D O N O R P R O F I L E
IT STARTED WITH A 5-CENT BAG OF PEANUTS
L
70 artsLife | FALL 2018
FOR COURTLY LEONARD WILLIAMS,
HIS HUMBLE BEGINNINGS MAKE
GIVING BACK ALL THAT MUCH SWEETER.
BY RANDY NOLES
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thropist you read about too often these days. He was
attend college. As a teenager, he became a route
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ed working-class diners, service stations and generalmerchandise
stores.
Williams reasoned that talking up toasted peanuts,
bite-sized cheese crackers and barbecued potato chips to
friendly backroads merchants would be preferable to toiling in
the Cannon Mills textile plant, where most of his peers wound
up — and which employed his parents.
“My most important goal in life was to become a good salesman,”
says Williams. “The most important lesson I learned was
to tell the truth about your product. Everything else works out.”