from rags to riches

Idioms  

1. From being poor to being wealthy, especially through one's own efforts. For example, The invention catapulted the scientist from rags to riches. Horatio Alger (1834–1899) popularized this theme in some 130 best-selling novels, in which the hero, through hard work and thrift, pulled himself out of poverty to wealth and happiness.

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Example Sentences

The 1979 saga of a young woman's journey from rags to riches stayed on the New York Times' bestseller list for 43 weeks.

From BBC

The 1979 story of a young woman's journey from rags to riches went from bestseller to super-seller in a year and stayed on the New York Times list for 43 weeks.

From BBC

“My father was a ghetto kid who went from rags to riches, then lost everything, and having committed my life to mimic him in nothing, I am convinced I will equal him in this one respect: his ending, a downward spiral into two dingy rooms in a residential hotel and bankruptcy,” Goldman wrote in a 1981 essay in The New York Times.

From Seattle Times

California tends to go from rags to riches, bounty to poverty when it comes to rain, Maue said.

From Seattle Times

He “went from rags to riches and, like myself and many other members, is a small-business owner,” Ms. Boebert said in her nomination speech.

From New York Times