1955 -- At the age of 21, Dave Longaberger held the "dubious honor" of being the oldest graduating senior in his high school class in Dresden, Ohio.The fifth child in a family of twelve, Longaberger grew up in a happy family that nevertheless struggled to get by. His father, who worked at a paper mill, had grown up in a family of German-American basket makers, but the family business had closed its doors during the Great Depression. Nevertheless, Longaberger's father continued the craft by making baskets in his spare time, selling them for a few pennies or (more often) giving them away to friends. Longaberger himself struggled terribly with school as a young boy. He stuttered and was marked as a slow reader; other kids mocked him openly in class, snickering when he was called on to read out loud. He was held back twice in elementary school, and by the time he finished high school, he was still only reading at a 6th grade level. He was excited to be finished with school, but he felt "scared" and "inadequate." "What should I do now?" he thought. "Here I am, reading at a sixth-grade level. What could I expect the world to do for me?" It seemed as if he had no good choices.
1999 -- Dave Longaberger probably never expected to be the undisputed king of wooden baskets, but as the 20th century drew to a close, Longaberger presided over a company that sold millions of high quality, handmade maple baskets each year and whose revenue topped $700 million. Though he was struggling with the last stages of kidney cancer, Longaberger remained upbeat and confident. "Big deal," he wrote in a memoir that would be published after his death. "Anyone who lives long enough is bound to have his share [of adversity]." His Newark, Ohio headquarters -- a massive complex that included a 250,000 square foot plant as well as a $30 million, seven-story headquarters built in the shape of a basket -- had become a popular tourist destination. The company's signature product had been used many times as gift baskets for the Academy Awards, the Emmy Awards, and the NAACP Image Awards along with other high-profile events. Collectors of Longaberger baskets had formed a subculture of their own, participating in a vibrant internet trade with more than a thousand websites devoted to Longaberger products. Along with his business success, Longaberger developed a reputation as a great philanthropist and gave millions over the years to his home community of Dresden. The Longaberger Foundation -- which is run by one of his daughters -- provides grants for educational and health programs for children and families in need. After Longaberger's death in 1999, his daughters took over management of the Longaberger company and its non-profit foundation.
As Longaberger recounts in his autobiography, his failures at school never convinced him that he would be a failure in life. As a teenager, he took pride in doing a good job shoveling snow for his neighbors or being a valuable stocker at the grocery store where he worked. "I didn't get many strokes in school," he wrote, "so I found ways to get them elsewhere." He was constantly looking for new challenges -- whether it was mowing lawns better than any other kid in Dresden, or working the film projector at the movie theater. After finishing high school, Longaberger held a series of jobs that included a stint as a Fuller Brush salesman and a route deliveryman for several bakeries in Dresden. He spent two years in the Army during the early 1960s and began a career as a small businessman by purchasing a small grocery store and a dairy bar. In 1973, Longaberger noticed that wooden baskets were selling well at a local shopping mall. Persuading his father to come out of retirement, Longaberger devoted some time over the next few years to selling small batches that his father and a few others made. In 1978, he developed a new marketing plan that was modeled on the Tupperware company's method of direct marketing. Longaberger hired sales associates who sold the products directly to customers at home basket parties. Using his own family's story as part of the sales pitch, Longaberger quickly saw his sales accelerate. Before long, his customers began showing up in Dresden, hoping to meet him and see where the baskets they loved so much were being produced. Over the years, Longaberger's line has evolved to include pottery, fabric accessories, and wrought iron goods among other products, but baskets remained the focus of Longaberger's vision throughout his life. One key to his philosophy was that he never measured his success against others; instead, he competed against himself, setting personal goals and working to achieve them -- and then finding new goals to keep him moving forward.