Bootstraps.

One day at age six or seven I sat in the backseat of my Dad's car while we drove somewhere. I don't remember where, but we didn't drive to the movies, for ice cream, or to go shopping. We were poor, and our car symbolized that with its balding tires, chipped paint, and colors of the interior dull and faded.

I do remember coming up to a red light and a young business man stopped next to us in his nice car all silver, sleek, fast. My Dad pointed at him while saying, "You see that man right there? That's what happens if you work hard, start your own business. You get nice things, nice cars, a nice house. That can be you if you do that too." Using the kind of intuition and creative thinking that I still had because years and years of television hadn't sucked it out of me yet I responded, "Well then what happened to you Dad? If it's that easy and simple... why are you not him?"