This was one of sixteen prominent business leaders, politicians, and scholars on leadership, entrepreneurship, and overcoming adversity, including two billionaire entrepreneurs and several mega-millionaire entrepreneurs, including: Dr. Anthony Bonanzino, Jack Canfield, William Draper III, Mark Victor Hansen, US Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Monzer Hourani, US Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), J. Terrence Lanni, Dr. John Malone, Angelo Mozilo, Laurence Pino, Dr. Nido Qubein, US Army Major General Sid Shachnow (Ret.), Dr. John Sperling, Dr. Blenda Wilson, and Zig Ziglar. Five internationally known and respected leadership scholars offered their reviews of Dr. Haller’s groundbreaking leadership and entrepreneurship research and findings, including: Dr. Ken Blanchard, Dr. John Kotter, Professor Jim Kouzes, Dr. Paul Stoltz and Dr. Meg Wheatley.
Dr. Haller’s groundbreaking research on leadership and entrepreneurship was recently published by the leading German firm, VDM Verlag Dr Müller AG & CoKG. Dr. Howard Edward Haller’s book is titled: “Leadership and Adversity: The Making of Outstanding Leaders.” [on Amazon]
Dr. Sperling was the founder and initial chairman and chief executive officer of Apollo Group, Inc., and is now the chairman and chief executive officer. Apollo Group, Inc. owns and operates the University of Phoenix and several other universities. Billionaire Dr. John Sperling was interviewed at his home in San Francisco, California.
John Sperling was born into poverty in the Ozarks. As a child, John suffered physical injuries, psychological trauma, and was raised in a home where his parents were always fighting. John candidly commented that his abandoned father regularly abused him. In fact, when John’s father died (when he was only 15 years old), John said that he was “very happy”. Dr. Sperling said of his father’s death: “It was the best day of my life.” John overcame his initial adversity as well as impossible odds and faced multiple battles in his long and successful entrepreneurial journey.
Professor John Sperling saw important educational (and business) opportunities unfulfilled that the traditional academic community was ignoring. He tried to work within the existing university system, but after encountering repeated resistance, Dr. Sperling literally walked away from his position as a professor at a major public university to pursue his entrepreneurial dream.
Dr. John Sperling’s successful entrepreneurial venture, the University of Phoenix, was challenged on several fronts because the University of Phoenix was a “for-profit” university, which regulators believed to be educational heresy, immoral, and thought that it should be illegal. illegal Sperling had to fight every educational and other regulatory agency that his vehement enemies could throw at him. Dr. Sperling summarized the long list of those who attacked him and the University of Phoenix, as well as everyone everywhere, “including two regional accrediting agencies, the state legislatures in both California and Arizona, the FBI and various agencies law enforcement, plus multiple civil and criminal lawsuits. Although the journey was difficult for John, the University of Phoenix and the Apollo Group eventually won the various battles, disproved the false charges against him, and were victorious in all the trials.
Early on, Dr. Sperling used his start-up company, the University of Phoenix (and its forerunner) to help other well-established, traditional, “old school” universities successfully create and nurture in-house entrepreneurship ventures in the program. adult college completion for working adults. including bachelor’s degrees. Two of these successful intrapreneurial ventures supported by Dr. Sperling’s company, the for-profit Institute for Professional Development (before he created the University of Phoenix) were with the University of Redlands and the University of St. Mary, both well established and respected Universities are in California.
After moving his company to Arizona and creating the University of Phoenix, Sperling began to focus his companies’ efforts on building his own brand in bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business and other adult completion programs. The University of Phoenix now has a full range of academic programs, including several doctoral programs.
The life story of Dr. John Sperling is a true story of achieving the American Dream, that of being a successful entrepreneur! His life story is a true “Horatio Algier” story of rising from poverty and parental abuse, after undergoing major regulatory and political attacks on his business from all sides, to become a billionaire! and consummate entrepreneur! John Sperling went from a semi-literate dyslexic kid, barely graduating from high school, to someone with an MBA from UC Berkley and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.
Dr. John Sperling is a focused, motivated and successful entrepreneur who created the University of Phoenix, despite all the great opposition from academic regulators, bureaucrats, politicians, traditional “non-profit” academic institutions. Dr. Sperling led the charge and took all the arrows to create a for-profit revolution in higher education. Sperling’s significant early contributions to the growth of entrepreneurial ventures in creating new adult degree completion programs at established universities have fueled the growth of a wide range of adult degree completion programs in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and all over the world. For more information on Dr. Sperling and his business journey and business contributions, see his autobiography. Dr. Sperling does an excellent job of telling his entrepreneurial story, as well as his long and intense journey from abject poverty to significant wealth in his “Rebel with a Cause” (2000).
For full disclosure, Professor Haller taught undergraduate business and MBA (Management, Marketing, and Strategic Planning) courses (both classroom and online) for the University of Phoenix, from 2004 to 2008.
Billionaire Dr. John Sperling, like most successful entrepreneurs, would never quit. He is still president and fully committed to the active management of the University of Phoenix and Apollo Group, Inc.
Dr. Haller’s upcoming book on entrepreneurship and the “real world” case study, which is titled
“Business Success: A PRIME Example”, due out in late 2009.
Copyright 2009 © Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.