- Mike Carmona’s life is the kind of story that hits you in the gut. He grew up poor on Stanton’s south side, raised by a single mom in government apartments, living off food stamps and bathing with water heated on the stove. Today, he is 35, running a $25 million company, raising three kids, and giving back to the town that kept him from sinking. It’s not a fancy tale—it’s real, rough around the …