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10 Famous and Powerful People Who Had Awful First Jobs

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Everyone has to start somewhere – and that includes the men (AHEM, ONLY MEN) who one day rose to the office of the President of the United States (or wanted to), actors, and well…everyone.

Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures

It’s funny to think of famous people as teenagers working at a movie theatre, but of course they didn’t begin their lives spouting civil discourse, winning awards, and running the free world. Still, the starting points of these 10 future famous people can seem a little bit strange…

10. Madeleine Albright

The first female Secretary of State once sold bras at a Denver department store.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

9. Pope Francis

Maybe he’s so good at understanding the troubles and foibles of the ordinary man because he spent time as a bouncer at a Buenos Ares nightclub in his youth. Really.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

8. Rush Limbaugh

Can you picture him shining shoes? Neither can I.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

7. Ben Bernanke

The Chairmen of the Fed used to serve chips, salsa, and margaritas at tourist trap South of the Border.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

6. Angela Merkel

I don’t know if I’m that surprised to learn Germany’s Prime Minister worked as a bartender. Are you?

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

5. Warren Buffett

The billionaire starting his working life delivering papers in his hometown. I assume on his bike.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

4. Colin Powell

I love this: the former Secretary of State learned Yiddish while he sold baby supplies in the Bronx.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

3. Mitt Romney

Maybe driving people around isn’t that weird of a career anymore with the advent of Uber and Lyft, but when Mitt Romney was in college, chauffeuring wasn’t a terribly common way to make cash.

Didn’t stop Romney, though.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

2. Michael Bloomberg

A New Yorker through-and-through, he spent some of his youth watching cars bake in the sun as a parking lot attendant.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

1. President Barack Obama

He might have ended up in the White House, but he began by scooping ice cream at a Honolulu Baskin-Robbins.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia