New York: A proud daughter of Sikh immigrant parents, South Carolina Governor Namrata "Nikki" Randhawa Haley, widely considered a rising Republican star in national politics, says that one can overcome any obstacle with the belief that "Can't Is Not An Option"

"I am the proud daughter of Indian parents who reminded us every day how blessed we are to live in this country," Haley, one of only two Indian-American governors -- the other being Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, writes in the opening sentence of her book "Can't Is Not An Option" that hit the stands today.

Running into more than 240 pages, the book tells the inspiring story of her Sikh immigrant parents, who worked hard so that their four children could live the American dream.

As the youngest Governor in America and the first woman Governor of her state, 40-year-old Haley chronicles her childhood in the small rural town of Bamberg, South Carolina, and her early interest in business, starting with her first job as a bookkeeper for her family's store, at age 13.

Her book, published by Sentinal, Penguine Group, is based on the attitude her parents Raj and Ajit Randhawa --displayed whenever they faced bigotry or adversity.

In the book, an advance copy of which was provided to PTI ahead of the release, Haley, who is being widely speculated to be the potential Vice President nominee of Mitt Romney, writes the Randhawas never thought of themselves as victims. They stressed that if you work hard and stay true to yourself, you can overcome any obstacle.

The key is believing that "can't is not an option," Haley says in the book. This also became Haley's personal motto and is now a brass plaque on her office door as Governor.

Haley's book explains her unwavering commitment to limited government, fiscal conservatism, accountability and reform.

She writes, "Government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people - period. It was never intended to be all things to all people. If the people whose money is being spent - the taxpayers - controlled government rather than the other way around, government would live within its means.

"I've said many times that my goal in public life is to help people find their voices - to control their destinies rather than let others control them; to let people know that they deserve better at all levels of government."

Entering politics as a virtual unknown, Haley explains how she fought harassment and slurs during her first race for the South Carolina House, when she unseated the longest-serving member of the legislature.

She went on to battle the "good old boys" who had run the state for generations and the go-along-to-get-along pork-barrel politics that was hurting taxpayers.

Despite making enemies among the House leadership Haley was re-elected twice more, with 83% of vote in 2008.

Narrating her parents' story, Haley says her mother, who came from a wealthy family in Amritsar, was highly -educated and offered to be the first woman judge of India, but she could not accept it because her family "didn't think it was appropriate. Women just didn't do those sorts of things."

"My mom and dad, Raj and Ajit Randhawa, were born in the Punjab region of India," she says, adding her mother lived in a six-storey house "in the shadow of the Golden Temple."

"Because she didn't trust it anywhere else, her mother kept all of her cash in the mattress on which she slept. Mom had hired help to attend to her every need. Her clothes were custom made for her. She never had to carry her own books to school," she writes. At that time and in that place, girls typically were not educated beyond high school, but Haley's mother went all the way through law school.

"Mom met dad at a mountain vacation area near Dharamshala in northern India, where Indian families of means would go every summer to escape the heat. The fact that they met at all made their arranged marriage somewhat unusual. Most Indian brides and grooms never get the chance to meet before they marry," she says. "But mom says she saw dad and thought he was 'a good-looking man'."

"My father's father was a commanding officer in a horse-mounted regiment in the British colonial army. He was stationed all over the country, so my father lived most of the year with his uncle. I remember listening with incomprehension as a child when my dad told me he only saw his parents for two months each year, during his summer vacation," she said.

Post-marriage, her father, who had a master's degree in biology, left India for his PhD at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. "He left India for the new world with eight dollars in his pocket. A year later ... he sent for my mom and Mitti (Haley's sibling)," she writes.