My prayer is that America can be again that land where anything is possible.

         After I retired the first time, I toyed with the idea of pursuing another degree, this time, having been a bit of a buff, in political science.  Northern Arizona University had changed a lot since the 60’s having belatedly taken on the 60’s malaise.  My professors were stunningly negative about America.  On one occasion the professor was ragging on the Horatio Alger theme assuring the students that it was nothing but a myth.  The idea that in America someone could work their way from rags to riches was a pipe dream.

        The discussion prompted me to do some research, and at the next class session I presented the professor with a paper about the ten richest men in America.  With the exception of one, all of them were self-made men and women.  Some of the stories were absolutely inspiring.  

       The professor’s response?  “You must realize that your personal prejudices influence your research results.”  

       I said, “Those are all facts. Perhaps it’s your assumptions that are based on personal prejudices.” 

       Needless to say, I didn't pursue the degree.  I returned to Arizona Western College for another stint in the classroom.  Yesterday, perhaps in defense of our president’s recent comment, said that successful people don’t do it alone, that we all depend on members of our communities. There is a germ of truth there, but I think it is important to recognize the rewards of hard work and determination.

         We’re all familiar with the self-made men of the past: Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Carnegie need no introduction. Fredrick Douglas, the runaway slave through monumental amounts of hard work, tenacity, and passion soon rose to prominence, becoming an outspoken abolitionist, a spectacular orator, a bestselling author, and a newspaper publisher.  Booker T. Washington, freed by the passage of the 13^th amendment got his start in the coal mines and the salt mines and eventually became a leader in education founding the Tuskegee Institute. Thomas Edison expelled from school after 3 months and having lost nearly all of his hearing at a young age, did not let this disability hinder him. He sold candy and newspapers aboard trains as a youth, and when he saved the life of the station master’s son, got a job in the telegraph office.

           Many of our modern leaders came from humble beginnings; Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and especially Clarence Thomas who was abandoned by his father and left homeless after a fire.  He worked on his grandfather’s farm from sunrise to sunset. 

              But there are some lesser known success stories as well.  Fred DeLuca of Subway fortune worked in a hardware store to put himself through college and only made enough to buy lunch at fast-food restaurants like McDonald's. This experience and his interest in medicine gave him the idea of running a "fast-food venture that provided a healthier, less fattening bill of fare." A friend loaned him 1,000, and he was off and running.

                John Paul Jones DeJoria, the hair products billionaire, was born the second son of an Italian immigrant father and a Greek immigrant mother in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. His parents divorced by the time he was two years old. DeJoria spent much of his youth in a street gang but made a life changing decision when his math teacher told him he would "never succeed at anything in life.”

              Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul, and the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants refused to let poverty write his story.  He sold newspapers on local street corners at a young age and owned his own business by the age of 12.  He dropped out of the City College of New York and started a business selling toiletry kits and eventually started a charter tours business.

Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Rueben Lifshitz.  His parents were Ashkenazi Jews who had emigrated from Belarus.  His father was a house painter. The family lived in a small apartment, with Ralph sharing a room with his two brothers. He worked after school as a stock boy and sold handmade ties to his classmates.

              Ray Kroc, was a high school dropout. When he was 15 he lied to the military to become an ambulance driver. After the war he spent 17 years, travelling the country selling milkshake machines and became intrigued by a hamburger restaurant in San Bernadino, California owned by the McDonald brothers. Although Kroc was by then a 53 year old man suffering from diabetes and arthritis and missing both his thyroid and gall bladder, he had a vision of turning the restaurant into a global fast food empire.

              Larry Ellison was born in the Bronx to an unwed mother.  He dropped out of college when his adopted mother died. Through hard work and self-discipline, he managed to save $2000 which he used to found Oracle, the company that made him a billionaire many times.

           Sean Combs known as P. Diddy was born in public housing projects in Harlem. Sean’s father was shot to death when Sean was only 2. At age 12, Combs, who was too young to officially have his own paper route, found a way around the rule by taking over the routes of several older boys and giving them 50% of his earnings. He was soon making over $700 a week as a paperboy. After high school, Mr. Combs interned at Uptown Records while he attended Howard University, but he dropped out and took an executive position with the company. Fired from the label in 1993, Combs formed his own company-Bad Boy Records and the rest is history.

            My prayer is  that America can be again that land where anything is possible.