History Main / RagsToRiches

* ''LightNovel/ExpectingToFallIntoRuinIAimToBecomeABlacksmith'': TeenGenius Toto Gapp is from an [[ImpoverishedPatrician impoverished baron family]], and after Kururi notices how their academy's biology greenhouses are full of his experiments, he financially backs Toto for a cut of the profits. After a TimeSkip, Toto is a medicine mogul with his own large company and private army thanks to this, never ceasing to get his hands dirty in the labs.

* In ''VideoGame/CoffeeTalk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly'', Lucas grew up in an impoverished family, with his late father struggling to make ends meet, but the young satyr eventually rose to fame and became the successful influencer he is in the present.

* Played straight ''and'' inverted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker''. There's a town called Windfall Island which contains a rich man and a poor man, both of whose daughters have been kidnapped by the BigBad. You rescue the girls about halfway through the game, and their fathers switch wealth (the rich man spends his fortune trying to rescue his daughter, while the poor man ''makes'' his fortune overnight by selling rare necklaces his daughter brought back home after being rescued. They even move in to the rich family's old home). The formerly poor man even says that he's dreamed his entire life of taking part in this trope, while the formerly rich man doesn't seem upset about losing all of his money because his daughter has returned and that's everything that matters to him.
* Every ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' game begins this way. The standard is to give you a couple of farming tools and a single bag of seeds. By end game, most players would probably have obtained a ranch, upgraded their home to a fairly comfortable living space, and make thousands of bucks a month off crop harvests and animal produce.
** A specific character for whom this is {{Inverted}} for is Lumina from ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife'', if you marry her. She goes from living in a mansion and being one of the richest people in town to living on a measly farm. She's [[HappilyMarried more than happy with it]] too.

* In ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents'', you cheer on a pirate who has been left with practically nothing but his trusty bird, and he struggles to find lots and lots of treasures. If you succeed, the bird drops the trope title. In another mission, you cheer on an ex-oil tycoon who gets thrown out by his gold-digging wife after his oil wells run dry and is determined to dig his way back back to riches.
* The plot of pretty much every ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' game involves a small-time criminal going to the top. The worst example is definitely ''San Andreas'', where CJ starts off as a gangbanger in a small ghetto with nothing but the clothes on his back and a bicycle, and within less than a year (In game time. In real time, people have completed the game in a day or less.) becomes [[spoiler:a millionaire, manager to one of the greatest rappers in the world, owner of various properties, including an airfield and a share in a casino, and literally controls the entire state of San Andreas.]]
** Rockstar has stated that they were tired of the implausibility of these plots, hence their decision to not rehash them in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''.
** They did have Franklin in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' who pretty much goes from Rags to Riches like CJ as well, but that game had multiple protagonists and they (along with various other characters) were all {{Deconstruction}}s of how ''GTA'' protagonists were portrayed.
* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'' does this with both [[PlayerCharacter the Boss]] and the Third Street Saints. At the beginning of the game, the Boss is a prison escapee with no possessions besides a handgun and the clothes on their back who lives in a run-down studio in the basement of a run-down building while the Saints consist of them, Gatt, and a handful of other people. By the end of the game, the Boss owns multiple lavish condos with a fleet of vehicles, boats, airplanes, and helicopters while the Saints have become the effective rulers of Stilwater.
* The 1993 computer game "Rags to Riches - The Financial Market Simulation" from Interplay lets you make a fortune on the stock market with the money your parents have given you.
* This is literally a name of one of the scenarios in Sim City 3000, where you have to fix up a Crapsack Madrid.

* The cutscenes in ''VideoGame/RockBand 3'' give off this vibe (something that wasn't present before, by the way): your band starts off playing for enough money to share a single pizza, and along the way they become festival headliners, make a tour to Japan, and then one day [[spoiler:they get sick of all the fame and {{Loony Fan}}s harassing them, and so they vanish from the scene in a fake plane crash.]]
* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
** This can happen in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' for a Dwarven Commoner Warden, who was born casteless (the absolute bottom-wrung of dwarven society) and was thus looked upon as less than a person before becoming a Grey Warden. In the time between the Warden leaving and then returning to Orzammar, their sister Rica moves up in society when she becomes the mother of a prince's son and becomes a royal concubine. [[spoiler:After defeating the archdemon, the Warden becomes uplifted to a Paragon, a living legend among dwarves.]] It can also happen to a City Elf Warden who [[spoiler:becomes the Bann of the Alienage, granting the elves a voice in Ferelden for the first time in history]].
** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', the main quest line of Act 1 centers around [[PlayerCharacter Hawke]], a refugee in the slums of Kirkwall, attempting to gather enough resources to become a partner in a Deep Roads treasure hunting expedition, which eventually earns them enough money to bring their family back into high society. It can go even further in the endgame, where [[spoiler:a pro-Templar Hawke is appointed Kirkwall's new Viscount]], although this is temporary.
** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'':
*** This can be the case for the Inquisitor. A human Inquisitor is already nobility (being the youngest child of a minor noble from the Free Marches), but the other three are a smuggling dwarf, a mercenary Qunari, or a nomadic elf who lives in the woods. Any of the four possibilities end up as a significant historical figure with a castle, a pile of gold, and their own personal army of devoted followers.
*** This is also Vivienne's backstory. She was the daughter of itinerant merchants who was taken to the Circle as a child when her magic manifested and went from that humble background to First Enchanter of Monstimmard and personal court mage to the Empress of Orlais. [[spoiler:She can even end the game by being elected Divine.]]
* ''[[VideoGame/TestDrive Test Drive Unlimited 2]]'' had the player character start off as a chauffeur who got fired sleeping on the job then after being offered a spot in a racing competition is given some money to buy a mobile home with a two-car garage and a cheap starting car. By the time the main story is finished, that same character has four mansions scattered on two islands, two yachts, 63 cars (most of them million-dollar [[CoolCar hypercars]]), and a [[Fiction500 bank account of around seven figures.]]
* ''VideoGame/MadTV1991'': Real estate agent H. G. Higwig starts off as a bearded hobo. If you keep giving him profit by buying and selling studios, he'll get richer and richer until he's a smug businessman.
* In ''VideoGame/ThirdWorldFarmer'', once you work out the strategy, it becomes fairly simple to start getting ahead and even becoming rich. There is some debate as to whether this is intentional or not.
* Shun Akiyama, from ''VideoGame/Yakuza4'', was a hobo living on the streets of Kamurocho. Then an explosion broke out from Millennium Tower one night (at the end of the events of the first ''Yakuza'') and money rained down upon the people. Akiyama snatched up all the money he could carry and used it to start his own successful money-lending business, Sky Finance.
* Ichiban Kasuga starts ''Videogame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' as a homeless ex-con dumped into Ijincho whose first goals are simply to find a place to sleep and a steady job. Then through circumstance, he becomes the President of the coincidentally-named Ichiban Confections which he can turn from a snack shop to a multi-million dollar holdings corporation through aggressive venture capitalism.
-->'''The Bartender''': So I see you brought a friend. You're smoother than you look.\\
'''Ichiban''': Come on, man. She's an employee of mine.\\
'''The Bartender''': Is she now? Weren't you homeless the other day? And now you're some corporate bigshot?
* ''VideoGame/JonesInTheFastLane'' plays like this, especially if you choose a high money goal.

* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing:''
** Tom Nook is a more [[TearJerker somber]] example. He left to go to the city to earn money, promising to never lose his way but came back the Tom Nook we're most familiar with.
** In a sense, the player character starts off with virtually nothing but the clothes on his or her back. As you continue to play though, you'll make a lot of bells. Some of it will go to Tom Nook, but you'll eventually end up with a mansion full of stuff if you keep up with the payments.
** ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'' has this for the game's entire setting. You start off on a DesertedIsland occupied only by yourself, Nook and his two employees, an airport run by two dodos, and two other residents, with nearly everyone roughing it in tents. As you progress through the game and tame the island, the community grows, permanent homes are built, infrastructure is put in place, and the formerly-deserted island grows into a community just like in previous games.

* In the Commodore 64 game ''Rags to Riches'' you start out as a bum picking up loose change off the street and end up with a million dollars, if you're lucky.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series {{Player Character}}s almost universally start off as penniless prisoners (or in one case, a penniless shipwreck survivor). As you progress through the games, you usually find enough MoneyForNothing and more legendary artifacts than you can possible use, making you quite possibly one of the wealthiest individuals in all of Tamriel.
* ''Franchise/{{Dishonored}}'':
** Corvo Attano, the protagonist of the first game and, conditionally, of the sequel, was born in a lower-class family but has proven himself badass enough to eventually become the Royal Protector (personal bodyguard and advisor) of two Empresses of the Isles, Jessamine and Emily Kaldwin, as well as [[spoiler:the secret consort of the former and the father of the latter]]. In the non-canon High Chaos ending of ''VideoGame/Dishonored2'', he even takes the throne of the Isles for himself.
** ''VideoGame/Dishonored2'' has a much more classical example in Aramis Stilton, who started off as an immigrant miner, but his people skills and tech know-how got him so rich that he was eventually able to buy out the very mines he worked in. Despite his attempts to fit in with the rich and powerful of Karnaca, however, the high society has never accepted him (except for the late Duke Theodanis, who was his secret lover).
* Shiro Okuda from ''VisualNovel/ShiningSongStarnova'' was born into poverty and joined the entertainment industry at a young age to keep her family from starving. In the years since then, she has become the leader of Quasar, Japan’s most popular idol unit, making her the wealthiest IdolSinger (if not the wealthiest woman, ''period'') in the country.

* ''VideoGame/HouseFlipper'' starts the player out with barely any money, and living in a tiny shack. Through hard work, however, you'll end up flipping houses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and being worth millions yourself.
* Ningguang from ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' is an example of this trope as she was born to a poor family, which she eventually moved away from to start her own business. She retains some of her tastes from that time, such as a taste for simple grilled fish, and one of the branches of her Hangout Event has her and the Traveler reenacting her rise from nothing for fun. Zhongli, another character, even says he remembers her walking barefoot through a beach selling her wares.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'': Harry goes from a spoiled obnoxious prince to a slave. Then back to royalty after ten years of slavery. Similarly, his wife Maria was a slave before meeting him.

* In the short story in ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyMicroSeries'' Issue #3, Hayseed Turnip Truck grinds himself up until he becomes a successful businessstallion.

* In "Literature/{{Cinderella}}", the titular character is the daughter of a rich widower, who remarried and then died, leaving her daughter to the care of her new wife and her own daughters. They did not care for her at all and had her do all the chores and generally being totally evil. Things turned around for Cinderalla upon meeting her Fairy Godmother, falling in love with the prince, losing her glass slipper, and finding it again.

* Music/RKelly grew up in the Chicago housing projects with three siblings and a DisappearedDad.

* Creator/JimmySavile grew up in Leeds during TheGreatDepression and later claimed, "I was forged in the crucible of want". He described his father as "scrupulously honest but scrupulously broke."

* Sun-ah from ''Series/TheDevilJudge'' was a servant at Y0-han's mansion when she was a child. She somehow managed to escape poverty to become the director of a corporation and now lives in luxury compared to how dirt-poor she used to be.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Akira and Sheryl. Akira started as a StreetUrchin who would be astonished by small amounts of money until MysteriousBacker Alpha took him in and started training him as a hunter, and Sheryl was a shunned outcast [[WrongSideOfTheTracks in the slums]] until Akira took her in. As a BrainsAndBrawn duo, both end up slowly clawing their way up to living in a palatial fortress with an entire TheSyndicate mixed with PrivateMilitaryCompany built around them.
* ''LightNovel/ReMonster'': Rou goes from being a mere goblin with nothing but the clothes on his back and a few friends in basically a BarbarianTribe, to leading and gradually uplifting his civilization through assimilating groups and technology until it's basically a city-state. Officially leading a PrivateMilitaryCompany Parabellum, that takes kingdoms as clients, operating several side ventures like tourism and trade.
* In ''LightNovel/RollOverAndDie'', Flum and Milkit start off in literal rags due to being slaves. After Flum manages to free them, she becomes an adventurer to support them. Over the course of the first volume, Flum successfully completes two important jobs. The first job allows them to afford nicer clothing. The second job earns a reward of a house and a significant amount of money. Flum continues to work as an adventurer, so they can live in relative comfort while Milkit takes on the role of a housekeeper to maintain the home.

* ''WebVideo/NightmareTime:'' The episode "Yellow Jacket" has the Fosters coming into money after Hannah wins a fight in an underground fighting ring. Ethan and Hannah immediately spend a large chunk of the money on flat screen TVs, go-karts, and pizza.

* ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'':
** [[IdiotHero Catarina]] is the SpoiledBrat daughter of a duke until one day when she hits her head and wakes up to the memories of her past life, a middle-class Japanese tomboy, which becomes the dominant influence on her. Unable to take herself so seriously anymore, she stops acting so ladylike and bitchy and starts plowing fields for fun, climbing trees, making friends with lower-ranked nobles and commoners, and so on, much to the exasperation of several nobles around her, especially her mother. While she may call herself Catarina and recognize Catarina's parents as her own, she's still basically that middle-class tomboy called the "[[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Monkey Girl]]".
** Her adoptive younger brother [[NotBloodSiblings Keith]] is a distant relative from the Claes branch family whose bastardry and his uncontrolled magic end up as a source of pain in his formative years. And should the events of the game have unfolded, his time when he is adopted to the main branch in which he is also treated like crap by [[CainAndAbel Catarina]] and her [[WickedStepmother mother]]. His strong earth magic allows him to be adopted by Duke Claes to become the duchy's next heir after Catarina is engaged with Geordo, risking the Claes house of losing its heir.
** It's heavily implied that [[FeminineWomenCanCook Maria Campbell]], a commoner unlike the two examples above, will end up having higher status and fortune due to her genius intellect, pleasant personality, and her rare light magic. It's even noted by Sirius[[spoiler:/Raphael, who like Maria is a commoner who wields magic and is also an example of this trope]], of how foolish nobles are for abusing their power and throwing their weight on her when she's slated to elevate to a status that is equal to the ruling house of Sorcier by working at the Ministry of Magic in a few years. Even in the unaltered timeline, she will end up in this trope by marrying her chosen LoveInterest (who are all members of the nobility) if she achieves the Good Ending route.

See also PrinceAndPauper and SelfMadeMan. When someone goes all the way from poverty to the throne it is RagsToRoyalty. An [[TheEpic Epic]] WarriorPrince who, by military conquest, goes from somewhat minor status to ruling an [[TheEmpire Empire]] is likely the YoungConqueror. A less noble example is the NouveauRiche. Other variations can probably be thought of. One is for this to be done focusing on a group (say a family, a nation, or a sports team) rather than an individual that does this.

* Also used in ''Manga/HaouAiren'', where a girl who has to struggle with a part-time job, her high school studies, ''and'' taking care of her sickly widow mother and her cute little siblings... until she is suddenly thrown into a world of fabulous riches and luxury in Hong Kong, when it turns out that the handsome stranger whose life she saved is actually a high-ranked Triad leader who wants her as his mistress (and he also promises to send money to her family in Tokyo, so the girl's mom can have adequate treatment and she won't have to worry - and as far as we know, he keeps that part). Too bad this also brings [[BreakTheCutie HORRIBLE misfortune]] [[TheWoobie to the poor girl]], as the dude is a massive FetishizedAbuser ''and'' the people in their surroundings are corrupted to the core.

* ''Manga/LoveLucky'': Fuuta goes from living in a small room paid for with his modest wages to Ippongi Hills, the most high class, glamorous set of apartments in Tokyo so that he and his new pop-star wife Kirari can have easier access to each other in her off time.
* Sheryl Nome from ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'' was a homeless StreetUrchin [[spoiler:after her parents were assassinated]] until she was picked up by Grace O'Connor, who became her manager on the road to stardom. Ten years of hard work ([[spoiler:and Grace's manipulations]]) later, and Sheryl is the most popular (and probably the richest) IdolSinger in the galaxy with a credit rating high enough to hire an entire high tech mercenary unit complete with their carrier flagship and SuperPrototype fighters for a high-risk rescue mission with just her credit card.

** Her adoptive younger brother [[NotBloodSiblings Keith]] is a distant relative from the Claes branch family whose bastardry and his uncontrolled magic end up as a source of pain in his formative years. And should the events of the game had unfolded, his time when he is adopted to the main branch in which he is also treated like crap by [[CainAndAbel Catarina]] and her [[WickedStepmother mother]]. His strong earth magic allows him to be adopted by Duke Claes to become the duchy's next heir after Catarina is engaged with Geordo, risking the Claes house of losing its heir.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Akira and Sheryl. Akira started as a StreetUrchin who would be astonished by small amounts of money, until MysteriousBacker Alpha took him in and started training him as a hunter, and Sheryl was a shunned outcast [[WrongSideOfTheTracks in the slums]] until Akira took her in. As a BrainsAndBrawn duo, both end up slowly clawing they way up to living in a palatial fortress with an entire TheSyndicate mixed with PrivateMilitaryCompany built around them.

* In ''Manga/SakuraGari'', Dr. Katsuragi is implied to come from a low-middle class family since as a teenager he lived and worked as a servant in the ''very'' rich Saiki clan's BigFancyHouse while going through his studies. Now he both works in a famous hospital and is the personal doctor of his former protectors.
** [[spoiler:Souma Saiki, too. His MissingMom was an ImpoverishedPatrician and his PrincessInRags maternal grandma made him work in the streets. Then he was found by the Saikis clan and, since he was the most qualified to be the prospect heir (Youya was much younger and from an unhappy marriage), they took him in.]]

* Parodied in ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'', when Jason wins $10.00 - combined with his previous savings, he ''becomes a millionaire'' [[spoiler:in Turkish Lira - 77,000 to the dollar.]] Sadly, his opulent lifestyle comes crashing down when he loses his entire fortune [[spoiler:buying five comic books.]]

* In "Literature/TheThreeSnakeLeaves", the main character leaves his home because his father is too poor to support him. Afterwards, he joins the army, rises quickly in the ranks, earns the king's favor and gets married to the princess.
* In "Literature/{{Cinderella}}", the titular character is the daughter of a rich widower, who remarried and then died, leaving her daughter to the care of her new wife and her own daughters. They did not care for her at all and had her do all the chores and generally being totally evil. Things turned around for Cinderalla upon meeting her Fairy Godmother, falling in love with the prince, losing her glass slippers, and finding it again.

* A villainous example from ''Film/AngelsWithDirtyFaces'' William Sullivan starts out life as dirty delinquent, but after he becomes a ganster, he's wealthy enough to spend weekends drinking with glamorous women in fabulous casinos and eventually steals one hundred grand.

* ''Film/BrewstersMillions'' is about a poor man who inherits $30 million with the condition that he spend all of it in a month in order get $300 million.

* ''Film/{{Envy}}'': Nick Vanderpark (Jack Black) [[SelfMadeMan made himself a wealthy man]] by financing the development of a spray that vaporizes dog poop (hence the name "Vapoorize"). Tim Dingman (Ben Stiller), Nick's friend, best friend, and former co-worker also becomes wealthy when Nick offers him partnership in exchange for Tim helping Vapoorize to be marketed in Italy. [[spoiler:It seemed they'd no longer be wealthy when Vapoorize was recalled from the market but then Tim thought about inventing Pocket Flan. How much they made from the idea is never revealed.]]

* ''Film/PrettyWoman'': Vivian goes from heart-of-gold prostitute to a life of luxury with Edward, her sugar daddy and white knight.

* The ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' movies, about a poor Philadelphian finding success and the attendant riches. It's particularly noticeable in [[Film/RockyII the second]] and [[Film/RockyIII third]] movies.

* ''Film/TheYoungRebel'': The titular rebel comes from a poor family, is forced to work a minimum wage job as a delivery boy after his father's death, to provide for his mother and younger sister. But then he joins a mob, becomes a hitman, and start making millions. Again, in typical Shaw Brothers fashion, it all goes to hell at the end.

* The ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' series contains a highly ironic instance of this trope. Tehol Beddict came from a very prominent but impoverished family and worked his way up to become one of the richest men in the country due to his business genius. He then gave up his fortune because he was disgusted with the debt-slavery system the country runs on, but not without causing an economic crash that saw many money lenders kill themselves. He then does it again during the course of ''Literature/MidnightTides'' and ''Literature/ReapersGale'', becoming insanely rich through fake companies while living in a hovel, then letting the economy crash to undermine Lether's new, even more oppressive regime. This time around, though, this leads to him being hailed as a hero by the common people, who make him king.

** In Alger's first book, ''Literature/RaggedDick'', Dick is able to elevate himself from homeless bootblack to... entry-level {{Clerk}}. While the "riches" part may seem a bit underwhelming, there's no doubt he's better off at the end than the beginning.
** ''Ragged Dick'' itself was followed up by a sequel book that went more in depth on the "to riches" part.

* ''Series/APrinceAmongMen'': Part of Gary Prince's backstory is that he was raised on an estate in the North before his talent in football was discovered. In the series' present day, he is a successful ex-footballer and entrepreneur and lives fairly affulently. Not that this has humbled him in any way.

* Bobbie Gentry's "Fancy", later famously CoveredUp by Music/RebaMcEntire, is all about a young woman, the titular Fancy, who after her poverty stricken family is left destitute after the father abandons them, and her terminally ill mother forces her into prostitution, buying her a [[LadyInRed red dress]] with the last of their money, to ensure her daughter's survival. With no other choice but to sell herself, Fancy uses her beauty and charm to climb the social and financial ladder with backing from her johns, to become a wealthy woman with a mansion in Georgia and a stately townhouse in New York. Through it all Fancy also comes to terms that her mother, who died from her illness shortly after sending her child to the streets, did everything she could to give Fancy the best chance she could have.

*** Louise was a peasant girl that didn't have much aside of her archery skills, her kind heart and her incredible beauty. However, after she told a local rich bachelor (Lord Pent) that she'd protect him with her bow and arrows, he chose her as his wife over ''many'' more graceful and prettier girls. Now they're very HappilyMarried.
*** Same goes to Louise's best friend and distant cousin, [[spoiler:Queen Hellene from Bern.]] [[BreakTheCutie It didn't work half as well in her case.]]

*** This can be the case for the Inquisitor. A human Inquisitor is already nobility (being the youngest child of a minor noble from the Free Marches), but the other three are a smuggling dwarf, a mercenary Qunari, or a nomadic elf who lives in the woods. Any of the four possibilities ends up as a significant historical figure with a castle, a pile of gold, and their own personal army of devoted followers.

* Shun Akiyama, from ''VideoGame/Yakuza4'', was a hobo living on the streets of Kamurocho. Then an explosion broke out from Millennium Tower one night (at the end of the events of the first ''Yakuza'') and money rained down upon the people. Akiyama snatched up all the money he could carry and used it to start his own successful money lending business, Sky Finance.
* Ichiban Kasuga starts ''Videogame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' as a homeless ex-con dumped into Ijincho whose first goals are simply to find a place to sleep and a steady job. Then through circumstance he becomes the President of the coincidentally-named Ichiban Confections which he can turn from a snack shop to a multi-million dollar holdings corporation through aggressive venture capitalism.

'''The Bartender''': Is she now? Weren't you homeless the other day? And now you're some corporate big shot?

* Don Genie, the wealthy buinessman from the ''VideoGame/FZero'' franchise will state during an interview that "I've taken every chance that came my way, and clawed my way out of the slums."

** The sequel, ''NBA Ballers: Phenom'', has a similar plot. You start as a no-name baller living out of his car. Depending on your decisions and performance, you can either end up become a hip-hop mogul, or a professional basketball player.

** ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'' has this for the game's entire setting. You start off on a DesertedIsland occupied only by yourself, Nook and his two employees, an airport run by two dodos, and two other residents, with nearly everyone roughing it in tents. As you progress through the game and tame the island, the community grows, permanent homes are built, infrastructure is put in place, and the formerly-deserted island grows into a community just like from previous games.

** ''VideoGame/Dishonored2'' has a much more classical example in Aramis Stilton, who started off as an immigrant miner, but his people skills and tech know-how got him so rich that he was eventually able to buy out the very mines he worked in. Despite his attempts to fit in with the rich and powerful of Karnaca, however, the high society has never accepted him (except the late Duke Theodanis, who was his secret lover).
* Shiro Okuda from ''VisualNovel/ShiningSongStarnova'' was born into poverty and joined the entertainment industry at a young age to keep her family from starving. In the years since then she has become the leader of Quasar, Japan’s most popular idol unit, making her the wealthiest IdolSinger (if not the wealthiest woman, ''period'') in the country.

* Ningguang from ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' is an example of this trope as she was born to a poor family, which she eventually moved away from to start her own business. She retains some of her tastes from that time, such as a taste for simple grilled fish, and one of the branches of her Hangout Event has her and the Traveler reenacting her rise from nothing for fun. Zhongli, another character, even says he remembers he walking barefoot through a beach selling her wares.

* A side effect of Nanny's RealityWarper effects on her victims in ''Literature/TheNewNarnia'' is that their family's wellbeing are improved overall, [[DiscardAndDraw possibly to compensate for taking a person's capacity to become an adult]]. At the beginning, Tommy and his family where dirt-poor, only to become upper-middle class when he and his sister started visiting Malacus.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has the family win the lottery and Peter alienates his friends with his newfound snobby attitude because of it. Not only that, but the family foolishly spend their money on trivial things until they go broke. The Griffins then get rich again through the lottery, only to go broke ''again'' a week later. Quagmire helps the Griffins out with the profits he made in his investment and the family manages to get back to where they were before the lottery.

* Roman Emperor Diocletian worked his ways up the military and ultimately became emperor. It wasn't ''that'' uncommon in Rome, actually. If you were a ''really'' good member of the military and kept yourself away from the dangers in such an environment (injury, backstabbing, etc.), you could work your way up constantly and enact the trope. More than one Emperor aside from Diocletian arrived to power this way. (Now, whether they ''stayed'' there... that was something else)

* UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi. He's born as a sandal-bearer named 'Tokichiro Kinoshita'. Then he joins UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga, works his ass up to the point that he became Nobunaga's right-hand man, avenges his death, and finished what Nobunaga couldn't accomplish: actually ''unifying Japan'' and becoming the most powerful man in the nation. Although the immediate downfall of his clan immediately after his death [[DeconstructedTrope can partly be contributed to his status]]; he couldn't even forge a Minamoto[=/=]Taira lineage as everyone knew his background, which made his family ineligible for the top posts in the country. He ruled as [[RegentForLife kampaku]]-- not a shogun-- because he was adopted by a Fujihara just before the fact, and his legitimacy was only sustained through his own power. (On the other hand, UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu had been able to forge himself a Minamoto lineage and make himself eligible for shogun.)

* Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger was a kid growing up in post-WWII Austria, with all the limited sources this implies. He got interested in bodybuilding, and once he moved to Munich to train in a better gym, he lived there! Once Arnie finally fulfilled his dream of visiting the United States, attending the Mr. Universe in New York City, a famous gym owner in Los Angeles asked him to move there to train (and he accepted, despite all his possessions being in Europe). And his attempt at UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream, which included working on construction in the off-hours, saw Arnie become the greatest bodybuilder of all-time, an action film hero with the biggest paycheck in Hollywood, and Governor of California.

* The example from ''Film/TheBlindSide'' up in the Film section really happened; Michael Oher is a real person, and one of the top offensive lineman in the NFL.

** The Han Dynasty was full of those, with two emperors, Xuan (brought up a commoner, later became emperor) and Guangwu (Lived as a peasant at one point despite being a distant royal, eventually restored the dynasty), and one empress (Wei Zifu, she was born the fourth child of a family of peasants, but ended up being employed by a princess and ended up marrying her older brother, Emperor Wu, being his second empress and the second longest-serving empress in Chinese history, losing only to the wife of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty)

* While she was a student at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Russian operatic soprano Anna Netrebko was working as a janitor at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg when she was discovered by the prominent conductor Valery Gergiev, who then became her vocal mentor. She then went on to sing many prominent roles with the company, and then made her Met Opera debut as Natasha Rostova in Prokofiev's ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' in 2002, right as the Met was introducing their ''Live in HD'' series. Today, she has performed with many prominent opera companies like the Met Opera, the Vienna State Opera, and the Royal Opera House, and has been awarded with the State Prize of the Russian Federation.

* Having been born in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé grew up in a family that couldn't afford to send her to school, so they made a deal with a wealthy family to have them finance her studies in exchange for her appearing at the Barcelona opera house every season. Her big breakthrough came in 1965 when she replaced Marilyn Horne in a production of Donizetti's ''Lucrezia Borgia'' at Carnegie Hall in New York, which earned her a 25-minute standing ovation. Since then, she became an internationally-acclaimed soprano who has performed with prominent opera companies such as the Met Opera, received several international awards, and has collaborated with Music/FreddieMercury.

* French tenor Roberto Alagna is the son of Sicilian immigrants who moved to Paris in the 1950s, and he often busked and sang in Parisian cabarets when he was a teenager. Even when he switched to opera, he was mostly self-taught. After winning the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition in 1988, Alagna made his professional debut as Alfredo Germont in Verdi's ''Theatre/{{La traviata}}'' with the Glyndebourne touring company, which led him to singing with various European companies. His breakthrough, however, came in 1994, when he sang the role of Roméo in Gounod's ''Roméo et Juliette'' in Covent Garden. Since then, he has sung with numerous prominent opera companies, has become an advocate for restoring neglected French operas, and has been awarded a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2008.

* Creator/SeanConnery was born into a working class family in Edinburgh, Scotland, quitting school at age 13 and working many jobs, including as a milkman, a coffin polisher, a lorry driver, a lifeguard, serving in the Royal Navy, then working as an artist's model and then a bodybuilder before entering acting and eventually landing his StarMakingRole of Film/JamesBond and becoming an international superstar.

* Music/{{Madonna}}. Before hitting it big, in 1978 she moved to New York City with ''$35'' to her name into a rat-infested tenement, lived on simplistic food like popcorn for months at a time and worked at Dunkin' Donuts and in dance troupes to support herself.

* Naomi Judd struggled to make ends meet and raise two daughters, while harboring dreams of making it in country music. Then she managed to convince one record producer whose daughter she cared for as a nurse to give the duo she formed with one daughter a chance, and Music/TheJudds became a smash hit, with said daughter, Music/WynonnaJudd, saying "I literally went from the outhouse to the White House". The other daugher, Creator/AshleyJudd, also made it big as an actress.
* Creator/ViolaDavis had a childhood so bad that in a special with the aforementioned Oprah, she said Davis' autobiography made her think her own poor upbringing wasn't ''that'' miserable: after being born in a one-room house with no running water or indoor toilets, at the age of two she spent some time in prison when her mother was arrested, and grew up living in rat-infested and condemned apartments, without clean water, soap, heat or electricity (and that's not counting the racism, bullying and abuse she suffered). Then her acting talent landed her a college scholarship, and Davis was on the way to becoming one of the most acclaimed actresses ever.

** In Alger's first book, ''Ragged Dick'', Dick is able to elevate himself from homeless bootblack to... entry-level {{Clerk}}. While the "riches" part may seem a bit underwhelming, there's no doubt he's better off at the end than the beginning.

* "[[Wrestling/DustyRhodes I have wined and dined with kings and queens, and slept in alleys chewin' on pork-n-beans]]."
* After the failing in the NFL Wrestling/BobSapp skirted the poverty line until the promoters of Wrestling/{{All Japan|ProWrestling}}, [=K1=] and Pride Fighting Championships saw his matches from Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA Wildside and decided they wanted him. He wound up being a decently paid pro wrestler, better-paid kickboxer, and the highest-paid mixed martial artist.
* During August 2013, Magnificent Championship Wrestling put tryouts in a 'Rags To Riches' battle royal, giving the winner a title shot whenever they wanted.[[/folder]]

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Davos grew up in Flea Bottom as the son of a crabber, worked his way up to smuggler captain, became a knight for smuggling Stannis food, and is now King Stannis' Consigliere and was even made his Hand. Stannis even tells him, "You'll be the first crabber's son to ever be the hand of the King." All this before he even learns how to read.
** Littlefinger worked his way up from the very lowest of the nobility to Lord of Harrenhal and consort to the Lady of the Vale through his skill at moneymaking and XanatosSpeedChess.
** Xaro Xhoan Daxos rose from a penniless immigrant to one of the foremost men in Qarth.
** Bronn begins the series as a grubby sellsword in the Riverlands and successively becomes Lord Commander of the City Watch, a knight, and finally is set to marry into a lesser noble house. The marriage deal is reneged upon by Cersei, although Jaime promises Bronn a better marriage when they return from Dorne. [[spoiler:By the end, he's Lord of Highgarden, Lord Paramount of the Reach, and King Bran's Master of Coin.]]
** Janos Slynt, a butcher's son, rose to Lord Commander of the City Watch and then Lord of Harrenhal until Tyrion banished him to the Wall.
** A famed Westerlands story tells of how Lann the Clever, patriarch of House Lannister, managed to swindle the ruling House Casterly out of their castle of Casterly Rock.
** The Cleganes' grandfather was the kennelmaster serving Lord Tytos, who knighted him for saving his life from a lioness.

* ''Film/{{Midnight 1939}}'': From a penniless showgirl in Paris to a Baroness of Hungary. Of course, not a ''real'' Baroness...

* ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' The novel ''Carnival'' has Wash and River going to casinos in a desperate bid to win enough to free Zoe and Mal after the pair are captured. River uses her psychic powers to win big and when Mal and Zoe proceed to free themselves, they don’t have to pay and are briefly rich. But Zoe and Mal had run afoul of a human trafficking ring, and after helping free the girls involved, they agree to pass on the money to help the rescued girls.

* Also used in ''Manga/HaouAiren'', where a girl who has to struggle with a part-time job, her high school studies, ''and'' taking care of her IllGirl widow mother and her cute little siblings... until she is suddenly thrown into a world of fabulous riches and luxury in Hong Kong, when it turns out that the handsome stranger whose life she saved is actually a high-ranked Triad leader who wants her as his mistress (and he also promises to send money to her family in Tokyo, so the girl's mom can have adequate treatment and she won't have to worry - and as far as we know, he keeps that part). Too bad this also brings [[BreakTheCutie HORRIBLE misfortune]] [[TheWoobie to the poor girl]], as the dude is a massive FetishizedAbuser ''and'' the people in their surroundings are corrupted to the core.

* Played straight ''and'' inverted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker''. There's a town called Windfall Island which contains a rich man and a poor man, both of whose daughters have been kidnapped by the BigBad. You rescue the girls about halfway through the game, and their fathers switch wealth (the rich man spends his fortune trying to rescue his daughter, while the poor man ''makes'' his fortune overnight by selling rare necklaces his daughter brought back home after being rescued. They even move in to the rich family's old home). The formerly poor man even says that he's dreamed his entire life in taking part in this trope, while the formerly rich man doesn't seem upset about losing all of his money because his daughter has returned and that's everything that matters to him.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* A major premise in ''Manga/SteppingOnRoses'' (''Hadashi de Bara wo Fume''), in which the poor and uneducated protagonist Sumi Kitamura is offered the chance to live a life of wealth and extravagance... but '''only''' if she is willing to leave her family behind to enter into a marriage of convenience with PrincelyYoungMan Soichirou Ashida.
** [[spoiler:Later we see that there's also a RagsToRoyalty deal... since Sumi turns out to be Aiko Iijuin, the long-lost daughter of ''another'' rich family.]]
* ''Manga/LoveLucky'': Fuuta goes from living in a small room paid for with his modest wages to Ippongi Hills, the most high class, glamorous set of apartments in Tokyo so that he and his new pop-star wife Kirari can have easier access to each other in her off time.
* Liechtenstein in ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers''; her backstory shows her as a HeartwarmingOrphan dying on the streets because the Great Depression has crippled her country. She is rescued by Switzerland and adopted as his little sister, and is now one of the richest countries in the world.
** For that matter, Swiss himself. Liechtenstein mentions that his own economic situation was ''not'' the best when he took her in due to the war and the GD, but some decades later he's living in a BigFancyHouse with her and is a quite more wealthy nation. (Not that he spends a lot, though.)
** Also the Netherlands. He's seen as a rather poor and struggling teenage nation (while his younger sister Belgium is a ChildProdigy businesswoman), then he's seen under Spain's wing (that he's not too happy about), and later he has become quite the overseas empire... and a stoic, penny-pinching NonIdleRich.
** [[PrincelyYoungMan Luxembourg]], Netherlands' younger brother, is a case of this; at first his status as a NonActionGuy meant he was often bullied and pushed around by stronger countries, but [[BigBrotherWorship his admiration of the Netherlands]] meant that he decided to emulate his ways, and he then captured all of Europe's finances.

* Also used in ''Manga/HaouAiren'', where a girl who has to struggle with a part-time job, her high school studies, ''and'' taking care of her IllGirl widow mother and her cute little siblings... until she is suddenly thrown into a world of fabulous riches and luxury in Hong Kong, when it turns out that the handsome stranger whose life she saved is actually a high-ranked Triad leader who wants her as his mistress (and he also promises to send money to her family in Tokyo, so the girl's mom can have adequate treatment and she won't have to worry - and as far as we know, he keeps that part). Too bad this also brings [[BreakTheCutie HORRIBLE misfortune]] [[TheWoobie to the poor girl]], as the dude is a massive FetishizedAbuser ''and'' the people in their surroundings are corrupted to the core.
* Sheryl Nome from ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'' was a homeless StreetUrchin [[spoiler:after her parents were assassinated]] until she was picked up by Grace O'Connor, who became her manager on the road to stardom. Ten years of hard work ([[spoiler:and Grace's manipulations]]) later, and Sheryl is the most popular (and probably the richest) IdolSinger in the galaxy with a credit rating high enough to hire an entire high tech mercenary unit complete with their carrier flagship and SuperPrototype fighters for a high-risk rescue mission with just her credit card.
* [[spoiler:Mariko Shinobu's family]] in ''Manga/DearBrother''. According to their child, [[spoiler:Hikawa and Hisako Shinobu were very poor when they got married, then got progressively richer as Hikawa's novelist career flourished. (Though at the very high cost of them growing apart, as well as Hikawa [[TragicDream having to stick to his successful erotica rather than the more meaningful (and genuinely good) literature he was fond of.]] GrowingUpSucks, indeed.)]]
* ''Manga/MayonakaNiKiss'': Widow Natori and her children when she marries a billionaire.

* Yukiji from ''Manga/KamisamaKiss'' used to be an ordinary farm girl before being adopted into nobility. The heroine Nanami also counts, though with her it is more of a case of Rags to Godhood.
* In ''Manga/SakuraGari'', Dr. Katsuragi is implied to come from a low-middle class family since as a teenager he lived and worked as a servant in the ''very'' rich Saiki clan's BigFancyHouse while going through his studies. Now he both works in a famous hospital and is the personal doctor of his former protectors.
** [[spoiler:Souma Saiki, too. His MissingMom was an ImpoverishedPatrician and his PrincessInRags maternal grandma made him work in the streets. Then he was found by the Saikis clan and, since he was the most qualified to be the prospect heir (Youya was much younger and from an unhappy marriage), they took him in.]]
* You Houki from ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'' comes from a very poor country family, and she is taken by the Royal Court due to [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman her incredible beauty]]. She is then made into a membress of Hotohori's harem, [[spoiler:and she eventually becomes his legal wife, the mother of his child, and the [[TheHighQueen Empress Dowager]].]]
* Robert E.O. Speedwagon, from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', was a destitute street thug when Jonathan Joestar first met him. After changing his ways, he went on to accidentally strike oil and become rich in the time between Parts 1 and 2, using his newfound fortune to found the Speedwagon Foundation, which funded medical and scientific breakthroughs and would assist the Joestar bloodline even after Speedwagon, himself, passes away.

* ''Anime/VividStrike'': This is part of Rinne Berlinetta's backstory, as an orphan who was adopted by fashion moguls.

* ''Manga/HidamariSketch'': Shortly after starting her senior year, the brother of the [[PerpetualPoverty perpetually poor]] yet [[DitzyGenius very talented]] Miyako- a cabbage farmer- lands a contract with a major restaurant chain, thus significantly improving her ability to afford to go to college.
* In ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'', Akira goes from barely making enough to eat every day to raking in thousands or even millions of aurum with Alpha's guidance. He's awestruck when he gets his first 200,000 aurum paycheck, but later on slaps down 500,000 aurum like it's nothing after earning 12,000,000 aurum from completing an emergency request. Lampshaded by Akira himself, who wonders if his sense of money's value is being skewed by Alpha's insistence that it's all "spare cash". He's quick to deplete it on new equipment to get even more money, but he always tries to set aside enough to book a room with a bath.

* Basically [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rags_to_riches#Notable_people anyone listed here]]. This list includes one of the best examples of a "rags to riches" president in American history, UsefulNotes/BillClinton, who was able to go from being a poor kid raised by a single mother (who would later marry and provide Clinton with a stepfather and his younger stepbrother Roger) to becoming a Rhodes Scholar and a successful lawyer, eventually becoming Arkansas governor and then president.
** ''Second'' best. In terms of coming from absolutely nothing, UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson has him beat. Johnson's wife actually had to teach him to read. He went on to become a U.S. Senator, and given that the house of Congress was even more elite at the time than it is now, he obviously was a good study.