te, because Jesse is the kind of man who succeeds spectacularly at anything to which he puts his mind!
             Jesse Ventura was actually named James George Janos when he was born on July 15,1951. His friends and family called him Jim. His father, George, was the grandson of immigrants from Slovakia, in east central Europe. George had worked as a laborer with the Minneapolis street department. Jim's mother, Bernice, had come from Iowa. She worked her way through college and became a nurse. George and Bernice met in Minneapolis in 1945, and they married a year later. Both Bernice and George had served in the United States military during World War II; Bernice was a lieutenant, working as a nurse in North Africa. George fought in Europe, but he kept his war stories to himself. Jim said, "I never had any idea...that he had seven bronze battle stars," of his dad's war career. "He never spoke of it, and I was his son." (Ventura 12). But George did voice strong opinions about politics. Jim loved arguing with his father about politics. His older brother, Jan, recalled later, "For Jim, I'm thinking, that's when he first got interested in politics. It must have rubbed off on him." (Greenberg 14).
             At night, Jim and his brother would listen to professional wrestling matches on the radio. One day at Cooper Elementary School, Jim and his classmates were asked to write an essay about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Jim wrote that he planned to become a professional wrestler. "The teacher scolded him," recalled his friend Steve Nelson. "[She] said, 'Jim, that's a ridiculous idea. Who would want to be a professional wrestler?'" As a child, Jim was shy. Because he had never done well in school, he was cautious about raising his hand during class discussions. But when he entered Sanford Junior High School, others began to notice his athl...