Connecting the Dots

I grew up in a large family in Kansas City, Missouri. I had no siblings and my father was not in the home. My wonderful mother was a mere 15 years old when she became pregnant with me. She and I really did grow up together! I was in junior high school before I ever called her "mom" For my personal protection and development, my young single mother uprooted herself from her parents and relocated to Kansas City, Kansas, which enabled me to attend Sumner High School, the high school of both my parents. With much help from my family, neighbors, school teachers, and students, I developed a new and unexpected vision and an attitude to achieve after I had clearly become a truant. The Sumner high school students, particularly my classmates, were the most influential to my success. They gave me a wonderful and critical "vote of confidence" by electing me president of our class for four consecutive years. The students and teachers, with my mother's leadership, absolutely changed my view of myself! They instilled the seeds of ambition and accomplishment in my vision. My mother served to direct this new and unexpected energy. Clearly, based on existing evidence, my new ambition was not innate! It evolved from uncontrolled circumstances. Without a plan or an identified dream, I had a wonderfully successful thirty year marketing career with the IBM Corporation. I promoted the Universal Product Code (UPC) in the early days, well before it had become proven technology accepted in the worldwide retail industry.