Business magazine Forbes has released the list of the top successful women entrepreneurs in America, and Diane Hendricks proudly holds the title of America's richest self-made woman.
But Diane Hendricks did not achieve this level of accomplishment overnight; her success story is marked by much adversity and toil.
According to Forbes Magazine, Diane Hendricks had a child at age 17 and worked as a Playboy Bunny to pay her bills. She beat cancer twice and survived the tragic death of her husband before transforming herself into the nation's most successful businesswoman.
"You've got to do what you've got to do," Hendricks says of that tough time in her life.
She also made an income by renting houses to college students in her initial days. She bought those houses and fixed them herself. "I cleaned a lot of toilets," she recalled.
She has increased her net worth to more than $15 billion now. She has emerged as the richest billionaire for the sixth consecutive year.
Diane Hendricks chairs ABC Supply, one of the largest wholesale distributors of roofing, siding, and windows in America. Hendricks co-founded the business with her late husband, Ken, in Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1982. She has chaired it since his death in 2007. She led ABC to make the two biggest acquisitions in its history, buying rival Bradco in 2010 and building materials distributor L&W Supply in 2016. The company has over 900 branch locations and had $18.5 billion in 2022 revenues.
