The daughter of a Wisconsin dairy farmer, Diane Hendricks has lived the American dream. She's the United States' richest self-made woman, worth $12.2 billion, according to Forbes, which called her "the most successful female entrepreneur in American history." Now in her mid-70s, she's showing no sign of slowing down. "I am so frigging old and still going to work," she told Forbes .
A staunch patriot and conservative, Hendricks has given more than $40 million to Republican political candidates over the past 30 years. At her home in Beloit, Wisconsin, a statuette of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan on a horse sits on her desk, and a photo of her with Donald Trump is on the wall. Hendricks was on Trump's economic advisory team in 2016, during his presidential campaign.
From milkmaid to self-made
She may rub shoulders with America's biggest politicians, but Hendricks's life hasn't been easy. The fourth of nine girls, Diane Smith grew up looking after her siblings. She got pregnant when she was 17 and married, but found herself a single mother four years later. In her early 20s, she worked as a waitress and as a Playboy Bunny to pay the bills. Finally, her luck changed when she started selling real estate around Wisconsin, which is how she met the man who would soon be her husband, Ken Hendricks, a high-school dropout who had followed his father into the roofing business.
Together, Diane and Ken Hendricks bought two struggling building-supply stores, risking all they had and more — they took out a $900,000 loan to buy them in 1982. Within five years, the company, which they named ABC Supply, was making around $140 million in sales on windows, gutters, roofing and siding for commercial and residential buildings.
However, tragedy struck in 2007, when Ken Hendricks fell through a roof and died. Many expected that Hendricks would sell her company and choose a quiet life. Instead, she did the opposite — expanding the business and buying her biggest rival in 2010. When Forbes asked her what the key to her success was, she answered with one word: "perseverance."
Proud of her solo achievements, Hendricks has said that ABC Supply is now "five times what it was when Ken was alive." Today, the business is one of America's largest private companies, with over 800 stores throughout the U.S. and $14.7 billion in annual sales.
Overcoming tragedy
The death of her husband is not the only tragedy Hendricks has had to deal with. She got cancer aged 33 and again at 69. None of this has stopped her, however. She still gets up at 5 a.m. each day and continues to work on a variety of projects: She's helped to beautify her local town of Beloit, investing millions in renovation projects, supporting start-ups and the local economy. She has funded a school in the area, The Lincoln Academy. She chairs a nuclear-medicine company that treats cancer. And she's currently working on expanding a chain of boutique hotels in the U.S. The American dream isn't dead, at least not for Diane Hendricks.