#35: JK Rowling
Now for one of the richest women in the world, the “Harry Potter” author was living below the poverty line when she first conceived of the groundbreaking novel. Everyone has heard her story at least once or twice, but it is just so mind-boggling that this is how she started out.

Popular myth placed her writing the first manuscript on restaurant napkins, but while this is not the case, she did write it while sitting on a train from Manchester to London. Can you imagine that? Just writing one of the greatest fantasy novels of all time on the train…
