Oprah Winfrey
?Oprah Winfrey was born poor and black in Mississippi in 1954, when
poor and black meant no flush toilets, no shoes, and no real chance to
get ahead in the world.?
http://www.nndb.com/people/466/000022400/
In 2003, Winfrey was named the first black woman billionaire and she
has been named the world's most recognized person
?Entrepreneur, actress, educator, producer, philanthropist, and talk
show host, Oprah Winfrey has had a wide-ranging effect on American
culture. Despite her difficult childhood, she determined to make a
better life for herself and others. Beginning her career as a
television reporter and anchor, Oprah went on to find success as the
first black woman to host a nationally-syndicated television show and
the first black woman to own a production company. In 2003, Winfrey
was named the first black woman billionaire and she has been named the
world's most recognized person.?
?Oprah Gail Winfrey was born to Vernita Lee on 29 January 1954 in
Kosciuscko, Mississippi. Initially raised by her grandmother. (?) As a
young adolescent, Oprah often acted out and misbehaved; once she
attempted to run away. After initially trying to place her in a
juvenile detention center, Lee sent Oprah to live with her father,
Vernon Winfrey, in Nashville, Tennessee.?
According to Oprah, "There really is nothing more important to me than
striving to be a good human being" (Academy of Television Arts and
Science 2003).
Learning to Give
http://www.learningtogive.org/papers/index.asp?bpid=136
Business Quotes by Opray Winfrey
?I knew there was a way out. I knew there was another kind of life
because I had read about it. I knew there were other places, and there
was another way of being.?
?What I know is, is that if you do work that you love, and the work
fulfills you, the rest will come.?
?You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and
not be paid for it.?
?What material success does is provide you with the ability to
concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able
to make a difference, not only in your own life, but in other people's
lives.?
Oprah Winfrey - Life - Philanthropy
-http://www.woopidoo.com/business_quotes/authors/oprah-winfrey-quotes.htm
====================================================
Walker, Madame C. J.: (1867-1919)
?A St. Louis laundress who grew up in Mississippi as the impoverished
daughter of slaves, she developed the first commercially successful
hair-straightening process, known as the "Walker System." By 1910, her
company employed over three thousand people, and she was probably the
first African-American woman to become a millionaire. Her success
typified a common aspect of the Jim Crow era: most wealthy blacks made
their fortunes servicing needs in the black community not met by white
businesses, such as undertaking, barbering, and beauty shops. Walker
also became a patron of black writers and artists and established
scholarships for African-American women at Tuskegee Institute.?
Jim Crow History
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts/jimcrow/glossary.cgi?term=w&letter=yes
Read more here:
http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/walker.html
"I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there
I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook
kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of
manufacturing hair goods and preparations....I have built my own
factory on my own ground"
Madam Walker, National Negro Business League Convention, July 1912
http://www.madamecjwalker.com/
Quotation:
?Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come; you have to
get up and make them.?
http://www.cybernation.com/quotationcenter/quoteshow.php?type=author&id=9249
Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come; you have to get
up and make them. -- Madame C. J. Walker
http://www.zilltech.com/FAQQuotesWork.html
====================================================
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945)
32d President of the United States
?Franklin Roosevelt's world changed the moment he contracted polio in
1921 at the age of 39. Born to wealth and privilege, FDR was faced
with the greatest struggle of his life - to triumph over his
disability. Times were different. Disability was kept secret. It was
not to be spoken of, nor seen. FDR, sensitive to these public
attitudes both at home and abroad, often kept his disability hidden.
(?)
?Winston Churchill also knew of Roosevelt's successful struggle with
disability. In a speech to the House of Commons, Churchill said that
even with his disability, Roosevelt had become "the indomitable master
of the scene."
?FDR overcame his disability not by diminishing his life to what was
readily manageable, but by enlarging his life to embrace all the risks
the greater world had to offer. He challenged the world to triumph
over its adversities (war, poverty and hatred) just as he challenged
himself to triumph over his adversity. From his wheelchair he inspired
the world and his strength continues to be inspirational today.?
National Organization on Disability
http://www.nod.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageID=86
Quotations:
?It isn't sufficient just to want - you've got to ask yourself what
you are going to do to get the things you want.?
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/franklin_d_roosevelt.html
?It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it
frankly and try another. But above all, try something.?
?Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.?
?The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is
knowing how to get along with people.?
?The only thing to fear is fear itself.?
Thinkarete
http://www.thinkarete.com/quotes/by_teacher/franklin_d_roosevelt/
====================================================
?Because each lived life to the fullest extent, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt and Stephen Hawking, will be remembered most, not for
overcoming unbelievable adversity, but rather for their remarkable
individual achievements.?
http://ol.scc.spokane.edu/jstrever/models/essays/c&c/llewellyn.htm
====================================================
Stephen Hawking
?In 1963, at 21, Stephen was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease (a
neuromuscular disease that progressively weakens muscle control)
doctors predicted an early death for him. Stephen, however, had other
ideas.
Refusing to allow his disease to get the better of him, Stephen went
on to Cambridge where he gained a Ph.D in Cosmology. Since 1979
Stephen has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a
chair that was held in 1663 by Isaac Newton.
Throughout these remarkable achievements the disease continued to
ravage Stephen's body, though not his mind.?
http://www.mchawking.com/newz.php?page_function=about_the_hawkman&sub_page_function=bio
Hawking writes:-
?... although there was a cloud hanging over my future, I found to my
surprise that I was enjoying life in the present more than I had
before. I began to make progress with my research...?
School of Mathematics and Statistics: University of St Andrews,
Scotland http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Hawking.html
?Hawking is clearly a celebrity. More, he is hero, a figure of moral
authority whose celebrity rests on his intellectual achievements and
ability to overcome adversity. He is, as the titles of so many
articles about him proclaim, the "master of the universe," living
proof of the power of "mind over matter.?
The Hawking of Stephen Hawking: Celebrity, Cosmology, Disability
http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~jonsmith/hawking.html
====================================================
Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in Franklin County near
Roanoke, Virginia in 1856, and moved with his family just after the
Civil War to Malden, West Virginia, where Washington worked in the
salt mines
http://www.virginia.edu/history/courses/fall.97/hius323/btw.html
?Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was the most influential black
leader and educator of his time in the United States. He became
prominent largely because of his role as founder and head of Tuskegee
Institute, a vocational school for blacks in Tuskegee, Ala.?
http://www2.worldbook.com/wc/popup?path=features/aajourney_new&page=html/aa_3_washington.shtml&direct=yes
?Born a slave, Booker T. Washington rose to become the commonly
recognized leader of the Negro race in America. Although he
continually strove to be successful and to show other black men and
women how they too could raise themselves, his leadership became
controversial, and his critics ironically accused him of keeping the
Negro down and in his place. Washington's method of uplifting was
education in a harmonious trinity of the head, the hand, and the
heart. From his founding of Tuskegee Institute in 1881 to his death in
1915 Booker T. Washington exerted a tremendous influence on the
consciousness of his people.?
http://www.san.beck.org/BTW.html
Booker T. Washington Quotations
?Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has
reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.
Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be
alone than in bad company.
Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on
him, and to let him know that you trust him.
I let no man drag me down so low as to make me hate him.
Character is power.
Character, not circumstances, makes the man.
I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.
One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining
down in the ditch with him.
You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.
There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a
high, simple and useful life.
There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down,
the other is pulling up.?
About.com: Quotations
http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/btwashington/a/btwquotes.htm
====================================================
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, (born 18 July 1918) a former President of
South Africa, was one of its chief anti-apartheid activists, and was
also an anti-apartheid saboteur. He is now almost universally
considered to be a heroic freedom fighter.?
?Nelson Mandela was born in Mvezo in the Transkei on 18 July 1918. He
then moved to Qunu where he lived until he was 9 years old. His father
was Hendry Mphakanyiswa Gadla, chief of Mvezo, a tiny village on the
banks of the Mbashe River. At the age of seven, Rolihlahla Mandela
became the first member of his family to attend school, where he was
given the English name "Nelson" by a Methodist teacher. His father
died when he was 10, and Nelson attended a Wesleyan mission school
next door to the palace of the Regent. Following Xhosa custom he was
initiated at age 16, and attended Clarkebury Boarding Institute,
learning about Western culture. He completed his Junior Certificate in
two years, instead of the usual three.?
?After his retirement as President in 1999, Mandela went on to become
an advocate for a variety of social and human rights organizations. He
received many foreign honours, including the Order of St. John from
Queen Elizabeth II and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George
W. Bush.?
?He is one of only two persons of non-Indian origin (Mother Teresa
being the other) to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest
civilian award, in 1990.?
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela
Quotations
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising
every time we fall.
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to
pass through
the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the
mountaintop of our desires.
?No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his
skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate,
and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love
comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.?
More quotations here:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela#Inspirational
====================================================
Bridget "Biddy" Mason
?Grandma Biddy Mason was a slave who, with her three daughters, was
granted freedom after being taken by their master to California in
1851. Settling down in the newly founded Los Angeles, Mason eventually
amassed a fortune in real estate.?
About.com: Women?s History
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/prm/blwomenbusiness1.htm
Hard work, frugality and her nursing skills enabled Biddy to become
economically independent.
?After the judge ruled that she was a free woman, Biddy Mason took her
children and settled in Los Angeles. There she worked as a midwife and
nurse.
Biddy Mason saved her money and, in ten years, was able to buy
property. She continued to invest her money and buy more property. She
used her own house as a home for the first black church in Los
Angeles. Mason became known as a person who gave money to the poor,
fought for blacks to go to school, and worked to win fair treatment
for blacks under the laws of California. She was part of a small, but
important, black population in the Los Angeles area.?
Footsteps Magazine
http://www.footstepsmagazine.com/DreamBuildersArticle.html
?By the time of her death in 1891, Biddy Mason had a personal fortune
of almost $300,000, and her vast real estate holdings constituted what
later became downtown Los Angeles.?
Random House
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0345454189&view=excerpt
====================================================
Helen Keller
?She altered our perception of the disabled and remapped the
boundaries of sight and sense?
?She proved how language could liberate the blind and the deaf. She
wrote, "Literature is my utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised." But
how she struggled to master language. In her book "Midstream," she
wrote about how she was frustrated by the alphabet, by the language of
the deaf, even with the speed with which her teacher spelled things
out for her on her palm. She was impatient and hungry for words, and
her teacher's scribbling on her hand would never be as fast, she
thought, as the people who could read the words with their eyes.W
Time Magazine: Heroes and Icons
http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/keller01.html
Helen Keller overcame blindness and deafness to become a symbol of the
indomitable human spirit.
For the first 18 months of her life, Helen Keller was a normal infant.
"Then," as she recalled later, "came the illness which closed my eyes
and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a newborn baby."
?The illness, perhaps scarlet fever, vanished as quickly as it struck,
but it erased not only the child's vision and hearing but also, as a
result, her powers of articulate speech.
Her life thereafter, as a girl and as a woman, became a triumph over
crushing adversity and shattering affliction. In time, Miss Keller
learned to circumvent her blindness, deafness and mutness; she could
"see" and "hear" with exceptional acuity; she even learned to talk
passably and to dance in time to a fox trot or a waltz. Her remarkable
mind unfolded, and she was in and of the world, a full and happy
participant in life.
What set Miss Keller apart was that no similarly afflicted person
before had done more than acquire the simplest skills.
But she was graduated from Radcliffe; she became an artful and subtle
writer; she led a vigorous life; she developed into a crusading
humanitarian who espoused Socialism; and she energized movements that
revolutionized help for the blind and the deaf.?
The New York Times
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:a8UrYyIStlkJ:www2.nytimes.com/specials/magazine4/articles/keller1.html++Helen+Keller+overcame+adversity&hl=es
Quotations:
?I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still
I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not
refuse to do the something that I can do."
"We may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy
for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings."
"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
The fearful are caught as often as the bold."
"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in
our life, or in the life of another."
"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow."
?When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully
upon the closed door that we don't see the one that has opened for
us."
?Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it."
BellaOnline
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art14069.asp
====================================================
Yousuf Karsh
?Yousuf Karsh was born in Madin, Armenia and became one of the world?s
most renowned portrait photographers.?
http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/y/yo/yousuf_karsh.html
A classic rags-to-riches immigrant story, Karsh was born in Turkish
Armenia, growing up as a Christian in predominantly Muslim Turkey.
Karsh was just 14 when the family fled the horror of genocide in
Armenia for freedom in Syria, with nothing but the belongings on their
backs. At the tender age of 16, Karsh's parents sent him to
Sherbrooke, Quebec, to live and work with his uncle, George Nakash, a
portrait photographer. Recognizing his nephew's talent, Nakash sent
20-year-old Karsh to Boston in 1928 to study with John H. Garo, one of
the top portrait photographers in America. His exposure to the
powerful and famous in Boston would leave an indelible impression on
the young man and determine the course of his life.?
?Young, talented and hungry, Karsh returned to Canada and set up a
humble studio on Sparks Street in Ottawa. Eventually, he caught the
eye of Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who took a liking to the
relatively unknown photographer and helped him snag visiting
dignitaries for portraits.?
CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/lifeandtimes/karsh.html
Quotations:
?Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.?
?I have found that great people do have in common an immense belief in
themselves and in their mission. They also have great determination as
well as an ability to work hard. At the crucial moment of decision,
they draw on their accumulated wisdom. Above all, they have
integrity.?
Brainy Quote
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/y/yousuf_karsh.html
====================================================
Napoleon Hill
?Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) was born in poverty in rural Virginia, and
rose to become one of the world's premier motivational authors and
speakers. An advisor to Franklin Roosevelt and a confidant of Andrew
Carnegie, Hill's philosophy of success has inspired thousands of men
and women to aquire untold personal and financial riches.?
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1932429166/104-1251916-2251128?v=glance
?Napoleon Hill was born into poverty in 1883 in a one-room cabin on
the Pound River in Wise County, Virginia. At the age of 10 his mother
died, and two years later his father remarried. He became a very
rebellious boy, but grew up to be an incredible man. He began his
writing career at age 13 as a "mountain reporter" for small town
newspapers and went on to become America's most beloved motivational
author. Fighting against all class of great disadvantages and
pressures, he dedicated more than 25 years of his life to define the
reasons by which so many people fail to achieve true financial success
and happiness in their life.?
Napoleon Hill
http://napoleonhill.wwwhubs.com/
Quotations
?Before success comes in any man's life, he's sure to meet with much
temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a
man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That's
exactly what the majority of men do.?
?All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination,
Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind
energy into accomplishment and wealth.?
?Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the
seed on an equal or greater benefit.?
?Through some strange and powerful principle of "mental chemistry"
which she has never divulged, nature wraps up in the impulse of strong
desire, "that something" which recognizes no such word as
"impossible," and accepts no such reality as failure.?
?When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not
sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted
goal.?
Brainy Quote
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/n/napoleon_hill.html
====================================================
Self-made South East entrepreneurs and their stories of rags to riches
Paul Burford
?Paul Burford runs a chain of hairdressing salons and a hair products business.
From working class routes, Paul started working on building sites
until he swapped his hod for hair crimpers in his early 20s.
"When you're young, you're kind of fearless," he says.
It's the ability to take a risk that has contributed to his impressive
business turnover of £3 million per year.
Paul hasn't forgotten where he came from though. It makes him more
grounded and realistic. He believes in "longevity" rather than the
"one big cash-in".
Ken Wills
?Ken Wills started with nothing and has worked his way up to a
business empire with a turnover of £20 million.
Ken came from modest beginnings, growing up in a semi in Ashford, the
son of an auxiliary nurse and a jobbing builder.
It was sheer determination and hard work that rocketed Ken Wills from
obscurity to a lifestyle complete with a big house by the sea and
expensive cars.
Today he boasts a jet engine maintenance shop, a helicopter firm, a
fire prevention company, a restaurant, a jewellery business and a
radio station on the Isle of Thanet.
"If you do what you love, you're going to be better at it," advises
Ken to budding entrepreneurs.?
BBC: Inside Out
http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southeast/series4/rags_to_riches_entrepreneurs.shtml
====================================================
Andrew Carnegie
?Andrew Carnegie was a 19th century steel tycoon who became one of the
20th century's most famous philanthropists, and his life story is one
of the most famous rags-to-riches accounts in United States history.
Born in Scotland, Carnegie moved to Pennsylvania with his family in
1848 and began working in factories as a teenager. Hard work and a
wise investment in a sleeping car company during the 1850s led to
Carnegie's early success in the railroad business as well as the
financial world.? http://www.answers.com/topic/andrew-carnegie
More about Andrew Carnegie
http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=a_carnegie
Quotations:
?I believe the true road to preeminent success in any line is to make
yourself the master of that line.?
?No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself
or get all the credit.?
?Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The
ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational
objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain
uncommon results.?
?The first one gets the oyster the second gets the shell.?
?The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and
then watch that basket.?
About.com: Quotations
http://quotations.about.com/od/stillmorefamouspeople/a/AndrewCarnegie1.htm
====================================================
Search criteria:
Successful people difficult circumstances
Successful entrepreneur ?rags to riches?
"Successful entrepreneur" "born in poverty"
"Entrepreneur" adversity success
Adversity leader
I hope the information provided is helpful!
Best regards,
Bobbie7 |
