The Success Genome

What successful people actually started with.

63 lives, laid out by what they had going in, not the story they tell about it.

The people

63 of 63 shown · filter & sort below

score ranges

cost of failure0–10

headwinds0–10

their background

how they made it

sort by

Madam C.J. Walker

Founder, Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company

Beauty & Cosmetics·outsider·no college·high talent

raised formerly-enslaved poverty · orphaned, raised by kin · rural Louisiana → Mississippi

cost of failure 10headwinds 10

Founder · Bootstrap
$10–100M

Shawn Carter

Artist and founder, Roc Nation (Jay-Z)

Music·outsider·no college·exceptional talent

raised public housing · single mother · Brooklyn

cost of failure 10headwinds 8

Creative · Ownership
$1–10B

Tyler Perry

Founder, Tyler Perry Studios

Film & TV·outsider·no college·high talent

raised poverty · abusive two-parent home · New Orleans

cost of failure 10headwinds 7

Creative · Ownership
$1–10B

Andre Young

Record producer; co-founder, Beats Electronics (Dr. Dre)

Music·outsider·no college·exceptional talent

raised public housing · single mother, grandmother-raised · Compton, California

cost of failure 9headwinds 7

Creative · Ownership
$1–10B

Chris Gardner

Founder, Gardner Rich & Co.

Finance·outsider·no college·moderate talent

raised poverty · disrupted household · Milwaukee

cost of failure 9headwinds 8

Founder · Bootstrap
$10–100M

Do Won Chang

Co-founder, Forever 21

Retail·outsider·no college·moderate talent

raised immigrant · two-parent · Seoul → Los Angeles

cost of failure 9headwinds 6

Founder · Bootstrap
$1–10B

Dolly Parton

Singer-songwriter; owner of her song catalogue and half of Dollywood

Music·some connections·no college·exceptional talent

raised rural poverty · two-parent, twelve children · Smoky Mountains Tennessee

cost of failure 9headwinds 6

Creative · Ownership
$100M–1B

Oprah Winfrey

Founder and Chairman, Harpo Productions

Media·outsider·college degree·exceptional talent

raised deep poverty · custodial transfer, grandmother to single mother to two-parent home · rural Mississippi → Milwaukee → Nashville

cost of failure 9headwinds 9

Creative · Ownership
$1–10B

Carlos Santana

Guitarist and bandleader, Santana

Music·outsider·no college·exceptional talent

raised working-class musician's family · two-parent, split by staggered migration · Tijuana and San Francisco

cost of failure 8headwinds 6

Creative · Fee
$100M–1B

LeBron James

NBA player and founder, SpringHill Company

Sports·outsider·no college·exceptional talent

raised poverty · single teen mother · Akron, Ohio

cost of failure 8headwinds 6

Creative · Ownership
$1–10B

1–10 of 63·per page

The map

Cost of failure, against outcome size.

Every person on two axes: where those who made it actually landed, not the odds of landing there. open the map →