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Famous Amos Cookies

“It’s important to start … start from right where you are.”
—Wally Amos

Wally Amos is one of the most renowned black entrepreneurs in America. He calls himself the “Jackie Robinson of the theatrical business.” It was Amos who “discovered” Simon and Garfunkel in a Manhattan club. Amos promoted talent at the William Morris Agency until he discovered something better. A friend dropped by one night with a batch of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, and they were so tasty that Amos wanted to know how to make them himself. Simple—the recipe was on a bag of Nestle’s chocolate chips. Amos’s promoter mind went crazy. He had “discovered” something big. After months of making cookies for all his friends, and perfecting the recipe to make it his own, Amos was ready to let the world in on his new discovery.

It was opening day in Hollywood, California. Two thousand people had been sent special invitations. A red carpet decorated the sidewalk. Celebrities arrived in limousines. Music was playing and champagne was flowing. It was the grand debut of “Famous” Amos’s first chocolate chip cookie store. Amos promoted his cookies nationwide, marketing them to exclusive department stores and specialty shops. Within five years, annual sales of Famous Amos cookies reached $5 million. Not everyone can afford a car phone, a Rolls Royce, a penthouse, diamonds, or jewelry. But almost everyone can afford a chocolate chip cookie.

Consider This: What’s out there waiting to be “discovered”? Look around. It may be the simplest, everyday thing that you can make the “best in the world.”

Library Resources

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A Good Conscience More Than Liberty

John Bunyan, being apprehended on the charge of “devilishly and perniciously abstaining from coming to church to hear Divine service, and of being a common upholder of several unlawful meetings and conventicles, to the great disturbance and distraction of the good subjects of this kingdom, contrary to the laws of our sovereign lord, the king,” would have been discharged if he had simply promised not to speak any more in the name of Jesus. “But,” said Bunyan, “I told him (the judge) as to this matter I was at a point with him; for if I was out of prison today, I would preach the Gospel tomorrow, by the help of God.” The result was on one hand twelve years in Bedford jail, and on the other, The Pilgrim’s Progress, with its immeasurable honor to the writer, and blessing to the world.