Paul Hawkins...
Ben & Jerry's(before the sell out of the business)
Mary Kay(she's heard she had a stroke but still might be open to an interview via internet)
A.G. Gaston(southern entrepreunership)
John Johnson(Johnson's publishing)
Terry Williams(from social worker to one of the
largest minority owned P.R. agencies)
Dave Thomas ( from orphan to major food)
Horace Mars (creator of mars candy)
Spike Lee( film producer, beginning business
financed by credit cards)
Percy Ross( philanthropist)
Iyanla Vanzant( writer, author, seminar leader
from welfare to school to motivational speaker)
Diana Ross
Mark Mathabane( infamous south african author
of "The Kafir Boy" lives in South Carolina)
Maya Angelou

Wally Amos( past owner of Famous Amos cookies;
and doing other things now & might be open to
interview on line)

Anyone else care to offer others...Another thing
I'd like to add is the interview can also be
with people who have overcome great mental,
physical and social obstacles and were able to
become prosperous(not just materially but
spiritually as well.)

Dave Dravecky
Vance Armstrong
Jackie Joyner Kersee
Ronan Tynan( opera singer)
Dr. Ben Carson( infamous children's neurosurgeon)

Maybe this post will spark some others to
offer Dien some names for possible interviews
on this site....

------

Some (most) of the success stories I've seen
> lately make my blood boil.

> Some person will be held aloft as some kind
> of knight in shinning armour to the
> struggling masses of entrepreneurs. And yet,
> in reality, this person is not an
> entrepreneur at all. All they are is a
> lottery winner.

> Do you remember Poppy King... the young
> "entrepreneur" who came from
> obscurity into the cosmetic limelight?

> Fraud. Her parents funded everything and
> used all the contacts THEY already had in
> business. She did bugger all to make Poppy
> happen.

> Calvin Klein? Borrows $100,000 from a friend
> to start. Um, well excuse me, but what's
> that in today's money? $1M? $2M? And he
> borrows that from a friend? A friend who is
> a business partner. So this guy was already
> successful and lends the equivalent of over
> a million dollars and does nothing? I think
> not.

> I like reading Ben Suarez's story, bar one
> part. That part? Where he gets $80,000 worth
> of free advertising because the ad agency
> will fund it.

> Heard of FUBU clothing label? They started
> off making their gear in the basement of
> their house. I love the story of their
> beginning. But what made them take off was
> having Ivander Hollyfield wear one of their
> t-shirts. How did that come about? They sent
> him a t-shirt. So the question then is, out
> of all the hundreds (maybe thousands) of
> companies who sent him t-shirts, why wear
> the FUBU one? Obviously he liked it and so
> wore it. But why FUBU in particular?

> There'll be some "successful internet
> entrepreneurs" show. And the show will
> be about some twenty something person who's
> the CEO of some 100 million dollar dot com.
> And there'll be much rejoicing. Question?
> How did that come about? Oh, mum and dad
> just happened to have a whole bunch of
> "connections" and.... well... tell
> me no more.

> All I'm saying is... I don't like seeing
> someone heralded as a brilliant entrepreneur
> when their success was either like winning
> the lottery and had nothing intrinsically to
> do with them. Or, those who are
> "heads" under someone else's (mum,
> dad, already established successful
> businessman, etc.) expertise.

> Do something based on your experience, fine.
> Work some wonderful deal to do with
> something, fine. Come from nothing to be a
> roaring success, fine.

> But be a "silver spoon" success,
> then not fine. That's not what I call true
> entrepreneurialism.

> I like to see the story of the guy who did
> it all. The one who got off their butt and
> made it happen.

> Something like,

> Some guy loses his job, goes and starts a
> "paint house numbers on gutters"
> business. Then takes the profits from that
> and invests them into something else and
> makes a success of that. And so on.

> Okay, so this may come across as a sort of
> bitterness. It's not. I don't begrudge
> success not matter what the reasons. But I
> appreciate true talent. And am sick and
> tired of talentless people being held aloft
> as something to aspire to.

> Take ELO... they wrote the songs, wrote the
> music and sang the songs. Heck, Lynn even
> learned to be a producer. THAT is talent in
> my eyes.

> Some put-together band of people with no
> singing talent, who are handed songs to sing
> and whose voices are modified during
> recording, is not talent.

> Form a strategic alliance and leverage from
> that, fine. You're an entrepreneur. But to
> take credit for, or be given credit for,
> things that are not a result of your
> entrepreneurial spirit, then not fine.

> Think Kerry Packer... the media mogul. Sure
> he's a success. But didn't he inherit the
> newspapers his father already owned?

> I like to read about success which came
> about from creative-intelligence and not
> already established nepotism, or flukes that
> can't be duplicated.

> Why?

> Because most people don't have those same
> nepotistic contacts and most people don't
> win the lottery.

> I'm reminded of something I read on a
> screenwriting website. The site's owner was
> discussing some of the workshops other
> writers put on and ran this scenario...

> Someone in the audience asks, "So how
> did you get Steven Spielberg to become
> involved in your movie idea?"

> And the writer says something like, "I
> was on the backlot at Warner Bros and just
> bumped into him. We got to talking. One
> thing lead to another and I gave him a copy
> of the script I always carry around."

> The above sounds good, right? But as the
> site's owner says... HOW did this writer get
> onto the backlot in the first place??? It's
> a situation most other aspiring
> screenwriters cannot duplicate until after
> they're a success.

> I want to read the story of the guy who
> starts with $2,000 of his own money and no
> more. Not the guy who starts with $2,000 and
> then borrows $100,000 from friends and
> relatives.

> I want to read the story of the guy who
> comes up with an idea, goes out and forms a
> strategic alliance and then succeeds. Not
> the guy who uses already established
> nepotism, either formed from previous
> success or parents, to forge ahead.

> I want to hear stories like those of Ita
> Buttrose - starts as the coffee girl come
> gofer and works her way up the ladder one
> rung at a time to be the head. Not the one
> who is given the head job because of a
> friend of a friend or because the parents
> own the thing.

> Sure I like reading about the guy who bought
> a $50,000 business and turned it into a
> million dollar business within 12 months.
> But, where did the spare $50,000 come from
> in the first place?

> If the spare $50,000 came from real-state
> profits after a sale, then how did the
> initial purchase come about?

> Was it a "no money down" deal? Was
> the purchase price funded from retirement
> lumpsum payments from a previous job? Was it
> inherited? Can someone else do the same
> thing?

> That's what it really comes down to... can
> someone else do the same thing? Is it able
> to be duplicated if someone else sets their
> mind to it?

> All passed on knowledge is valuable. And I
> do enjoy reading about the exploits of
> successful people even if their success
> can't be duplicated by others (like Donald
> Trump who grew up in the construction
> business for example). But for mine, the
> true entrepreneurial underdog is what I
> enjoy reading about the most.

> HA! Migrant Success. :o)

> Michael Ross.