My road in life has been direct.
When he was growing up, his mother encouraged his creative side by convincing him that he was one of the world's great artists.
This led him to pursue graphic design at the Philadelphia Museum School, then at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
At 22, he was hired by the largest advertising company in Dallas, and started earning a lavish salary.
He had all the money he could ever want-he bought a brand new Porsche with cash-but he hated his job.
After he quit, he started freelancing, which gave him much more joy, but made him essentially no salary.
However, he says that making next to nothing gave him a suit of armor; living in near-poverty showed him that he could get through hard times.
In 1976, he started his own ad agency, The Richards Group, now the largest individually owned branding company in the country.
Says in advertising, ideas don't come as "lightning strikes," as you might think; you have to put in hard work, but that makes it more satisfying in the end.
Keep following my journey