Self-made meaning not from inheritance or marrying into someone rich.
Seems rare you see a woman starting a business and turning it big.
First person that came to mind was Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos lol.
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For "self-made" unfortunately, it's OnlyFans. All the other "rich" women I know, while professionally accomplished to varying degrees (with the exception of 1 or 2), all draw the VAST majority of their wealth from either their husbands or parents (fathers). When you look at list of the richest women in the world it's much the same e.g. all of the top 10 also married into or inherited their wealth through death/divorce. Women, no matter how much girl bossing is celebrated on social media, generally aren't seeking out risk-taking which silos a lot of them away from entrepreneurship - and no, being a digital prostitute is not a business owner lol.
How is OF not a risk, lol?
Different kind of risk - social stigma that rewards them with lots of $$$ while requiring very little personal effort vs entrepreneurship comes with very little prestige or money unless you are extremely lucky/successful but has very serious financial risk + personal sacrifice to get there. Women are on average more emotional, short-term thinkers, in part because the "peak" of the average woman's like is in their 20s (when they'll get married & start having kids, so they're more likely to optimize for reward sooner vs later) vs men don't typically reach their peak potential until later (usually 30+ in terms of physicality, 50+ in terms of career). They see the obscenely easy money they can make in their late-teens through their 20s (and even 30s for some) and weigh that vs the time/effort for a traditional career path and assume that the social consequences will be outweighed by the 100s of 1000s or even millions they can make in the interim.
It also amplifies the cognitive dissonance when young women, particularly in the West, are growing up in an age of hypersexualization that normalizes and celebrates degenerate behavior in women as some sort of "rebellion" against the "patriarchy". They don't however realize that, even if that were true, if they eventually want to settle down and be respected/taken seriously by a man looking to start a family later in life, that's simply not going to happen when a google search results in videos of them spread eagle having a train run on them or them bouncing up and down on a silicon phallus making goofy faces. Women are generally quicker to pick up on trends than men - preteens on TikTok and IG realize pretty rapidly that doing provocative dances, exercising in tight fitting clothes, or producing other vaguely suggestive content for public consumption rewards them with social recognition/status in the form of followers, likes, and eventually money/advertising. That pipeline just escalates as they get older and then a platform like OF comes along, letting them fully monetize their bodies with virtually 0 barriers to entry while giving them a false impression of privacy behind an easily broken paywall, whereas historically it would've been much more difficult and required greater personals effort/risk to do so. Hard to argue IMO that the sexual "revolution" was anything other than a net negative to the long-term wellbeing of women in the 21st century.
JK Rowling
Margot Robbie
How do you know these girls?
cuz OP mentioned Lizzie Holmes which I took to mean as 'know of in the public domain', not 'personally know'. His fault
One woman from my undergrad class works at hedge fund. She's probably the most successful female that I personally know.
Just working at a HF doesn't make someone rich. Is she at least like a PM/Partner?
I never said she's super rich, just the most financially successful female i know. She was a partner at a new fund before, now a senior analyst
Thai Lee is the CEO and founder of SHI International
I actually met a woman who was one of the early employees there, very successful firm. Honestly surprised they've stayed private for so long, god knows they're no longer at their peak and she could've probably sold it for a pretty penny back in the M&A heyday of 2020-2021 ZIRP, they're somewhat on the decline now.
The Bumble founder.
Fanvue
Lisa Su — CEO of AMD
Good example of a successful woman.
However, I don't know if she qualifies as "self-made" as I believe she is from a prominent family in Taiwan -- remember, Jensen (Nvidia) is her cousin (technically, I think her younger uncle, I can't remember), and both attended prominent (and expensive) U. S. universities; and the family is (reportedly) somewhat close with Morris Chang (Taiwan Semiconductor), who has apparently given priority to each (Nvidia/AMD) in chip manufacturing, from what I understand. (I think that's all public knowledge now). So, it would seem a bit of a prominent family.
Successful, absolutely.
Perhaps the best female CEO I can remember.
I'm not sure about self-made, however.
Fun fact, she and Jensen Huang (Nvidia founder) are cousins
I don't really understand the popular focus on "self-made" wealth.
Could someone help me to understand the allure, of "self-made" being viewed as uniquely better somehow?
While I agree it's notable to achieve wealth, I think it's even more notable to hold on to wealth for generations, rather than to lose it quickly (e g. old money = at least 3 generations, and/or 100+ years).
In most cases, a family loses their wealth by the third generation; and so, I would see it as even more impressive to maintain/grow wealth for many generations, instead of just being lucky enough to have made it once/initially.
(Among wealthy society, older wealth is respected far more than nouveau riche/new money; and so it seems a bit unclear to me).
Also, many who claim to be "self-made" are (often) not actually self-made at all, which further adds to my confusion here.
There aren't many women (at least to my knowledge, no offense intended) who achieved wealth entirely on their own.
In most cases to my knowledge, the # 1 method women achieve wealth is via divorce, and # 2 is via inheritance.
All those women I can think of (personally), were tied to divorce/inheritance, or at least tied to a prominent family.
As for the discussion, is OP asking about the women you know (personally), or women you know of (in society), who achieved wealth?
Yes, and no. I know women who inherited wealth, but some became prominent in their own way. They did have the benefit of private school. I also know many who worked their way up or created a business. All my friends who are divorced are not wealthy. I went to a prominent prep school and came from a very well-to-do background, so you definitely saw both. I mean, what are the thresholds we are talking about for people pulling in 400-500k and a couple of Million? I know 100+ between being successful in their careers and inheritance. Or are we talking about people making $1M+ and like over the federal estate tax threshold? Usually over the threshold, it is women who are very advanced in their careers but also inherited Millions.
I would agree, without OP narrowing the question (e.g. defining the level of wealth, or criteria for self-made), it would seem to be a wide range of possibility, with much of a blend. I think most cases would be some mix; but without more clarity as to the question, it is somewhat difficult to answer.
A couple,
One is an Executive at PwC, and another owns and operates a privately held regional bank (24+ branches). Most millionaires are Doctors, Big Four consultants, Lawyers, or finance professionals who work on a desk.
For those who started their own businesses, one woman I know from my childhood neighborhood started a dog-sitting, grooming, and boarding company. She makes about $2M a year since she has expanded to many of the wealthy neighborhoods in Metro West Boston, think Wellesley, Needham, Dedham, and Weston.
Another owns an esthetician service company that makes house calls to mainly wealthy Sahms in NYC. She mainly focuses on Waxing, tanning, and nails. But man, she kills it. I was with her and the friend who introduced her to the circle of women who are her clients. We walked into Porsche dealership in NJ, she wanted a Cayanne GTS and paid on her personal Black card to test whether it worked. On the ride back to her condo, she set up and auto pay off on the card for the following Tues once it cleared. The woman she was with knew the dealership, and they didn't put her on any wait list and waived the CC transaction fee, It's pretty cool to see her flex. In high school, she lived in a 900 sq ft ranch house.
fraser for famous
ibd regional sector head if you're asking about a personal contact
I've met Sara Blakely and my wife met her a couple times. She created Spanx. She's a billionaire.
Environmental Engineer - $50-$75M net worth. Was on the board of one company with a lot of equity, company was acquired.
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• If we narrow the question to a wealth level of millions (and up) of actual wealth;
• If we exclude cases originating from likely fraud, other criminal activity, divorce, inheritance, prominent family, sex industry, fluff celeb valuations (music/acting/celeb/wannabe celeb), and/or unrealized post-IPO/single-stock momentary claims of wealth;
• If we narrow to examples we know of/have met, on a personal basis;
...then, with all that considered, I would answer the following:
1. I know of a woman (I knew her daughter) from somewhat of a humble background (rural South) who went to her local state university for business, was hired for sales at a southern company, and then fast-forward... She made it to President/COO of the company, and then she did a buy-out when the company was considering a sale. She subsequently grew that company to being one of the largest in its niche. (Her husband was one of the original guys involved in starting a very well known Fortune 500 company). I knew the daughter/family, and it was impressive to see her go from being an employee to arranging a buy-out of her own company, and then to grow it thereafter.
2. I know of multiple cases where an older woman saved for many years, and started to buy stock or real estate over time, and then decades later, she might have a significant portfolio, or perhaps might own a few apartment buildings in the city.
3. I know of cases involving women who starting a businesss involving, e.g. skincare/beauty, food/drink, restaurant, clothing, online sales, mediine or who achieved success in real estate (sales, to broker, to portfolio), etc. I know of a female surgeon who (in the 90s) made millions back then and invested in real estate, medical centers, etc, and with her (also surgeon) husband, I think they are now worth around $1.2B.
4. While not fitting the above criteria (due to being inherited wealth), I know of a woman who was the only child of an old European family, who inherited, but mostly achieved success on her own via small businesses and real estate, and didn't use her inherited wealth for much of the earlier success. She was worth a few billion.
Coin laundromats. She owns dozens of them in the Mid-Atlantic and prints money. Self-made woman. Immigrant from South America.
She’s lead in house council for a billionaire’s group of companies. Absolutely lethal lawyer and got to her current role after being a partner at big law for a while. Her husband is a surgeon
Very attractive pharma rep. Basically OnlyFans before there was OnlyFans.
Pharma rep sales in the 90s were a gold mine before doctors were restricted on the type of gifts they can receive from drug companies.
Can guarantee some of the very attractive reps were making far more than their doctor clients.
You cannot be rich AND self-made working for someone else, so you need to start your own business. I know a lot of girls who do lashes, nails and drop-ship swimsuits/merchandise and they make good money (though not millionaire if they don't scale) and enjoy freedom of working from anywhere.
That's just false. People who make more than $400k are in the top 2%. I would say someone who achieves that without nepotism or inheritance is self made (even while working for someone else)
Yes the top 2% is typically considered rich by 99% of people on Earth.
You are underestimating nepotism and inheritance. To have a successful career in high finance (IB -> MF UMM PE or HF) making >$400K you need to go to a good target school, which means you need to have parents to pay for your >$50K a year tuition for 4 years, and to get into a target school you need to either go to private schools or solid public schools that have great focus on education which usually ties to local housing prices. Having your parents pay for your expensive and elite education is not self made for sure.
every second kid in sf is making 200+ right out of uni, 400k isn't that much anymore
Hang out in prison all day.
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