“If It’s to Be, it’s Up to Me”: A Review of Born to be Free, by Jack Miller

Born to Be Free by Jack Miller is a triumphant ode to the principles that shaped America, woven seamlessly with a personal narrative that exemplifies self-reliance and responsibility. Born to Be Free is really three books in one, encompassing the author’s reflections on America’s Founding, the founding and building of the Quill Corporation, and the formation and mission of the Jack Miller Center.  What integrates these three parts is the book’s overarching themes of individualism, freedom and responsibility.

“I guess I didn’t like a socialistic idea even then.  Individual freedom and responsibility were part of my DNA from the beginning, so I suppose that’s one reason I was drawn to our founding principles later in life, with their emphasis on protecting the freedom of the individual.”

Miller describes growing up during the Second World War, remembering “the excitement and patriotism that was in the air.”  He recalls later deciding to leave his college fraternity, with its collectivist ethic of pledge duties, reflecting: “I guess I didn’t like a socialistic idea even then.  Individual freedom and responsibility were part of my DNA from the beginning, so I suppose that’s one reason I was drawn to our founding principles later in life, with their emphasis on protecting the freedom of the individual.”

Miller’s deep reverence for those founding principles shines through every page, and inspired him in 2004 to found the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History (JMC), which organizes conferences, supports postdoctoral fellows at major universities, organizes campus programming in celebration of Constitution Day, cultivates a network of 900 leading academics on over 300 campuses, and hosts Summer Institutes for early-career scholars to study and discuss America’s founding texts. For Jack and his wife Goldie, the Summer Institutes became their classroom, and some of the insights he gleaned and developed there he shares in this book.

These include how in trying to correct a weakness in the Articles of Confederation (which was the inability to raise funds to pay for the costs of the Revolutionary War), they blundered with vague language in the Constitution’s Article I, Section 8, by adding in the words “general welfare,” thus opening the doors for unlimited taxation for any politically popular spending program.  He explores the Enlightenment roots of the constitutional protection of the right to free speech, and how the assault on those Lockean ideas has paved the way for today’s intolerant campus culture where students have become “so delicate that they can’t hear an opposing opinion without having a nervous breakdown.”

Fortunately, during his own college years Miller discovered Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and thought to himself: “That’s exactly how I feel and how I look at the world.”

Fortunately, during his own college years Miller discovered Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and thought to himself: “That’s exactly how I feel and how I look at the world.”  Perhaps it’s no coincidence that his own entrepreneurial journey echoes those of the fictional entrepreneurs celebrated in Rand’s magnum opus, as they overcome obstacles, come up with new innovations, and persevere against all odds.

Miller saves the best for last with the third section of his book, chronicling his story of founding Quill Corporation from the back room of his father’s poultry shop in Chicago in 1956.  Incidentally, most people thought Miller chose the name of his company because of his father’s chicken story.  But the real reason is that since the Declaration of Independence was signed with a quill pen -- why not call the company Quill?  Even back then, his intuitive connection with our founding principles and documents was influencing him, if only subconsciously.

Facing fierce competition, economic downturns, and the challenge of scaling a business with limited resources, Miller and his brothers persevered through sheer determination and ingenuity. They were the first mail-order dealer in office supplies, offering competitive prices and fanatical customer service.

After years working as a successful traveling salesman for others, now that he had a new wife and dreams of starting a family, he decided that what he really wanted to do was go into business for himself -- and decided on office supplies.  This was despite  naysayers who tried to dissuade him, saying “Why do you want to start an office supply company?  There are already 150 in Chicago.” Facing fierce competition, economic downturns, and the challenge of scaling a business with limited resources, Miller and his brothers persevered through sheer determination and ingenuity. They were the first mail-order dealer in office supplies, offering competitive prices and fanatical customer service.  By 1998, Quill had become the nation’s largest independent direct marketer of office products, selling to Staples for $685 million. Miller recounts this journey, peppering it with anecdotes, from cleaning out a coal bin to make for office space in one of their early moves, to switching from quarterly mailings of their catalogues to monthly, to eschewing pension plans in favor of profit-sharing plans for their employees.

A plaque on Miller’s office wall reads: “You can’t control the winds, but you can adjust the sails.”  It reflects his conviction that while we don’t have much control over events in our lives -- whether economic turbulence or structural shifts in one’s industry -- we have a responsibility to wisely choose how we react to them.  It’s clearly a choice that Miller made correctly more often than not in his remarkable entrepreneurial and philanthropic career.

Miller’s story isn’t just about building a business; it’s about building a legacy of freedom.  Miller’s profound admiration for America’s founding principles, paired with his extraordinary achievement of building a family business of lasting value, makes Born to Be Free both a stirring call to action and a deeply personal testament to the enduring power of the self-made man.  I was delighted to find I share a favorite motto with the author: If it’s to be, it’s up to me.  I hope readers will be inspired to apply the power of that conviction -- and the wisdom of this book -- to live a freer, more productive, more fulfilling life. 

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