True stories, every one sourced
Starting Again, and a Life That Makes a Difference
For anyone thinking, "I lost what I built," "I feel forgotten," "I am too old to start again," or "Can anything good still come from my life?" These are real people. We checked what happened, who helped, and what changed, and every story links to its sources.
33 stories
Starting Again
You may have lost what you built. That does not mean you have lost everything you can become. These are true stories of people who found a way to begin again, often with help, often more slowly than they hoped, and often in a different way than they first planned.
- Henry J. HeinzHenry J. Heinz Went Bankrupt at 31 and Kept a Notebook of Every Debt He OwedIn 1875, a national financial panic sank Henry J. Heinz's pickle and vinegar company and left him personally bankrupt. With his wife, brother, and cousin backing a new firm, he started again on a salary, kept a list of every creditor he still felt he owed, and slowly built the business that became the H.J. Heinz Company.Starting overBusiness failureFinancial hardshipSecond chancesRead the story →
- Milton S. HersheyMilton Hershey Came Home Broke, With Bad Credit and One Lesson About MilkMilton Hershey's candy businesses in Philadelphia and New York both failed, and he returned to Lancaster in 1886 with a bad credit rating and little more than cooking kettles. A former employee, his mother and aunt, and a bank cashier who put his own signature on a loan helped him build the Lancaster Caramel Company.Starting overBusiness failureFinancial hardshipSecond chancesRead the story →
- Walt Disney, with Roy Disney and Ub IwerksWalt Disney Lost a Studio, Then a Character, and Kept DrawingWalt Disney's first studio, Laugh-O-gram Films in Kansas City, went bankrupt in 1923. Five years later in Hollywood, his distributor took control of his popular character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and most of his artists. With his brother Roy and animator Ub Iwerks, he started over again, and the new character was Mickey Mouse.Starting overBusiness failureFinancial hardshipSecond chancesRead the story →
- Conrad HiltonConrad Hilton Nearly Lost His Hotels in the Depression and Let Others Share the OwnershipConrad Hilton spent the 1920s opening a new Texas hotel almost every year. Then the Great Depression emptied the rooms, and by 1931 he was close to bankruptcy. Recovery meant giving up sole control, merging with investors, and owning only a third of a new company. By 1934 he was running five hotels on his own again.Financial hardshipBusiness failureStarting overSecond chancesRead the story →
- John Paul DeJoria and Paul MitchellJohn Paul DeJoria Started Again From His Car, With a Partner and $700John Paul DeJoria was homeless twice: once as a young father, and again in 1980 when a promised investment collapsed. He and hairdresser Paul Mitchell started their company anyway, with about $700 between them. What carried them was not money but skill, years of door-to-door sales practice, and a partnership that fit.HomelessnessStarting overFinancial hardshipSecond chancesRead the story →
- George ForemanGeorge Foreman Returned to the Ring After Ten Years and Won the Title at 45George Foreman left boxing in 1977 and spent a decade preaching in Houston. Short of money and trying to support his church and youth center, he returned to the ring in 1987, in his late thirties. In 1994, at 45, he won the heavyweight championship again, and a later business chapter followed.Later-life beginningsStarting overFinancial hardshipPurposeSecond chancesRead the story →
- Cyndi LauperCyndi Lauper's Band Failed and She Went Bankrupt. Her Voice Was Still Hers.Before the world knew Cyndi Lauper, she had nearly lost her voice, sung in a band whose only album did not sell, and been sued by its former manager. She filed for bankruptcy and took jobs in a piano bar and a vintage clothing shop. Then her solo debut, She's So Unusual, changed everything.Business failureFinancial hardshipStarting overSecond chancesRead the story →
- Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola Lost His Studio, Reorganized His Debts, and Kept Growing GrapesAfter his costly 1982 film One from the Heart flopped, Francis Ford Coppola lost his Hollywood studio and spent about a decade working through debt, including Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings. Bankruptcy did not strip him of everything. He reorganized, kept making films, and built a wine business around the Napa Valley estate he had bought in 1975.Business failureFinancial hardshipStarting overSecond chancesRead the story →
- Frank O'DeaFrank O'Dea Got Sober Off the Streets of Toronto, Then Co-Founded Second CupFrank O'Dea was an alcoholic by his teens and spent his early twenties panhandling on Toronto's streets. He has said a single dime, dropped in his cup by a stranger, paid for the phone call that started his recovery. Years later he co-founded Second Cup and went on to help start organizations serving children and landmine victims.RecoveryHomelessnessStarting overSecond chancesCompassionRead the story →
A Life That Makes a Difference
Sometimes a new chapter begins with noticing someone others have overlooked. A meal. Clean clothes. A haircut. A job. A second chance. These true stories show what happens when someone decides to help, and how people who were overlooked themselves went on to open doors for others.
- Bessie ColemanBessie Coleman Was Turned Away by American Flight Schools, So She Learned French and Flew AnywayBorn in a one-room cabin in Texas, Bessie Coleman wanted to fly at a time when American flight schools would not accept a Black woman. With advice from Chicago Defender publisher Robert Abbott, she learned French, sailed to France, and in 1921 earned an international pilot's license, the first African American woman to do so.EducationStarting overPurposeFinancial hardshipRead the story →
- Bruno SeratoBruno Serato and the Plate of Pasta That Became Caterina's ClubAn Anaheim restaurant owner and his mother saw a hungry child eating potato chips for dinner in 2005. Bruno Serato started cooking pasta for about 70 children a night. Through recession debt and a fire that gutted his restaurant, the meals kept going, and Caterina's Club now feeds thousands of children and helps motel families find homes.CompassionPractical serviceHomelessnessPurposeRead the story →
- Chad HouserChad Houser and the Restaurant Built Around Second ChancesIn 2008 Dallas chef Chad Houser volunteered to teach ice cream making to eight young men in juvenile detention. What he saw stayed with him. Seven years of pop-up dinners and planning later, he opened Café Momentum, a restaurant where teenagers leaving the justice system earn a paycheck, learn a trade, and get support to build a different future.Second chancesPractical servicePurposeCompassionRead the story →
- Derreck KayongoDerreck Kayongo Saw Value in the Soap Hotels Threw AwayAs a boy, Derreck Kayongo fled violence in Uganda and lived as a refugee in Kenya, where soap was scarce. Years later, in an American hotel, he noticed barely used bars being thrown out. In 2009 he and his wife, Sarah, started the Global Soap Project in their basement, recycling hotel soap for families who could not afford it.CompassionPractical servicePurposeStarting overRead the story →
- Dolly Parton's Imagination LibraryA Father Who Could Not Read and Dolly Parton's Imagination LibraryDolly Parton's father could not read or write, and she has said she believed it kept him from some of his dreams. In 1995 she started mailing free books to young children in her home county in Tennessee. With thousands of local partners, that small effort has grown into a program that has gifted more than 200 million books.EducationCompassionPractical servicePurposeRead the story →
- Jahkil JacksonJahkil Jackson and the Blessing Bags That Started at a Chicago Kitchen TableAs a small boy, Jahkil Jackson saw people without homes on a cold Chicago street and wanted to help. With his family beside him, he turned that wish into Project I Am, packing "Blessing Bags" of socks, hygiene items, and snacks. A first batch of 88 bags grew into a nonprofit reaching people far beyond Chicago.CompassionPractical serviceHomelessnessPurposeRead the story →
- Kakenya NtaiyaKakenya Ntaiya Kept Her Promise to the Village That Sent Her to SchoolEngaged at five in a Maasai village in Kenya, Kakenya Ntaiya bargained with her father to stay in school. Her community later pooled money to send her to college in the United States. She earned a doctorate and came home to open a boarding school for girls in Enoosaen.EducationPurposeCompassionPractical serviceRead the story →
- Liz MurrayLiz Murray's Long Road From the Bronx Streets to a Harvard DegreeLiz Murray grew up in the Bronx with parents struggling with addiction. After her mother died of AIDS and she was left without a home as a teenager, she enrolled at an alternative high school, finished in two years, and won a New York Times scholarship to Harvard. Caring for her father interrupted college, but she returned and graduated in 2009.HomelessnessEducationGriefSecond chancesRead the story →
- Maggie Doyne and Tope MallaMaggie Doyne, Tope Malla, and the Kopila Valley Partnership in NepalFresh out of high school in New Jersey, Maggie Doyne met a girl breaking stones in a riverbed in Surkhet, Nepal. With $5,000 in babysitting savings, Nepali co-founder Tope Malla, and local partners, she helped start a children's home, then a school, clinic, and women's center. The work also drew fair criticism, and the organization changed in response.EducationCompassionPractical servicePurposeRead the story →
- Dr. Malvika IyerMalvika Iyer Lost Both Hands at 13, Then Earned a PhD Studying How People See DisabilityIn 2002, a grenade scattered by an ammunition depot fire exploded in 13 year old Malvika Iyer's hands in Bikaner, India. After about 18 months largely bedridden, she took her exams with a scribe, scored among the top in her state, and went on to earn a PhD in social work. Today she speaks worldwide for disability inclusion.DisabilityRecoveryEducationPurposeRead the story →
- Nicholas WintonNicholas Winton and the Team That Brought 669 Children Out of CzechoslovakiaIn late 1938, London stockbroker Nicholas Winton skipped a ski trip to visit Prague, where refugee workers were overwhelmed. Working with Doreen Warriner, Trevor Chadwick, his mother, British host families, and desperate parents, he helped organize transports that carried 669 children, most of them Jewish, to safety in Britain. For nearly fifty years, few people knew.CompassionPractical servicePurposeRead the story →
- Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett (Orange Sky)Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett Put Washing Machines in a Van and Started a ConversationIn 2014, two 20-year-old friends in Brisbane loaded donated washing machines into an old van to offer free laundry to people sleeping rough. They soon learned that a wash cycle gave everyone time to sit and talk. Orange Sky now runs laundry and shower services across Australia and New Zealand with thousands of volunteers.HomelessnessCompassionPractical servicePurposeRead the story →
- Rev. Richard JoynerRev. Richard Joyner Answered Too Many Funerals With a Garden in ConetoeAs pastor of a small church in rural Conetoe, North Carolina, Rev. Richard Joyner was burying young people far too often, many from preventable, diet-related illness. He started a garden on borrowed land and put young people in charge of it. The Conetoe Family Life Center grew from there, with farm plots, beehives, youth programs, and food distribution.GriefPurposePractical serviceCompassionLater-life beginningsRead the story →
- Rob Scheer (with Reece Scheer)Rob Scheer Carried His Life in a Trash Bag. Comfort Cases Makes Sure Fewer Children Have ToRob Scheer entered foster care at 12 with his belongings in a trash bag. Decades later, the children he and his husband Reece took in arrived the same way. In 2013 the family started packing backpacks of essentials at home, and Comfort Cases grew from there.CompassionPractical servicePurposeSecond chancesRead the story →
- Ron FinleyRon Finley Planted Food by the Curb in South Los Angeles and Changed a City RuleLiving in a neighborhood with little fresh produce, Ron Finley planted vegetables on the dirt strip outside his South Los Angeles home in 2010. The city cited him. Neighbors signed a petition, the city backed off, and in 2015 Los Angeles allowed edible parkway gardens without a permit. He has spent years teaching others to grow food.PurposePractical serviceCompassionSecond chancesRead the story →
- Scott NeesonScott Neeson Walked Away From Hollywood to Stand With Children at a Phnom Penh DumpScott Neeson started as a drive-in projectionist and rose to run 20th Century Fox International. A 2003 visit to a Phnom Penh garbage dump, and one nine-year-old girl he met there, led him to sell his house, boat, and cars and build the Cambodian Children's Fund.CompassionPurposeEducationPractical serviceRead the story →
- Shirley RainesShirley Raines Carried Her Grief to Skid Row and Brought Dignity With HerYears after losing her young son, Demetrius, Shirley Raines began volunteering with her church on Skid Row. She noticed women admiring her makeup and started bringing hair and beauty care along with food. Beauty 2 The Streetz grew from there. She died in January 2026, and her team has said the work goes on.GriefCompassionHomelessnessPractical servicePurposeRead the story →
- Stan BrockStan Brock Remembered Being Far From a Doctor and Built Remote Area MedicalAs a young ranch manager in Guyana, Stan Brock was badly hurt in a fall from a horse with medical care weeks away. Years later, after fame on television, he founded Remote Area Medical, which brought free medical, dental, and vision clinics first to remote places abroad and then to American towns.CompassionPractical servicePurposeLater-life beginningsRead the story →
- Susan BurtonSusan Burton Built the Welcome Home She Never HadAfter her five-year-old son was killed in 1981, Susan Burton spent years in addiction and cycled in and out of prison six times. Once she found treatment and got sober in 1997, she opened her own home in Watts to women walking out of prison. That home grew into A New Way of Life, which has housed more than 1,800 women.GriefRecoverySecond chancesCompassionPractical serviceRead the story →
- Tim HarrisTim Harris, Tim's Place, and a Dream Bigger Than One RestaurantTim Harris wanted to own a restaurant since he was a boy. After earning restaurant management certificates in college, and with his parents' help, he opened Tim's Place in Albuquerque in 2010. Customers came for the food and stayed for his hugs. When the restaurant closed after five years, Tim kept going as a speaker and advocate.DisabilityPurposeCompassionEducationRead the story →
- Veronika ScottVeronika Scott Designed a Coat for Detroit's Streets, Then Hired the People Who Needed ItAs a design student in Detroit, Veronika Scott built a coat that turns into a sleeping bag. When a woman at a shelter told her she needed a job more than a coat, Scott changed the plan. The Empowerment Plan now hires people leaving homelessness to make the coats.HomelessnessPractical serviceSecond chancesPurposeEducationRead the story →
- Wade Milyard Jr.Wade Milyard Turned a Retired Police Bus Into Free Laundry for Frederick's UnhousedAfter more than two decades with the Frederick, Maryland, police, K-9 officer Wade Milyard Jr. met a woman who washed her clothes in a creek. After retiring, he and his father-in-law spent months turning an old police activities bus into Fresh Step Laundry, a free mobile laundry for people experiencing homelessness.Practical serviceHomelessnessCompassionPurposeLater-life beginningsRead the story →
- Wendell ScottWendell Scott Kept Racing Through Racism, and His Family Finally Got His TrophyWendell Scott, a taxi driver and mechanic from Danville, Virginia, became the first Black driver to win a race in NASCAR's top series in 1963, though officials flagged another driver as the winner. With his wife and children as his crew, he raced on a shoestring for two decades. In 2021, NASCAR presented his family with a trophy for that win.Financial hardshipPractical servicePurposeSecond chancesRead the story →
- Wilma RudolphWilma Rudolph: From a Childhood Leg Brace to Three Olympic Gold MedalsAs a young child in Tennessee, Wilma Rudolph had polio and other serious illnesses and was fitted with a leg brace. Doctors doubted she would walk normally. Years of treatment and daily care from her family helped her walk, then play basketball, then run. In 1960 she won three gold medals in Rome, and later became a teacher.DisabilityRecoveryEducationPurposeRead the story →
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These stories are summaries written by MyEncourageMaker from the sources listed on each page. The people and organizations featured have not endorsed this site. Their outcomes are their own; your path may look different, and help along the way is part of the story.