In 1987, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month. So, every March women are honored for their amazing achievements. These four women are self-made millionaires who inspire young women around the world to follow in their footsteps.
Madam C.J. Walker
“I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.”
~ Madam C.J. Walker
At the age of six Walker was orphaned, by fourteen she was married and at the age of twenty she was widowed with a two-year-old little girl. In 1905 she started to lose her hair. Out of her experience with her own hair loss, Walker created the “Walker system.” She sold her product directly to black women and today she is known as the first black self-made millionaire woman in the United States. She was an entrepreneur who founded Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company where she continued to develop a successful line of beauty and hair products for black women.
J.K. Rowling
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all- in which case you fail by default.”
~ J.K. Rowling
Before authoring the “Harry Potter” series, Rowling was a struggling single mother. The idea for Harry Potter was formed when traveling from Manchester to London King’s Cross in 1990. For the next five years J.K. Rowling would plan out seven books in the Harry Potter series. Her manuscript of the first “Harry Potter” book was rejected by 12 publishers before getting picked up. After more than 450 million copies and creating a brand worth 15 billion dollars, she is one of the most powerful women in the UK.
Oprah Winfrey
“Don’t worry about being successful but work toward being significant and the success will naturally follow.”
~ Oprah Winfrey
Winfrey was born in poverty to a teenage mother in rural Mississippi. She started at a radio station and just kept moving forward. She had her own talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, from 1986 until 2011 and created her own magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine, from 2004 to 2008. Today she has her own television network. Winfrey helped create a school for young girls in South Africa. She is not only successful but she gives back whenever she can, making her one of the most influential women not only in the United States but in the world.
Coco Chanel
“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”
~ Coco Chanel
At the age of 12, Channel’s mother died and her father sent her and her two sisters to a convent in Correze. The religious institution was strict, but she learned how to sew and the basic knowledge of how to create clothes. In 1919 she opened her first boutique in Paris, her first step in changing the fashion industry. She is known today as one of the biggest names in the history of fashion with her creation of a brand with timeless designs of trademark suits and little black dresses. Today Chanel is worth 7.2 billion dollars.