrey: From Potato Sack Dresses and Abuse to $3.5 Billion Media Empire
On January 29, 1954, Oprah Gail Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to Vernita Lee, an unwed teenage mother. Her name was actually ‘Orpah’ from the Bible, but constant mispronunciation made ‘Oprah’ stick. Her father, Vernon Winfrey, was in the Armed Forces and absent from her life. Oprah’s mother moved north to find work, leaving […]
Shubham Gupta: From Family Bankruptcy to ₹300 Crore Valuation with Bonkers Corner
In 2011, Shubham Gupta’s world collapsed. His father’s business went bankrupt, wiping out the family’s finances and stability. At an age when most kids his age were focused on school and cricket, Shubham watched his family struggle to survive. The comfortable middle-class life disappeared overnight. But instead of being crushed by the bankruptcy, Shubham became […]
Travis Kalanick: From Bankrupt Startup Founder to $80 Billion Uber Empire
In 2000, Travis Kalanick’s first company, Scour (a peer-to-peer file-sharing service), went bankrupt after facing a $250 billion copyright infringement lawsuit from the entertainment industry. He was 24 years old. Most entrepreneurs would have quit. Travis started Red Swoosh, another file-sharing company, grinding for seven years before selling it to Akamai for $19 million in […]
Lizzie Velasquez: From ‘World’s Ugliest Woman’ to Global Inspiration
Lizzie Velasquez was born March 13, 1989, weighing just 2 pounds, 11 ounces. Doctors told her parents she would never walk, talk, or live independently. She has an extremely rare condition called Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome—only two other people in the world are known to have it. The syndrome prevents her from gaining weight (she weighs […]
Dr. Amit Kumar Niranjan: The Man Who Passed UGC NET Ten Times to Change India’s Education
From Kanpur Teacher to Record-Breaking Educator and Author Growing up in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Dr. Amit Kumar Niranjan watched students struggle not because they lacked intelligence, but because they lacked good teachers. He himself suffered through mediocre instruction, watching his curiosity crushed under rote memorization and mark-chasing. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a […]