By Chris Yow
Editor
CLAY — Best-selling author and motivational speaker Brandon Maye spoke this morning to a lunchroom full of 8th grade students at Clay-Chalkville Middle School.
The message was simple, success is attainable despite circumstance.
Maye said he was born into a family that lived in a neighborhood that wasn’t conducive to building character and becoming a successful person, but he worked hard to eventually make his way to college on a full scholarship to play football at Clemson University. His back story includes a father who died when Maye was only two years old. His mother worked as a nurse to provide for his family, but he lived in a 2-bedroom home with 15 people, he said.
Students listened as he spoke about how he struggled in college to adapt to the differences of life in Clemson, S.C., from his hometown of Mobile, Ala.
Maye has several clients who he speaks to regularly, including several college and universities.