FIVE TOP ACHIEVERS

If you sometimes feel you will never be able to accomplish your dream, due to never having enough capital, the right connections or all the skills required, you need not worry anymore as many just like you, who found themselves in the same situation, were able to achieve their dreams with great success, despite the challenges they faced. Following are five inspiring stories of people who started from practically nothing, and yet achieved what seemed to be impossible. You mightn’t have heard of them, but they’ve overcome huge obstacles…just like you and I can.

Oprah Winfrey was born poor in the woods of Mississippi to a poor single teenage mother; she grew up without the many things we take for granted everyday: no shoes, no flushing toilets or new clothes. Despite these circumstances Oprah was named as the first black woman billionaire.

John Mackey and his girlfriend Renee would drop out of college to start their first health food store named Safer Way in Mackey's garage in Austin, Texas. Mackey would borrow $10,000 and raised an extra $35,000 to open the first vegetarian store in all of Texas. Safer Way would merge with another health food store and become known as Whole Foods. Whole Foods now has over 270 stores and is growing.

Madonna Louise Ciccone at 5 would see her mother die of breast cancer, her father would remarry and she would have a difficult time accepting her step mother and her new family. Madonna had little money when she dropped out of college to pursue dance and would work at Dunkin Donuts to survive. Since, her struggles she has sold more than 200Million albums.

Richard Branson suffered from dyslexia, as a result Branson performed poorly in school. He would buy crates of discounted records and sell them out of the trunk of his car to retail outlets and through mail orders under the name "Virgin". He made enough money to open his own retail store in London, which would lead to creating a record label known as Virgin Records. Branson now has over 360 companies under the Virgin brand including Virgin Airlines. As of 2008 Branson has an estimated net worth of $2.5Billion.

Les Wexner grew up in a working class family; he worked hard to get the things other children got for free. He would cut grass in the summers and shovel snow in the winters to make an allowance. Les always had a love for retail architecture and would drop out of college to start his own clothing store with a $5000 loan from his aunt. In five years he built enough stores to go public. What started as one small store grew to become Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch, Express Men and Limited Too.