When Southern California businessman Gerard Smith decided he wanted to study success, he went straight to the top: He asked over 140 world leaders, visionaries, and celebrities not just what they did, but why they became successful — their definitions of success. He compiled their responses in "Celebrating Success Inspiring Personal Letters on the Meaning of Success". And because he believes giving back is a vital part of success, Gerard donated the original definitions and stories from this project to the Make-A-Wish Foundation to support its fundraising efforts. Since its publication, Celebrating Success has inspired readers all over the world to define their own definitions of success and live more empowered lives.

Gerard is the founder of Light the Fire Within, a company that provides the tools and resources to inspire people to pursue their own dreams of successful living. Light the Fire Within is part of Gerard’s ongoing commitment to help others to:

In his pursuit of stories of success and inspiration from all around the world, Gerard realized that his own parents were also a gold mine of wisdom acquired from their lifetimes of experience. He wanted to preserve forever their stories—his mother going from teaching high school in Holland to delivering 92 Zulu and Indian babies in South Africa, and his father serving as an officer in the Dutch Navy, then working as an accountant on a sugar cane plantation in Indonesia, and finally emigrating to the United States to work for Walt Disney. Gerard created the "Generation to Generation A Legacy of Love and Wisdom" journal to capture their amazing life story in a handwritten book he could always treasure. Unfortunately, after his 83-year-old mother’s two strokes and his 93-year-old father’s partial loss of sight, neither of his parents could write their stories down. So Gerard decided to create an audio version of the journal. Gerard has made it part of his life’s mission to ensure that parents, grandparents, and mentors everywhere have the opportunity to share their legacy of wisdom and love.

A management consultant, author, and motivational speaker, Gerard’s work has been featured in over 100 magazines, newspapers and television shows, including Fortune, The Washington Post, USA Today, and Cable News Network (CNN). He was also profiled by Millionaire Magazine as an accomplished Entrepreneur.