I grew up around parents who had absolutely no self-confidence or drive to achieve anything. I honestly have no idea where my competitive spirit & drive came from but it seemed to kinda be there from the beginning in spite of my environment.

It was validated & encouraged in school & then I started seeing education as being my way out of where my parents were. I would always stand up for people being picked on just to put those picking on them in their place. I knew the values I held & would always stick with them. I was kinda a loner but always fit into the outskirts of every group without being a part because I really was too independent to be part of any specific group.

I always stood up for myself even when my parents were incapable of doing it.

I remember way back in the early 70's I was getting my AA & doing some work for this musician guy that lived in the hills of Burbank. (Had to have money to live there) He agreed to pay me a specific amount for the work he wanted done that I could do at home. I did the work & brought it back & he was going to pay me less than he had agreed to. I told him that unless he payed me what he agreed to he was never going to get the work I did. I got paid what he originally agreed to. When I got home & told my mom what happened she was shocked that "I had the nerve" to do that. She commented on how different I was from my parents & jokingly how they must have given them the wrong baby when they brought me home from the hospital. She had no idea how hard I worked to be different than them (without any therapy). I just didn't like the way my parents were. It must have been some internal thing because it sure wasn't my environment.