In the summer before his first year of high school, Elvis Presley received a simple but meaningful gift from his father Vernon: a push lawn mower. It was not a symbol of ambition, only necessity. With that mower and a few sickles, Elvis joined three friends and began cutting lawns around the neighborhood, earning four dollars per yard. Under the burning Memphis sun, he learned early that nothing came without effort. No one watching that thin, quiet boy at work could have guessed he was already moving toward history.
In the summer before his first year of high school, Elvis Presley received a simple but meaningful gift from his father Vernon: a push lawn mower. It was not a…