History Main / SelfMadeLie

* ''Literature/{{Dortmunder}}'' VillainOfTheWeek Harry Hochman considers himself a self-made man due to building a hotel empire out of ''just'' a few million dollars he inherited.
* The ''Series/FTroop'' tie-in novel ''The Great Indian Uprising'' features a swaggering young general who is not even old enough to be a college graduate but insists that, even if his father is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he gained his rank at a young age through pure merit. One stressful setback later, he quickly admits that actually, his father unilaterally decided to promote him way before he was ready.
* ''Literature/HardTimes'': A supporting character (Josiah Bounderby) claims that his mother abandoned him soon after his birth and that he was completely independent by the age of three. It is later revealed that his parents adored him, and scrimped and sacrificed so that he might receive a good education and a promising apprenticeship. He then rose rapidly through the ranks of society and deserted his doting parents in their old age.

* ''Literature/JohnPutnamThatcher'': In ''Something in the Air,'' Mitch Scovil loves to talk about how he was a humble young business consultant before a bold business idea and a lucky lottery ticket propelled him to the head of a major airline and, while all of that's true, he tends to unconsciously downplay how much work his business partners out into it, and how much more practical their ideas tend to be than his. [[spoiler:One of those partners, Clay, is a straighter example of the trope, as he got his start-up money by smuggling drugs rather than raiding his savings account like he implied.]]

* ''Literature/TeenPowerInc'': In ''The Case of Crazy Claude,'' Nick's father is always talking about his client Oscar Seely, a struggling inventor whose brilliant inventions have him on the verge of becoming a tycoon before he's thirty. The kids learn that all of those inventions were stolen from one of Oscar's rivals.

* ''Series/HogansHeroes'': Colonel Klink is an ImpoverishedPatrician who had an undistinguished peacetime career but now enjoys a level of renown (although not necessarily respect) among his peers for being the commandant of the only [=POW=] camp in Germany that has never had a prisoner escape from it. However, unknownst to Klink and his superiors, this is because he has a camp full of {{Play Along Prisoner}}s who help him maintain his record because they can exploit his incompetent leadership for their MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll spy work.

* ''Series/McHalesNavy'': In "Birth of a Salesman," Lieutenant Whitworth is a peacetime insurance executive who brags about how he went from office boy to a major executive in a matter of months, although it turns out this is because his father was the boss, something he quickly admits as the punch line to a joke.

But what happens when that turns out not to really be the case?

While some people pretend to have come from a privileged background due to shame over their middle or lower-class roots, there are those of a richer background who do the opposite. The Self-Made Lie is when someone who is known for having fought their way to the top and earned their wealth, power, and position in society is shown to have had advantages that were unknown to others. At the most innocent, they simply got lucky, had a leg-up that they kept secret, or didn't even know about (inherited wealth, favors from a friend); at the most insidious, their success is due to exploiting others or [[StealingTheCredit cheating them out of their deserved credit.]] This can lead to StolenCreditBackfire once the self-made liar finds themselves in a position where they can't lie their way out of a situation. This can also result in a BrokenPedestal and is common in stories about a LiarRevealed. Sometimes, the beneficiary of the lie [[BelievingTheirOwnLies may actually delude themselves into thinking their accomplishments are due solely to their own efforts]].

** ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': The fifth of the Seven Stars Assassins is Abidos the Third, a boy pharaoh who never lost a duel in the past. When he faces off against Judai, it becomes clear that Abidos is a mediocre duelist who only won because his opponents pretended to lose because they feared retribution from him.

-->-- '''Jayson Mayzik''' tells '''[[EvilBrit Nigel St. John]]''' the truth about how his father made his fortune, ''Series/LoisAndClarkTheNewAdventuresOfSuperman''.

This should not be confused with SelfMadeMyth, which is about someone making a mythical reputation about themselves to inspire fear or admiration. The Self-Made Lie is about someone presenting themselves as a person who overcomes a disadvantaged background to rise to the top. It is possible for the two tropes to overlap in some way though.

* ''Film/DumbMoney'': When the main cast are HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee at the end of the film, Gabe Plotkin, the CEO of Melvin Capital, is coached by his assistants to present himself as a self-made man: for example, leaving out the part that his "middle-class" father was a grocery store chain executive who paid for him to go to Northwestern. This is contrasted directly with main protagonist Keith Gill, the personal finance Website/YouTube streamer who accidentally started the run on [=GameStop=] stock, whose parents are a trucker and a nurse, and who was the first in his family to go to college.

While some people pretend to have come from a privileged background due to shame over their middle or lower class roots, there are those of a richer background who do the opposite. The Self-Made Lie is when someone who is known for having fought their way to the top and earned their wealth, power and position in society is shown to have had advantages that were unknown to others. At the most innocent, they simply got lucky, had a leg-up that they kept secret or didn't even know about (inherited wealth, favors from a friend); at the most insidious, their success is due to exploiting others or [[StealingTheCredit cheating them out of their deserved credit.]] This can lead to StolenCreditBackfire once the self-made liar finds themselves in a position where they can't lie their way out of a situation. This can also result in a BrokenPedestal and is common in stories about a LiarRevealed. Sometimes, the beneficiary of the lie [[BelievingTheirOwnLies may actually delude themselves into thinking their accomplishments are due solely to their own efforts]].

Compare MockMillionaire, MilesGloriosus, PhonyVeteran and FakeUltimateHero. See BasedOnAGreatBigLie for cases where a purportedly real event that brings someone fame and fortune turns out to be fictitious. See also HardWorkFallacy, which is the belief that anyone successful has worked hard for it.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': Scrooge [=McDuck=] is typically depicted as a SelfMadeMan who started with nothing and earned his wealth in the Klondike Gold Rush. He often claims that he got wealthy by being "smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies, and [he] made it square!" (meaning fairly). [[DependingOnTheWriter However, some stories about his past have depicted him in a shadier light, earning part of his wealth as a con-artist, a smuggler, a robber baron, etc]]. As early as ComicBook/BackToTheKlondike (1953), Scrooge revealed that he never paid the taxes required for his original gold mine, and several Italian stories featured a number of Scrooge's ex-partners, who he cheated out of their share of the wealth.
* Franchise/ArchieComics: Played for laughs in an old story about the multi-millionaire Hiram Lodge. He tries to impress Archie Andrews (his daughter's boyfriend) by explaining that he started out impoverished, and got ahead in life with hard work and by depending on his wits. He lists some low-paying jobs which he had in his childhood and teenage years, and the effort he placed on them. Then Veronica (Hiram's daughter) innoccently reveals that Hiram became wealthy in the old-fashioned way, by courting and marrying a wealthy heiress. The previously intimidated Archie mocks Hiram's story of success.

* ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'': Jordan Belfort presents himself as proof that hard work and ambition can get you the American Dream. However, [[UnreliableNarrator he leaves out the part about being a white collar criminal whose accomplishments are almost entirely through illegal means.]]

* ''Agent Z and The Penguin From Mars'': Ben's wealthy new neighbor Dennis Sidebottom claims to have gotten rich from betting money in a football pool and boasts about him getting to where he is through intelligence and hard work. However, the climax reveals that the Sidebottoms' money was actually stolen from an Australian casino. Even after being exposed as nothing but a common thief, Dennis still brags about being an hard worker.
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'': Gilderoy Lockhart is a wizard celebrity who has written numerous books about his adventures defeating trolls, hags, werewolves, yetis and such. [[spoiler:All of his accomplishments were done by other wizards, [[LaserGuidedAmnesia whose memories of the events he erased while he took credit for their deeds]].]]

* ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': To an outside viewer, Akira is a gifted prodigy who clawed his way up from being a slum rat to a hunter making massive amounts of cash. In truth, Akira is extremely reliant on [[VirtualSidekick Alpha]] in most situations and knows he's indebted to her for helping him survive one crisis after the other. While he does try to make it on his own merits, his bad luck frequently lands him situations he can't handle on his own.

* ''Series/Castle2009'': In "Sucker Punch", the team meets a man named Johnny Vong who runs a get rich quick scheme and claims to have come from East Asia by boat. When the team tries to question him about the VictimOfTheWeek, they discover he is not in fact a foreigner, but a Califorian MIT-Graduate who got rich through his involvement in a drug smuggling ring.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': The second season's opening trilogy of episodes features the character Li Nalas, whom the Bajoran people view as a war hero who killed a notorious Cardassian officer after a long struggle. The real story is that Nalas had a lucky shot and the corpse happened to fall on him. Nalas didn't even know who the Cardassian was until afterwards. Despite this, he became a legend and many victories were attributed to him. Eventually he had to run away to exile to get away from the hassles of his fame.

* ''Podcast/TheMistholmeMuseumOfMysteryMorbidityAndMortality'': PlayedWith in "FINAL". One of the exhibits at the [[MuseumOfTheStrangeAndUnusual titular museum]] is a rundown red Editor Pencil, which the [[BenevolentAI Tour Guide]] reveals belonged to the deceased major media tycoon and Titan of Industry Yiding Lu, who seemingly rose out of nowhere to become one of the most powerful and successful media moguls in the world. As the Guide reveals, it was only after Lu's death that it was discovered he actually started off as a very shy and timid Newspaper editor in his home town, who whilst doing a therapy exercise recommended to give him more confidence, discovered that if he rewrote events he had been through he had the power to [[MassHypnosis manipulate everyone's memories]] into believing the more preferable events were what occurred. After much trial and error, Lu seized upon this newfound power, building himself a glorious media empire. However, at the climax the guide points out that whilst this ability certainly gave him a massive advantage, all the evidence suggests that even without it Lu was a legitimately brilliant businessman, leading it to speculate that he might have managed to become successful all on his own and that the real advantage his power gave him was granting him the confidence to try, [[AmbiguousSituation or maybe that is just something else he wrote down somewhere]] that they haven't found yet.

* ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'': [[TheNeidermeyer Colonel McKinsey]] unintentionally does this to himself. He leads the Spare Squadron penal unit from a prison disguised as an airbase, and hoards all of their accomplishments for himself in the hopes that he'll be transferred over to a [[DeskJockey desk job]] far away from the frontlines. Instead, Osea High Command sends him ''directly'' to the frontlines, because they find him to be the right man to lead against Erusea thanks to his "accomplishments".

%%* ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'': Ted is a con artist. He's been anything he needed to when he wanted something from someone, be it affection, money or possessions. He was raised in poverty with [[MassiveNumberedSiblings several siblings]], and decided he wanted more. %% How is this a Self-Made Lie. This is just him being a con artist.

* ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'': In one episode, Edward wears a sash of fake badges to show himself to be the best Bean Scout in Camp Kidney. For this reason Commander Hoo-Ha decides to send him to Tomato Camp, but when Edward sees a video showing how ruthless Tomato Camp is, he tries to find a way to prevent him from going. He can't reveal the truth, because then Hoo-Ha would send him to Skull Crush camp as punishment. Fortunately, Edward is able to avoid Tomato Camp when he cries at the other Bean Scouts' farewell gift, because according to Hoo-Ha, [[RealMenDontCry Tomato Scouts don't cry]].