Abstract
The American dream is ‘an ideal of a happy and successful life to which all may aspire’ (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2007). Adams (1931, quoted in Cullen, 2003, p. 4) wrote that the ‘American dream is better, richer, and happier life for all our citizens of every rank’. A powerful symbol and continuous feature of the American life is an ‘active, individual, self-sufficient, competitive, tough … and poor (at least at the beginning) entrepreneur’ (Bellah et al., 1985/1996). The self-made man is a role model of a person that is independent, entrepreneurial and hard working. It can be personified both by biographies of industrialists and successful managers. The best-known examples of self-made men that actually went from rags to riches within a single lifetime are: Benjamin Franklin — an early capitalist and statesman (Meyer, 1941/1955) — and John D. Rockefeller — a ‘robber baron’ (Josephson, 1934). Those two Americans are icons of the American dream, a proof that hard-working people can elevate their social status and become rich.
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