People Explain How They Climbed Out Of Poverty

Hard Work And Dedication

"I was homeless, bouncing from shelter to shelter."

"One day my cousin took me with him to a place called Labor-Ready."

"It's just a place where construction companies etc. pick up a day laborer, and at the end of the day you go back to the office and they cut you a cheque for the day's work."

"Well when I got to that jobsite, the other punks I was working with from the agency were lazy and slow and complaining all day, barely doing anything."

"It pissed me off."

"We were hired to work."

"So I worked my absolute guts out."

"We were digging mud out of the basement of an abandoned farm house that was being restored."

'The boss came during the day and saw me carrying 2 steel 5 gallon pails filled to the top with mud up the stairs and out the back door constantly."

"While the other two were barely filling one 2 gallon drywall mud pail."

"He took me aside and said 'You're not going back to the agency tomorrow, you're hired'."

"From there I continued to work my guts out for him and eventually was promoted from laborer to a carpenters apprentice."

"I learned a few trades there since they were a general contractor."

"From there I moved on to other companies and continued learning new trades."

"Today I'm a jack of all trades, making good pay."

"I do everything. Windows and doors, flooring, brick and concrete repair, drywall, mud and tape, tile, siding and aluminum, you name it."

"I've got my own brand new van, fully kitted out with all the best tools I could possibly need to do any job."

"And my work is appreciated because I am meticulous and hard working."

"And that's how I went from pinching out of weed bags and sleeping at a mission to owning a house and vehicles with a good job."- Response-Cheap

Act Like Nothing Changed

"Finished grad school, got a decent paying job, but continued to largely live as if I was broke."- AgingLemon

"live like I'm still paycheck to paycheck."- Enshu

For Love AND Money

"Married my way out of it."

"I had no idea her family were doing well because they live so frugally, but when I moved in with them to 'save money' after marrying her as they put it, I was put in charge of managing everyone's bills and credit cards."

'When I saw my father and mother in laws bank accounts, I at first thought it was a mistake, but when I raised it with my wife she was like like no that sounds normal."

"I nearly fainted."

"I know for bloody sure that their grandkids are going to want for nothing."- An_Draoidh_Uaine

Wasn't Afraid To Ask For Help

"Sacrificed comfort and focused on getting the bare minimum of what I need and how to get more money."

"I at ramen and bread, slept outside, and took a shower when I could."

"I got a job at Wal-Mart, then Ross, the clothing store."

"Found a cheap motel to stay at with the girlfriend and we scrimped and saved."

"But $33 a night on a $50 a day salary eats at you and it was impossible to save."

"Like it would have been years before I could have afforded just a car to make sure I got to work on time."

"So I moved into my fathers place and could save up for a car."

'They paid for my TESOL and I used a lifetime of miles from flying between my mother and father to get a ticket to Poland, sold the car and found myself eating potatoes in Polska till i got a job teaching English."

"Then the gold(PLN) was steady."

"Moral of this story is that poverty is a scary f*cking thing and its really hard to get out of it without friends and family."

"There's no easy way out and the longer you're there the deeper the holes get especially if you start borrowing money."

"I still like to travel on nothing sometimes though."

"Hitch-hike, couchsurf, and eat nothing but bread for months."- Mixedstereotype

Never Underestimate The Importance Of Social Skills

"Being at the right place, at the right time, talking to the right people."

"You can be the most talented person in the world, but if you don't know how to play the social game, and have a lot of luck it sadly isn't going to happen."- ClearRefrigerator519

Strived For Something Better

"I grew up with drug addicted/alcoholic parents."

"I've worked every day since I was 16 and stay far away from my family."

"My wife and kids are my rock and keep me working hard and pushing to be better."

"Pro tip: leave your small town and never look back."

"Take control and grab life by the horns."- ForlornCouple

Never Took One Day For Granted

"Read, learned, exercised, went to night school, got a GED went to university (got a loan for that) learned to live on beans and rice for 6 years got a contract job in my industry worked, studied, learned took every minute of work that came my way."

"Gained the trust of the middle class people around me, made them believe I wasn't some white trash loser, read learned exercised, saved up $10,000 started my own buisness, struggled for years, failed many times and finally got here."

"I am 52 and still working 6 days a week 12 hours a day."

"Sad but true."

"No easy options for me, unfortunately."- lostinKansai

Work, Work Work...

"I went back to school at 24 to get a degree in cs, got an internship at a big tech company and converted it to a full time offer at the end of the internship."

"Now I make insane money."

"I worked full time with a lot of mandatory over time during the entire period I was in college.'

"It was brutal, but ended up being worth it."- Pwnskies

Took Advantage Of Opporuntiy

"Grew up poor."

"I am good at learning and my country has affordable education."

"Getting into university is a matter of getting a diploma from the right level high school, which I did."

'I then went to university and got a good job."

"I now pay more in taxes than my education cost the government."

"It should be that simple anywhere."- Xaphhire

Figured Out Who Their Real Friends Were.

"Might sound harsh, but I dropped the group of people I was hanging with."

"They all had no aspirations or drive to do anything or get out of the small town we grew up in."

"I knew that if I stayed in that circle of people, I wouldn’t go or do anything with my life."

"That was 8 years ago now."

"I got a college degree, have my own house, and make $120k a year."

"Everyone back at home that I left still isn’t doing anything."- HackJarlow23

One sobering thought after reading all these inspiring stories.

If all the world's billionaires each donated a small percentage of their massive fortunes, they could actually end world hunger.

And yet...