Come up Big

<p class=ql-align-justify><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Born extremely prematurely and weighing just two pounds the doctor told my dear mother Elsa Don't even think you've had a child. Against those odds I survived-and overcame many odds along the way. </span></p><p class=ql-align-justify></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In school struggling with dyslexia I was in constant academic turmoil. Later I was asked to leave Hamilton College for academic reasons only to be drafted because of the war in Vietnam. </span></p><p class=ql-align-justify></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>I thrived in the Army and rose to the rank of First Lieutenant admired by my peers and decorated for combat action. Back home I tried to get into college once again but I was held back because of the unpopularity of the war but mostly due to my scores and grades and I only managed to get into one college-Harvard. In my life I applied to 18 colleges got into two and was kicked out of one. How ironic that I graduated cum laude from the other one. After Harvard I landed just one job and it was at the White House working for General Haig--it was 1973 and the Watergate scandal was breaking. </span></p><p class=ql-align-justify></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>I survived Watergate intact and kept slugging for the next 30 years. I actually became a CEO of a global executive search firm which rose up to number six in the world when I left. Along the way I had increasingly responsible jobs starting at American Express and I went on to work with some of the country's biggest companies.</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Parts of my story are hilarious some are very serious and some are inspiring to anyone who is still out there slugging. --Chuck Wardell</span></p><p></p>