rags to riches
Bootstrap success story
Rags to riches describes a dramatic rise from poverty to wealth or success.
The phrase captures the arc of someone who starts with nothing and ends up prosperous: a classic rags-to-riches story, He went from rags to riches in ten years.
Often used as a compound adjective before a noun.
- American DreamUS ethos of opportunity
- humble beginningsUnprivileged early circumstances
- upward mobilityRising social or economic status
- underdogPresumed loser beforehand
- transformationThorough change in form
self-made · bootstrap · ascendancy · social mobility · resilience · perseverance · aspiration · entrepreneurship · destitution · meritocracy · hustle · superrich · grit · success story · determination · redemption arc · Cinderella · overcoming adversity
- Upsetsupset, upset victory, upset win, underdog victory, underdog win
- Cinderella storyCinderella, glass slipper, pumpkin coach, fairy godmother, wicked stepmother
- Gilded Age LiteratureMark Twain, Henry James, Edith Wharton, The Gilded Age, Huckleberry Finn
- money storiesheist story, white collar crime, financial ruin, heist novels, inheritance plot
- fortunelucky, luck, fortune, fate, destiny
- happy endingshappy ending, fairy tale ending, happily ever after, true ending, love conquers all
rags to richesriches to rags
Dramatic financial decline
fall from grace · downfall · reversal of fortune · financial ruin · going broke
rags to richestrust fund baby
One living off family money
old money · to the manor born · silver spoon · blue blood · dynastic wealth
rich, riches, rags, ragged, enrich, richness, enriched, enrichment, raggedy