Ralph Lauren, Fashion Designer and Businessman, $8.2 billion

The Polo Ralph Lauren brand is known worldwide as an established clothing line, and Ralph Lauren, the man behind this entrepreneurial success, has made an entire fortune off of it. The billionaire, whose life goal, according to his high school yearbook, was to be a millionaire, has beat that goal by quite a lot.

Lauren came from a poor neighborhood in the Bronx and was determined to become rich. He worked as a sales assistant for “Brooks Brothers” and later as a tie salesman. When he started his clothing line, he had only a small space in the Empire State Building.