10 Strange Jobs World Leaders Held Before They Came To Power

Stephanie Schoppert - February 3, 2017

President of Uganda Idi Amin – Doughnut Vendor and Light Heavyweight Boxing Champion

Idi Amin of Uganda is known throughout the world as one of Africa’s most brutal dictators. Some reports claim that he personally ordered the slaughter of 500,000 people. He ruled with absolute authority and terror, but his career path started from much stranger beginnings. Amin gave his official birth date on January 1, 1925, but said that he had no idea of when he was born, either in 1924 or 1925.

Abandoned by his father, he grew up with his mother’s family at Koboko as part of the Kakwa tribe. He went to school up until the fourth grade and from there did odd jobs while his mother worked as an herbalist (though some called her a sorceress).

It was during his childhood that he started to make money for himself selling a type of Ugandan doughnut called mandazi. It was a job he kept from the age of 9 until he was hired as an assistant cook by the King’s African Rifles (KAR) in 1946. The KAR was a division of the British Colonial Army and over the years he worked his way up through the ranks. By 1961 he was promoted to Lieutenant and become one of the first Ugandan officers in the British Colonial Army. Part of the reason for his rising through the ranks was his athletic ability. Amin was adept at swimming and was a good rugby forward. From 1951 until 1960, he was also the Ugandan light heavyweight boxing champion.

Amin was promoted by Prime Minister Milton Obote to Army Commander in 1966, at which point Amin began building a strong network of followers. In 1971, a rift between Obote and Amin caused Amin to use his troops to seize the power of the country. He declared himself President and thus began one of the most terrifying reigns in the history of the African continent.

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Joseph Stalin – Weatherman

Joseph Stalin was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili in the town of Gori in the Tiflis Governorate of the Russian Empire. Today the area is part of Georgia. His father was a cobbler by profession and his mother was a housemaid. As a child, Stalin hoped to follow in his father’s footsteps, but as his father descended into alcoholism, his mother insisted that he attend school.

When his father found out that Stalin had been enrolled in school he went on a drunken violent rampage that had him expelled from his hometown. Stalin did well in school and earned a scholarship to attend the Tiflis Spiritual Seminary. Within one year, Stalin became an atheist.

Instead of focusing on his studies he threw himself into books and became a Georgian cultural nationalist. He started publishing poetry in Georgian in the local papers and became involved in student politics. In 1899, he was expelled from the Seminary for failing to show up for his final exams and being unable to pay his tuition. Free from the confines of school, Stalin had more time to pursue his own interests which led him to discover the writings of Vladimir Lenin. Inspired by the worlds of the revolutionary, Stalin joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. To focus on his love of learning and still have time for his revolutionary activities, Stalin took a job in a meteorological office at the age of 21.

He was employed as an observer and recorder of meteorological data at the Tiflis Main Physical Observatory. His revolutionary activities would bring an end to his time at the Observatory when the Tsar’s secret police came looking for him. On April 3, 1901 Stalin saw the police waiting to ambush him at the Observatory and was able to flee to avoid capture. From that moment on he became a full-time revolutionary, living off donations and eventually joining Lenin’s Bolsheviks in 1903.

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Mao Zedong – Assistant Librarian

Mao Zedong was the leader of the Communist Party of China and is one of the founding fathers of the People’s Republic of China. He is also responsible for a collection of political theories and military strategies known as Maoism. He is a polarizing figure that was seen by many as the man who modernized China, drove out Imperialism, and made the country into a world power. By others, Mao is recognized as little more than a brutal dictator comparable to Hitler and Stalin.

He was born to a wealthy farming family in Shaoshan in 1893. Mao was sent to school and had an arranged marriage, but found himself stifled by his controlling family. He joined the army but resigned in 1912 after just six months. Mao then tried a number of different pursuits including the police academy, soap production, economics school, law school, and he finally ended up attending Changsha Middle School. He spent most of his time in the library reading about the great philosophers and scientists of the West. His father grew impatient with Mao’s focus on intellectualism instead of the farm and he cut off his son. This forced Mao to live in a hostel and beg for food.

After graduating from Changsha Middle School, Mao went on to Peking University. He was still destitute but was given a job as an assistant librarian at the University library. He was paid so little that he had to live in a small room with seven others just to survive while in school. His financial position and his studies led him to join the Chinese Nationalist Party in 1920.

That same year, General Tan Yankai of the Chinese Nationalist Party led his troops into Changsha and forced the Governor of the Hunan Province to flee. For his support, Mao was named headmaster of the First Normal School, where he earned a substantial salary. From there, Mao rose through the ranks of the communist party and eventually took control of China.

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Slovenian President Borut Pahor – Male Model

Borut Pahor was born on November 2, 1963, in Yugoslavia (what is now Slovenia). His father died when he was young and he was raised by his mother, who had survived a Nazi concentration camp. He was dedicated to his studies and graduated from Nova Garcia High School in 1983. He continued his schooling at the University of Ljubljana where he studied political science and public policy. At the University, he earned the Student Preseren Award, the highest academic award for Slovenian students.

Pahor had to work in order to pay for his studies and support himself through school. He did this by working as a male model. Pahor garnered some fame as a model, but his true intention was always to become involved in Slovenian politics.

Pahor became a member of the Alliance of Socialist Youth of Slovenia when he was 15, and in college, he joined the League of Communists in Slovenia. From there he rose through the ranks of the Communist party and became one of the strongest advocates of the reform wing of the Communist party throughout the late 1980s. In 1988, he made Slovenian history as the first high-ranking member of the Communist Party to suggest turning away from a one-party system and moving toward party pluralism. In 1989, he became the youngest member of the Central Committee of the League of Communists in Slovenia.

As the Communist Party started to lose power in Slovenia through the first free elections in the 1990s, Pahor continued to move up through the ranks. In 2000, he was elected chairman of the Slovenian National Assembly and he gained a following for being moderate and non-partisan. From 2008 until 2012, he served as Slovenia’s Prime Minster, which paved the way for him to make a presidential run in 2012. He won the election with 67.3% of the vote.

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