"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and Philosopher. Independence has always been a part of the American character, from frontiersmen hacking farms out of the wilderness to modern-day entrepreneurs hacking niches out of the marketplace. As a nation, we're well aware of this; after all, this is the Land of Opportunity, where rags-to-riches stories are a dime a dozen. As the statesman William Jennings Bryan once pointed out, "Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved." Bryan is a case in point, a man born to relatively modest means who graduated as valedictorian of his college in 1881, then went on to serve as Secretary of … [Read more...]
