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Before captivating Las Vegas crowds with famed music-inspired acrobatic shows, billionaire Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, was playing the harmonica and eating fire on the streets of Europe and Canada. The accordion-playing stilt walker bet big on his gang of acrobats when he brought them from Quebec to the Los Angeles Arts Festival in 1987 in hopes of wooing the crowd. If the mission had failed, his team wouldn’t have had enough gas money to make it home.

But the gamble paid off for Laliberté, and in 1991 casino mogul Steve Wynn brought Cirque du Soleil to Las Vegas, paving the way for Laliberté to eventually become a billionaire.

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“There’s a huge component of betting big and having luck that pays off,” said Jim Ellis, who teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford University, of self-starters who make it into the ranks of the ultrarich. “But most entrepreneurs I know are better than just gamblers.” Laliberté, who also happens to be a professional poker player, is one of 680 self-made billionaires in the world, most of whom likely took risks on their way to riches.

Many also overcame extreme adversity and hardship to make their fortunes. In this slide show we highlight 10 of the most inspirational rags-to-riches stories, including that of John Paul DeJoria, a co-founder of hair care company John Paul Mitchell Systems and Patron tequila, who was once homeless and lived in his car. Another tear-jerker: the story of eyewear company Luxottica’s Leonardo Del Vecchio, who was sent to an orphanage at age 7 because his mother couldn’t afford to raise him.

Overcoming obstacles

When asked how certain people can overcome such odds and become so successful, Ellis said: “You’re going to see some people who . . . really don’t have anything to lose. Your tolerance for risk when you’re in that environment is much higher.”

Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing, who quit school at age 15 to take care of his family after his father died, explained it this way: “The most terrible experience during my childhood was witnessing my father’s suffering and ultimately dying of TB. I, too, was infected.”

Added Li: “The burden of poverty and this bitter taste of helplessness and isolation sort of branded on my heart forever the questions that still drive me. Is it possible to reshape one’s destiny? Is it possible to minimize challenges through lessening complexities? And is it possible to enhance chances for success through meticulous planning?”

Perhaps that is a way to overcome early adversities.

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