How many people became billionaires, starting from nothing?

I don’t know how many of them became wealthy starting from scratch, but I want to share the story of Mohed Altrad, who is a billionaire today, but he started from being a Bedouin.


To understand from what position he has started, you’d be surprised to find out that he doesn't even know how old he is because there is no document revealing his birthday in the Syrian desert Bedouin tribe.

His children randomly picked a day from a hat - it’s March 9.

Now he is a billionaire in France - in Montpellier.

He has created Altrad Group from zero, making it one of the largest scaffolding providers in the world, with sales over $1 billion.

Today, his worth is estimated at $1.6 billion by Forbes




ALTRAD RARELY TALKS about his past, and it's easy to see why. When he was around 4, his teenage mother fell ill and died. His father, a powerful tribal leader who had raped her, disowned him. And Altrad's only brother, who lived with their father, died from abuse. Young Mohed was raised by his grandmother in a tent that moved with the tribe, following the rains that created oases of grazing land for their goats, sheep and camels. Altrad's grandmother refused to let him go to school, insisting that shepherds had no need for books. He attended anyway, sneaking away before she woke, walking barefoot for an hour across the dunes. Getting an education was worth bearing her wrath, he believed, not to mention the constant taunts of classmates. He was an outcast even by Bedouin standards.

"It was an instinct," Altrad says. "I knew that I was condemned, and my only chance was school."

When he was 7 Altrad's father reappeared long enough to buy him a bicycle, a rare treasure in the desert. In his first entrepreneurial venture, he rented out the bike to other young boys and used the money for school supplies.

A few years later he went to live with another relative near Raqqa, now the headquarters of the so-called Islamic State. He earned a baccalaureate, graduating first in the region and earning a scholarship from the Syrian government to study in France.

"I had no special dream at the time," he says. "Only the ambition not to accept my initial destiny."

From Bedouin To Billionaire: Meet The Man Changing What It Means To Be French After Charlie Hebdo

In France, he made his path to becoming a billionaire as you’ll read his story in this Forbes article.

Such stories are simply amazing, because it seems so impossible to start in a Bedouin tribe and end up a billionaire!

Post Credit: Richard Parker