In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.
She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.
The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.
She handed out the checks herself.
In 1989 she offered $500 to every kid in the county who wanted to go to the local college.
When Gatlinburg burned in 2016, she sent 900 families $1,000 a month for six months.
You've probably heard that part.
Here's the part you haven't:
The fund raised more than expected, so she showed up in May and handed every one of those families another $5,000 on top.
Then she quietly put $3 million into the recovery group that handles the years after the news trucks leave.
She built her county an entire hospital.
She played a benefit concert in 2007, Dollywood and the Stampede matched it, and LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 with a birthing unit and a women's center in it.
In 2022 she started covering 100% of tuition, books, and fees for Dollywood employees.
Full-time, part-time, AND seasonal.
In 1991 she paid for a bald eagle sanctuary because the birds couldn't be released back into the wild, no press release.
And when Hurricane Helene came through here in Western North Carolina, she wrote a personal check for $1 million and her companies matched it.
She didn't owe North Carolina anything, but she helped us anyway.
She started the Imagination Library because her daddy couldn't read or write. Before he passed, he told her it was the most important thing she ever did.
Rest in Peace, Dolly 🇺🇸
Man to man
The average milionaire is 57.
Not 21.
The average age to start a business is 43.
Not 23.
The average age to buy a house is 38.
Not 26.
The average age for a career pivot is 39.
Not 25.
Building animpressive physique takes 3 years.
Not 90 days
The average successful business takes 5-10 years.
Not 6 months.
So stop measuring your life against someone else's timeline.
You're not behind. You're still bulding. And you're right on time.
CHAD OCHOCINCO REALLY MADE DEION SANDERS LOG OFF THE ZOOM.
“What if I get mad that you routed Travis up and I put my cleats on?”
“Man, you can’t do nothing with eight toes.”
One of the funniest trios of all time together.
He told his Michigan players that if they were in a position where abortion was on the table he would raise the kid for them.
That ladies and gentlemen is a man.
Adopted kid here.
Pretty happy my mother gave me up for adoption rather than murder me.
Crazy we live in a time where murder over life is considered “ethical“.