Chris owes much of his success to his mother’s nurturing and help overcoming a tough childhood. In 1967, Chris was diagnosed with something called Minimal Brain Dysfunction (now called ADHD).
His mother strongly opposed any type of medication and felt he should learn to control his impulses on his own. Even as a single mother, she made sure he saw the specialists he needed and even became a teacher’s aide in his elementary school to ‘keep her eye on him’.
Eventually, Chris learned to cope by harnessing his massive amount of energy and diversifying his schedule into shorter time frames on a wide variety of activities each day. To juggle his schedule, Chris became a consummate goal setter, planner and firm believer in time management.
The accomplishment of a dream, goal, or something once considered impossible is one thing that makes life worth living… Christopher Rither
After high school, he studied industrial technology at Humboldt State University. Just before his senior year at Humboldt, he felt compelled to work with young people and decided to attend the Teen Challenge Ministry Institute of Southern California. After graduation, he moved to Hawaii and served as a director, teacher, grant writer and board member for Hawaii Teen Challenge for nearly 20 years. During this time, he also served as a youth pastor, foster parent and founded one of the largest non-profit youth organizations on the Big Island.
In Hawaii, Chris also started and ran a number of companies and eventually finished his degree from the University of Hawaii- Hilo. His companies included: Maintenance Hawaii (repair and remodeling), Island Inspections (residential and commercial building inspections), Hawaii Environmental (Phase one and two ESA’S), and C. Rithers Services (grant writing for nonprofits).
After 25 years, Chris wanted a greater challenge and decided to sell all his companies, holdings, real estate and pretty much everything he owned to travel the world. Along the way he spent a few year’s working on joint ventures called DreamSpace Inc. in Singapore and English International in Korea. Some five years later, he was offered his current position as assistant professor at Myongji University.
Today, he continues to write for OMD as well as a new project called, Ideas For Better Business.com, which provides practical information for small business owners. He also holds an MBA from the University of Illinois – Urbana, and is currently awaiting a publisher’s reply for his book, Choices – The Adventures of the Fabulous Five.
With almost 40 years’ experience as an entrepreneur, teacher, minister, writer, and avid traveler, Chris has unique insight into what it takes to live a successful life. His passion is to provide the information and motivation necessary to help people “start doing the things they’ve always dreamed of”.