Success can be achieved in many ways, regardless of your financial class. What matters is your mindset, outlook, and behavior.

Many affluent individuals in the country have tales of starting from the bottom, but through persistence and innovativeness, they’ve become among the controllers of the markets.

The following billionaires are epitomes of grass to grace and have shown that true hard work can transform into success.

Paul Kinuthia

Billionaire Paul Kinuthia is the founder of the popular Nice and Lovely brand that was acquired by a Paris cosmetics company L’Oreal in 2013 in a deal estimated to be worth over Sh1.5 billion.

His rise to owning the Multimillion company did not happen overnight. Kinuthia’s first job involved loading coffee at the Kenya Planters Cooperative Union(KPCU).

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He later quit to hawk perfumes in the streets of Nairobi, a venture that conceptualized the manufacture of shampoos and later beauty creams.

On the first day of hawking perfumes, Kinuthia made Sh600 which was a fair amount then. He felt motivated and continued hawking the products in offices and salons before expanding to manufacturing own shampoo.

After  conducting a research, he realized he needed a jiko, a mixing jar, and a stirring stick which he acquired with his Sh3,000 capital.

He would purchase ingredients, mix them in a friend’s shop along Kirinyaga Road, and hawk the end products to the streets using a hired handcart.

He later introduced hair conditioners and hair gels and moved the business to a bigger space in Gikomba and later to the industrial area.

Kinuthia heavily invested in marketing and professionalism, with the results evident in annual profits, which jumped from Sh40 million to Sh180 million within a year.

The company gradually made its name on the national scale, and by the time he decided to sell it to L’Oreal, it had a turnover of about Sh2.2 Billion annually.

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Zedekiah Kiprop- Buzeki

Buzeki is considered one of the wealthiest businessmen in the Rift Valley region. He is the founder of the Buzeki group of companies that specializes in transport and dairy products.

He started as a milk hawker in Kilifi, earning Sh80 per day. After a stint in the milk sector, he went back to purchase the company that had employed him and rebranded it to Kilifi Gold.

He later acquired another milk processing company before selling the two companies to Brookside Diaries in a deal estimated to be worth Sh1.1 billion.

Mbugua Githere

The late Mbugua Githere is among the wealthiest Kenyans who started from the bottom. Githere started as a vegetable and fruit hawker in Gachie Kiambu County.

His hard work paid off, and he set up a second-hand bicycle business in Limuru. His hard work, determination, and innovation made him one of the wealthiest businessmen.

Before his death, his empire had expanded to owning Runda Estate, and he was the biggest individual shareholder of the Pan Africa Insurance Company. He also had commercial buildings in the city center and in Mombasa.

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Gerald Gikonyo and Gerishon Kirima

The two left their village in Murang’a County in the 1930s in search of greener pastures. After landing in Nairobi, they resorted to hawking vegetables and charcoals.

They embraced a good saving culture and it was not long before they opened a hotel where they once employed Equity Chairman Peter Munga as an attendant.

The hotel business did well, and opened a branch in Eastleigh. In 1952 they used their savings to acquire property, including plots and buildings in Nairobi’s Tom Mboya Street, Ronald Ngala Street, and River Road, among others.

The two later co-founded Rwathia Distributors, a beer and spirits distributor for East African Breweries Limited and UDV Kenya Limited.