Talent Unleashed Ii: Powerful Stories of Men and Women Whose Faith, Perseverance, Determination, Drive, Optimism and Ingenuity Triumphed over All Obstacles.

By Ralph J. Carlson

Mr. Carlson is a radio broadcaster by profession. He has owned and operated ten radio stations in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. He has completed thirty-seven marathons including those in New York, Boston, and Pikes Peak, plus numerous 5 and 10K races. He has completed the 42-mile Grand Canyon Double Cross endurance race a rigorous course traveling from the South Rim to the North Rim, then back. In 2001, at age 71, Mr. Carlson scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest peak on the African continent (19,340 feet).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499048940

Ralph J. Carlson

Ralph J. Carlson believes in physical fitness, optimism, and that most of the greatest discoveries and inventions were accomplished despite overwhelming odds. Because of faith, creativity, endurance, vision, daring, and persistence, many people have reached their goals. Along the way these people practiced the parable of talents as found in Matthew, Ch. 25:14-29 of the Bible. This is the basis of this book. The stories of these and many other outstanding people comprise “Talent Unleashed.” May this book inspire you to discover within yourself your own talents and to use them to their fullest.

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Copyright © 2014 by Ralph J. Carlson.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014913338

ISBN:                  Hardcover                       978-1-4990-4893-3

                             Softcover                        978-1-4990-4895-7

                             eBook                             978-1-4990-4894-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 11/21/2014

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CONTENTS

Foreward

Hallmark Innovator

Joyce C. Hall

Steadfastness

Charles Goodyear

Candy Entrepreneur

Milton Hershey

Trailblazer

L.L. Bean/Leon-Leon Wood LL Bean

Patriot

Joe Foss

Soda Pop Entrepreneur

Charles Hires

Determination

Ella Fitzgerald

Dreamer

Miguel de Cervantes

Boldness

Sitting Bull/Lakota Sioux Warrior

Perseverance/Song Writer

Johnny Marks

Game Maker

George Parker

Sony-Walkman Creator

Akio Morita

Motel Innovator

Kemmons Wilson

Scientist

Archimedes

Leadership

Konosuke Matsushita

Entrepreneur

Ray Kroc

Hotels/Determination

Conrad Hilton

Entrepreneur/Honesty

J.C. Penney

Persistent/Industrialist

Henry J. Kaiser

Dedication/Humanitarian

Albert Schweitzer

Composer

Gustav Mahler

Ingenuity

Adolphe Sax

Physicist/Scientist

Lise Meitner

Creativity

Charles Hardin Buddy Holly

Innovator/Diapers

Marion O’Brien

Educator/Musician

Shinichi Suzuki

Founding Father/Commitment

Thomas Jefferson

Automobile Pioneer

Soichiro Honda

Iditarod Champ/Self-Reliance

Susan Butcher

Singing Cowboy/Rags to Riches

Gene Autry

Doolittle Raider/Hero

Chase J. Nielsen

Preacher for Quality

W. Edwards Deming

Manufacturer

Edwin Shoemaker

The Great Communicator

Ronald Reagan

Congressman/Frontiersman

David (Davy) Crockett

Brand Icon

Levi Strauss

Basketball’s Greatest Scorer

Pistol Pete Maravich

Dedication

Anne Sullivan Macy

Founder of Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream

Reuben Mattus

Visionary/Father of Science Fiction

Jules Verne

Father of U.S. Public Education

Horace Mann

Marketer of Coca-Cola

Asa Griggs Candler

Composer/Conductor

Johann Strauss, Jr.

Explorer/Missionary

David Livingstone

Explorer/Reporter

Henry Stanley

Purist/Discoverer

Enrico Fermi

Soldier’s General

General Matthew Ridgeway

First & Largest Department Store Owner

R.H. Macy

Car Creator (Morris Minor & Mini)

Alexander (Alec) Issigonis

Abolitionist

Fredrick Douglass

Pilot/Hero

Jimmy Doolittle

Advertising Genius

David Ogilvy

Poet/Writer

Carl Sandburg

Illustrator

Thomas Nast

Insurance/Mogul

Clement Stone

Inventor/Cultured Pearls

Kokichi Mikimoto

Football Coach

George Halas

Movie Director

Cecil B. DeMille

U.S. President

Andrew Jackson

Inventor/Xerox

Chester Carlson

Inventor/Snowmobile

Joseph-Armand Bombardier

Champion/Baseball Pitcher

Bob Gibson

Chemist and Bacteriologist

Louis Pasteur

Auto Manufacturer

Walter Percy Chrysler

Pollster

George Gallup

British Prime Minister

William Gladstone

Inventor/Band-Aid

Earle Ensign Dickson

Greatest Jockey

Bill (Billie) Shoemaker

Baby Food Makers

Daniel and Dorothy Gerber

Self-Help Guru

James Allen

Book Publisher

Thomas Nelson

Saint

Joan of Arc

First Black General

Benjamin O. Davis Jr.

Canon/Founder

Takeshi Mitarai

Opera/Soprano

Beverly Sills

Soldier/Explorer

William Clark

Billiard Champion

Willie Mosconi

First Accredited Woman Physician

Elizabeth Blackwell

Founder/International Red Cross

Jean Henri Dunant

World War II Hero

Audie Murphy

Deaf Baseball Player

William Ellsworth Hoy

Painter

Norman Rockwell

Father of Modern Music

Claude Debussy

Pioneer in Seeds

Washington Atlee Burpee

Compiler/Reader’s Digest

DeWitt Wallace

Freedom Train Conductor

Harriet Tubman

Composer

George Gershwin

Entrepreneur/Sports Apparel

Benjamin Russell

Dedication/Determination/Peace

Golda Meir

Entrepreneur/Potato Chips

Herman Lay

Pilot/Founder — WASP Program

Jacqueline Cochran

Assembler/First Automobile

Karl Benz

Determination/First Successful Mt. Everest Climber

Tenzing Norgay

Physicist/X-ray Inventor

Wilhelm C. Roentgen

Founding Father/American Revolution

Thomas Paine

Inventor/Scrabble

Alfred Butts

Father of Flight/Pan American Airlines

Juan Trippe

Entrepreneur/Disposable Razor

King Gillette

Hotel Magnate

John Willard Marriott

Originator/UPS

James Casey

United States/1⁶th President

Abraham Lincoln

(Postscript)

Dedicated to my parents

who taught me how to work.

FOREWARD

A ctive in community affairs, Mr. Carlson has helped raise thousands of dollars for the March of Dimes, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Multiple Sclerosis, and numerous other charitable organizations. He personally built four National Exchange Service C lubs.

Mr. Carlson is a veteran of the Korean War (1951-53), and a graduate of the Alexander Hamilton Institute of Business Administration (1965). He was awarded Scouting’s Silver Beaver award in 1968, and the Dick Seddon award from the Horatio Alger Society in 2000. In 2002, Mr. Carlson was installed in the Utah Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.

In 2003 he was awarded the Silver Medal from the American Advertising Federation. Mr. Carlson was also inducted into the Nevada Broadcast Hall of Fame in 2011. Mr. Carlson resides in Taylorsville, Utah and is the father of six children.

Whether your achievements seem humble, such as writing a poem, painting a picture, or repairing a motor, or grandiose, such as the discovery of a cure for Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s, or writing the next best-selling novel, only you know what you might accomplish.

Hallmark Innovator

Joyce C. Hall

W hen Joyce C. Hall (1895-1982) was 7 years old, his father deserted the family. At the age of 8, he landed a job as a cook and nurse’s helper. By 9, he was selling perfume. At 14, he quit school to join his older brother in a bookstore they bought in Norfolk, Nebr aska.

In 1905, he started a wholesale postcard business, but later realized that the future was not in postcards. Later, he moved to Kansas City, MO where he later opened a bookstore and card shop. The cards were for birthdays, graduations, friendship, and sympathy.

Along with his brothers, they organized Hall Bros. A fire in 1915 destroyed all of their stock. The fire put them $17,000 in the red. The next day they contacted their supplier of cards and duplicated their previous order in time for Valentine’s Day.

Hall sought out the best artists using leading artists such as Walt Disney, Charles Schultz, Norman Rockwell, and Grandma Moses. He also used art from Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Monet, and Van Gogh. The cards had to be perfectly worded.

He used classic quotes from Shakespeare, Dickinson, and Emerson to strike the right thoughts with senders and those who would receive them.

Hall promoted his business theme, Hallmark Hall of Fame first on radio and later on television in 1951. With its family oriented shows, the program won 80 Emmy Awards. To guard against complacency, Hall would visit retail stores frequently making notes on 3 x 5 cards. Most cards were displayed poorly in drawers or flat on shipping boxes. Hiring an architectural designer in 1935, he produced the eye vision display with slanted shelves that is the standard today. With it, sales of Hallmark cards soared.

Hall’s business philosophy: "If a person goes into business only to make a lot of money, chances are they won’t. But if they put service and quality first, the money will take care of itself.

In 1954 the company was renamed Hallmark Cards, Inc. employing thousands and generating $4.2 billion in sales by 2002. Today, you would be hard pressed not to know their theme, Hallmark – when you care enough to send the very best.

Steadfastness

Charles Goodyear

C harles Goodyear (1800-60) believed that his ideas would change the world. To achieve his ideas, he would endure bankruptcy, failure, legal battles, and time in jail for bad debts and greed to live on cha rity.

Goodyear was a student of the Bible. From his readings, when filled with hardships, the only choice was to keep going. In 1830 he and his father started a hardware business, but it went under and out of business.

Not one to stop at failure, he started tinkering with small inventions and decided to devote himself full time to inventing. By 1834 he’d come up with a new valve designed for rubber vests. Unfortunately, his life vests melted into a smelly glob in hot weather and became hard and cracked in cold weather.

Goodyear vowed to solve the problem, but was thrown in jail for his remaining debt. Refusing to give up, he had his wife bring him rain rubber to experiment with while in jail and he spent hours molding and kneading the sticky gum. Once out of jail, he surmised that using a dry magnesium powder would make the gum more stable and hold its shape in the heat.

Goodyear, along with his wife and children, mixed up batches of rubber in the family kitchen making rubber overshoes. For five years he kept at it adding quicklime and nitric acid. With no income, he moved into an abandoned rubber factory in Staten Island, New York. They lived off of fish caught in the harbor. Later they moved to Woburn, Massachusetts where neighbors gave them milk and let them forage for half-grown potatoes. Family and friends thought him insane.

In 1839 Goodyear accidentally dropped his mixture on a hot stove and discovered that it hardened. It was dry, spongy, waterproof and airtight. Experimenting further, he boiled, fried, steamed, baked, pressurized and broiled the mixture to determine the exact temperature. During this time, food ran out and he had to pawn his watch and furniture. His infant son died.

Goodyear observed that pressurized steam at 270 degrees Fahrenheit for up to six hours yielded the best rubber. He patented the process and licensed it. Goodyear envisioned its use for life rafts, food packaging, tires, springs, and bumpers. He wore hats and ties made of rubber. His business cards were printed on rubber. He built pavilions completely of rubber for the London and Paris World Fairs in 1856.

Industries clamored for rubber products. France awarded him the Legion of Honor Cross. But Goodyear never became wealthy. In London, a competitor, Thomas Hancock figured out the formula and patented it before Goodyear. He dubbed it vulcanization after the Fire God Vulcan. Later he offered to split his royalties with Goodyear, who refused. Piracy of his process ran rampant. Legal expenses sapped any profits.

Still, Goodyear said, Life should not be estimated exclusively by the standard of dollars and cents. I am not disposed to complain that I have planted and others have gathered the fruits. A man has cause for regret only when he sows and no one reaps.

In 1860 he died in debt more than $200,000. His last words to his wife were that he bore no ill will towards those who stole from him. Forty years later, Goodyear Tire and Rubber opened its doors paying homage to Charles as the man who had solved the great mysteries of rubber.

Candy Entrepreneur

Milton Hershey

M ilton Hershey (1857-1945) was born in Derry Church, Pennsylvania. Being born into a poor family, he was forced to drop out of school after the fourth grade and go to work as a printer’s he lper.

Before Hershey was to succeed, he failed several times. His first two candy businesses went belly up.

In 1886 he started Lancaster Caramel Company and vowed not to repeat past mistakes. While working for a candy maker in Denver, he discovered that using milk made for a better quality caramel. A businessman liked his caramel so much that he promised a large order. This provided more money to finance the expansion.

He persuaded an aunt to put her house up as collateral to serve a 90-day bank loan. When the loan came due, Hershey hadn’t filled his orders or received any money. He took his banker down to his store so he could see what the money was being used for. Hershey then asked the banker for an extension and another thousand dollars to fill his orders. Impressed with Hershey’s drive and sincerity, he went against bank policy and took the risk to lend him the money. Less than 10 days before the note was due, he was paid—whereupon he rushed to the bank to retire his loan.

In 1893 he visited the World’s Columbia Exposition in Chicago and discovered a German chocolate-making machine. He bought the entire display. In 1894 he started the Hershey Chocolate Company. In the next six years he added more than 100 chocolate related products.

Hershey envisioned a utopian community, built around this manufacturing plant making milk chocolate, where employees could live. To do this, he sold Lancaster Caramel for 1 million dollars, keeping Hershey Chocolate. He purchased property in Derry Township, PA and followed his dream. Through trial and error, he experimented with milk chocolate until the mixture tasted just right.

By 1905, Hershey opened his state-of-the-art factory producing 5-cent Hershey milk chocolate bars. For the greatest exposure, he decided to sell them at bus stops, newsstands, coffee shops, and wherever there was the greatest number of people. He became the first candy maker to seek national distribution. He was the first to make milk chocolate in America.

The community he built officially came to be called Hershey in 1906. He wanted a place where employees would be comfortable. Happy workers, he reasoned, meant better production. With attractive houses, green lawns, tree-lined streets and parks, Hershey did much to raise the standard of living for thousands of employees. Insurance and retirement plans were generous.

In 1909 Hershey founded the Milton Hershey Industrial School for Orphaned Boys. Graduates were given $100, new clothes, and help in finding a job. College scholarships were given. Today it serves 1,000 poor children, K-12. His motto: We turned out the best chocolate we could make…and the business just grew by itself. Today, Hershey is the leading maker of chocolate and chocolate-related products.

Trailblazer

L.L. Bean/Leon-Leon Wood LL Bean

L eon Leon Wood LL Bean (1872-1967) was an orphan by age 12. To survive, he learned to sell soap going door-to-door. Before pitching his wares, he would engage people in conversation. Later he went to work in his brother’s dry goods s tore.

His love of the outdoors led him to be an avid hunter and fisherman in his native Maine. In 1911 he set out to find a way to keep his feet dry while walking through the wilderness.

Combining rubber galoshes with leather boots resulted in the Bean Boot. Through trial and error with galoshes, the foot would slide causing blisters. Taking a pair of shoe rubbers to a local shoemaker, he had a pair of tops cut out. Then he had the cobbler stitch them together.

He thought that other outdoorsmen might appreciate them as well, so he started a mail order business. Borrowing money from family and friends, Bean produced 100 pairs and sold them all. He guaranteed his boots and 90 pairs were returned because the rubber was too soft. To correct the problem, he went to U.S. Rubber Company and asked them to design a specially made rubber bottom.

Borrowing more money, he targeted hunters and fishermen by copying down the names of license holders in Maine’s Fish and