Irwin M. Jacobs

While I was at Cornell in engineering, I was an engineering co-op student, and that turned out to be very valuable because we'd go out every other term to work in industry and have that close association with industry.

As a small business owner for the last 15 years, when I think of what truly changed my life, it was my faith, a strong family, my mom did a really, really good job of encouraging me in very clear and discernible ways.