self-made

[ self-meyd ]

/ ˈsɛlfˈmeɪd /

having succeeded in life unaided: He is a self-made man.

made by oneself.

Origin of self-made

First recorded in 1605–15

In the early years, the big powers were often rough, self-made men such as Jack Warner or Louis B. Mayer.

Trustafarians Want to Tell You How to Live |Joel Kotkin |October 31, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
He was a self-made man, and a self-destroyed man—so he wrote his own punch line.

Harry Shearer on Being Nixon, ‘The Simpsons Movie’ Sequel, and Why Obama Should Return His Nobel |Marlow Stern |October 21, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
We needed him to be wary, absorbed, and a little bit gruff, and he gamely complied, thereby furthering his own self-made legend.

Michael Musto: Lou Reed Made Me A Believer—In Transvestism, Prostitution, and Lou Reed |Michael Musto |October 28, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
My father was a self-made man as we use the term, but he was more than that – much more.

My Eulogy for My Father, Murray Frum |David Frum |May 31, 2013 |DAILY BEAST

But Bennett, a religious IDF commander and self-made multimillionaire, failed us miserably on two leadership issues.

Voting For Yair Lapid, Israel’s Maimonides |Rabbi Daniel Landes |February 4, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
Isaac was a self-made man, a man ignorant of many things, religious, but uneducated.

The Divine Fire |May Sinclair
Sorg was a self-made man, who had accumulated considerable money in the tobacco business by energy and industry.

Cox--The Man |Roger W. Babson
The daughters of self-made men may well surpass in energy those settled on their lees.

The Long Vacation |Charlotte M. Yonge
The one is self-made, guided by vicious impulses; the other is the handiwork of God.

My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year |John Henry Jowett
You ought to give him credit for what he has accomplished, as he is a self-made man.

Lancashire Humour |Thomas Newbigging

self-made

having achieved wealth, status, etc, by one's own efforts

made by oneself