Phillip Sheppard

A Capstone Submitted to the Faculty of Pepperdine University, Graziadio Business School

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of

Master of Business Administration

December 9, 2023

147 Pages 🪶

P.S. The 147th President's and Key Executives MBA (PKE147) course taught at Pepperdine University. Therefore serendipitously, the paper 📜 was 147 pages. 😎 The Specialist

Mr. Smith’s father, Abram Smith, was born into slavery during the Civil War in Virginia, and was 70 when his much younger wife, Clara, gave birth to Daniel in 1932. While it is impossible to know for certain whether Daniel Smith was the last living child of an enslaved person, historians who have studied his generation say they do not know of any others.

Mr. Smith, a retired federal employee, liked to say that he led a quiet, unexciting life. Yet he also joked that he was a bit like a “Black Forrest Gump”: He attended the March on Washington in 1963; crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965; and stood in the audience to watch Barack Obama take his first oath of office as president in 2009.

His father also linked him to some of the darkest times in #American history

“I remember hearing about two slaves who were chained together at the wrist and tried to run away,” Mr. Smith told The Economist in 2021, recounting his father’s stories. “They were found by some vicious dogs hiding under a tree, and hanged from it.” @nytimes-article

https://nyti.ms/3FD1YSA #AfricanAmerican #CriticalAmerucanHistory #slaves #America

"Phillip Sheppard The Specialist’s The Russian Job is a sophisticated spy novel that digs deep into today’s global and political issues. It touches on redemption, hope, and reassurance that evil cannot prevail."

Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/6IDs607

Motivation

“What is the fear of living? It’s being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself- for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good.” —Maya Angelou

#AManAboutTown

"Yifat say goodbye, but as the door shut, I listened to a light sob linger behind me. Gulping down my guilt, I walked through the empty hallway to get to my room, which was only a few rooms away from Yifat’s. As I reached the door, I took out my key card to enter… Something held me back.

My hands started to shiver, and I felt a daze take over me. No! I couldn’t do this to her. Placing my key card back in my pocket, I rushed back to Yifat’s room and knocked on the door. She took some time in opening the door, but when she did, I found her to be in a mess, and my heart only sunk deeper; unchanged, but hair in a disheveled stray, eyes puffed up, and voice raspy from the weeps. “Specialist, did you forget something?”

I took in a deep breath, “you know why I am at the position in this game where I am today?” “Are you looking for validation at this hour?” She groaned. “I’m too tired, Sheppard.” I ignored her complaint. “It is because I don’t falter from my word... ever! People who come to me for help, and then come again, they do so with the blind faith that if I committed to helping them, I will... no matter the cost; small or grand, I’ll simply honor my commitment.”

Yifat slumped her shoulders in frustration, “what are you saying? It’s way too late for puzzles.” “I’m saying that I gave your family my word. I made a commitment to you that I would rescue your father, and that is exactly what I’m going to do.” I said, influencing a stunned reaction out of Yifat. “I’ll figure out how to stop the attack later. Helping you save your father still remains my priority... No matter the cost. I am all in.” The Russian Job