...Growing Pains by Robert D. Nicoson “I’m challenged and motivated where I am, and I like the company. You know that. But I’ve got to say I’m interested in the opportunity you’re describing because of the money and the equity position. For those reasons alone, it’s tough to pass by. Let me think about it some more and call you in the morning. Thanks, Les.” That was the extent of the conversation Cyrus Maher, CEO of Waterway Industries, overheard when he came around the corner just outside of Lee Carter’s office. She must have been talking with Les Finch, Maher thought. Here’s trouble. Of course, it didn’t necessarily mean any- thing, Maher told himself as he passed the of- fice, waving to Carter. Finch, a well-connected marketing consultant, had been the match- maker between Carter and Waterway Indus- tries to begin with. With the company in the fourth quarter of its best year ever, he certainly wouldn’t be encouraging her to leave. Would he? Maher got a cup of coffee in the company’s first floor kitchenette and deliberately took the long way back to his office, through the design room. As always, the atmosphere was upbeat, but these days he also thought he could detect a sense of purpose that had never before been a part of Waterway’s organization. Founded in 1963 in Lake Placid, New York, Waterway had started out as a small, high- quality canoe maker. Over the years, it had built a good reputation all through the North- east and had acquired a base of customers in the...
Words: 8434 - Pages: 34
...Growing Pains at Groupon As an undergraduate music major at Northwestern University, Andrew Mason eagerly sought a version of rock music that would fuse punk with the Beatles and Cat Stevens. Little did he imagine that within ten years he would be the CEO of one of history’s fastest growing businesses. After Northwestern and faded dreams of rock stardom, Mason, a self-taught computer programmer, was hired to write code by the Chicago firm InnerWorkings. InnerWorkings was founded in 2001 by Eric Lefkofsky who had built several businesses around call centers and the Internet. In 2006, Lefkofsky became interested in an idea of Mason’s for a website that would act as a social media platform to bring people together with a common interest in some problem—most often some sort of social cause. Lefkofsky provided Mason with $1 million of capital to develop the concept that became known as “The Point.” Virtually no one associated with The Point initially envisioned commercial aspirations for the venture. In the fall of 2008, at the height of financial crisis, ventures with little or no commercial aspirations were in jeopardy. Lefkofsky and Mason faced a decision on how to proceed with The Point. Lefkofsky seized on an idea proposed by a group of users on The Point. This group attempted to identify a number of people who wanted to buy the same product, and then approach a seller for a group discount. Mason had originally mentioned group-buying as one application of The Point, and...
Words: 4394 - Pages: 18
...All That I Am by Josh Giles on Monday, March 12, 2012 at 2:28pm The future is bright. There is a plan for me, I know it. However, lately I have gone through the low country. It's eating me away, I said to God. It's rotting in my mind, it's like a cancer. Is there anything at all to numb the nothingness? I need a reason to breathe, it's eating me away. It nibbles at my brain, the question of my existence and this matter of pain. I shake my fist at the cosmos and my insignificance. I need a reason to breathe and it's eating me away. Save me from my rage and my humanity. I'm more nothing than being, is this my legacy? I feel it eating me away. All that I am, all that I want, all that I lack, PLEASE, come on and save me. My pal Edric Prim texted me a quote the other day that I’m trying to remind myself of, from Joel Osteen. It was, “don’t let your setbacks become your identity”. Amen to that. I don’t need to stay here in this state of mind. Nibbling at my brain, I truly think too much and I drive myself crazy. The problem is if I knew exactly how to make my brain stop eating itself away, I would do it. All that I am should be enough to overcome any insecurities that I may have. I’ve never felt like this before. My life has pretty much always been an open book so, here it is. There was a lot of pressure and things happening at once at the beginning of February and then they came crashing down when the one thing I thought I had to hold on to was gone. I never really had any...
Words: 2410 - Pages: 10
...Betty Waltermire Crime and Criminology JUS110 December 13, 2013 Rebellion, Growing Pains or Juvenile Delinquents Thinking back to the time of Classic Rock and Roll, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Dirty Dancing, and a faraway land called Viet Nam. Viet Nam affected families; fathers, brothers, children were dying and the age of the innocence was lost forever. Juveniles began a culture of their own, smoking, drinking alcohol, using drugs to attain a mental or in some cases a physical high to ease their pain of loss. This behavior began as a way of coping with their pain, when they realized this made them feel good, they wanted to continue this feeling. During the 1960’s it was a time of rebellion, with music, dancing, the hippie movement, free love, flower power, and the introduction to drugs to get high such as marijuana, glue sniffing, LSD and alcohol. Most of the youth at that time was into smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and some did smoke marijuana. This was the leap from child to adult behavior or some would call juvenile delinquency. Each time a beer touched the lips it was breaking the law and leading to more risky behaviors. By the time the junior year 1968-1969 rolled around, it was drinking most every night and stayed sober on game day or night until after the games. Then win or lose it was party time. There was very seldom a day that there was no one partying. After school and the weekends we...
Words: 646 - Pages: 3
...Post-Civil War Growing Pains Brooke Price HIS 105 April 25, 2013 There are many turning points during the time period 1865-1900. However, there are a few the stick out more than others. Events that affect us still today in our current society. For example, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Things that we don’t really think about in our day to day life; but maybe we should be. The 13th amendment was passed by Congress January 31st, 1865 and ratified by the sates on December 6th, 1865. This amendment formally abolished slavery in the United States of America and all of its controlling lands. The 14th amendment was ratified July 9th, 1868. This amendment granted all people who were born or naturalized citizens the right life, liberty, and property and forbidden states to deny anyone these rights. Then the 15th amendment which was ratified on February 3rd, 1870 but was not fully realized until about a century later. This amendment stated that no citizen’s right to vote should be denied due to race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Furthermore, The Jim Crow laws where one of many reason the 15th amendment was not fully realized until about a century later. Jim Crow who was a Democrat to the fullest was very anti-black. In a sense he created segregation by starting what we called the Jim Crow Laws. These laws allowed states to skirt the 15th amendment and discriminate those who were not white. These laws made black separate...
Words: 800 - Pages: 4
...Running head: AMERICA’S POST-CIVIL WAR GROWING 1 America’s Post-Civil War Growing Pains Zarick L. Robinson Professor Peacock Contemporary U.S. History – Assignment #1 Strayer University July 18, 2013 AMERICA’S POST-CIVIL WAR GROWING PAINS 2 The United States experienced many growing pains during the time period of 1865 to 1900 but I’d like to focus on two major historical points that impacted my family and certain Asian friends. African-Americans were not the only ones to experience prejudice as I brought out above, however, they were the main ones targeted when it comes to slavery. Slavery and prejudice was rampant during this time period. An old family friend Jonathan, a Chinese-American, was a victim of racial prejudice as a child. As he grew up, he searched for a place where people would not prejudge him based on his facial features or racial background. He became a medical doctor in a town in northern Alaska, where his appearance was similar to that of many of his patients. He hoped that perhaps there, amid the cold winds of the Arctic Circle, he had finally escaped the even colder winds of prejudice that he experienced in California. Any such hope was shattered when he provided medical assistance to a young woman. As the patient came out of a coma, she looked at Jonathan’s face and uttered a taunt with an expletive, revealing her deep-seated...
Words: 2118 - Pages: 9
...How would life be different if the South had won the civil war? The differences would be astounding. The North winning the Civil War was the beginning of many turning points for the United States of America. During the next 35 years, the period from Reconstruction through widespread industrialization in the Western United States, there were many major historical turning points that have made our lives what they are today. These turning points represented the difference between life and death for some and changed the quality of life for all people in the United States. The end of the war and the passing of The Thirteenth Amendment marked the beginning of many major turning points in US history and especially so for the Southern states. The Thirteenth Amendment was passed on January 31, 1865, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude, and granting Congress the power to enforce this new law. The Thirteenth Amendment brought about rebellion from many of the Southern states. In attempt to regain what they had lost, southern states passed legislation often referred to as “Black Codes”; these laws restricted the rights of blacks in attempt to limit the civil liberties afforded to newly freed slaves and ensure social inequality between whites and blacks. These laws stayed just enough under the line as to be legal while still keeping blacks in a position where they were unable to become self-sufficient thus forcing them into a state of voluntary servitude. The Thirteenth Amendment...
Words: 1436 - Pages: 6
...merica's Post Civil War America’s Post Civil War Growing Pains HIS 105 – Contemporary U.S. History January 30, 2013 “America’s post civil war growing pains” In 1619, African-Americans were forced into slavery and roughly 244 years later, in 1863, as the nation approached its third year of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that all persons held as slaves were to be freed (U.S. National Archives & Record Administration, 2013). Despite the vague verbiage of the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln, the proclamation was repressed in many ways and did not end slavery as implied, or intended (Freeman, J., 2011). In January of 1865, began the downfall of the Confederacy. In the U.S., post Civil War, Reconstruction began abolishing slavery (Freeman, J., 2011). The Union victory at War promised a new future for the South's 4,000,000 freed African-American men, women and children, who were once slaves (Freeman, J., 2011). After the Civil War ended in May 1865, freedom was to put forth new opportunities for the newly freed African-American slaves (Azpiroz, X., 2012). The year following the Civil War, congress passed the Civil Rights act of 1866 (Azpiroz, X., 2012). The civil Rights Act of 1866 declared that all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every...
Words: 1305 - Pages: 6
...America’s Post-Civil War Growing Pains By Jason Strawbridge Irina Popova-Nowak Comtemp U.S. History 4/22/2012 America suffered growing pains after the Civil War. In my humble opinion, two events were crucial to the growth of the nation. Reconstruction, sometimes known as America’s unfinished Revolution, and the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution, which stated that “The rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the US or any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. These events catapulted the nation to incredible growth and painful adjustments for the population. Reconstruction was then and is today an on-going project. During the post-civil war times, it was a struggle to unite a divided country and today it is a struggle for those black Americans that still blame their current conditions on the slavery that was forced on their culture so many, many years ago. The 15th Amendment, when passed in 1896, gave the freed men a reason and incentive to fight and get involved in government. Sadly, this great Amendment lay dormant for many years until the 1960s, when another attempt at aligning American sentimentality with the constitution, through the Civil Rights movement. Economically speaking, Reconstruction remains relevant in today’s economy because the issues central to it, the role of the Federal government in protecting citizen’s rights, and the possibility of economic and racial justice...
Words: 834 - Pages: 4
...America's Post-Civil War Growing Pains Stacey Planz Strayer University Contemporary U.S. History HIS 105 Professor Regan Smith January 27, 2013 America's Post-Civil War Growing Pains This paper will address the period from Reconstruction through widespread industrialization in the Western United States during the time period of 1865 – 1900. 1. Identify at least (2) two major historical turning points in the period under discussion. The year 1865 began an era of presidential reconstruction. Upon Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson became president. During this time he unveiled his plan for Reconstruction: (1) scrapping the “40-acres-and-a-mule” plan suggested in the charter of the Freedmen’s Bureau and (2) creating a tough loyalty oath that many southerners could take in order to receive a pardon for their participation in the rebellion (Schultz, 2012, p. 278). Many southern states returned Confederate leaders to political power and they went onto create “black codes” modeled on the slave codes that existed prior to the Civil War (Schultz, 2012, p. 279). Johnson did nothing to prevent the South from re-imposing these conditions on the black population (Schultz, 2012, p. 279). This led The Radical Republican party made up of northerners since no southerners were in congress yet, a time known as Radical Reconstruction. The Radical Republicans moved swiftly to pass the important Civil Rights Act, which counteracted the South’s new black codes (Schultz, 2012...
Words: 1217 - Pages: 5
...America’s Post-Civil War Growing Pains The Reconstruction Era was the time period from 1865-1877 after the Civil War ended. The South was severely damaged from the war. Farms, railroads and bridges were destroyed and The South had tremendous hurdles to overcome to get back on track. The North entered a time where politicians took the opportunity to pass laws that southerners in Congress had resisted before. Businesses started to boom and take shape. The Reconstruction Era was the time period where the government attempts to resolve the issues resulting from the end of the Civil War. One turning point was The Freedman’s Bureau was established by Congress in 1865 to build schools, food and medical care to needy southern black and white people and to ensure equal access to the judicial system for southerners both black and white. It also urged former slave owners and former slaves to work as employers and employees rather than master and slaves. The Bureau was managed by Union Army General Oliver O. Howard, in which the historical black college Howard University is named after. The biggest achievement by the bureau was in education. Before the Civil War, there were no state-supported public education which still in effect today. The ex-slaves long to learn to read and write, and this was a major priority for the bureau and by 1870 more than 1,000 schools had be established. The Freedman’s Bureau was only suppose last for a year, but Congress renewed its charter bill extended...
Words: 1050 - Pages: 5
...America's Post-Civil War Growing Pains Dayna L. Wingert Professor Smith HIS 105 January 22, 2012 In 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia General Robert E. Lee surrendered 27,800 Confederate troops to Grant. This eventually brought about the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, that abolished slavery in this country. The Thirteenth Amendment states that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” (Becker, 1999) This was easily the most significant turning point in the era of Reconstruction. In today's society all races are integrated, this is what creates the American culture. In 2008, all races came together to shatter more than two hundred years of history by electing Barrack Obama, the first African American President of the United States. President Obama put the sentiments of this history making night in to words by stating “Young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans have sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of red states and blue states,” he said. “We have been and always will be the United States of America.” (Johnson, Nove) This is a testament to the end of slavery and the profound impact it has had...
Words: 792 - Pages: 4
...Assignment #1 – “America’s Post-Civil War Growing Pains” By Keith A. Watterson Strayer University Dr. Hammons Spring 2013 Two major historical turning points from the period in United States history know as Reconstruction, (1865-1877), were; how to integrate rebel states back into the nation and the social dilemma of how to integrate four (4) million newly freed slaves. This paper will show that almost all major problems faced by all people, (regardless of color or ethnicity), during this period, stemmed from these two conditions. These two turning points have an effect on current society in many ways. Though slavery has been over for many decades, America is still feeling the trickle down effects of this long gone institution. Black and White relations in the South (and North) though much, much better than many years ago, still has pockets of racism throughout the country. Also, though it is not as blatant as in the past, people still possess some of the same prejudices that they did in the 1800’s. Personally, this became evident to me during the last presidential election. Many people did not listen to what either candidate was saying but looked directly at their color, race, and ethnicity. I think this election divided America, though no one would say it publically. Once it was decided, everyone made their feelings known by saying “well I did not vote for this program or that program”, which was just another way of saying I did not vote for the candidate that...
Words: 1176 - Pages: 5
...The Reconstruction period is believed by some to be the most important period in American history. There were many historical turning points throughout this period. The two that caught my attention the most were the freedom given to slaves and African Americans being given the opportunity to vote. After being taken from their native country Africa, they were beaten, starved, raped, and forced to work extremely long hours with little to no sleep. One word to describe the treatment of slaves is, horrible. They were finally granted freedom during the Reconstruction period. Although, they were free, life was still extremely difficult for blacks in America especially in the southern states. It would take many years before life improved for the former enslaved African-Americans in the United States of America. According to Smith (2010),” the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 abolished slavery”. The first thing many freed slaves did was move. Most slaves wanted to reunite with family members they lost due to the slave trade. Freed African-Americans wanted to establish their own churches and schools. Many schools for African-Americans opened in the southern states. Strong bonds between families was the backbone of the post war African-American community. Slave marriages had no legal standing at all. After emancipation thousands of freed African-Americans registered their unions before the army, Freedmans Bureau, and local governments. White southerners were scratching their heads trying...
Words: 315 - Pages: 2
...The Union victory in the Civil war in 1865 gave millions of slaves their freedom. Although they were free former slaves had many new challenges to face during the rebuilding of the South. This time period is known as Reconstruction (1865- 1877). The reason this time is called Reconstruction is because this was the period when the federal government restored the seceded states to the Union. During the era of Reconstruction there were massive changes in American culture, economy, and politics. Before the Civil war was over President Abraham Lincoln began to prepare his plan for Reconstruction. Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction was one of forgiveness, he did not want to punish the southerners. Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction was that a southern state could be readmitted to the Union once 10 percent of its voters, who voted in the 1860 election, swore an oath of allegiance to the Union, this plan was called the “10 Percent Plan”. Radical Republicans did not agree with President Lincoln’s plan and they came up with their own plan to counter President Lincoln’s. This plan was the “Wade Davis Bill”, which required 50 percent of a states registered voters to swear an ironclad oath of allegiance to the Unites States. President Lincoln was able to block this bill from passing, but unfortunately he was assassinated before he was able to act on his plan for Reconstruction. President Lincoln’s assassination was a major turning point for this time in history. If President Lincoln had...
Words: 946 - Pages: 4
