The story of a single mother who had to work as a waitress to raise her children and become the richest woman in the country is not as simple as many people think.

Born and raised in a farming family in Osseo-Wisconsin-USA, Diane Hendricks always dreamed of a future where she would escape the life of having to herd cows on the family farm, wear a suit, and drive a luxury car to work in the big city.

Now at the age of 77, Diane has a net worth of up to 20.9 billion USD, double that of 2 years ago and has become the richest self-made female billionaire in the US according to Forbes magazine.

This is the 7th consecutive time that Diane has held this position for the past 7 years and her assets are double that of the 2nd place, Judy Love (11.6 billion USD).

Diane’s fortune comes from the construction materials supplier ABC Supply, which she founded with her second husband in 1982.

Diane currently owns 100% of the company’s shares, and ABC Supply brought in $20.4 billion in revenue last year with more than 900 branches nationwide.

The cowherd who got pregnant

“I didn’t want to be a farmer, and I didn’t want to marry a farmer,” Diane recalled of her views at the age of 10.

Instead of a simple life on a cow farm, Diane dreamed of wearing a suit, driving a luxury car, and living independently in a big city.

According to Diane, seeing her parents work hard on the farm and dreaming of a career made her look forward to a bright future with a career in the city.

However, getting pregnant at the age of 17 ruined all of Diane’s dreams. This woman had to drop out of high school to marry her boyfriend and then stay home to take care of her children.

Unfortunately, Diane’s marriage only lasted 3 years, making this woman a single mother. To earn money to raise her children, Diane had to work all kinds of jobs, even working as a waitress at the adult bar “Playboy Bunny”.

Not long after that, the single mother in her early 20s took advantage of the real estate brokerage business, selling houses all over southern Wisconsin. This was also the time when Diane really reconsidered her career and her childhood dream after 3 years of staying home to take care of her children.

“This is when I really started to look back at my career, a career that I had dreamed of,” Diane said.

By the 1970s, this single mother also started selling custom-designed houses and this is when Diane met and married Ken Hendricks, a roofing specialist. The couple then founded ABC Supply.

The newlyweds began by buying 200 old houses over three years, renovating them and renting them to students. ABC Supply then moved into the building supplies business.

Under the efforts of the couple, the business reached $1 billion in sales for the first time in 1998.

After her husband Ken passed away in 2007, ABC under Diane’s leadership expanded rapidly, acquiring competitors and doubling the number of stores to 900.

“This is no longer a small company, but five times larger than when Ken was alive,” said Diane.

Powerful woman

“I don’t think Ken could have done what Diane did,” said Rob Gerbitz, CEO of Hendricks Commercial Properties, who admired Diane for her work in steering and even expanding the family business empire after Ken’s death.

“They thought a woman like me would sell the family business,” Diane recalled.

This period was really difficult when the company’s sales declined, the real estate market fell into crisis in 2008 and ABC Supply had to sell some stores. However, Diane made an unexpected move.

In the context of investors fleeing the market, this woman sold 40% of ABC Supply shares to buy back rival Bradco in 2010. This crazy decision made many people laugh at “a woman doing business” but then admired Diane’s vision.

After the market recovered and the business was profitable, Diane took advantage of the victory, buying back L&W Supply for 674 million USD, expanding the family business.

At the age of 77, Diane still wakes up at 5 am to exercise and goes to work at 7 am. For the richest female billionaire in America, work is now more of a purpose in life than a fulfillment of a childhood dream.

“I’m too old but I still go to work because I can still think clearly. And I feel like I have more purpose in life,” Diane said with a laugh.

In fact, Diane’s work ethic originated from herding cows as a child. Born into a family of 9 children, Diane had to do a lot of farm work as well as take care of her younger siblings.

It was also because of this difficult childhood that Diane successfully overcame cancer twice. Once was uterine cancer at the age of 33 and again was breast cancer at the age of 69.

“The most hateful thing about getting old is that you still have so many things you want to do,” Diane lamented.