5. Chris Gardner

Christopher Paul Gardner aka Chris Gardner has perhaps one of the most famous rags to riches stories in the stock broking world. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was the second child in the family. He didn’t have any positive male role models in his family. His father died and his stepfather was physically abusive towards his family.

He established the brokerage firm, Gardner Rich in Chicago, Illinois in 1987. In the words of Wikipedia, “institutional brokerage firm specializing in the execution of debt, equity and derivative products transactions for some of the nation’s largest institutions, public pension plans and unions.”

Gardner was a stockbroker trainee at Dean Witter Reynolds and used to earn only $1,000 per month. Gardner was striving to be one of the 20 trainees, who were to be offered a full-time position, which he ultimately did earn. Gardner currently serves as the Chief Executive of his firm, Gardner Rich, and is a multi-millionaire.