From Adversity to Achievement

Common sense tells many of us that the only people who get ahead in this world are the ones born with a silver spoon in their mouth. It says that you can't hope to keep up in the race of life if you have a disability, a humble origin, a lesser status, an offbeat personality. It constantly reminds us that fame and fortune are perks handed out to the favored few who were marked for success in advance.Common sense is wrong.If you take a close look at life, you'll see that history is full of people who succeeded despite the odds, and whose life stories testify to the value of diverse experiences, world views and imaginations. Through their lives, these Achievers proved that success can grow out of the most unlikely-looking soil.In "From Adversity to Achievement" you'll discover familiar faces whose accomplishments are famous but whose struggles were not, standing alongside once-obscure inventors, artists, scientists, businesspeople and many others, from all walks of life. You'll hear the fascinating stories of:-A magazine editor who was once so poor that he followed coal trucks in the street to pick up the bits that they dropped-A six-year-old girl who learned to hunt wild game so she could support her family-A Japanese-American immigrant who barely spoke English but eventually earned a fortune by selling potatoes-A 19th-century schoolteacher with no college education who developed the logical system that all modern computers depend on-A tennis player who battled her way into the national championships despite segregation laws that barred her from even setting foot on most professional courtsAnd thirty-five other life stories just as entertaining, heartwarming and instructive.We hope that the biographies in this book will inspire you to be an Achiever in your own way, and honor the memory not just of these people but of the many others who made a difference in their own and other people's lives. And as you embark on your own journey of accomplishment, "From Adversity to Achievement" will be there for you when you have doubts, to remind you of what has been done and what can be done again!