Funny how many founders of businesses had very tough upbringings… ‘Ted Turner (Call Me Ted) took over a struggling billboard company after his father’s suicide—having already lost a younger sister and grown up with alcoholism at home. Sheila Johnson (Walk Through Fire) was abandoned by her father and endured an abusive marriage before co-founding BET. Alan McKim (Doing the Doing) was forced out of home by an alcoholic father and built Clean Harbors from scratch. Billy Walters (The Gambler) overcame poverty, gambling addiction, and prison to become one of the greatest sports bettors of all time. Larry H. Miller (Driven) came from a deeply unsettled childhood and, at sixteen, arrived home to find his belongings in three bags on the porch and the door locked; from modest beginnings in an auto-parts department, he went on to build a vast automotive empire and own the Utah Jazz. Chung Ju-Yung (Born of This Land) escaped extreme poverty in Japanese-occupied Korea, endured the failure of two businesses, and ultimately founded Hyundai, building the backbone of modern-day Korea. Konosuke Matsushita (Matsushita Leadership) was born into a prosperous family that lost everything after his father’s failed rice speculation. Sent away to work at nine, he then watched his family disappear around him—losing both parents and all but one of his seven siblings while still a young man—before going on to build Panasonic. Sandy Lerner, who co-founded Cisco, grew up without a father and with an alcoholic mother, spending much of her childhood on a ranch with an aunt. By sixteen she had refused to pledge allegiance to the flag, had been hassled by police at an antiwar protest. Paul Orfalea (Copy This) grew up with dyslexia and built Kinko’s by trusting others to handle what he couldn’t. Even Charles Goodyear—was relentless in his pursuit of vulcanized rubber, enduring jail, poverty, and ridicule for a decade before succeeding. Oftentimes, fanatics are forged in hardship.’