Kiplinger: To become a success in high-tech Silicon Valley, Alan Aerts used low-tech skills and hard work. He slung crates of produce for a grocery store and sold bread to restaurants while launching a vending-machine business that sells soft drinks and snack foods to workaholic computer engineers.

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Kiplinger: Maxine Clark rode to riches on the back of a teddy bear. Clark opened her first Build-A-Bear Workshop in a St. Louis shopping mall in 1997. Now the international chain generates $360 million in sales annually and has made Clark a multimillionaire.

In Clark’s stores, kids of all ages line up to create stuffed animals in what look like factories run by Dr. Seuss on casual Fridays. Guided by a peppy staff clad in denim and khakis, customers produce personalized teddy bears and other creatures. “We really are a theme park in a mall,” says Clark.

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Kiplinger:
Snowboarders ooze the slacker vibe. Their culture is based on baggy clothes, easygoing attitudes and acrobatic feats on the slopes. That’s hardly an environment that you’d expect to foster millionaires. Yet brothers Danny and Matt Kass have made a bundle with their company, Grenade Gloves, which designs and sells gear for snowboarders and their fans.

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Kiplinger:
It all started with an accident. Late one night, while experimenting with a jet pump and a nozzle for a refrigerator cooling system, Lonnie Johnson shot a stream of water clear across his bathroom. Where some people might have seen a mess to clean up, Johnson saw an opportunity. Thus was born the mother of all water guns, the Super Soaker.

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Kiplinger: Maybe a million bucks isn’t what it used to be (there are nine million households worth seven digits in the U.S. today). But by the same token, making a million is a more-attainable goal than ever. Not there yet? Then let us inspire you with the stories of 7 men and women who started off just like you and then made it. Each of them offers advice you can use.

Millionaires #1 & #2

Caterina Fake’s entrepreneurial spirit first surfaced when, as a kid, she tried to sell her crayon drawings for a nickel apiece. It may also have been in her blood; her father left his corporate insurance job at age 55 to start his own business.

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