I was a food stamp single mom and now I own my own business.

[Th1onein]

I now pay taxes. Lots of them. And I worked hard, very hard, to get where I am today.

But, as hard as I worked, and still work, I would still have been nowhere and had no hope of digging myself out of the hole that I was in, if I had not been LUCKY.

VERY lucky. I worked hard, but working hard nowadays means the road to burn out, in most companies. There is no longer that social contract, where you go up as the company goes up. Nope. You stay in the same place until you get sick, die, or burn out, or the company goes broke.

I got lucky. Period. I got into a business owned and operated by one man who was ready to retire. I worked hard, earned his trust, and took over the company for him. I built the company into what it now is, and I was able to do that because the company filled a niche at the right time. I got lucky. Now, I run it and give him half of the money. And, when he dies, I will run it and have all of the money from it.

People ask me why I don't just take it all, and I've been in a position to do that for years now, but I don't because I have loyalty to the person who gave me a chance to work and to make something of myself and to build this company.

I would love to be able to say that I am where I am now because of hard work and personal responsibility. But that is only partly true.

I got lucky. Not everyone does.

[awwwsheet]

1. You are lucky in being able to have all the money from it when he dies.

[Th1onein]

6. I probably should care about that, but I don't.

I look forward to spreading it around to the people who work for me. I live within my means. I don't have any plans to increase my personal expenditures. Instead, I plan to make it more profitable for my people to work for me. They deserve it and it will help my company to grow.

[mvd]

25. Good for you!

The problem isn't so much having money. The problem is the rich not caring about the rest of society. I wish more people with plenty of money were like you!

[MercutioATC]

27. Not "lucky" at all.

If he was ready to retire but still either wanted or needed the income, he's getting what he wanted. Essentially he sold the company for half of its profits until he dies.

[Edweird]

32. No kidding? Luck wasn't involved? Where's *MY* 'old guy with a business'?

In fact I'm sure there are a lot of people that could use a benefactor like that.

The fact is - she was extremely lucky. She stumbled upon an amazing opportunity.

[MercutioATC]

34. Any acheivement is partly luck.

I'd say the OP created most of this opportunity with a lot of hard work.

[cr8tvlde]

2. Time for the 47%ers to start talking and comparing notes.

Similar story...so does CNN's John King and many, many others we would be shocked to hear about, because of the shame heaped on by the Mitt-like.

And, congratulations to you and for your continued loyalty, which got you there in the first place. Clearly, it wasn't just luck.

Glad they now have EBT cards...it's not so obvious at your neighborhood grocery check-out counter.

[dkf]

3. Well save up for your $233,000 per capita share of the national debt.

And remember to increase it to keep up with the deficits.

[Ikonoklast]

4. That Talking Point isn't flying. The Republicans exploded the debt, and will be called on it.

And the Democrats, yet once again, will fix it.

Isn't it frustrating knowing that guy is going to lose, and lose badly, and in doing so destroy the Republican Party?

I find it hilarious watching the defenders wail and nash their teeth in impotent fury.

Makes me smile.

[Spazito]

5. +1! n/t

[dkf]

9. If it can be fixed. It's like global warming...we can't fix that either.

No I think we just have to be prepared for the fallout.

I guess that is my main point nowadays...get ready for when the you know what hits the fan.

[Ikonoklast]

14. You do that.

Make sure that the bunker is deep enough before you crawl in and shut the door.

The rest of us have work to do.

[vanlassie]

36. Thank you for your .....concern.

[closeupready]

12. If they steal it as they have done before, though,

they could help delay further advances planned by progressive and liberal Democrats. He'd have the power of veto, and also would likely appoint an army of conservative judges.

[WinkyDink]

35. Did you worry about the debt from 2001--2008?

[Avalux]

7. I was a food stamp single mom and now I have a six figure income.

I got lucky as well, but I also worked my ass off; I never expected to be taken care of by the government, never sat around thinking "gee, this is the life!" while doing nothing to better my situation.

I was able to better my situation through government assistance (food stamps and unemployment benefits), and I was GRATEFUL that safety net was there so I could feed my kids and keep us afloat.

Like you, I would love to say that I got where I am on my own, but I didn't - yes I worked hard to get where I am now, but I didn't do it on my own, I had help. Thank heavens I had help, or who knows what would have happened to me and my kids.

[SheilaT]

8. Too many well off and successful people simply do not have any clue

how much luck of some kind plays into their achievements.

[Arkplayer]

10. I got lucky also

I was 13 when my dad had a massive heart attack. I still vividly remember going to the grocery store with my mother and the embarrassment she felt using food stamps. It angers me to this day thinking of that and how hard my father had worked and payed his taxes all his life and that there should not have been any shame to getting help when we needed it.

I also received Social Security from my father and it allowed me go to college and make a life for myself. I am now 54 years old and have worked the same job for just short of 31 years, paying my taxes and supporting my family.

Unlike Paul Ryan, I am very appreciative of the help the government gave us in our time of need and am proud to pay my taxes and help those who need it now. Just paying it forward......

[hunter]

11. J.K. Rowling is the penultimate example of a welfare success story.

In order to teach in Scotland she would need a postgraduate certificate of education (PGCE), requiring a full-time, year-long course of study. She began this course in August 1995 at the Moray House School of Education, at Edinburgh University, after completing her first novel while having survived on social security.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JK_Rowling

Most people are going to find a way to contribute something to society even if they are never capable of "supporting themselves."

The truth of any human community is that NOBODY ever truly supports themselves, we all build upon one another's accomplishments.

Even a wild man living like an animal in the forest isn't "supporting himself." He is supported by the natural environment, the air he breathes, the water he drinks, the plants and animals he eats.

In a vacuum an individual human dies. We could drop any "successful" person naked on Mars and they'd end up just as freeze dried and dead as anyone else.

Since our status in life is essentially random, because none of us chooses the circumstances of our own birth, everyone deserves those minimal things required to sustain human life, not just food, shelter, and medical care, but education too since humans are intellectual creatures and human societies are an intellectual creation.

[barbtries]

13. very well put.

republicans seem to have lost those bits of wisdom.

[Th1onein]

17. Jesus, Hunter! You said that SO WELL!

You are absolutely right, on all points. Thank you for saying what I couldn't manage to figure out how to say! You hit the nail RIGHT on the head.

[ismnotwasm]

15. I was on welfare and food stamps

I'm now a registered nurse with a good income. And like you, I had support and help along the way.

[Ikonoklast]

18. And what people like Mitt fail to realize, that only gave you the opportunity to survive.

After getting the needed help, you did the rest through your own initiative.

Think how many more we can help, and how much more they then can return to society, just like you have.

[Th1onein]

21. Yes, think about the human potential we are just throwing away.

Our system beats everyone down, instead of trying to help those who are trying to help themselves.

[Ikonoklast]

26. How many struggling people can we turn into success stories?

Not one, if we just let them get beat into the dust without extending a helping hand.

I see every person in this country of having worth, of wanting to make a better life for themselves and their families, of wanting to be productive, of just wanting a fair chance in life but needing the rest of us to give them a leg up first.

We will fail as a nation if all we can do is pull the ladder up behind us, for we sink or swim together as a society.

This is why I pay taxes, to see that everyone that needs a helping hand can get one, not to see that millionaires and billionaires get to buy another palace in the south of France with their tax cut money.

[Th1onein]

29. I don't think that everyone is like that.

There ARE some deadbeats. But the thing is, if we don't treat everyone as if they were the people that you describe, we lose the ones who are like that.

It is the difference between being a liberal and being a conservative, I think--conservatives think the worst of mankind, and liberals expect the best.

[Ikonoklast]

31. Yes, there will always be those who game the system.

Like Mitt Romney.




I've always felt that the opportunities this nation offers should be made open to all, the path to a better llife should be made available to all those that seek one, but, after that is done, in the end it is always up to the individual what they make of it.

I've known more than a few people that many would call a 'lost cause', who only after many failed attempts finally got their life together and made a success of themselves, even if only a very modest success.

But they had a path to follow and *lots* of help along the way.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. That's really nice of you to do that.

[Th1onein]

19. Funny you would say that.

My partner's wife got really sick, about six years before she died of her ailment. He was urged by her doctors, and everyone who saw her, to put her into a nursing home. Instead, he took care of her in his own home; suctioning out her airways, changing her diapers, feeding her with a peg tube. She was completely bedridden, couldn't talk, or take care of herself in any way.

He gets really pissed when people say that it was good of him to do what he did. He doesn't feel that it was anything more than what anyone should have done for their loved one.

I feel the same way about what I do for him. He's not my husband, but he's my business partner. And it's the right thing to do. It has always appalled me that people think that, in business, whatever you CAN do, you should do it, if it benefits you. That's absolute and utter bullshit. Business and the manner in which you conduct it is just like everything else. It's not as if your moral code goes out the window the minute you start conducting business.

Companies used to operate with a moral code. Most don't anymore. I think that's a shame.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

20. My goal was always for the customer to say, "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

[Barack_America]

22. "Companies used to operate with a moral code."

It's because of pigs like Romney that few can afford to do so these days (or so they say). I think it's time for this country to decide what we stand for. Is it to bankrupt ourselves in the quest of materialistic crap or is it actually the pursuit of a "more perfect union"?

[Th1onein]

23. They can't afford not to operate with a moral code, when others do.

That old saying "the buck stops here" has never been so important. If you have a choice, as a consumer, to deal with a company that doesn't deal underhandedly, that treats you fairly, because they operate by a moral code, and the choice to deal with one that doesn't operate by this code, which one are you going to pick? Which one would you pick to work for? Which one would earn your loyalty.

Each one of us is responsible for how he/she/their company conducts business. The buck stops here, with each one of us. It's very hard to compete with someone when they operate fairly and you don't. In the long run, you lose. So, every time someone steps forward and says, "I'm going to do this the right way," it brings the wrong way companies down.

[foghat rules]

24. I don't believe in luck. I believe in the Universal Flow.

Your timing was right because YOU were right. Do you ever notice how when we do the right thing in different areas of our life (no matter what the external looks like), we have good "luck?" We happen to be in Alignment with the Divine Mind.

[Th1onein]

30. I've never heard it called that.

But I have been able to see it's effects in my life, at times.

[nightscanner59]

28. We do have more people starting to get lucky though, too, with jobs, with startups, and

William Jefferson Clinton sums it all up eloquently end of Jon Sterwart interview 9/20:
"That's what america needs, we need to get the show on the road here, and stop all this mindless and fact-free fighting"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251103908
In case you missed that interview: Here's the first part:

Haven't found the second part with above quote yet.

[Edweird]

33. Congratulations on your success.

[bluestate10]

37. Life is amazing. Many of us just get lucky.

My luck came when I was fourteen. I was a decent student, but not a world burner. Desperate to make some money, I walked to the employment office in my town and signed up for job opportunities. For several weeks nothing came up. One day I got a call from a man that lived in the upper-class part of my town. He needed someone to do yard work and saw my application where one of my skills was doing that type of work around home. I took the job, it paid minimum wage. The work was hard with long days. After watching me work for a few week and trying someone else, the home owner settled on me as the permanent helper. From that point, the man who was a honors graduate of one of the most prestigious universities in the country, became my mentor. I had never thought about what I wanted to become or how I would achieve my goals, my mentor challenged my thinking and threw out suggestions. Some of my days became life and choice lectures with me wanting to get back to the yard work. The mentoring worked, I became a focused student and finished near the top of my high school class. I went to college and became a scientist and eventually a technologist. I have done well financially and professionally, all because of a call out of the blue from a caring person.

[Th1onein]

38. How wonderful, Bluestate 10!

I hope that I can do that for someone someday. I help a lot of people, but sometimes, they just throw it down a black hole, and end up in the same position I found them in. It's disheartening, but I always think that maybe some of the people that I've helped in the past and have never seen again, are doing well, or at least a little bit better, because of what I did for them. And, there is nothing that will stop me, as long as I have the power, from continuing to help others climb up out of the darkness of poverty. At the very least, I can give someone some moments of peace, and a little easier time in life for a while.