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(#5) Nicolás Maduro
- 56
Since his 2013 ascension to the Venezuelan presidency, Nicolás Maduro has faced numerous problems: His country's economy collapsed, crime rates rose, and the White House labeled him a dictator. The last occurred when Maduro made a power grab in the summer of 2017 by convening a super assembly to try and rewrite the country's constitution. During the ensuing protests, hundreds of citizens were slain. In January 2019, shortly after Maduro was reelected, National Assembly leader Juan Guaidó proclaimed himself interim president, alleging widespread vote rigging and that the presidency was vacant as a result.
That's a lot of turmoil for someone who claims to have never aspired to become a world leader. The son of a prominent trade union leader, Maduro was born into a working-class family. He was the president of the student union of his high school, but never graduated. He began his working life as a bus driver, and worked several years for the Caracas Metro.
During his employment there, Maduro joined the Socialist Union and helped to establish one of the company’s first informal trade unions - as official unionization was banned in the company at the time. Maduro met Hugo Chávez in 1993 and became a key figure in the latter's Bolivarian Movement. He helped to launch the Movement for the Fifth Republic in 1997, which backed Chávez’s presidential run. In 1998, when Chávez won an astonishing electoral victory, Maduro was elected as an MP.
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(#6) Composer - Ivo Josipović, Former President Of Croatia
- 62
Ivo Josipović served as president of Croatia from 2010 to 2015, and became the first president of that country to not be elected to a second term. He is currently the leader of the non-parliamentary Forward Croatia Party, and has discussed the possibility of merging that party with the country's Social Democratic Party. He has denied any intention of running for president again.
Josipović originally studied to become a musician, not a politician, and graduated from the Zagreb Music Academy in 1983. He has served as the music director of the international classical music festival Music Biennale Zagreb since 1991, and occasionally lectures at the Zagreb Music Academy.
The composer of at least 45 chamber music pieces, Josipović's work has been performed by musicians both in Croatia and in other countries. He has won awards for his music, including one from the European Broadcasting Union (1985) and the Porin Award (1999) for his composition "Samba da Camera." He won another Porin Award in 2000 for his composition "Tisuću lotosa" ("A Thousand Lotuses").
When he was elected president in 2010, Josipović vowed not to give up his musical career. He announced that he would spend his spare time composing an opera on John Lennon’s passing, but later admitted his duties were too time-consuming to allow him to work on it.
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(#9) George Weah
- 52
Once regarded as one of the greatest players on the pitch, George Weah was elected president of Liberia in 2017.
As a professional footballer, Weah was known for his acceleration, speed, dribbling, and ability to finish. During his distinguished 18-year career, Weah was nicknamed "King George" by his fans, and became the first non-European to win the Ballon d'Or - the award for the FIFA Player of the Year - while playing for AC Milan. He remains the only African player to win that honor. Weah was named the African Player of the Century in 1996, and also won European and World Footballer of the Year titles between 1995 and 2000. In 2004, Pelé included him on his list of the greatest soccer players in history.
Weah moved into politics following his 2003 retirement from the game. He first ran for president in 2005, but lost in a run-off election to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. He eventually was elected to the Liberian Senate in 2014, then won the 2017 presidential election by receiving more than 60% of the vote.
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(#10) Silvio Berlusconi
- 82
A billionaire media mogul and current member of the European Parliament, Silvio Berlusconi served three separate terms (1994-95, 2001-06, and 2008-11) as the prime minister of Italy. He has been a polarizing figure for most of his political life, as evidenced by Italians' reaction to his 2011 resignation: They celebrated in the streets.
Prior to becoming a media mogul and politician, Berlusconi sang in bars and on cruise ships in the Mediterranean. This was during the 1950s and early '60s as Berlusconi was studying to become a lawyer. One of the places where he performed was Bar Kontiki on the island of Elba.
Over the course of his career, Berlusconi has been tried in Italian courts for a multitude of allegations, from bribery to tax fraud to abuse of office, and more. He was convicted on the tax fraud charges in 2013, but avoided jail time due to his advanced age. The conviction originally carried with it a ban prohibiting Berlusconi from running for office, though the ban was overturned on appeal.
Despite all the scandals that have surrounded him, Berlusconi the performer still had some fans. When he announced in 2011 that he would be stepping down as prime minister, the owner of Bar Kontiki offered to give him his old job as a singer back.
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(#7) Oncologist - Tabaré Vázquez, President Of Uruguay
- 79
Tabaré Vázquez was elected to a second, non-consecutive term as president of Uruguay in 2015. With his previous win in 2004, he became the first person from a left-wing party to be elected president of the country.
Inspired to become a doctor from a young age, Vázquez chose to focus on oncology after both his parents and his sister passed from cancer in the 1960s. He studied medicine at the Universidad de la República and graduated in 1972. Vázquez later received a grant from the French government that allowed him to receive additional training at the Institut Gustave Roussy, a well-regarded cancer research institute located just outside of Paris.
Since being elected to his first term as president in 2005, Vázquez has pushed for several health-related policies. In 2006, Uruguay became the first country in Latin America to ban smoking in indoor public places. In an effort to provide comprehensive health care to all its citizens, regardless of their ability to pay, the country introduced the National Integrated Health System in 2007.
In August 2019, the 79-year-old Vázquez was diagnosed with lung cancer. The president stated he has no plans to step down before his term ends in March 2020.
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(#1) Joseph Stalin
- Dec. at 75 (1878-1953)
One of the most notorious political leaders of the 20th century, Joseph Stalin led the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s to 1953. By 1937, he held complete personal control over both the Communist Party and the state.
The son of a cobbler and a washerwoman, Stalin grew up in poverty. As a teenager, he enrolled at the Spiritual Seminary of Tiflis with the intention of becoming a priest. In constant trouble with his instructors, he eventually lost interest in his studies and joined a forbidden book club. It was through this club that he was first introduced to Marxism. Stalin left the seminary in 1899 and took a job at the Main Physical Observatory in Tiflis at the age of 21. There, he was employed as an observer and recorder of meteorological data. This was the only "ordinary" job the future General Secretary of the Communist Party and Premier of the Soviet Union would ever hold.
While working at the observatory, Stalin continued his revolutionary activities, and organized protests and strikes. This led to the end of his meteorological career in 1901. After this, Stalin began to work full-time for the socialist revolutionary movement.
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People often think that the lives of world-famous national leaders are always full of flowers and applause. However, in many cases, the road to the success of the most influential people in history is not easy. They made great achievements through hard work. Not all world leaders were born in rich and powerful families, some of them had ordinary jobs like everyone else, some of which are unbelievable.
Do you believe that Harry Truman once sold ties and belts as a retail worker? The random tool lists 15 world leaders in history who had the most surprising jobs that no one would expect, you can never learn these stories from history books.
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