Remember when you were so desperate you sought refuge through that fortuneteller? She gazed into the crystal ball and in a low voice said, "I see your future - unhappiness, sadness, failure - I see rejection, putdowns, humiliation." Then the fortuneteller hesitates, "But wait. Don't worry. Don't get depressed. I see you getting used to it." Jimmy doesn't get used to it. Call it naiveté or maybe just stupidity. Maybe he doesn't know how to give up. Without cigarettes, aspirin, Alka-Seltzer or whisky, he stays in the game.
Because he can't read, Jimmy fails third grade, graduates from high school illiterate. Barely able to read a newspaper, earns a degree in Psychology. Reading at a high school level, he receives with honors, a doctorate from a leading university, writes over 25 books, 3 of which were best-selling texts in education.