Up From Slavery, by Booker T. Washington is a how-to book on resilience. There are few better examples of rags to riches and simple persistence. Maybe not rags to riches – maybe rags to dignity. Along the way, Washington teaches hard-work, humility, thrift, and equality. Booker T. Washington’s life is a life to be emulated.

One of my favorite quotes:

“At Hampton I not only learned that it was not a disgrace to labour, but learned to love labour, not alone for its financial value, but for labour’s own sake and for the independence and self-reliance which the ability to do something which the world wants done brings. At that institution I got my first taste of what it meant to live a life of unselfishness, my first knowledge of the fact that the happiest individuals are those who do the most to make others useful and happy.”

Buy this book.