“Don't bite off more than you can chew because nobody looks attractive spitting it back out.” – Carroll Bryant
When millions face starvation on a hurricane-stricken island, it’s probably best not to leave the emergency food service contract to someone named Tiffany.
Inexplicably, the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded a $156 million contract to an Atlanta woman named Tiffany Brown after Hurricane Maria leveled Puerto Rico in September 2017.
Brown, now 45, promised her company, Tribute Contracting could deliver 10 million self-heating meals per day to the devastated U.S. island territory using 210 trucks she didn’t have.
FEMA either overlooked or failed to discover that Brown:
Had no experience providing disaster relief.
Had bungled at least five federal contracts in the past that all had to be canceled.
Employed only one person: her.
Was prone to shameless self-promotion and hyperbole.
In addition to running Tribute Contracting, Brown touted her own fashion company. She wrote self-published books and billed herself as a keynote speaker. On social media she described herself as “A Diva, Mogul, Author, Idealist with scars to prove it.”
But FEMA was in a pinch. So it was super woman with her minority-owned business to the rescue.
(And before anyone starts reveling in all this “go woke, go broke” tripe, please remember that this staggering FEMA folly occurred under President Donald Trump’s first term. And besides, like the president, Brown also launched her own crypto token.)
[[Don’t Miss: The Business Blunders Hall of Shame.]]]
Brown planned to contract help. That’s how she was going to do this. One company she hired was a wedding caterer with 11 employees who freeze-dried wild mushrooms and rice, chicken and rice, and vegetable soup.
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