Calvin Bryant grew up on a farm, one of 17 children of a Georgia sharecropper. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade. Despite those inauspicious origins, today Bryant owns a prosperous patio furniture repair business in Sarasota, Florida. He's a success. And his community recognizes that: In 1982 they named him Sarasota's Small Businessman of the Year.

That same year a teenager stole a lawnmower from Bryant's house. The thief was caught, and when Bryant went to court to identify him, he told the judge, "Give him to me. I'll work with him." The judge remanded the young man to Bryant's custody. It worked well—so well that Bryant began going into prisons as a counselor and bringing prisoners out, giving them good jobs, advising them, and teaching them by his example that even a tough start in life won't stop a person determined to make it.

From working with prisoners, Bryant learned the ill effects of low self-esteem and lack of direction. "They were making bad choices because they didn't know how to work with the system, what it had to offer, how to get it legally." They also couldn't read or write very well. Bryant realized he could work with lawbreakers forever, or he could try to minimize the incidence of lawbreaking by going straight to the next generation of potential prisoners—young people who weren't learning to read.

Bryant hired a teacher for an after-school tutoring program for Sarasota's inner-city children. "I found out all kids at a very early age are very, very positive. They don't know about the 'can't do's.'" Bryant gives them positive reinforcement—good role models, a glimpse of life outside the projects, rewards for doing well. He also gives them something to eat; he never knows if they get enough at home.

Bryant volunteered to work with a class of fifth-graders already labeled as potential dropouts. He's paying them for good grades, and he'll bring a banker into the classroom to teach them to balance their new bank accounts and to invest wisely. Calvin Bryant says firmly, "These kids will not be dropouts."

UPDATE 2016: Now 77, Bryant is running a program that teaches the trades to kids as young as 7 and all the way through high school. The program\'s called the Brotherhood of Men, but it also works with girls and women—teaching plumbing, wiring and welding, and providing financial incentives for good grades. Bryant also funds yearly trips to places like the White House and New York City. "I tell them there is no way they can fail," says Bryant. "If they're motivated to continue with the work, I guarantee they can find a good-paying job and a career." For now, the kids are working on houses that they hope will be priced low enough that their own families can buy them.