Celebs That Fought to Get Where They Are By Angela Guzman l Inspirational Stories l Inspirational Words

Chris Gardner

Aside from a movie based on his life starring Will Smith, Gardner also has two New York Times bestselling books under his belt - The Pursuit of Happyness and Start Where You Are: Life Lessons in Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.

Before his story was shared with the world, Gardner was living on the streets with his young son. At the time, he was trying to pursue a career in finance despite not having any experience in it, or even a college degree. He received a spot on the Dean Witter Reynolds training program, but couldn't afford to live off of the small salary and his wife eventually left. Gardner struggled for a long time as a single father; he had to live in homeless shelters and do odd jobs to be able to eat.

Now Gardner is a motivational speaker and CEO of Gardner Rich LLC with offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. According to his website, Gardner's childhood was "marked by poverty, domestic violence, alcoholism, sexual abuse and family illiteracy." Gardner beat the odds and continued to stick work hard to make his dreams come true.

John Paul DeJoria

DeJoria had it rough from the beginning. His German and Italian parents divorced when he was two, and he sold Christmas cards and newspapers to help support his family before he turned 10 years old. He was eventually sent to live in a foster home in Los Angeles, California.

DeJoria spent some time as an L.A. gang member before joining the military. After trying his hand as an employee for Redken Laboratories, he took a $700 dollar loan and created John Paul Mitchell Systems. He sold the company's shampoo door-to-door, living out of his car while doing so. The quality of the product could not be denied and now JPM Systems is worth over $900 million annually. He also created Patron Tequila and has a hand in a variety of industries, from diamonds to music.

Ryan Seacrest

Instead of playing G.I. Joes and games, as a child Seacrest would pretend to be a broadcaster and host pretend shows for his family. At the age of 14, Seacrest became an announcer at his school and at the age of 16 he landed a radio internship; he was later given the weekend show. Then at 19 years old he decided he wanted to become a broadcaster and he left his home town to embark on Hollywood.

He landed a few gigs that turned into flops. In 2002, Seacrest landed a co-host gig with American Idol. Instead of settling with this fame, Seacrest went on to host American Idol by himself, host New Year's Rockin Eve, American Top 40, On Air With Ryan Seacrest, produce several TV shows with his own production company, managing editor of E! and also hosts the game show Million Second Quiz. Not to mention he makes regular appearances on the Today show.

Seacrest has climbed up the ladder and never settled for the minimum.