His associates thought he was very foolish, and asked him what good it would do to learn to read and cipher.

He told them he was determined to improve his mind; so he studied whenever he could snatch a minute before the engine's fire, and in every possible situation until he had a good, practical, common-sense education.
Garibaldi's father decided that Guiseppe should be a minister, because the boy was so sorry for a cricket which lost its leg.

Samuel Morse's father concluded that his son would preach well because he could not keep his head above water in a dangerous attempt to catch bait in the Mystic River.

President Dwight told young Morse he would never make a painter, and hinted that he never would amount to much any way if he did not study more.

Although under the teaching of West and Allston in London, he became a tolerable portrait painter, he did not find his sphere until returning from England on a sailing vessel, he heard Professor Jackson explain an electrical experiment in Paris, when the thought of the telegraph flashed into his mind and he found no rest, until he flashed over the wire the first message, "What hath God wrought!" on the experimental line between Baltimore and Washington: this was May 24, 1844.
William H.Vanderbilt was by far the wealthiest man in the world.
Chauncey M.Depew estimated his fortune at two hundred millions.