Howard Plant was broke when he moved to Blackpool more than 40 years ago. He was so poor, he didn't even have shoes on his feet.
But the 64-year-old, who most recently appeared on an episode of Channel 5 series Bargain Loving Brits By The Sea, kept his nose to the grindstone and by 2008 had turned himself into a millionaire. Howard provides "bargain parking paces" for tourists at the popular seaside resort town.
The businessman visited Blackpool to see a relative and never left. He worked numerous jobs - at bars, factories and garages - until he decided to go into business for himself.
Speaking to Lancs Live, he said: "I never looked back and I went self employed in the early 1980s. Since then, technically, I've not worked a proper job for anybody else. I've always been self employed."
Howard went from strength to strength and was at his most successful financially in 2008. But the global recession hit him hard.
He said: "I was really wealthy at one stage in 2008. In 2008, I was a millionaire. And then in 2009, I was about to go bankrupt, I'd lost everything.
"I had to sell a large portion of my carparks to keep the bank off my back. It's been a really hard last 12-14 years since the recession and things were really difficult but now I've got myself back into a position where I'm doing well now.
"I used to tell the wife 'this time next year we'll be millionaires'. And the following year, any money we had would go to pay the taxes, or we needed to do this, or we'd need to do that.
"Every year, it was like there was always something stopping us getting there. But I can say now, we're in a position where we're comfortable now."
Howard loves his job and regularly takes a hands-on approach to his business. He takes great pride in customer service and is in his element interacting customers and helping them get the most out of their stay at the resort.
The entrepreneur said: "There's nothing better than when you tell a customer 'that's £5 until Monday' or whatever and they go 'there's two pounds you get a drink on me', I just think that's amazing, it really is. One person can't help everybody, but everybody can help one person."
Explaining his philosophy in life, he added: "I'm richer than Elon Musk and Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, I'm richer than all of them. And you know why? Because they will never have enough.
"I'm not afraid to say that I want more money. I want to earn more money, I've got family that I need to take care of, you know, I'm not gonna be here forever.
"But I want to make sure that my family and my closest are looked after when I'm gone. I'm not gonna leave millions but I'm going to leave knowing I've given the grandchildren an education, my family an education.
"I'm doing pretty good, my position now is I'm not worried about next week. I mean, the business is looking after itself.
"And I'm still I'm still a long way away from having it completely boxed off. But my life is so much better than when I walked into Blackpool with no shoes on."
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