Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

Douglass, an American Slave, displayed a caliber of determination to rise above the bondage of slavery. He knew early on that nothing in his life would be handed to him. His tenacious spirit of continuing to learn how to read, after his master’s wife was discovered teaching Douglass the alphabet was punished, by observing the white children and using any written materials he could find. Douglass eventually escaped Slavery to Massachusetts and became one of the most important and respected black men in American history. A list of his accomplishments include: President of the Freedman’s Savings Bank, Marshal of District of Columbia, Minister Resident and Consul-General to the Republic of Haiti, Chargé d’Affaires for the Dominica Republic, and the first black man to receive a vote for nomination for President in the 1888 Republican Convention.

“People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.” Frederick Douglass

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)

Carnegie’s story is the stuff dreams are made of; he once wrote that he’d sleep as a poor child to “forget the misery of hunger” to becoming either the richest man in the world.  At 13, his family came to American from Scotland. Andrew worked as a bobbin boy earning $1.50 a week and did various other jobs in the textile industry while educating himself through the things he read. In 1853, Carnegie got a position with Pennsylvania Telegraph Company. He devoted his savings to reinvesting it into the railroad business. This pattern of saving and investing was the path that led Carnegie to owning a steel company that would produce more steel than all of Great Britain known as Carnegie Steel.

“Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!” Andrew Carnegie

John D. Rockefeller(1839-1937)

Rockefeller is the second born of six siblings of a poor family. John got his first job at 16, as an assistant bookkeeper for a small produce commission firm for only 50 cents a day. By the age of 20, he raised enough capital ($4000) to started his own commission business dealing with hey, grains, meats, and other goods. In less than 10 years he built Standard and Oil Company and within a year it became the largest oil refinery in the Cleveland Ohio area. Rockefeller became the first entrepreneur to cross the Billion dollar mark and considered the richest person in history.

“I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.” John D. Rockefeller

David Sarnoff (1891-1971)

Sarnoff was born in to a poor Jewish family in what is now Belarus. The Sarnoff family came to America in 1900 and as a boy, David sold newspapers in NYC after school to help the family, but when his father developed tuberculosis this forced him to become the family’s sole bread-winner. This is when he got a job with Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America. He worked hard to learn everything he could about the communications business and rose through the company ranks. He was a visionary. He realized technology’s importance and suggested to his boss to build radios for home purchase, but his idea for the ‘radio music box’ was shot down. He pitched the idea again after Marconi sold to GE which became RCA, but his superiors failed to see the value of Sarnoff’s idea. In the 20s David’s predication came to light and that’s when he began to earn recognition. RCA launched NBC radio in 1926, then a few years later David became president of the company. He began investing heavily in research and development of new technology. The gamble paid off with the unveiling of the first television to the public at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and the next day RCA began selling them in stores. Televisions exploded after the war, proving yet again with David’s forward-thinking giving NBC the edge over the market with this technology. Today there are more than 116.4M TV in American homes along and not a single one can imagine what life would be without them thanks to Sarnoff.

“Work and live to serve others, to leave the world a little better than you found it and garner for yourself as much peace of mind as you can. This is happiness.” David Sarnoff

These are inspiring stories of men going from nothing to achieving greatest. We all have it within us to do better. Opportunity doesn’t fall in our laps; we have to open all doors and raise all windows to find the sunshine to light our way.

What sort of success stories do you have to tell? Would it be cool for others to find you on Wikipedia sharing how your humble beginning to one of comfort? Do you know of anyone who has gone from rags to riches?

For more success stories, read: Art of Manliness: 25 of the Greatest Self-Made Men in American HIstory.