"Ode to Business" aka Sandburg's "Chicago"

Let me just start by saying that my love affair with this poem started far before my interest in business. In fact, it began many moons ago when a certain high school teacher demanded I write on an "American Author" lest I be beaten with a standard 3 foot yard stick. Nonetheless, excellent inspiration as you enter the world of business! And maybe a little more student friendly than the Investment Banker's medley "God gave you eyes, plagiarize" - Liar's Poker.

HOG Butcher for the World,

Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;     

Stormy, husky, brawling, 

City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I

     have seen your painted women under the gas lamps

     luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it

     is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to

     kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the

     faces of women and children I have seen the marks

     of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who

     sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer

     and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing

     so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on

     job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the

     little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog tongue lapping for action, cunning              

    as a savage pitted against the wilderness,

          Bareheaded,

          Shoveling,

          Wrecking,

          Planning,

          Building, breaking, rebuilding,

Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with

   white teeth,

Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young

   man laughs,

Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has

   never lost a battle,

Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.

   and under his ribs the heart of the people,

    Laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of

     Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog

     Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with

     Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

"Build, Break, Rebuild, and Laugh!"

Under the terrible burden of coursework, laughing as a Freshman laughs, laughing like an ignorant student who has never dropped a class 

 -The Waffle House Kid