Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to interview hundreds, perhaps thousands, of successful men and women.
I almost always ask the same question: What is it in your life that made the difference? What caused you to end up where you are now, rather than someplace else.
My favorite answer came from a very successful Madison businessman, who spent a few minutes extolling the virtues of hard work and can-do attitude and, then, asked “you do know that I married the owner’s daughter, don’t you?”
Most often, however, the answer I get is some variation of this: “Well, there was this teacher. . .”
There was this teacher who convinced me that mathematics could be fun. There was this teacher who took the time to help me repair my car. There was this teacher who dug into her own pocket when she observed that I couldn’t see the blackboard and bought me a pair of glasses.