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Charles Howard, the two first words that begin the story. A story about loss and success. Charles Howard was a successful man from the start and was full of energy and visions. "There was a certain inevitability to Charles Howard, an urgency radiating from him that made people believe that the world was always going to bend to his wishes"(Hillenbrand, 1) Howard sought to a more convenient mode of transportation that would be better than the one they used at the moment, the horse.
From starting with only 21 cents and founding a bike repair shop, that turns into a Buick dealership. Howard started off small and proved to many that automobiles were superior by testing them out after the San Francisco. When the earthquake of Sans Francisco in 1906 hit it made it easier for Howard to prove the automobile dream. At the time a man named Tom Smith worked for a man called Charles Irwin. "Irwin saw what Smith could do with a horse, and he need as many good horsemen as he could find"(Hillenbrand, 23). Smith was in the eyes of the well known. After being recieved credit for his work Irwin died and Smith went from job to job until he landed on Charles Howard. Last but not least is the tale of the jockey or bug boy. The people who rode the horse while the race. He was terrible from the start and had barely any experience. He was soon on his way to making history. At the start of the book it start with the lives of the individual men. How they started out with nothing or being nothing. The struggles a man makes to be successful in hard times like those in the 1930's. The theme of rags to riches is viewed strongly in this book and is one of the many key themes that is focused on strongly. The only way those three men would ever survive is if they stuck together. Howard was a visionary and saw the big picture in a lot of things. With his skills in leading with a laissezfaire leadership to them to new heights. "Pollard, with his book, his stories, and his offbeat sense of humor, earned the bewildered affection of everyone at the track"(Hillenbrand, 85) "The only thing Seabiscuit took seriously, aside from his beauty rest, was eating, which he did constantly, with great vigor" (Hillenbrand, 38)
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