Self-made man
[1][2] Inspired by Franklin's autobiography, Frederick Douglass developed the concept of the self-made man in a series of lectures that spanned decades starting in 1879.
Originally, the term referred to an individual who arises from a poor or otherwise disadvantaged background to eminence in financial, political or other areas by nurturing qualities, such as perseverance and diligence, as opposed to achieving these goals through inherited fortune, family connections, or other privileges.
[4] The English writer William Hazlitt described Lord Chatham in The New Monthly Magazine in 1826 as "a self-made man, bred in a camp, not in a court.
"[6] An oft-repeated but no longer creditable claim is that the term "self-made man" was "coined" on February 2, 1832, by Henry Clay in the United States Senate.
Franklin introduced the archetypal self-made man through his own life story in which in spite of all odds he overcame his low and humble origins and inherited social position—his father was a candle-maker—to re-invent himself through self-improvement based on a set of strong moral values such as "industry, economy, and perseverance"[1]: 143 thereby attaining "eminence" in the classic rags to riches narrative.
Franklin's maxims as published in his Autobiography provide others, specifically his own son, with strategies for attaining status in the United States, described as a "land of unequaled opportunity" in the last quarter of the 18th century.
The irony is that they have made themselves free from bounds and possessions, in a sense impoverished, so that they can then begin to acquire power and wealth on their own.
That term implies an individual independence of the past and present which can never exist ... Our best and most valued acquisitions have been obtained either from our contemporaries or from those who have preceded us in the field of thought and discovery.
They are the men who, in a world of schools, academies, colleges and other institutions of learning, are often compelled by unfriendly circumstances to acquire their education elsewhere and, amidst unfavorable conditions, to hew out for themselves a way to success, and thus to become the architects of their own good fortunes.
... From hunger, rags and destitution, they have come ..."Abraham Lincoln,[17] Michael Faraday, George Stephenson, Charles Dickens, Frederick Douglass, P. T. Barnum, Booker T. Washington, Andrew Carnegie, and Henry Ford have also been described as self-made men.
According to food historian Polly Russell: "Manufacturers such as Huntley & Palmers in Reading, Carr's of Carlisle and McVitie's in Edinburgh transformed from small family-run businesses into state-of-the-art operations".
[21] In addition to goods being sold in the growing number of stores, street sellers were common in an increasingly urbanized country.
Debs contrasted the successful self-made men to those whose "illiteracy, stupidity, lack of ambition, forever keeps them at the bottom ... [who] prefer pool to school, and choose to hammer coal and shovel it into a fire-box rather than employ their leisure in learning what they must know if they expect to rise."
"[33] Zhou Qunfei is a Chinese entrepreneur and founder of Lens Technology, a major supplier of touch screens for smartphones and tablets.
[34] Based on Forbes metric for ranking billionaires, Zhou Qunfei's score would be ten, as she was born poor and arose to eminence through her own work and initiative.
His story serves as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream where "an unhappy fate is inevitable for the poor and striving individual, and the rich are allowed to continue without penalty their careless treatment of others' lives.
[44]: 27 According to the report, ultra high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI), those who have a net worth of at least US$30 million, were "predominantly self-made" having "earned their fortunes".
"[45]: 10 Mike Myatt in Forbes writes that "behind every success are significant investments and contributions by some if not all the following people: family, friends, associates, protagonists, antagonists, advisors, teachers, authors, mentors, coaches, and the list could go on".
[48] In September 2011, US Senator Elizabeth Warren challenged the concept of the self-made man in a video that went viral,[49] garnering over one million views on YouTube.
