To identify these revolutionaries, they first mined Forbes' 109-year-deep archive for classic tales of entrepreneurial capitalism. Then they asked the current crop of beat reporters from Forbes for their ideas.
The American Dream is built on the audacious belief that anyone can make it to the top. Every elementary school kid is imbued with the belief that anyone can become president of the United States. Or a hip-hop megastar. Or a space-faring billionaire. The notion is as old as the Republic and stands self-consciously in contrast to class-ridden Europe where one's prospects were often determined at birth.
This ideal has always had its heroes: from Alexander Hamilton, the orphaned immigrant who crafted America's first financial system, to Andrew Carnegie, who went from working as a young teen in a textile mill to forging a vast steel empire. Since 1917, it has been the prime subject matter of this publication. So, in honor of America's semiquincentennial, we feel uniquely qualified to rank the 250 greatest living self-made Americans. (Our list of the 250 greatest historical ones will be released on Friday).
To identify these revolutionaries, we first mined Forbes' 109-year-deep archive for classic tales of entrepreneurial capitalism. Then we asked our current crop of beat reporters for their ideas. We canvassed AI, running hundreds of queries through both ChatGPT and Gemini.
#3. David Steward
His father worked as a mechanic, janitor and trash collector to support eight children. Growing up in segregated Missouri, Steward was part of a group that pushed his town to integrate its swimming pools as a teenager. He walked on to his high school basketball team and earned a college scholarship. Even after he first cofounded World Wide Technology, now one of the largest IT services companies on the planet, he sometimes went without a paycheck and once watched his car get repossessed.
#159. Jim Kavanaugh
The son of a bricklayer played soccer in the Olympics before cofounding IT giant World Wide Technology with David Steward.