China's Zhou Qunfei is another tale of a woman who started at the very bottom and worked her way up. Qunfei's teenage years were spent as a migrant worker, supporting her family after an industrial accident meant that her father was no longer able to do so. One of the many low-paid jobs she found was one with a watch production company. Coming into contact with watch lenses proved to be a pivotal point in her life.
Realizing that she had a natural talent, and could see potential with lenses and electronics that nobody else could, Qunfei started Lens Technology essentially out of her own bedroom. It's now the world's predominant supplier of lenses for touchscreen technology, including most smartphones. If you're using a phone to read this article, you're probably touching Qunfei's glass. Worth over $9.8bn, she's the richest completely self-made woman in the world.