It’s said that there’s no such thing as failure – so long as there are lessons learned through the experience. Sophia Amoruso might very well agree with that premise. You may know Sophia Amoruso as the 22-year-old founder of Nasty…
It’s said that there’s no such thing as failure – so long as there are lessons learned through the experience. Sophia Amoruso might very well agree with that premise. You may know Sophia Amoruso as the 22-year-old founder of Nasty…
Most cities have nicknames – many of them both famous and obvious. Detroit is the Motor City. Pittsburgh is the Steel City. New Orleans – The Big Easy. Of course, New York is the Big Apple and Las Vegas is…
There’s a great deal of discussion as to what type of impact childhood experiences might have on kids, both in the moment and as they grow into adulthood. In at least one case, a positive and encouraging environment led to…
Oprah Winfrey is easily one of the most well-known, respected and admired people of our day – globally. Most would see that as a totally unexpected status for a girl born to an unmarried teenage mother in Kosciusko, Mississippi in…
Shawn Askinosie spent over twenty years as a criminal defense attorney in Springfield, Missouri. He defended people charged with some of the worst imaginable crimes – including murders, rapes, and other violent felonies. One only had to look at his…
Few know better than Jumana Abu-Hannoud how big an impact growing up in a loving, caring, and giving family atmosphere can have on a person. She knows because that’s exactly the environment she enjoyed as a child. For Jumana, who…
“Shep, you need to start thinking more inside the box!” Few, if anyone, would have guessed how much significance there was in that one line from a performance review in 1998. Upon hearing that recommendation, Shep Murray took immediate action.…
The U.S. was just beginning to recover from the Great Depression in February, 1934 when Herbert and Estella’s third child, Henry ‘Hank’ Aaron, was born. The Aaron’s lived in a poor, black section of Mobile, Alabama known as “Down by…
For the family, the beatings were frequent – many were brutal. The verbal abuse that was equally common left deeper and longer lasting scars than did the physical. Emmitt Perry, Sr., the family patriarch, knew no other way. His wife…
In the business world it’s rather common to hear about hard-charging, go-getters, striving to climb the corporate ladder. It’s rare, though, to hear about a person who willingly steps off of that ladder. Libby Gill is one such person. After…
Born and raised in Waverly, Illinois, Ralph C. Smedley went on to graduate from Illinois Wesleyan University. That was in 1903. Ralph then accepted the position of director of education at the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) in Bloomington, Illinois.…
Sister Nancy Rose Gucwa made her final monastic profession on August 31, 2013 at the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration monastery in Clyde, Missouri – becoming the first ever West Point Graduate to do so. Take a moment to let…
Steve Sosebee grew up in a small town in northeastern Ohio with his sisters and their parents. His father was a high school teacher – his mother a nurse. Unbeknownst to him, Steve’s life purpose began to be shaped when…
Yvon Chouinard likely had very little awareness of how his life would change when, at the age of 9, his family moved from Maine to Southern California. It was there that Yvon discovered an interest in falconry. In 1953, at…
After a lifetime as slaves, Owen and Minerva Breedlove became free people when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863. Both Owen and Minerva continued to work as sharecroppers, growing and picking cotton in Delta,…
Richard ‘Dick’ Wagstaff Clark was born on November 30, 1929 in Mount Vernon, New York. He was the second son, and last child, of Richard and Julia Clark. Dick new from a very early age that he wanted to pursue…
Merriam-Webster defines a miracle as “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.” It’s a word that seems to get used often – especially around Christmas. Movies and books have been titled “Christmas Miracle”. The term is often used…
Millennials are entitled, lazy, unreliable, narcissistic, disloyal, technology addicted, unmanageable and simply put, the worst generation in history. If you believe all of – or most of – those descriptors, consider this: You’re likely a victim of the Millennial Myth,…
Geographically speaking, it’s not that far from St. Louis, MO to Guatemala – about 1650 miles (2660 km) as the crow flies. Culturally speaking, the distance between Maryville University and Guatemala’s northern highlands spans centuries. For Nicole, the distance wasn’t…
Today’s craft beer industry, which has flourished in the U.S. for decades, is seen by some as an innovative approach to the beer business. In reality, today’s passion for craft beer is merely a reflection of the past. The first…
To say that Brandon had an unorthodox childhood would certainly be accurate. He was wailing his lungs out from the instant he was born, which was on June 12, 1974. It seemed as though he screamed for the better part…
Mary-Claire was born on February 27, 1946 to Harvey and Clarice King in Evanston, Illinois – a city just north of Chicago. She, younger brother Paul, a stepsister and a stepbrother all had a relatively average childhood. The most traumatic…
As a high school senior, David chose to interview one of his teachers for his Public Speaking class project. The teacher, who’d recently fallen while horseback riding, was explaining that her injuries resulted in surgery to remove her spleen. Not…
The daughter of a property manager and a stay-at-home mom, Whitney Wolfe enjoyed a happy, quiet childhood, growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah. When it was time for university, Whitney chose to attend Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, where…
Ingrid spent the early years of her life in Great Britain – specifically, in the Orkney Islands and in Ware, Hertfordshire. When she was seven years of age, her family moved to New Delhi, India. The year was 1956 – eight…
What would you do if you were in charge of sales and distribution and suddenly supply dried up because of a labor issue? That’s essentially the situation that Kat Cole faced when working as a Hooter’s server, when the kitchen crew…
When looking for the definition of a fearless brand, one need look no further than American icon, Willie Nelson, one of the most recognizable faces, voices, and talents in all of music. There are thousands of performers in the music…
A critical element of a fearless brand is having clarity of purpose. For many, our purpose comes clear later in life – for others, it occurs at a relatively early age. That said, it’s almost inconceivable that someone could know…
Many people live in what are considered ‘tough’ neighborhoods – communities which are typically afflicted with poverty, unemployment, crime, and drugs. What can often be overlooked is that most of these areas also include highly-motivated, hard-working and law-abiding citizens. North Philly…
Having spent the majority of my professional life working in the field of marketing – specifically branding – I can say this without hesitation…the terms “brand” and “branding” are consistently misused, overused or completely misunderstood. This fact is one of…
Dreams. We all have them. Some are discarded as wishful thinking. Others are wrecked by a litany of roadblocks- some real, many perceived. Then there are dreams that explode into reality – crashing through all obstacles – in spite of…
At the early age of six, Peter discovered his love of performing. He and his older brother would put on shows in the basement of their parents’ home in Morristown, New Jersey. Their audience consisted of elderly neighbors happy to…
When Iris was 11 years old, she would explore Manhattan, developing a particular liking for Greenwich Village. In those days – it was 1932 – not only could one travel all around the city for five cents, it was safe…
Michael spent his youth exploring the bush country of Rhodesia – modern day Zimbabwe. He would spend days running barefoot, with his fox terrier, Toki, under the watchful eye of Twalika, one of the family’s cattle herders. Indeed, watchful eyes were…
It’s said that necessity is the mother of invention. Perhaps so. Innovation, on the other hand, is born of any number of causes. Some would say the leading cause of innovation is vision. Others say it’s creativity. Many attribute innovations…
Vernice Armour knew at a young age that she wanted to become a police officer. More specifically, she wanted to join the mounted police, patrolling on horseback. Childhood dreams are magical – creating excitement and hope. They are also mysterious…
Chris Nee grew up loving animated television show – think cartoons. That attraction was strong enough to create thoughts of a career in that discipline. It’s a gift for a person to discover their passion, but having the talent necessary…
Paul is the second of six children, born and raised in Enschede, Netherlands – a town near the German-Dutch border. His parents had lived through the ravages of the Second World War and a by-product of that experience was the…
The most successful people are the ones who have found their purpose in life. For some, this takes a virtual lifetime. Others discover their purpose very early in life. Such was the case for James. At the age of four, he…
David has been a real “go-getter” his entire life. Like many before him, he discovered his entrepreneurial spirit by working a newspaper route as a young boy. After earning a Business Management degree (with an emphasis on Marketing) in 1984,…
When Barry and Beverly married, they were the first of their families to be born in the U.S. – their parents having emigrated from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. The family’s combined heritage, closeness and religious beliefs would all have a big impact…
Pete and Anne were both 18 when they met while on a train heading to Arbroath, Scotland from King’s Cross Station in London. It was 1964. That six-hour trip would result in a lifetime together. Within a year, the couple…
Samuel was born March 14, 1921 in Eatonton, Georgia. He was the sixth of what soon would total seven children for Joseph and Lilla. Though Samuel was his given name, he was called by his middle name – Truett. When…
Kristen was born in Gainesville, Florida on February 26, 1988. Her family moved to Flagler Beach, Florida when she was two. She eventually returned to Gainesville where she attended the University of Florida. Fashion is an important for element in…
Growing up on a farm can teach invaluable lessons. John learned this was true while living on his 50-acre family farm outside of Canton, Ohio. One of five children, his step-father worked treating waste water while his mother worked full-time…
Brittany grew up in Atlanta, Georgia in what most would consider an upper-middle class home. She enjoyed a relatively typical childhood – not one of privilege – but not wanting for much. She completed high school at a noted boarding…
Richard was the first born of Edward and Eve Branson – born on July 18, 1950 in Blackheath, London. His father was a barrister, having followed his father, a judge at the High Court of Justice, into the legal realm.…
Airplane pilots have countless details to be aware of and pay attention to – as well as any number of distractions. One such challenge is fighting the bright blue sky and puffy white clouds over a period of time. What…
Born in 1958, Ursula grew up in a housing project at the intersection of Baruch Dr. and Delancey St. on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. She and two siblings were raised by her single mother, a Panamanian immigrant. It was a…
Walter Jr. – the only child of Walter, a dentist, and Helen, a homemaker – was born on November 4, 1916, in Saint Joseph, Missouri. That’s where the family lived until moving to Houston, Texas when Walter was 10-years-old. Walter…
It’s hard to say what type of adult a child will become based solely on the behavior and parenting styles of their parents. Joe’s father was often angry and bitter – constantly berating his son, telling him that he wasn’t…
James and Kate Kaminsky – he a German Jew via Poland, she a Russian Jew from modern day Ukraine – had immigrated to Brooklyn, New York. They had four sons. The youngest, Melvin was born on June 28, 1926. Soon after…
Guatemala is, in many ways, the hidden gem of Central America – sandwiched between Mexico to the north, Honduras and El Salvador to the south and Belize to the east. The Guatemalan people are friendly and hard-working. The country has a…
Zaha was born on October 31, 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. Her family was upper-class and well-educated. Her mother was an artist – her father, a successful industrialist. He was also politically active, co-founding the liberal National Democratic Party. Her family…
Avid baseball fans dream of going to their favorite Major League team’s spring training. Very few of them are born there. That is literally Joe’s story. He was born on April 25, 1969 in St. Petersburg, Florida – the spring training…
There are some stories which appear to be so outside of the realm of reality that they are assumed to be a Hollywood movie script. Then there are stories that are so incredible that not even the creative minds that…
Andy Katz-Mayfield earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2011. Jeff Raider graduated from the Wharton School of Business in 2010. They first met as interns at Bain and Company – the beginning of a very…
America in 1886 had a population of only 58 million people, nearly two-thirds of whom lived in rural areas of the then 38 states. Richard Sears lived in North Redwood, Minnesota where he worked as a station agent for the…
Peter Kellner’s father was a Hungarian immigrant whose family consisted of a long line of entrepreneurs. His mother’s family had settled in Massachusetts in 1635. After he graduated from Princeton University, Peter traveled to Hungary on a Fulbright Scholarship. There…
Often seemingly small, insignificant actions can have major impact – sometimes they can even affect the entire world. One such instance occurred in Louisville, Kentucky in 1954. Someone stole a twelve-year-old boy’s bicycle. No one knows who it was –…
The Shinola Company, founded in 1907 in Rochester, New York – manufactured shoe polish. While the product itself wasn’t necessarily innovative – its packaging was. The round tin the polish came in featured an attached ‘key’ which, when turned vertically,…
The Santa Monica pier is an iconic attraction on the Pacific Island shore in Southern California, due west of Los Angeles. There are shops, restaurants, rides and terrific people watching. In the 1950’s, the pier became a place where ‘muscle…
Danny was born on October 25, 1948 in Waterloo, Iowa. His father, Mack, was a real estate salesman – his mother, Katie, was a homemaker. The family lived a modest, yet very satisfying lifestyle. For his part, Danny put a…
Two hamburger restaurants opened in 1948 within 45 miles of each other in the Greater Los Angeles area. Both were family-owned and operated, one by two brothers, the other by a husband and wife team – Harry and Esther. The…
Tom was born on his family’s farm about 20 minutes outside of Kirksville, a small town in north central Missouri. It was 1935 – the world was a much simpler time and being raised on a turkey farm was even…
Refugees, in order to survive, have been forced to flee their countries throughout history. Such was the case with five year old Stephanie and her 9 year old sister who fled Nazi Germany in 1938. Born of a Jewish father, their…
Legend has it that the Olympics were founded by Hercules and Alcmene – he the son of Zeus, she a ‘mere mortal’. That story has the competition occurring every four years as part of a festival to honor Zeus. The…
Bob Smith was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont in 1879. Bill Wilson was born sixteen years later on November 26, less than 100 miles away, in East Dorset, Vermont. That distance, their difference in age and each pursuing different career paths…
Josiah Franklin, a soap and candle maker in Boston, was married twice. Between his two wives he sired seventeen children – seven by his first wife, Anne and ten with his second wife, Abiah. Ben, his tenth (and youngest) son…
During America’s Civil War, Louisiana was a part of the Confederate States of America, known simply as the Confederacy. It came as no surprise then that Union General Nathaniel Banks led a force from the Gulf of Mexico up Bayou…
Rocco and Angelina lived in Queens, New York where they raised their three sons, Nick, Jim and Bob. They were a loving Italian family, never hesitant to hug and kiss each other – the words “I love you” flowing freely.…
Known as the Garden of England, Kent is a county known for its gentle hills and sea lined borders. It touches Greater London to the North as it is located in the South East of England. It is famous for…
It was 1871 when 14 year old Milton accidentally dropped his hat into a machine at the print shop where he apprenticed. He was fired. With his mother’s guidance, he was hired as an apprentice for a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania confectioner…
Her parents immigrated to the United States from Punjab, India – settling in North Carolina. Vani was born in Charlotte on March 22, 1979. Her childhood was as normal as every other kid growing up in America in the 1980’s. That…
Tom was born in Concord, California on July 9, 1956. His parents were Amos and Janet – he a cook and restaurant manager, she a hospital worker. They divorced when Tom was five, one of those experiences that can affect…
Diane Smith was born into a Wisconsin dairy farming family in 1947. She was one of nine children – all girls. When she was nine the family moved to a several hundred acre farm in Osseo, Wisconsin. Mary wanted to spend…
John was born in Hall, Indiana on October 14, 1910 – the second son of Joshua and Roxie Wooden. When he was 8, the family moved to a small farm near Centerton, Ind., a town which boasted a population of…
In 1893, the innaugural Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup was awarded to Montreal HC (Hockey Club) as Canada’s top ranking amateur ice hockey team. The award was concepted, created and awarded by the Governor General of Canada. He first encountered the…
Imagine starting a successful business only to be fired by your board of directors when they become disenchanted with the company performance. Now think of the irony of being brought back by the same board of directors, fifteen years later, when…
From the beginning of time there have been animals and creatures that have caused mankind to take pause. This isn’t so much a phenomenon as it is survival at its most basic level. Mastodons, tyrannosaurus rex, pterodactyl were just a…
The actual day he was born is unknown – much like Jack Daniel before him. They were both born into farming families – but that is where the similarities stop, at least in their early lives. For one thing, Daniel was born in…
Little girls love to fantasize about becoming a princess, living a special life filled with attention and riches. In reality, very few actually have their dream become a reality. The fact is that most princesses are born into royalty. Such…
Jasper was born on a farm in Moore County, Tennessee – one of Calaway and Lucinda Daniel’s 12 children. Exactly when that birth occurred is not known for certain – but the consensus is September, 1850. The hard times his family endured were made…
The decade of the 1960’s was a dynamic time in the U.S. The decade began with President Kennedy announcing his “New Frontier” domestic policy. Kennedy was assassinated and followed by Lyndon Johnson whose vision was to create “The Great Society”.…
When a Miami real estate speculator bought the land just outside of Augusta, Georgia from Fruitland Nurseries, his vision was to build a resort which would cater to the wealthy. However, the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 destroyed much of…
Twins have a special bond – one that most people cannot understand. Such was the case with fraternal twins Christopher and Michael, born five minutes apart in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on February 7, 1978. Michael, the younger of the two,…
Blake Mycoskie had earned a partial scholarship to play tennis for Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. There, he double majored in Philosophy and Business. After leaving school, he started his first business – EZ Laundry – providing the first on-campus dry cleaning…
Stanley Bert Eisen was born in upper Manhattan in 1952. Chaim Witz was born in Haiti, Israel in 1949, moved to Queens, New York at age 8. Each had challenges to face as youngsters. Stanley was born with a birth…
Her parents had immigrated to Baltimore, Maryland from Sri Lanka. Formerly known as Ceylon, Sri Lanka is an island nation just south of India. Despite a civil war which raged for over 30 years, ending in 2009, the nation is…
Joanne was born in 1963 and grew up in a council house in Kent, England. Her father, Peter, was a painter – her mother, Elaine, was a beautician. As a child, school was difficult for her as she was severely dyslexic.…
Arthur’s story is one of maximizing great talent, succeeding in the face of obstacles, resolving to actively address unfair obstructions, extending generosity to those in need and accepting the toughest challenge life can give with quiet grace and dignity. He…
Some boys who are born on St. Patrick’s Day – March 17th – are named Pat. In 1961 – in Minneapolis, Minnesota – a boy born on the ‘grand day’ was named Mark. Insignificant to some – bewildering to others,…
She was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, the fourth of five children. She grew up on the family farm with her three older brothers and younger sister. Farm life taught all of the children hard work, commitment and dedication. When their…
On March 13, 2000, sixteen Americans were taken to Tiga, a tiny Malaysian island in the South China Sea. It was a very eclectic group ranging in age from a 22 year old aspiring actress to a 72 year old…
Roy was eight years old when his brother Walt was born in Chicago – it was 1901. Four years later the family moved to Marceline, Missouri where their father had purchased a farm. It was there that Walt discovered his…
Most kids graduate from high school within four years – but not very many attend four different schools to do so. Of course, it can take that many schools when you are kicked out of the first three you attend.…
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