Living In America Still Inspired By Those Living The American Dream

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers Living in America: Still Inspired by Those Living the American Dream I always enjoyed James Brown singing Living in America. The republicans played that song during their convention and now I can’t get it out of my head. As Americans in an election year, we may argue over many things, but we share a love of inspiring life stories. We love the real life heroes who started with little other than believing the American dream and through hard work and persistence in the face of adversity became a living example for the rest of us to emulate. I have spent my entire life reading stories about Americans living the American dream. In my early days it was mostly baseball players. I remember reading biographies of Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson,  Roy Campanella. Then it was American Presidents. Later I began reading lawyer biographies. I found these many stories inspiring. Last week I flipped channels between the Republican Convention and the US Open. As always, I was not watching for the political theater. Instead, I watched to hear the personal stories. I enjoyed hearing Marco Rubio describe how his dad stood behind the bar in the back of many banquet rooms so that his son could stand behind the podium in the front of the room. My favorite personal stories were these: I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.