This past Friday I had the honor of hosting an important and inspiring Leaders Connect, Celebrate Black History Month: Achieving Success in Multicultural America featuring Reggie Barnett and David Tarver. Reggie and David spoke about their experience from growing up in Flint, MI and achieving success in their careers. In honor of the classic song by Michigan’s own Stevie Wonder, they called their presentation, ’Pastime Paradise’. They spoke about what it was about growing up in Flint, Michigan that fueled the success of these two African American men and so many of their peers. How things have changed in Flint and else in urban America and what has to happen to make things better for minority youth in the future?
To view their thoughtful and inspiring presentation, click here.
Join us as we explore these issues in this week’s Dr. Rob.
Below you can read some of the absolutely wise advice they graciously shared with the group.
Reggie Barnett’s Words of Advice:
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You never know who along the way is going to help you.
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To find the best opportunity for yourself, your family, and future generations, you have to ask yourself, “where is the best place for me to live now to better myself, better my family, and find better opportunity”.
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Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. To succeed you have to dedicate yourself and put in the hard work.
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When you have the spirit to be an entrepreneur, do not settle for less. Put yourself out there and on doing what you dream of achieving.
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While you need to look at winners of your color and ethnicity for your role models, you must also remember you have to navigate through the system to become a winner yourself.
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There’s no such thing as one winner. There are always multiple winners, and with more winners, there is more opportunity to grow.
David Tarver’s Words of Advice:
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When families and children have access to opportunities, people generally do well.
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When people genuinely care, it makes a tremendous difference.
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It’s worthwhile to look and choose a place to live where you can be fed intellectually, professionally, and where your family and children can have access to opportunity
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Apprenticeships are very crucial for young individuals to get involved. Bring on young people for internships or apprenticeships so they can gain experience in the field you are in.
Check out David’s Urban Entrepreneurship Initiative organization and his latest book release Proving Ground: A Memoir.
Coming Up
Michigan Leaders Connect Community Read
Buy and read your books now to be ready for the author lead discussions of these two important books on leadership by Michigan based authors.
Richard Sheridan will present his book Chief Joy Officer on Friday, April 22 from 8:00am-9:00am
John U. Bacon will present his book Let Them Lead on Friday, June 3 from 8:00am-9:00am
Chief Joy Officer
By Richard Sheridan
Author of Joy, Inc.
Rich Sheridan’s Joy, Inc. told the story of how his small yet renowned software company in Ann Arbor, Michigan achieved success and renown by embracing offbeat culture and human-centered values. In Chief Joy Officer, he turns his attention from culture to leadership, and draws on his experience running Menlo Innovations and consulting elsewhere to offer a wise, provocative guide on how anyone can build leadership capacity for joy within their own organization. Chief Joy Officer offers sage, hard-won advice to any manager or leader who yearns to make more of an impact on the lives of others.
Filled with colorful anecdotes from Sheridan’s personal journey and wisdom from many leadership mentors, Chief Joy Officer offers an approachable, down-to-earth philosophy and practice that will help even the most disillusioned of middle managers bring a renewed sense of purpose to their work building others.
Let Them Lead
By John U. Bacon
New York Times Bestselling Author
UNEXPECTED LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP FROM AMERICA’S WORST HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY TEAM
An uplifting leadership book about a coach who helped transform the nation’s worst high school hockey team into one of the best. Bacon’s strategy is straightforward: set high expectations, make them accountable to each other, and inspire them all to lead their team.