Progress!!

I am going to start posting periodical items about American success stories. It's needed in this cynical time of snarkiness, general malais, and boohooing going on in our country. I do not consider myself a follower, but there is no harm in learning from people who worked their butts off to find personal and public success. I like to learn about these people, and it inspires me to be positive and pass along any information that might inspire someone else!! Learn, live long, and prosper...

On July 19, 2010, this man passed away, leaving a successful chain franchise behind as his legacy. He was 81 and passed away in Memphis, TN still offering his assisted living facility director, Frank Gattuso unsolicited business advice. "Every day" Gattuso says smiling.

He was a New Yorker who served in the Navy, ran a deli, managed real estate and then moved to Memphis in 1970. He attended barber school, got a job at a barbershop and soon bought it, turning it into Fantastic Sam's. By 1976, he started franchising it across the country.

He was a hard person to work for at times, requiring store franchisees to sacrifice time and money in order to succeed. Noone believed in an "all family" barber shop, but then again, that's how he succeeded - he was the first to offer such a novel idea. He also believed in company wide training, so that every stylist knew how to do the same cuts...from Phoenix to Pensacola.

Janie Holland, a training supervisor who knew him personally, said of this progressive thinker - "I learned from him. You learn to be fearless."

Fantastic Sam's Hair Salons came from the imagination of one Sam Ross.

Thanks for the inspiration, Sam!!