The unglamorous summer jobs 21 successful people had before they made it big

Even very successful people have to start somewhere.

And for a lot of them, "somewhere" was a summer job.

For some, those high school and college gigs were obvious steps toward incredible careers. For others, the path from summer job to success was a little more winding.

Regardless of the job done, these successful people prove summer jobs are universal in that they usually teach the value of hard work and responsibility.

We combed through interviews with business leaders, political leaders, artists, and tech stars to figure out what some of America's most successful people did over their summer vacations when they were younger.

Rachel Sugar contributed to an earlier version of this article.