Venita VanCaspel Harris*

Born on a farm in Sweetwater, Oklahoma, Venita VanCaspel Harris spent her childhood picking cotton and harvesting black-eyed peas, peanuts, and watermelons to help her family. She worked as a hairdresser in a five-and-dime store during high school, and at jobs that ranged from typing to domestic work to pay her way through the University of Colorado, from where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree in economics.

In the early 1960s, she became a financial planner and, in 1968, founded VanCaspel & Co., Inc., a stock brokerage firm, which she headed for 19 years. She was also the first woman member of the Pacific Stock Exchange. VanCaspel Harris also hosted seminars on financial planning and investing. She wrote six bestselling books about money management, including Money Dynamics for the 1990s.

In 1987, VanCaspel & Co. was acquired by Raymond James & Associates, Inc., and VanCaspel Harris retired from financial planning in 1995. VanCaspel Harris was an enthusiastic speaker during the Horatio Alger National Scholars Conference held each year in Washington, D.C. She advised young people to become as knowledgeable as possible in the field in which they are most interested. "There is no substitute for knowledge," she said. "Knowledge opens doors. It is irrelevant where you started in life. Under the American free-enterprise system, you can accomplish almost any goal you are truly committed to accomplishing. I believe that anything the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

Asked about her success, VanCaspel Harris said, "To me, success is developing all the potential of your God-given abilities and talents and then helping others to do the same. Every time I see a successful business, I know that someone once made a courageous decision. We are to seek success in everything we do, always acting with honor and treating others with respect. The difference between the successful person and the unsuccessful person is that the successful is willing to do what the unsuccessful is not willing to do. You can't sit around and say, '˜Life come to me.' You have to do whatever is necessary to produce the results you desire. You have to be well prepared."