What was wally amos childhood like

Like many successful entrepreneurs, he did not complete high school. In , he was stock clerk at Saks Fifth Avenue, hired for the Christmas holidays only. He was asked to stay on, promoted to supply manager, and sent to New York University to study retailing and merchandising. After his request for a raise was denied, Amos left Saks to become a trainee with the William Morris Agency. John D. Rockefeller was the head of the Standard Oil Company and one of the world's richest men.

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Megan Thee Stallion —. Bowen Yang —. While Famous Amos soon lived up to its name, thriving for nearly a decade, the company's founder lost control of his business. When he sold Famous Amos in , Wally Amos lost more than a company. When the dust settled, he was barred from using his identity or his face to sell cookies.

Always the survivor, Amos started a new company in , this time selling freshly baked muffins and cakes. He eventually returned to Famous Amos as a "director of cookie fun," and travels the country lecturing on how to overcome misfortune and concentrate on the positive aspects of life. When you were born or when you died is not nearly as important as what you did in between—what you put in that dash.

What have you put in your dash? Wallace Amos Jr. Aunt Della loved to cook and bake, and it was she who gave Wally Amos his first chocolate chip cookie.

This simple, affectionate act had lasting consequences in the life of the young boy, who eventually went on to make his living from fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.

When his mother and grandmother came to New York, Amos moved in with them in He enrolled in a trade high school specializing in cooking, and had a job as a cook after school. But Amos became restless and dropped out of school just months before graduation, signing up for the U.

Air Force in During his four years in the military, he finished his high school education. Although he was hired to work in the mail room and to do some janitorial work, Amos got noticed by the upper management because he was willing to do things that were not part of his job description.

Before long he had worked his way up to secretary for Howard Hausman, an executive vice president at the agency. After Amos discovered two young musicians named Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel and convinced them to sign with William Morris, he was promoted again and became their agent.

For several years, life was very good for Amos. He had also started baking small chocolate chip cookies to give to clients and friends as a way of saying hello or thank you. He brought them to meetings and gatherings, always getting enthusiastic praise. Although Wally Amos was introduced to chocolate chip cookies by his Aunt Delia and her old-fashioned recipe, when Amos started his own business he used a recipe by Ruth Wakefield, who is credited with inventing chocolate chip cookies at her Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, in the s.

This is also how Toll House brand cookies got their start. In , Amos decided to leave William Morris and launch his own talent agency. Yet Amos grew tired of showbiz and being an agent and by , he was looking for something new.

That something was baking cookies. Amos started baking to console himself, since cookies always made him feel better. In the back of his mind, however, he considered the idea of selling his cookies. Because he had little money, Amos almost abandoned the idea. Instead, he started thinking of ways to promote his business.

As a man who had made his living promoting other people as an agent, he used his background to come up with ways to sell cookies. He wrote up a business plan and approached some of his famous friends including singers Helen Reddy and Marvin Gaye, who each contributed to his start-up funds.