Academy of Achievement Logo
Home
Achiever Gallery
Keys to Success
 Passion
 Vision
 Preparation
 Courage
 Perseverance
 Integrity
 + The American Dream
Achievement Podcasts
About the Academy
For Teachers

Search the site

Academy Careers

 
 
Key to success: Vision Key to success: Passion Key to success: Perseverance Key to success: Preparation Key to success: Courage Key to success: Integrity Key to success: The American Dream Keys to success homepage More quotes on Passion More quotes on Vision More quotes on Courage More quotes on Integrity More quotes on Preparation More quotes on Perseverance More quotes on The American Dream


Mike Krzyzewski, Collegiate Basketball Champion

[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime


Mike Krzyzewski

Collegiate Basketball Champion

Mike Krzyzewski: The person who has inspired me my whole life is my Mom, because she taught me commitment. She sacrificed. We weren't dirt poor, but we weren't real rich or anything. I would always have what I needed, and when I looked in her closet, she would have two dresses. She taught me to be outside of yourself, to get outside of yourself, and to be committed to somebody. That's the same thing that I try to teach.
View Interview with Mike Krzyzewski
View Biography of Mike Krzyzewski
View Profile of Mike Krzyzewski
View Photo Gallery of Mike Krzyzewski



Mike Krzyzewski, Collegiate Basketball Champion

[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime


Mike Krzyzewski

Collegiate Basketball Champion

Mike Krzyzewski: Both sets of grandparents were born in Poland. There was no way that they could have foreseen. No way my mother -- when I used to come back to Chicago in recruiting, I'd always stay with my mother. My Dad passed away when I was a senior at West Point. I'd come back, and we'd already been on TV, and she would just be sitting there late at night, and she'd say, "Mike, how is it you?" And she wasn't knocking me, it was just that our group of people weren't supposed to be able to do that. I would always tell her, I said, "Ma, because of you." I said, "You made me good enough, where I can do this. You made enough sacrifices to put me with people who would help train me to do this. It's because of you." And I hope that whatever I do, I can do that for my kids.
View Interview with Mike Krzyzewski
View Biography of Mike Krzyzewski
View Profile of Mike Krzyzewski
View Photo Gallery of Mike Krzyzewski



Charles Kuralt, A Life On the Road

[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime


Charles Kuralt

A Life On the Road

We did a story about a black family in the poorest part of Mississippi one time, the Chandlers. There were eight or nine children and the oldest of them decided he wanted to go to college, which had never happened in that family, I assure you. All his parents could do for him was hitch up the mule to the wagon -- they didn't own either the mule or the wagon -- and go into town and borrow two dollars for bus fare to send him off to college. From that beginning he became Dr. Cleveland Chandler, the head of the Department of Economics at Howard University. And, each of his younger brothers in sisters in turn went on to college, most of them to graduate degrees. There was a Baptist minister from Colorado and the head nutritionist of a veteran's hospital in Kansas City, people of accomplishment in every case. And, one of them wrote me a letter and said, "You really ought to come see us because we are something." Their parents' 50th anniversary was coming up, it happened also to be Thanksgiving Day. From all over America, all the children came back to the new house they had built to replace the shack they had grown up in. And, looking back on those days of picking cotton all summer to afford to go back to school, helping the younger brothers and sisters accomplish what they had accomplished and looking back on the humblest beginnings that any family could ever have, all we did all afternoon was cry.
View Interview with Charles Kuralt
View Biography of Charles Kuralt
View Profile of Charles Kuralt
View Photo Gallery of Charles Kuralt



Charles Kuralt, A Life On the Road

[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime


Charles Kuralt

A Life On the Road

Mr. Chandler couldn't get through the blessing at the Thanksgiving dinner. I looked over at Izzy Bleckman, the camera man I worked with all these years and he was not able to look through the viewfinder of the camera and I was weeping too, everybody was. And, what were we weeping about? The American Dream, this notion that, if you really want to in a country like this, you can start from nothing and make a success of yourself. Maybe not a rich man or a rich woman, but a success. The kind of success that you look into your own heart and find is there. That is not possible in most countries of the world to this day, but it still is possible here. That's something very precious. I've kept up with the Chandlers. One of the grandchildren played violin in Carnegie Hall last year. It goes in circles. The dream doesn't stop. It makes me cry to think about it.
View Interview with Charles Kuralt
View Biography of Charles Kuralt
View Profile of Charles Kuralt
View Photo Gallery of Charles Kuralt



Leon Lederman, Nobel Prize in Physics

[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime


Leon Lederman

Nobel Prize in Physics

Leon Lederman: Our system for educating kids over the last 20 years has declined dangerously. Our kids are not learning, and they're certainly not learning math and science. The net result is: the number of kids who are going into math and science is declining. If not for foreigners, we'd be in bad shape in this country, you know, in the training of engineers, mathematicians, scientists, technicians.
View Interview with Leon Lederman
View Biography of Leon Lederman
View Profile of Leon Lederman
View Photo Gallery of Leon Lederman



Leon Lederman, Nobel Prize in Physics

[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime


Leon Lederman

Nobel Prize in Physics

Leon Lederman: We're not going to have a good time in this country in manning the kind of work force we need, which is much more technological than ever, if we don't attract people that have never gone into science, traditionally. And, those are minorities, women, handicapped. These are untapped sources of people which we need. We have to desperately, do this.
View Interview with Leon Lederman
View Biography of Leon Lederman
View Profile of Leon Lederman
View Photo Gallery of Leon Lederman



Browse The American Dream quotes by achiever last name

Previous Page

          

Next Page