self-made man

He was a self-made man, and a self-destroyed man—so he wrote his own punch line.

My father was a self-made man as we use the term, but he was more than that – much more.

A self-made man, he had been obliged to postpone marriage and family life to a comparatively advanced age.

Moreover, he is a self-made man and one who deserves great credit for what he has accomplished in a business way.

He is a self-made man who owes his business advancement entirely to his own efforts.

In the truest sense of that word so dear to modern times, Napoleon was a self-made man.

He is a self-made man whose business advancement is attributable entirely to his own well directed efforts.