OF I NTEREST P H E N O M E N AL WOM AN, THAT IS S HE By Anissa Brown
It’s a question that stumps us all: “How would you describe yourself?” If you ask motivational speaker and C-suite executive Scharrell Jackson, she’ll say overachiever. When we sat down to talk to her, however, another word came to mind: badass. Tough, uncompromising, formidable, excellent. That sounds about right. On a candid trip down memory lane, we discovered that this dynamic woman with a dynamite aura went through many obstacles to become the woman she is today. Born on January 10 in Los Angeles to a teenage mother, Scharrell had a rough childhood. She heard the words that would shape her entire way of being, words no child should hear. “I never wanted kids anyway,” said her mother. Combined with an absentee father who struggled with substance abuse, it pushed her to earn love by any means necessary. She would go above and beyond to gain that love and affection.
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Photos courtesy of Scharrell Jackson
“What I heard and believed was that I wasn’t good enough,” she says. She wasn’t always a confident person, but she always strived for more. An overachiever, if you will. ____ Always with a mind for money, Scharrell started saving up dimes for 45 RPM records — she loved music. She applied that critical thinking and drive in every facet of her life, from her high school job preparing financial statements to UCLA and its highly competitive Anderson MBA program. While taking 18 units in college, she held bookkeeping jobs for small business owners in property management and construction. And when she graduated at 21, she was already in management. She landed in professional
