The American Dream

I Love Capitalism: An American Story – Ken Langone (Portfolio Books)

Be perfectly clear up front, if you are a socialist pinhead who thinks you deserve a $15 minimum wage or worse a guaranteed income and government funded (meaning your hard working neighbor funded) health care; YOU WILL ABSOLUTELY HATE THIS BOOK. And that is why you are a pinhead.

I love, I Love Capitalism: An American Story, by Ken Langone, a longtime Wall Street investment guy, who helped raise the capital to found Home Depot, simply because the title says it all; this is an American story! The son of a plumber and a school cafeteria worker, Langone didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he did grow up with something you can’t teach; drive, determination and a work ethic that pushed him to rise above while other lagged behind.

This guy is all about the hustle and his stories about pulling himself up by the boot straps is the stuff of legends. I live in Central Pennsylvania and loved his stories about attending nearby Bucknell University and some of the things he did, hustling to make money. Some will whine about Langone being a braggart, but he has earned the right to toot his own horn because no one handed him anything, he mastered the grind and won.

While there are certainly no guarantees (income or otherwise), to me this is a great book to inspire your kids to be BOLD, to aggressively take chances and quite frankly to work hard to get what they want and achieve big things. At the end of the day isn’t that what makes the American story great? If you’re waiting around hoping that someone will hand you success, you will end up angry and empty handed.