With the state of today’s economy, thoughts often wander over times gone by. It seems that approximately one score divides periods of prosperity from hard times. Today’s young adults have seen only upward motion until the past few years, and now is the time to muster strength and patience, along with creative strategies to get through until prosperity returns.

It may seem that nothing can turn the tables and that we are alone in financial struggles, but just as history repeats itself we see that those before us have held on tight, felt the stomach plunge of the roller coaster’s dip, and made their way to the summit, all the wiser.

R.D. Williams, 77, started at the bottom and has spent a lifetime working his way up, he said.

“I was born in 1935, in the middle of the Great Depression,” he began. “All I remember as a child is that we were always cold and always hungry.”

His struggles in childhood made him eager to join the workforce and better himself. He said he began working full-time during his second year of high school. He’d get out of school half a day and work until 10 p.m.

He soon joined the Navy for $107 a month and continued to work part-time at Sears for $1 an hour.

As he struggled to provide a better life, he soon realized his mistaken understanding. While in the Navy, he scored high enough on the arithmetic portion of his classification tests, that he was placed in the gun-fire control and electronics division. He began to see that an education is the first step in creating a comfortable lifestyle.

After 44 weeks of school, he served one, eight-month tour on the U.S.S. Boxer, an aircraft unit, then moved to the U.S.S. Preston—a submarine chaser that sent sound devices into the ocean to detect enemy submarines.

During his final year in the Navy, he was stationed in San Diago, Calif., and attended San Diago Junior College under the G.I Bill, he said. He was under watch-standers liberty, so that meant anytime he was not standing watch, he was free to go ashore, i.e. attend classes in this case.

He finished his studies at North Louisiana University in his hometown of Monroe, La. He attended day and night classes and graduated in three years with a business degree, he beamed.

“It’s amazing because while I was in high school, people took preparatory classes so they could go to college and I just wanted to get out of school,” he explained. “But when I started working, I realized I didn’t have the education.”

He took note during his humble beginnings, and that helped motivate him to work hard in college.

“In 1953, my dad made $50 a week and had four kids,” he recalled. “I was the first graduate on my mother’s and father’s side.”

Williams then went to work for a print company, but Xerox soon put them out of business and he was left to make some hard decisions.

He researched thriving industries and found the carpet business topped the charts, he said. At that point, he knew nothing about carpet, but he’d soon learn.

“Since nobody knew anything about it, I wrote the first book on the manufacturing and selling of carpet, then decided why not better myself rather than try to sell a few copies of a book,” he chuckled. “I moved up through the industry—I’ve spent 48 year in the carpet business and I’m 77 years old.”

“I’ve even been on the stands and qualified as an expert carpet witness.”

Williams opened The Carpet Market and explained that he took advantage of the growing business at the optimum time: weaving had been the only process and it was a grueling, hours long one, but tufting had just appeared and could be completed in minutes.

Plus, he brought good business tactics into play by offering an invoice and labor guarantee. He even offers customers 10 inside-the-industry questions for them to ask as they shop for carpet, then offers his 10 answers to the questions.

He said he believes that honesty and quality work have helped him succeed.

“Our business has increased every year, even the past two years when business has been so bad,” he divulged.

“They say it’s a recession, I think it’s wonderful.”

“I’ve never had a complaint to the BBB (Better Business Bureau)—I do it right the first time.”