科羅拉多州州長

????我的母親兩次喪偶，靠自己養大了四個孩子。她非常節約，什么針線活都自己做。她把用過的錫紙和保鮮膜洗干凈了放在冰箱門上，反復使用。她非常好勝，經常告訴我們：“你不能控制游戲或人生中發生什么，但你可以控制自己的反應——永遠不要放棄。”

????1986年我作為一名地質學家下崗了，這是上一次真正的大衰退，我失業了整整30個月。憑著一股不放棄的精神和節儉意識，我重新打起精神，準備開一家啤酒館。有好幾次，我們差一點就要放棄了，因為籌不到錢。而且非常諷刺的是，就連我自己的母親也不愿投資。她說：“誰愿意在一家啤酒館里吃飯？”我感覺我已經和每個可能的投資者談過話，我們已經被32家銀行拒絕，但她的回答使得我不得繼續去找銀行，不得不繼續去找朋友，下一個可能的投資者。最后我們的啤酒館開張了，1987年簽下了一份租約。當時的租金是每年每平方英尺1美元。除了水、電工程，裝修什么我們都自己來，1988年底開業了。為了降低成本，我們都是買的二手的飯店設備和桌椅，我們創造了自己的文化。首獲成功后，我們又在其他約15個地方開了啤酒館，在全美多個老城區。這樣的不放棄和節儉文化確實幫助建立了一個小小的王國。

John Hickenlooper

Governor of Colorado

????My mom was twice widowed and raised four kids by herself. She was relentlessly frugal and sewed everything herself. She would wash tinfoil and Saran Wrap and tape it to the refrigerator door so she could reuse it. She was very competitive, and frequently told us, "You can't always control what happens to you in a game or in life, but you can control how you respond -- you should never quit."

????After I got laid off as a geologist in 1986 -- the last really big recession -- I was out of work for almost 30 months. That combination of persistence and frugality really had a lot to do with picking myself back up and trying to start a brewpub. There were a couple of times when we just about quit because we couldn't raise the money, and, ironically, my own mother wouldn't invest. She'd say, "Who wants to have dinner in a brewpub?" I felt like I'd talked to every potential investor, and we'd been turned down by 32 banks, but her advice forced me to go to that one more bank. It forced me to go to that one friend of a friend, that next potential investor. We finally got open, signed a lease in 1987. Back then the rent was $1 per square foot per year. We did everything but the plumbing and electricity ourselves and got open in the end of 1988. By keeping our costs down -- we bought all used restaurant equipment and furniture -- we created a culture within our business. And that restaurant really took off, and we opened brewpubs in about 15 other places, in historic downtowns all over the country. That kind of combined culture of persistence and frugality really helped create a miniature empire.