J.K. Rowling is the first self-made billionaire author in the history of, well, billionaires. She's also one of only 56 women in the world, according to Forbes, to earned her own billion-dollar fortune...ever.

If that isn't enough to impress you, let us indulge a little further. She has sold more than 400 million copies of her Harry Potter book series, in almost 70 languages around the world. She is the author of the fastest-selling book of all time, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The movie franchise that was borne out of her print brainchild is the highest-grossing in history. It's currently made over $6.5 billion. 

All of this which is to say: J.K. Rowling is rolling in it. But her life wasn't always one where money quite literally grows on trees (books come from paper, which starts out as a tree, right?). Twenty years ago today, the very first Harry Potter novel was published—but when she sat down to write what would become the very first wizard installment, she had fallen on wholly hard times.