Phillip Ashley Rix
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The Real Life Willy Wonka – Phillip Ashley Rix S.O. What! Success Story

When I began my journey as an entrepreneur, I met this big, “chocolate” guy (Phillip Ashley Rix) covered in tattoos.  Someone told me he was the chocolate man, and I soon learned that he was much more. Going from an ordinary college…
Dr. Beverly Bond
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Dr. Beverly Bond S.O. What! Success Story

No, I did not get excited when I signed up for an 8 am history class every Tuesday and Thursday morning.  I was not a morning person nor a history-lover. Although Dr. Beverly Bond did not make it easy for me to get up early, she did make…
Coach Shirley McCray
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Coach Shirley McCray S.O. What! Success Story

The older I get the more I appreciate and want to know more about the history and the people who make an impact on it.  One of those people is Coach Shirley McCray - the first female coach of a men’s football team. A fellow University…
Marcus Heaston
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Marcus Heaston S.O. What! Success Story

It’s funny when you meet someone who has “known” you for 20 years. Because I’m on a mission to impact as many youth and young adults as possible with the S.O. What! Literacy, Life Skills, and Character Education Curriculum, I am always…
Margaret Rhodes
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Margaret Rhodes’ S.O. What! Success Story

It’s interesting when the first time you meet someone is at your own house. That’s where I met Margaret Rhodes when she came to support a fundraising idea I was trying out at my house. Since then that fundraiser has become a big annual…
Len Hostetter
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From Custom Suits to College Hoodies: Len Hostetter S.O. What! Success Story

Never in a million years would I have thought that I would be able to call my boss’s boss’s boss my true friend. He (Len Hostetter) was my VP at FedEx with a manager and a director in between us. But after I published my memoir, Len Hostetter…
Deandre Brown
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Prisoner to Pastor, DeAndre Brown S.O. What! Success Story

Several years ago I was asked to join the board of directors for a new non-profit charter school that wanted to come to Memphis, Pathways in Education. We had a small board of only three, and when one of our board members had to leave the board…
Joann Massey
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Joann Massey S.O. What! Success Story

People don’t have to support you.  That was very apparent to me as a young mother and even more apparent when it really got tough raising a teenager. But it also became painfully apparent when I became an entrepreneur. Then, someone,…
Andy Dolich
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Andy Dolich S.O. What! Success Story

It seems like it was just yesterday that I landed my first job out of college. It was with the Memphis Grizzlies in their inaugural season in Memphis. Well, it was actually 20 years ago. But I remember so many details very vividly including…