As the student success movement has come of age at America's community colleges, much effort has gone into state-level reforms coupled with college-level efforts, on the theory that relying on individual institutions alone to bring change at scale across states and the nation will take too long and cost too much. But if centralized authority is essential, the student success agenda is in peril. Most states exercise little direct control over their community colleges, instead delegating authority to local and county government. That is why Michigan--the quintessential "non-system" state--is of such great interest. Its 28 community colleges enjoy complete administrative independence, lacking even a state higher education executive officer to whom reports would be formally submitted. Perhaps the most important driver of Michigan's commitment to student success has been Achieving the Dream, a national nonprofit leading the nation's most comprehensive nongovernmental reform network for student success in higher education history. This is the story of how seven Michigan colleges that joined Achieving the Dream in its early years sought to realize the promise of student success in their classrooms, and how their hard-won lessons influenced peers and gelled into strategic statewide actions with support from the Michigan Community College Association. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures and 6 endnotes.)