Author Lester Nuby Jr. began life in a dilapidated house in Bell Springs Mountain, Alabama, but now he is a successful businessman who doesn't have to worry about money. It wasn't easy for Nuby to scrounge his way out of poverty, a task made more difficult by the fact that his father was murdered just five months before he was born.

Nuby understood early on the difference between the "haves" and the "have nots." He made it his mission to break free of the bondage of poverty. By the age of seven, he had already started taking notes that would become the ingredients for a personalized...