This was one of sixteen well-known prominent business, political, and academic leaders 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, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Monzer Hourani, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), J. Terrence Lanni, Dr. John Malone, Angelo Mozilo, Laurence Pino, Dr. Nido Qubein, U.S. 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 the Dr. Haller’s groundbreaking leadership and entrepreneurship research and his findings including: Dr. Ken Blanchard, Dr. John Kotter, Professor Jim Kouzes, Dr. Paul Stoltz, and Dr. Meg Wheatley.

Dr. Haller’s groundbreaking leadership and entrepreneurship research was been recently published by the major German firm, VDM Verlag Dr M?ller AG & CoKG. Dr. Howard Edward Haller’s book is entitled: “Leadership and Adversity: The Shaping of Prominent Leaders.” [on Amazon]

Dr. Sperling was the founder and initial Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, of the Apollo Group, Inc., and is now the Chairman and Director. Apollo Group, Inc. owns and operates the University of Phoenix and several other colleges. Billionaire Dr. John Sperling was interviewed at his home in San Francisco, California.

John Sperling was born in poverty in the Ozarks. As a young child John suffered physical injury, psychological trauma, and was raised in a home where his parents were always fighting. John candidly commented that he was regularly abused by his derelict father. If fact, when John’s father died (when he was just 15 years old), John said he was “very happy.” Dr. Sperling said of his father’s death, “It was the best day of my life.” John overcame his early adversity, as well as impossible odds and facing multiple battles in his lengthy and successful entrepreneurial journey.

Professor John Sperling saw major unfulfilled educational (and business) opportunities that the traditional academic community was ignoring. He tried to work within the existing university system, but after meeting 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 very successful entrepreneurial venture, University of Phoenix, was challenged on a number of fronts because the University of Phoenix was a “for-profit” University, which the regulators believed it was educational heresy, immoral, and thought should be illegal. Sperling had to battle every educational and other regulatory body that his vehement enemies could launch against him. Dr. Sperling summed up the long list of those attacking him and the University of Phoenix, as everyone from every where, “including two regional accrediting agencies, the state legislatures in both in California and Arizona, the FBI, and various law enforcement agencies, plus multiple civil and criminal law suits.” While the journey was difficult for John, the University of Phoenix and the Apollo Group ultimately won the various battles, disproved their false charges, and was victorious in all the law suits.

In the beginning, Dr. Sperling used his fledgling company, the University of Phoenix (and it’s precursor) to help other well-established, traditional, “old school” Universities to successfully create and foster intrapreneuring ventures in adult college completion program for working adults, including bachelor’s degrees. Two of these successful intrapreneuring ventures supported by Dr. Sperling’s company, the for-profit Institute for Professional Development (prior to his creating the University of Phoenix) were done with the University of Redlands and St. Mary’s University, both these well-established and respected Universities are in California.

After relocating his firm to Arizona, and creating the University of Phoenix, Sperling began to focus his companies’ efforts into building their own brand in business bachelors’ and masters’ degrees, and other degree completion programs for adults. The University of Phoenix’s now has a full range of academic programs, including several Doctoral programs.

Dr. John Sperling’s life story is a true story of achieving the American Dream, that of being a successful entrepreneur! His life’s story is a real “Horatio Algier” story of going from poverty and parental abuse, then suffering the major regulatory and political attacks on his business from all sides, to going on to become a billionaire and accomplished entrepreneur!. John Sperling went from a semi-literate dyslexic kid, who barely graduated from high school, to someone with a master’s degree from U.C. Berkley and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University.

Dr. John Sperling is a focused, driven and successful entrepreneur who created the University of Phoenix, in spite of all the major 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. Sperlings significant early contributions to the growth on entrepreneurial ventures in creating new adult degree completion programs at established Universities has launched the growth of a wide range of adult degree completion programs in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and through out the world. For more information on Dr. Sperling and his entrepreneurial journey and his entrepreneurial contributions, check out his autobiography. Dr. Sperling does an excellent did of telling his entrepreneurial story, as well as his long intense journey from extreme poverty to significant wealth in his “A Rebel with a Cause” (2000).

For full disclosure, Professor Haller taught both 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 Chairman, and fully engaged in, actively running the University of Phoenix and the Apollo Group, Inc.

Dr. Haller’s upcoming entrepreneurship book and “real world” case study, which is entitled
“Entrepreneurship Success: A PRIME Example,” which is due out in late 2009.

Copyright 2009 ? Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.

By: Dr Howard Edward Haller

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