Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt was a man who could be considered a "self-made" man. I would definitely consider him a "self-made" man because he grew up poor, but then made his riches grow. As a boy he dropped out of school when he was 11 to work with his father. His father was a seaman and Cornelius started to find the shipping buisness very interesting. When he was 16 he earned money to buy his own sailboat. He started a ferrying company in the New York harbor. He ferried people and goods from Staten Island to Manhatten.
Sailboats became a product that could not provide the level of reliability and cheap fares that customers wanted. He sold his sailing vessels because he was not willing to take the risk of loosing his cutomers. He bought and operated a steamboat buisness for Thomas Gibbons because the service was popular. At this point he was able to steal so many customers from his competetors that they paid him to leave the hudson river.
Once he was out of the steamboat buisness he purchased railroads in New York. He made his mark in the railroad buisness by improving service and offering customers low fares. 5 years after he began his railroad business he had made 25 million dollars. This shows that a becoming a "self-made" man in some ways are possible. From a poor boy to a multi millionare was a lot of work for Cornelius Vanderbilt, but he made it possible.

http://www.biography.com/people/cornelius-vanderbilt-9515195


Cornelius Vanderbilt