Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story

Ben Carson is a Black American, born in the Detroit ghetto, who worked hard to educate himself, becoming director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins and solving complex brain issues as a neurosurgeon. He also drew on the inspiration and motivation provided by his mother to develop, alongside his wife, Candy, the Think Big approach to success, with which he plans to motivate young people who do not have the resources to advance to their full potential on their own.

Key characteristics of Carson’s personality are his filial devotion to his mother, Sonya Carson, his taking charge of his own education, seeking out resources beyond requirements, his belief in God and in his own abilities, and his “I did it my way” approach to rules and opposition. Fostered by his mother’s continual quests for him to reach his full potential, Carson goes from the bottom of his fifth-grade class to such a well-informed medical student that he carried out the duties of interns and residents and as a surgeon, performed ground-breaking brain operations, most notably, separating the craniopagus Siamese twins. After Carson’s father is discovered to be a bigamist, he leaves the family when Ben is eight. Growing up without his father present inspires Ben to curtail his surgery schedule at the peak of his career to spend significant time with his and Candy’s his three sons as they grow up.

Carson’s faith is an important part of his life from the time he is eight years old and has a religious experience at the family’s Seventh-day Adventist Church that leads him both to seek baptism and to decide that he wants to become a doctor. He describes being personally saved by God in desperate situations—moral, academic, and financial; his faith, combined with his mother’s philosophy and his experiences seeking to be his own best self, contribute to his THINK BIG philosophy.