Brownie Wise

By Evie

Have you ever used those handy plastic containers, like the Tupperware ones that you put your lunch, snack, or whatever you want in? Today, I will be telling you about the fantastic saleswoman Brownie Wise. As you might be wondering, what does she have anything to do with those containers? Well, I guess you’re about to find out!

Brownie Wise was born on May 25, 1913. Her parents named her Brownie May Humphrey, but she later got married and took her husband’s last name. Brownie Wise had a rough life at first. Her parents divorced when she was two, and her mother took care of her. When she was an adult she married, but her husband was quite violent, usually drunk, and an awful person, so after having one child, she divorced. Brownie worked at Stanley Home Products, and eventually, she wanted to work as an executive for the company. But when she asked, the founder of the company, Frank Beveridge told her not to “waste her time”, so she left. Her exceptional skills caught the attention of Earl Tupper, who invited her to work for his company, Tupperware.

Brownie would often have “Tupperware parties”, which were the only places you could buy Tupperware, and if you bought it, you might feel like it’s a little bit special, because you got a very likeable and popular product at the only place you could. At these parties, Brownie would often fill a Tupperware container with ridiculously messy soup, tightly close the container... and throw it at one of the splendidly dressed ladies, though it was usually the hostess, but the container never spilled, so Brownie’s trick never failed, and purchases were always successful. From then on, Brownie had a long, lovely, and luxurious life... and then one day, she was randomly fired, so she tried to start her own company, Cinderella International, but it was unsuccessful and shut down a year later. then died after a long illness September 24th, 1992, in Kissimmee, Florida.

I think she was an inspirational, positive, hard-working, clever lady who had a great life, at least up until she was fired, but still! Even after everything she had gone through, she still fought hard to have a good business and keep working hard! (Plus, now you know what she has to do with Tupperware).

Sources


Wikipedia, Jodi Delaney,  https://www.shreveporttimes.com detroithistorical.org

Phil Knight

 

By Charlie

You know how you have to take out the trash and you just do it?  Well do you?  Well that's Nike for you.  part of their biggest campaign ever "Just do it." so tell me is Nike better than Adidas?  I would say the big N is better - because I am the founder, Phil Knight.

I was determined to be the best at a very young age.  I am a very competitive person and I am not embarrassed to say that because that only makes you better.  At a young age I always liked to run but I never thought it was going to be part of my life.  Fast forward, I'm at the University of Oregon, I had a scholarship for being a track and field athlete, and I was going to go to the Olympics but I decided to not and go back to partner up with my former track and field coach.  We started Blue Ribbon Sports and we were selling shoes out of a van.  Our first shoe was the Moon Shoe.  It was a normal shoe on top but the soles were very futuristic-looking I guess.  The soles were made from a waffle iron and it started from there.  

Now, it took us a long time but we were finally sort of popular.  I branched off into Nike, with Swoosh Inc. And that is where my career absolutely skyrocketed.  The first sign we were going to do with the NBA was for three players.  Once of my employees-slash-very good friends of mine was thinking we should only sign one player and that was Michael Jordan.  I was hesitant at first but I slowly realized that this was an extraordinarily awesomely amazingly good idea.  I mean, I am talking Albert Einstein level.  Jordan made my company billions, and we made him billions.  

Fast forward even more and Nike has blown up in every single continent except Antarctica.  Well, actually, scratch that.  Scientists in Antarctica have probably worn Nike.  At least I hope so.  I am 85 now and everyone has all of my shoes going everywhere every time any way.  Now, personally, my favorite Nikes are (disclaimer, you may not know all of these so don't feel bad) the Ben & Jerry's Dunks, the Dior high-tops, the Moneybag Dunks, Supreme Air Force Ones, and that's just a few.  Over my career, I did a lot of work with the Mak-a-Wish Foundation and donated a lot of money to charity.  I only donated $5 Million, but you only need $5 million to make about one million people happy.  Today Nike has more brand deals and shoes and charity work and branches of products just waiting to happen.  

Last but not least, I have had a good life doing what I love.  

Elon Musk

BY: Declyn

Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, but people say Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world,

Elon Musk has been trying to buy twitter. Elon has 8 kids his first kid Nevada died of sudden death infant syndrome.

Elon Musk is the founder of Tesla Motor company. He built electric cars. Yes, the things they are made of are bad for the earth.

But they are also good because they do not have gasoline. And I chose Elon musk, because I could not think of anybody else.

Also, his Net Worth is 264.6 billion dollars (about $810 per person in the US). He was born on June 28, 1971, in South Africa. He also sold almost 11 million dollars to Google for Tesla. I chose Elon Musk because he was not born in a rich family and his job was as a logger and he is still alive. 

sources’ Wikipedia

Ole Kirk Christiansen

By Lee

Ole was the founder of the Lego company. Lego is a combination of two Danish words Leg Godt meaning “play well.” He was the 10th son of a family.  

On April 7th, 1891 in South Jutland in Denmark, Ole was born. In 1905 he got his first job as an assistant for his brother. His second job, which he moved to Germany, was a carpenter where he worked there for about 5 years. Ole then bought the Billund carpentry shop with his own money. 

Ole married the daughter of a Norwegian cheese maker, Kristine Sorenson. Together, they had four children. In 1924 two of their children were making wood shavings in the factory when a fire started burning their home and the shop. In 1930, his business fell in the Great Depression, only allowing his company to make Christmas tree stands and toys. 

Ole bought a new company after his last worker was dismissed and his wife died. In 1947, Ole bought a self-molding machine and started making the bricks in 1958. In 1958, he died of a heart attack on March 11th, 1958. 

Sources:  

Wikipedia 

https://www.famousinventors.org/ole-kirk-christiansen 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5xLRj035BI 

I researched Ole because I love the Lego products and the amount of different bricks that we have today.