The Origin Story
Before there was a company, there was a promise.
Journey Began is the memoir behind this company. Clear, Bright & Smart Diversified Holdings did not begin with a business plan — it began with a young woman who boarded a bus in 1957 carrying a brown paper bag and a borrowed pair of shoes, and a grandson who promised to write it all down. That promise became a book. The book became a foundation.
The Foundation
A company built on a family's grit.
Every business has an origin story. Most are about a market gap or a clever idea. This one is about a grandmother. In 1957, Dorothy Bell Hunt left Dawson, Georgia, for Miami with her children, a brown paper bag, and a borrowed pair of shoes. She had a third-grade education, a deep faith, and a refusal to quit. Out of almost nothing, she built a family that would stretch across five generations.
That same grit is the operating philosophy behind Clear, Bright & Smart Diversified Holdings. The company was built the way she built everything — patiently, without outside investors, reinvesting what it earned, and refusing to give up when things got hard. The discipline isn't borrowed from a business school. It's inherited.
Founder Eddrick Trumpler spent decades collecting and preserving the family's history. When his grandmother asked him to write her story down so the world could hear it, he made a promise. Journey Began is the keeping of that promise — and the honest account of how that same inheritance of grit built the businesses you see today.
The Book
Journey Began
Journey Began: Carrying a Brown Paper Bag and a Borrowed Pair of Shoes is the debut memoir by founder Eddrick Javon Trumpler. It traces five generations of one family — from a man born to enslaved parents in southwest Georgia, through a cotton field, to a hospice bed in Miami Gardens — and the grandson who built a business from nothing while keeping the promise to tell it.
It is part memoir, part honest field guide for anyone trying to build something from scratch with more grit than capital. Faith and works. Starting over. The discipline that compounds. The same values that run through this company run through every page.
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"She built a family across five generations with a borrowed pair of shoes. She never had capital. What she had was grit and a refusal to quit — and it turned out that was the part that mattered."
— From Journey BeganFrom Page to Practice
How the story shapes the company.
i.
Build From Nothing
No outside investors. No inheritance. Each division of the holding company earns its own way and grows on what it can genuinely afford — the same way the family was built, one deliberate step at a time.
ii.
Faith and Works
The family theology was simple: take it to prayer, then get up and do the work. That belief — that effort has to meet faith halfway — is the discipline behind how every brand here is run.
iii.
Keep the Promise
The book exists because a grandmother asked her family to write it down, and someone finally did. Following through — on promises, on customers, on the slow work — is the company's first principle.
Frequently Asked
About the book.
What is the book Journey Began about?
Journey Began is a memoir by Eddrick Javon Trumpler that traces five generations of his family, beginning with his grandmother Dorothy Bell Hunt's 1957 bus ride from Dawson, Georgia, to Miami. It is a true story of faith, perseverance, and building a business from nothing.
Who wrote Journey Began?
Journey Began was written by Eddrick Javon Trumpler, the founder of Clear, Bright & Smart Diversified Holdings. He spent decades preserving his family's history before writing the memoir as a tribute to his grandmother, Dorothy Bell Hunt.
How is the book connected to the company?
The book is the origin story of the company. Clear, Bright & Smart Diversified Holdings was built on the same values found in Journey Began: building from nothing, faith paired with hard work, and following through on a promise. The memoir is the foundation the company was built on.
Where can I buy Journey Began?
Journey Began is available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook on Amazon, and through the author's website at eddricktrumpler.com. The paperback is $24.99 and the eBook is $9.99.
Read the Story
Five generations of grit. One promise kept.
Read the memoir that became the foundation for everything here — available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook, and on the author's website.
Reading on a tablet or e-reader? Get the eBook on Apple Books, Kobo, Nook & more.