My Path to Success

Frank Perdue (May 9, 1920 - March 31, 2005) was for many years the Chairman and CEO of Perdue Farms, a poultry empire with nearly $3 billion in annual sales and 19,000 employees. His father, Arthur Perdue, started the family chicken business in 1920 on the Delmarva Peninsula in rural Maryland. Frank Perdue was involved in the chicken business from an early age, helping his parents feed the chickens and clean the coops. After attending Salisbury State College for two years, he returned to the farm to work with his father. When he became president of Perdue Farms in 1952, it was still a small operation, with revenues of $6 million a year. In the 1970s, Frank Perdue started an advertising campaign that would make him famous. He appeared in 200 different television commercials from 1971 to 1994. It helped that he looked like a chicken. "It takes a tough man to raise a tender chicken," he said in his most familiar line. It made him believable, a hard-nosed yet likeable American businessman who knew what he was talking about, and who knew how to be tender and how to be tough. The television ads transformed Perdue into the first nationally recognized brand of chicken. He revolutionized the poultry industry and created one of the largest privately held corporations in America. Frank Perdue participated in the 1983 Achievement Summit in Coronado, California, and spoke to the student delegates about his career as an entrepreneur.

Erma Bombeck was an American humorist who achieved great popularity for her newspaper column that described suburban home life from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. Bombeck also published 15 books, most of which became best-sellers.

From 1965 to 1996, Erma Bombeck wrote over 4,000 newspaper columns chronicling the ordinary life of a midwestern suburban housewife with broad, and sometimes eloquent humor. By the 1970s, her columns were read, twice weekly, by thirty million readers of the 900 newspapers of the U.S. and Canada.

podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 1983 Summit, in Coronado, California, Erma Bombeck discusses her life as a writer with the Academy's student delegates.

Chuck Yeager made history in 1947 as the first pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound. But even before he broke the sound barrier, Yeager's exploits had made him a legend among his fellow flyers. Shot down over occupied France during World War II, the wounded flyer successfully evaded capture and crossed the Pyrenees into neutral Spain, before returning to his squadron in England. Returning to the skies, he shot down five German planes in a single day, an extraordinary achievement in aerial warfare. After the war, Yeager broke speed records again and again, testing new planes for the Air Force. In 1947 he broke the sound barrier in the rocket-powered X-1 research plane. He served in both Korea and Vietnam, and helped train the first generation of U.S. astronauts. Along the way, he survived an incredible series of harrowing accidents and rose to the rank of General in the U.S. Air Force. The bestselling book and hit movie The Right Stuff, and his own best-selling autobiography, Yeager, brought him international fame, but his courage and resourcefulness had already assured his place in the history of aviation. In this address to the Academy of Achievement, recorded at the Academy's 1983 gathering in Coronado, California, General Yeager recalls how he joined the Army Air Force straight out of high school in West Virginia. He recalls his experiences as a test pilot, discusses continuing advances in aviation technology, and shares with the Academy's student delegates the sustaining life lessons he learned in air combat.

The legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys football team, Tom Landry (1924-2000) led the Cowboys to two Super Bowl victories. A native Texan, he was an All-Regional fullback in high school. During World War II, he flew 30 B-17 missions over Germany. After the war, he returned to Texas, and co-captained the University of Texas football team, earning All-Southwest Conference honors. He was an All-Pro with the New York Giants before becoming the team's defensive coach. He became the first head coach of the newly formed Dallas Cowboys in 1960, surviving one disastrous winless season before leading the team through 12 consecutive winning seasons. Over 29 seasons with the Cowboys, he earned the awe of his peers for his intricately calibrated strategy on the gridiron, revolutionizing the game in the years when football ascended to its peak of national popularity. Tom Landry was at the height of his success when he spoke to the Academy of Achievement, discussing his early career and the role of religious faith in his life.

Wayne Gretzky was hailed as the best player in the history of the National Hockey League and was acclaimed by legions of sportswriters, other players, and the NHL itself as "the greatest hockey player who ever lived." Sports fans affectionately dubbed him "The Great One" and "The Great Gretzky." Upon his retirement on April 18, 1999, he held forty regular season scoring records, fifteen playoff records, and six All-Star records. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in a season - a feat he accomplished four times. All the teams in the National Hockey League have retired Gretzky's jersey number, 99. Raised in Ontario, Canada, he honed his skills at a backyard rink and played minor hockey at a level far above his peers. His father, Walter Gretzky, taught his son Wayne, during hockey drills and gave him the advice "skate to where the puck's going, not where it's been." Wayne was a classic sports prodigy with extraordinary skills. Despite his unimpressive stature, strength, and speed, Gretzky's intelligence and reading of the game were unrivaled. He was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player eight years in a row. After his retirement, he was immediately inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. During the 1981-82 season, he broke the record for scoring in one season, with 92 goals and 202 points in 80 games. Sports Illustrated named him 1982 "Sportsman of the Year." And, that same year, the 21-year-old legendary "Boy Wonder" of the Edmonton Oilers hockey team also participated in the 1982 Achievement Summit in New Orleans, Louisiana, and spoke to the student delegates about his life and his rapid rise to professional sports superstardom.