Inside Great Minds

KIPP and the Grameen Bank

I have recently read two inspirational biographies about social reforms in two different societies. The first was “Work Hard. Be Nice,” which is about the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools. Started by Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg fifteen years ago, KIPP has grown from one classroom of Hispanic 4th graders in Houston, Texas to 66 schools in 15 states around the nation. The pupils of the KIPP schools have consistently increased their test scores and have routinely outperformed other students from more traditional backgrounds. The KIPP students are usually low-income minority students from impoverished neighborhoods and have been abandoned by the U.S. educational system.

The second book I read was titled “Banker to the Poor,” which is an autobiography by a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, and is based on the creation of his Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Originally conceived in 1976, Grameen specialized in lending small sums of money to the poorest individuals in Bangladesh in order for them to start their own businesses with the end goal of helping people break the generational cycle of poverty. Although Yunus was told by established banks within the region that his proposal could not work, Yunus has grown Grameen to have over 7.84 million borrowers and has given out $8 billion since its inception. Grameen currently has a 98% repayment rate, which outperforms most traditional banks. Furthermore, Grameen’s borrowers are 97% women in a country where women’s rights are severely lacking.

Obstacles of Social Change

When comparing the inspirational stories of KIPP and Grameen, there were two main obstacles that both organizations faced that troubled me and therefore, provide us an opportunity for learning and development. The first is the high level of resistance the leaders faced when attempting to implement positive change within the system. The administrators of the system were comfortable with the status quo and had deeply formed negative opinions about people who were not financially well off. Over time, those implicit attitudes carried by the system administrators transformed into social laws and life truths. Whether it was the belief that poor kids could not learn or poor people would not pay back loans without collateral, these thoughts were systematically rooted within the social system.

What disturbed me more than the beliefs of the administrators were the negative thoughts that the students’ families and Bangladeshi women believed about themselves. Yunus gave multiple examples of how many of the Bangladeshi women would not even speak to him about applying for a loan because they were content with the current social structure.  The women would say things like, “My husband handles the money and has always handled the money. I have never touched money and I don’t want to start now!” In reality, however, the men were doing a poor job of managing the finances.

Our minds have been conditioned to believe in a very narrow scope on what is possible and what is not possible, which is one of the main causes of oppression. This type of mental oppression is not only caused when one group enforces their will upon another group. It also occurs when people are compromised by the systems in which they interact and therefore, people begin to develop a warped sense of what is possible due to the memory decay over time. The second case is usually inadvertent, but has negative consequences none the less.

To illustrate, let’s take an example from The Chapelle Show, a comedy skit television show created by Dave Chappelle. There was a segment called “Charlie Murphy True Hollywood Stories” where Charlie would relive old stories from the 1980’s that he had from hanging out with his brother, the comedian and actor, Eddie Murphy. Charlie told a story about when Rick James came over to Eddie’s house inebriated to hang out. When Rick James arrived, he sat on Eddie’s newly purchased white sofa and rubbed his muddy shoes all over it just to irritate Eddie. Now, imagine one of your friends coming over your house in the rain and as he/she was rushing in to avoid getting wet, he muddied up your carpet. The motives of the individuals in the above examples are different, however, you are left with the same result . . . a messy house.

The Perpetual Cycle of the Oppression Machine

In the beginning, outside forces fuel the oppression machine, but after a while, it becomes self-sustaining. There are many facets that help the machine to work smoothly. The first component is the individual in perceived power and authority that benefits from keeping the status quo. The religious leaders who told the Bangladeshi women that they would go to hell if they borrowed money from the Grameen bank fit into this category. The democratic political leaders who told Barack Obama to wait his turn to run for the U.S. Presidency behind Hillary Clinton also come to mind. They gain their power by inducing fear into others and they abuse power for selfish ambitions. Although powerful, this group only encompasses a small percentage of the oppression process.

The second component is the individual who understands change is needed but does nothing. There are three reasons this individual does not pursue change. The first reason is that the individual is afraid of what might happen to him if he upsets the status quo of society. The second reason is that the will to doubt is lacking because he/she assumes that societal conventions must have a firm foundation since these conventions have been followed by so many people over a long period of time. The third reason is that the individual may not see himself as a pioneer of change.

The third component of the oppression machine is not a type of person, but systems based upon faulty assumptions. This happens when tools originally designed to solve a certain problem transform into the actual end goal. An example of this phenomenon is the importance of collateral in the Grameen Bank case. Having collateral from a borrower is a great way to guarantee a loan, but it is not the end goal. The end goal is to have the borrower pay you back. Often, when we find a solution that works relatively well and we think our job is done. Therefore, we stop searching for better solutions. Over time, the needs of the system changes and we are stuck with the outdated solutions.

When we combine all of these forces, we create a super villain of social stagnation that wreaks havoc on progress. In my mind, I picture it in Capitan Planet like style, except he does not come out and save the day. Instead, a villain is revealed and ruins it.

Remedies for Social Stagnation

Although the problem may seem bleak, all is not lost. Each and every one of us has the power to break these mental bonds in order to achieve personal greatness and make major changes in society. There are five key traits that I noticed while reading about the Grameen Bank, KIPP, and many other organizations who have revolutionized systems for the better.

Trait 1: Passion for Progress and a Vision of a Better Future.

Individuals who lead great movements almost always have a deep passion for the work in which they are involved. In Yunus’ case, he could not imagine living in a world where society would not loan $40 to 27 women to help them break the cycle of poverty. Levin and Feinberg’s passion was to help students learn this same concept, especially those students in which society had already abandoned. All of us have things that we are passionate about. It is much easier to align our future to the items in which we are passionate, than to contort ourselves to fit in an area in which we are unable to fit. Could you imagine Michael Jordan not as a basketball player? Warren Buffett not as an investor? Martin Luther King not as a voice of a movement? Albert Einstein not as a scientist? Think about what motivates you and align your life towards those goals.

Trait 2: Question Underlying Assumptions

The leaders I have studied questioned underlying assumptions about how things HAD to work and experimented with new ideas that differed from the status quo. As mentioned earlier about the third component of the oppression machine, tools that were used to implement end goals actually became the ultimate goals themselves.

The characteristic above happens in all types of business and social movements. Underlying assumptions are perceived not as assumptions, but as facts of life. Therefore, it is more difficult to identify and challenge them. Some of the myths that I commonly hear when I advise people on entrepreneurship: “It takes money to make money,” “Adding more people will make the project go faster.” “All customers are created equal.” “Profit is all that matters in business.” Most of the things that I mentioned here are half-truths, but have one or more fatal flaws in them.

It is easy to become complacent when we find a solution that is better than our current situation. I urge you not to become too hasty with the discovery process because there could be better solutions right up the horizon. Evaluating all of your options and not hastily implementing the option that looks to be the best fit at first glance is critically important. If Yunus would have succumbed to the status quo of banks, then the strategy of using social peer pressure among poor borrowers would have never been discovered.

Trait 3: Set High Expectations for the Entire System

Yunus and the KIPP founders set high expectations for themselves as well as everyone else who was involved in the process. This is important for two reasons. First, expectations are the source of reference in which success is measured. If you continuously work towards reaching lofty goals, chances are you will make more significant progress compared to mediocre goals. An old saying that illustrates this point is “if you shoot for the starts, you will at least hit the moon.”

Second, high expectations are needed throughout the entire system because a failure in one part of the system leads to the entire system not reaching its potential. You often see innovative companies working with their suppliers to improve the entire system of manufacturing their product. It would be easier for the company to focus solely on issues within their walls, but what type of real improvements would be made if they did that? The same principle is applied whether you are talking about educating kids or giving micro loans to poor people. If the entire system is not effectively moving towards the same goal, then progress will be slowed.

When I fall into the trap of setting low expectations for myself, it usually has to do with one reason and that is self-confidence. It is natural for us as humans to feel a little scared when we have tried something before and have failed at the task. However, we need to realize that there is a high level of failure when we shoot for high goals and separate ourselves from the majority of the population.

Trait 4: Create a Culture around Positive Thinking and Achievement

Creating a strong and positive culture within an organization is the most powerful way to influence change. Business school professors often talk about how creating a strong culture is the least expensive and most effective means to influence a team to act in a desired way. A strong culture allows individuals in an organization to manage themselves instead of including another level of institutional management. The ridicule and praise, acceptance and rejection of our fellow beings can do more to effect change than any other source.

The effects of a positive culture are not only useful in the business world, but also in any type of situation where people interact with each other on a consistent basis. Instead of ignoring or denying the power that humans have over one another, we should leverage this power to make positive changes within communities. Yunus accomplished this with the Grameen Bank by only making loans to teams of women, instead of individuals. A loan was only approved if the whole team agreed upon the concept. Furthermore, the entire team was responsible if someone in the group defaulted. Imagine what type of commitment from the borrowers that this policy helped to achieve.

To create a positive culture that makes social change, it is important that we encourage one another and praise the accomplishments of the people in the group. Furthermore, it is important that the group holds members accountable for behaviors that are counterproductive to positive change. The term culture on a group level can be equated to habits on an individual level. Therefore, as a member of a movement, make sure to focus on practicing positive habits in your life.

 Trait 5: Take Action

Legendary Hollywood super agent Swifty Lazar said, “Sometimes I wake up in the morning and there’s nothing doing, so I decide to make something happen by lunch.” Having plans are great, but they will be inconsequential until steps are taken to actualize those plans. The discipline to take action is developed over time and is a painful process. At times, I can be one of the biggest procrastinators I know. However, I am at my best when I consistently working towards the goals I have laid out for myself.

Two obstacles usually get in the way when creating positive change. First, we can feel overwhelmed when tackling a major project. We think to ourselves “There is no way that I will ever be able to complete my goal. It’s just too big!” Then, you don’t even start. I’ve been there before many times. It takes a mental mind shift to overcome this obstacle. Many goals and purposes in life do not have an end point, but we are conditioned to think one exists. For example, if your mission is to alleviate world poverty, do not expect to do this by yourself and do not be surprised if the goal is not met in 15 years. Working towards your goal is about the journey, not reaching the end point. Enjoy the journey to the fullest. Also, break your goals down into bite-sized objectives that are more easily managed. This tactic helps me jump start a project and allows me the momentum needed to continue strong throughout the journey.

Secondly, you should be prepared for negative feedback, especially from those who have a vested interest in the status quo. When I started the Great Black Speakers Bureau, I had to face larger competitors who told me that I needed much more experience before I could ever reach their plateau. The best thing to do is listen carefully for real concerns that may actually derail you, try to correct those things, and keep pushing forward as planned. Most of the time, however, you will find the concerns that arise “for your own protection” are based out of a particular fare from the other party. If you are already moving, rarely do most people try to stop you.

Conclusion

There has been no other time in history when an individual can make as much social change around the world as he/she can now. What is needed is for people to have a mental mind shift into believing that they can achieve greatness. This is not an easy task, especially for a society that often pushes the status quo and conditions people to think a certain way about themselves. However, unlocking the benefits of a strong mindset and suppressing negative conditioning can exponentially make the world a better place. Muhammad Yunus and the KIPP founders are not the only ones who can create positive change. Each and every one of us has the same type of potential waiting to be unleashed. The question is “Are we bold enough to unleash it?” I am confident that we are bold enough. I am also confident the generations of the future will soon be leading the world and will leave the world a better place for the future!

Introduction

Last week, CNN aired a special entitled “Black in America – Part 2” profiling the lives of different African-Americans all around the nation. I watched with anticipation as the CNN crew was profiling an organization in which I am affiliated, Management Leadership for Tomorrow (www.ml4t.org). MLT is a program that helps aspiring minority business school applicants attain their dream of attending a top notch business school.  Out of all the underrepresented minorities at Cornell’s business school, well over half went through the rigorous MLT program.

I was on Facebook giving regular status updates about the nostalgia I was feeling from going through the program and bonding with fellow classmates online. Throughout the night, my friends who never heard about the program were like “Wow! You did that! How do I get signed up?” Some of my other friends who have been looking at business school for a while (the same friends who I recommended MLT to for over a year now) said the same thing. “How do I get into that program?” By the end of the night, I had 15 requests from people who wanted to know more information about MLT.

The Unrecognized Pipeline of Talent

Now, the value that MLT provided to its members did not change from before and after the CNN special. It has always been a great program and it will continue to be. It made the process of applying to business school 100 times easier. After thinking about MLT for a while, I started to remember the other educational programs in which I have been involved. Every single one of them have added value to my life at the stage of development that I was in. In fact, I would say that my success to this point has less to do with me and more to do with the pipeline that I have been plugged into and pushed me downstream since the 7th grade. Here is a list of my summer enrichment activities every year since 7th grade:

7th – 8th grade: Lincoln Foundation (http://www.lincolnfdn.org/) – Summer math and science program that gave me a base for learning. They have other programs as well and students through this program earn scholarships for college.

9th – 11th grade: Math and Science for Minority Students (http://www.andover.edu/SUMMERSESSIONOUTREACH/MATHSCIENCE/Pages/default.aspx) – To this day I feel that (MS)2 has been the most important program that I’ve ever done. In fact, graduating from this program meant more to me than graduating from high school. The curriculum is very hard. So hard that what I learned in a 5 week summer session took my high school 75% of the school year to teach me. This is also the program that gave me exposure to a wide array of people and colleges of interest.

12th grade: National Youth Science Camp (http://www.nysc.org/) – A program in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia. That was the best part about it. You would wake up every morning and learn something new and meet different people who had different passions about science. Furthermore, you were also given the opportunity to teach your fellow classmates about things that you knew about on a regular basis. The best part, NO INTERNET!

College freshman – Engineering summer school and Calculus 3. Not fun

Sophomore – Mandatory engineering internship at Ford Motor Company

Junior Year – Summer Venture in Management Program (http://www.hbs.edu/mba/svmp/). – A program at Harvard Business School that gives college students the opportunity to experience what it is like to be in business school. This is where I first heard about investment banking, however, I still don’t know what they do. Here is where I met many great people who will be the future business leaders of America.

Junior Year – LeaderShape (http://www.leadershape.org) – This is where I developed my personal mission statement that I still use today. Very introspective  and enjoyable experience.

2nd Junior Year – Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship (http://www.ppiaprogram.org/programs/). This is when I was deciding whether to go the business route or political route for my future. Since then, I have decided to do both. PPIA is a 6-week summer session where you attend class sessions on policy, economics, and statistics. You attend the “junior summer institute” at one of 5 places around the nation. Same situation as before; lifelong friends and an abundance of learning. An added benefit is their generous financial support for individuals who would like to earn a Master’s in Public Policy.

After College – Management Leadership for Tomorrow

Benefits of Summer Enrichment Programs

There are three main benefits that I got out of spending my summers in the enrichment programs mentioned above. First, you meet likeminded individuals who you click with and learn from. This is probably the greatest benefit of all. Many of the people from these programs I have kept in touch with over close to 10 years. I keep in touch with them better than I do my high school classmates. Second, most of these programs take students through rigorous curriculums. Going to school in the summer time gave me a leg up in the long run over my peers in retaining knowledge learned. Lastly, enrichment programs broaden the horizons of the students who are involved. Through many of these programs, I was able to experience so many things that a normal kid from Kentucky would not have the opportunity to experience. From extreme outdoor adventures to speaking with princes from other countries, these things cannot be undervalued.

How to Leverage these Programs

There is a snow ball effect that happens over time with these programs. One leads to another that leads to another. Therefore, the earlier that you access the pipeline the better. One thing that holds many potential applicants up is the actual application. Similar to applying to college, you will have to write essays and submit letters of recommendations.  This can be tedious at times, but it will be well worth it. Manage your time effectively to make this process less stressful.

To find these programs, Google is a good place to start. Also, look at the links that I have mentioned above and that I will mention below. Most of these programs like to help each other out, therefore they share information. Browse the websites and see if there are any other programs that you like. Here are some other links to help you get started with your search.

LEAD – High school business program: http://www.leadprogram.org/
CLEO – Council for Legal Education Opportunity: http://www.cleoscholars.com/. It’s like the MLT for law school.
PPIA Program Search: http://www.ppiaprogram.org/links/ - Links to other programs with a government, education, and policy focus
MITES: http://web.mit.edu/mites/

Conclusion

As I mentioned earlier, the sooner you can access the network of enrichment programs the better. They have personally made my life much easier educationally and have snowballed into additional opportunities in a broad array of areas. Most of these programs are actively searching for students, so if you can make their jobs easier by being assessable candidates, you will be much more likely to be accepted. Good luck and good learning!

Introduction

I have had great conversations with many potential entrepreneurs this summer. Two questions are asked to me more than any other. The first question is “Where do I start if I want to create my own company?” The second question is “How do you find time to run your company and also attend business school?” I will answer both of these questions in this article as well as explain the power of creating a cloud company which is the next evolution in web entrepreneurship.

It can be difficult at times to run a company and go to school, but it is by no means impossible. I don’t have any superhuman characteristics of endurance like Wolverine or mental abilities like Professor X. In fact, I can be pretty inconsistent at times in regards to my work ethic. I’m also TERRIBLE at doing administrative tasks. The reason why my company has succeeded thus far is that I created an autonomous system that fulfills the needs of the marketplace. It is a simple goal, yet it can be difficult to implement if one doesn’t have a clear framework to think about the situation. My aim is to provide a roadmap so you don’t have to go through the same growing pains as I did. 

The Benefits of Creating an Autonomous System

The ancient Greek scientist Archimedes once said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” The system that I have created is my lever and fulcrum. It allows me to accomplish a lot with much less effort compared to doing everything on my own. When an entrepreneur does everything on her own, she severely limits the growth and viability of the company that she started.  Under the “entrepreneur does everything” scenario, there is a linear relationship between time and money. This means that for every X number of dollars that you earn, you have to work Y number of hours. Therefore, to make extra money, you have to work extra hours. The problem is that there are only so many hours in the day and who wants to spend all of their time working?

Many people gravitate towards the scenario mentioned above because that is what we have been conditioned to think. Before most people become entrepreneurs, they are employees for someone else. As an employee, you usually get paid by the hour or on a salary. To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have a paradigm shift in thinking from a linear to an exponential relationship between money and time. Also, you want to make the relationship between money and time weaker; meaning that you make money whether you are in your office or on a beach in the Caribbean. Creating an effective system is a key step in the paradigm shift. The system should work with or without you.

Creating a Cloud Company

Creating a system is important for any type of company, but the added benefit for web entrepreneurs is the ability to leverage cloud computing. Cloud computing is where the data and software applications for your company are stored on the web through third party vendors. In cloud computing, the web software applications of the different companies “talk” to each other, which further automates your company and simultaneously reduces the need for management. A second benefit of could computing is that it allows an entrepreneur the ability to access their data from any computer or mobile device in the world with an internet connection. This means that you can separate your work from any one physical location. Third, cloud computing reduces the need for large upfront investments, allowing for better cash flow in the early stages of a venture.  If you want to know more about cloud computing check out this short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplXnFUlPmg&feature=related

Six-Step Checklist for Creating Effective Systems

Cloud computing allows an entrepreneur to leverage the internet’s power without being techy. Currently, the important traits needed to build an online company are the ability of implement effective processes and the ability to communicate well with customers. Thankfully for me, I was trained as an engineer and process management has become second nature. However, I have found over time that effective process management can easily be taught to anyone who wants to learn. Below I will take you through the six steps that I follow when creating any new system or company. I will also let you in on some of the tools that I use to pull everything off. Over time, I will write additional articles to go over each part of the checklist in more detail.

Step 1: All Business Starts from Need

I am believer that necessity is the mother of invention. A basic goal of an entrepreneur should be to solve the problems of a consumer while making a profit through the process. There are two major categories of needs: blatant needs and latent needs. Blatant needs are those issues that are obvious to everyone. The first thing that comes to mind is if there was a cure for cancer or hair loss. Latent needs are those dormant problems that we don’t realize need to be solved. Most entrepreneurial ventures are in this realm. For example, I didn’t know I needed an iPod until I actually received one as a present. Try to take my iPod away from me now and see what happens to you! Needs and opportunities are always there. We just have to drive ourselves to find the practical ones that are directly tied to our expected customer base.

Step 2: Create a Strategy that Makes the Competition Irrelevant

Once you understand the needs of the consumer base that you want to serve, next you need to develop an effective strategy to solve the problems that customers face. Strategy class in business school teaches frameworks such as Porter’s Five Forces. The five force framework is intended to provide a clear way for business professionals to determine the competitive intensity and attractiveness of an industry. Although it is useful for analyzing large corporations, it has a major faulty assumption. The underlying assumption is that business has to be competitive and that any change is considered a “threat” to the marketplace. With five forces, it is assumed that business has to be head to head competition (at the very least, that is the way the concept is taught).

From my experience, business is not like war and there are plenty of unfulfilled and profitable markets for potential entrepreneurs to enter. An example is Great Black Speakers’ position within the speaking industry. When I started thinking about the concept in October 2006, there were plenty of bureaus that had a long history of providing high quality speakers to organizations around the world. I also noticed that there weren’t many bureaus focusing specifically on African-American speakers and the college audience. Given that I knew quite a bit of information about both of those subjects, Great Black Speakers was born to serve that market. So, in a crowded industry, there was still a lot of unfulfilled market potential that made the competition irrelevant.

Step 3: Outline Key Tasks and Develop your Execution Plan

Having a strategy is great, but it will mean nothing if you don’t have an effective way to execute it. If your strategy is where you want to go, the execution plan is how you plan to get there. For me this is the fun part and is usually the phase that determines my profits.  Whenever I create a new plan, I put myself in the customer’s shoes and walk through the ideal state on what needs to happen to actually fulfill the customer’s needs. What’s important here is to understand the major tasks that need to happen and in what order to make your strategy successful. Often times, we can get bogged down by the details and lose the forest for the trees. There is a place for this, but not in the first run through in your execution plan. Step 6 talks more about the second and more detailed run through.

Step 4: Search for Tools to help with Execution

 Just like any factory has tools to develop their products, your online company needs tools to effectively deliver services to the marketplace. This is where my love for the internet becomes intense. There seems to be a tool for almost any task that I need accomplished. With so many options out there, it is easy to become overly excited about the latest and greatest technology. Usually, it’s the simple things that work best. The great thing about many of the tools is that they are automated and that the tools are designed to integrate with each other. This is important as it significantly reduces the cost of implementation and is also easily scalable as your company grows.

Here is a preview of some of the online tools that I use and what I use them for:

iContact – Email Marketing
Highrise by 37Signals – Contact Management
Wufoo – Data Collection
PayPal and Google Merchant – Payment Processing

Step 5: Find Additional Labor where Necessary

Even with all of the automated web tools at your disposal, there is still a need for human interaction. At the end of the day, people buy your product or use your service. These individuals don’t want to talk on the phone to an automated system. Think about how frustrating it is when you call your bank and you get the sweet, woman voice of the computer. How often do you have to repeat what you want when you call? “I said two!!…Option two!”  is what I usually scream out after the sixth time repeating myself.

There is a myth that hiring additional labor has to be expensive. This is because there is the faulty underlying assumption that the individuals hired will be full time employees. Furthermore, there is the fear of additional overhead expense due to the need for an office for the employees to work. When you have a company on the web, many of these problems disappear. This is the reason why it is difficult for me to answer the question “How many employees do you have?” My answer to this question is reliant on your definition of employee. How many people officially work for Great Black Speakers? I’m a solo operation. How many people work to help Great Black Speakers run? Currently about 15 or so people.

The web eliminates the need for individuals to be in the same office to communicate effectively. Here is a list of some key people for my company and where they live.

Me: Ithaca, NY
Diana (the person who actually runs Great Black Speakers daily): Nebraska
Assistant #1: Memphis, TN
Assistant #2: Alabama
Web developers (two of them) : India and New York

The list goes on and on with very many different locations. Where do you find this top talent? There is a website called Elance (www.elance.com) which is a source that people use to find individuals to do work for them. This site is one of the best things that has happened to my company and is worth you researching.

Step 6: Bring the System Together and Refine your Process

The last step on the checklist is to bring the system together and create a more detailed process for what you need to accomplish. In essence, it is aligning the critical tasks, tools, and human resources to push towards productivity. This is where I create a detailed work flow as to who does what? When do they do it? Also, how does the work get done? When you follow this step, what you are actually creating is an operations manual for your company. Having an operations manual makes your company sustainable for the long term. You will find that people move on from jobs and many business relationships cease over time. Your operations manual will make it easier to train others when this happens.

To quickly recap this step:

1.    Layout the key tasks that need to be accomplished from start to    finish to make your strategy work.

2.    Layout the exact steps needed to accomplish each task. Be sure to be specific and don’t assume that the party knows anything. It is vitally important to be as thorough here. Include the tools and resources needed and also in what order they are needed.

3.    Make sure that the processes of each step integrate with each other. There is nothing worse than building a system where work cannot easily flow from one step to the next.

4.    Test the system out and make adjustments as time goes along.

Conclusion

There is a lot of upfront work when you are developing a system to earn income for yourself, but it is definitely worth it. Developing the GBS system is the main reason on why I was able to continue to grow Great Black Speakers and attend school at the same time. After you develop your first system, it becomes easier to create other systems for different ventures in the future.

The checklist mentioned above is a great framework for any company that you are trying to start. However, the results can be multiplied on the internet due to the low cost nature of the tools used and the ability to integrate tools with each other for greater automation and effectiveness. As the cavemen discovered many millenniums ago, you should not try to lift a heavy boulder by yourself. It is much easier to build a lever and fulcrum to move the boulder. It is much easier to create a system to move closer to your goals.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I’m sitting in Perkins Restaurant as we finished our Friday morning bible study class in Louisville, KY. With me was Carl Brazley, my closest and most creative mentor. We were about to start one of our usual mentoring sessions that we held about once per month. This session was special as Mr. Brazley shared his wisdom about success that has become fundamental in my life philosophy.

Mr. Brazley asked me two questions right off the bat: “What does success mean to me?” and “How will I go about achieving it?” I shared with him my personal mission statement that I had recently developed at the LeaderShape program in Champaign, IL. It states that “I want to become a tycoon politically, socially, and economically so that I may have a positive impact on my community.” Mr. Brazley then said, “That’s great! Now how are you going to ACHIEVE your mission?” This was the question that I was still trying to figure out. I had seen ultra-successful all around me in person or on TV, but I found the process mystifying at times.

Mr. Brazley continued, “Lawrence, don’t believe the hype that you see on TV when it comes to people who you view as successful. The media loves stories about self mad millionaires and billionaires, but rarely are they self made.” What he said next changed my perspective, “Here is what they [the media and often the individual in question] don’t want you to know: Success is manufactured! Many successful people have other hidden influential people in the background guiding them on the right path. Giving them the connections that they need to accelerate their success. This is what I am going to do with you Lawrence.” Whoa!! Talk about some heavy material!

The Real Secret of Success

I researched the statement that Mr. Brazley made further and I started to read more about individuals who I view to be successful. I was very surprised at the results/trends that I found. Let’s start with Donald Trump, the King of the Self Made…His father had over $100 million in real estate by the time he was born. Warren Buffett (a major influence in my thinking), the Sage of Omaha… His father was a stockbroker and four-term congressman from the state of Nebraska. What about Bill Gates? His mother sat on the board of directors of a bank and his father was a prominent Seattle attorney. The more people that I researched, the more surprised I became. Then I started to feel apprehensive, “What do I need to become successful?”

There are two things that I don’t want to happen by sharing this story with you:

1.      I do not want to relegate or belittle the accomplishments of successful people just because they come from a well connected family. The people mentioned above are all extremely intelligent and have a strong work ethic. It’s also important not to hide facts about people’s environment as if that doesn’t play a critical role in success.

2.      I do not want you to feel like the situation is hopeless if you don’t come from a rich and powerful family. Throughout this article, I’m going to teach you how to create your own “synthetic power family.”

Your Synthetic Family of Networks

If you don’t come from a rich and well connected family, do not worry about it. It is not the end all, be all. In fact, I know many people who come from well-to-do families, but their lives are in shambles. Money and entitlement can be hindrances to living a WEALTHY LIFE just as much as they can be assets. I come from a solidly middle class family where my father was a high-ranking police official and my mother was a high school guidance counselor. I was able to use this base to expand even further and broaden my experiences to study at Phillips Academy Andover, Carnegie Mellon University, and now Cornell. The most beautiful part is that I have paid very little for my educational experience and it’s because I created a synthetic family to help me achieve my goals.

A synthetic family is not the family you were born with, but one that you created that helps provide the resources you need to accomplish goals. I’m not just talking about money, but also advice and connections as well. Having a synthetic family is not a substitute for your real family, proper planning, or an intelligent work ethic (see my Pareto and Parkinson article). I view the synthetic family as an accelerator of the success process. The great thing about the synthetic family is that it is easy to start and replicate.

Be Your Own Barack Obama

After President Obama (wow, that sounds great) won the election for United States President in November, he had to move his actions from campaigning mode to governing mode. Immediately, Obama selected Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff and then dozens of other appointments were announced in the following weeks. President Obama surrounded himself with individuals who have a greater knowledge about different aspects of governance than he does. When President Obama and his advisors meet about the current economic situation, the advisors give their expert opinions about what Obama should do. After that, President Obama escorts them out of the room and then makes the decision he feels will be best for the country.

I ask, “What’s keeping you from being your own Barack Obama?” I urge you to assemble your own personal board of advisors to help you when you have a tough decision to make. There is not a human being on the face of the planet who knows everything. Seek out those individuals who have general wisdom as well as those who have specific expertise. Bring them into your family and achieve your goals more effectively.

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

One of the great myths of networking is that you start reaching out to others when you need something. The people who really succeed in building relationships know that you need to start building way BEFORE you need anything. This is especially true if you are thinking of opening your own business. Many people start the networking process too late in the game. Prospective entrepreneurs think about details like incorporating or the specific name of their company. Although those tasks are important, they have much less influence over your business success compared to relationship building.

Immediately after graduating from college I worked for my brother, Dr. Boyce Watkins. My job was to book him for speaking engagements and manage his growing national media profile. I knew long before I started to work for him that I wanted to start my own company and I took steps to achieve this goal. For example, when Boyce would appear on a national TV show, he was often on the show with other high profile guests. We would make sure to collect that person’s contact information and follow up with him/her right away. When I started Great Black Speakers Bureau, those were my first speakers. Make sure to always begin with an end in mind!

Overcome your Fear of Rejection

Bestselling author and networking guru Keith Ferrazzi calls this the “genius of audacity.” If you never ask for what you want, very rarely do you ever get what you want. The two major emotions that stop people from asking are the fear of rejection from the other person and a feeling that the other person is better than you. Question: What’s going to have a longer impact on your life? FEAR of rejection or FAILING to reach your goals? The answer to this question for me is not reaching the goals I set out to accomplish. In this scenario, rejection MIGHT happen but failure WILL happen.

Follow Up and Stay in Touch

If the yin is overcoming your fears and asking for what you want, then the yang is following up with your contacts. This is something that I have personally struggled with lately as my number of contacts has grown significantly. However, I have noticed a direct correlation between my rate of follow up and the amount of success I achieve over any period of time. It is funny how people spend so much time making new contacts and so little time following up with them. This reminds me of the local ladies man who is only interested in the chase of a woman. Once he gets her, he then loses interest. In business and in life, don’t be this person! It is much more expensive to attain a new client/contact/friend than to maintain the ones you already have. I am not telling you to not meet new people, just do right by them when you do meet them for long lasting business/personal relationships.

Last weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to go home to Louisville and attend the Kentucky Derby. Growing up, I was not allowed to participate in many of the Derby festivities. My father was a Major with the Louisville Metro Police Department and was often over security for the city’s Derby festivities. Because of this task, he was subjected to a lot of foolishness through the years during Derby in order to serve and protect the city’s patrons. Therefore, he insulated me from most of the damaging behavior that comes with having an extra 200,000 people in the Louisville metro area of only 700,000 residents. This year was only my second “true” Derby experience and it was completely different from the Derby in which my father was familiar. I was excited to get the weekend rolling!

As I boarded my plane from Ithaca, NY all I could think about was how much fun I was going to have at all of the VIP events and all of the interesting people I was going to meet. Thanks to an awesome friend, my girlfriend, Kandice, and I were given some box seats to the Derby and tickets to all of the VIP galas. I was afforded the opportunity to spend hours with some of the top entertainers, athletes, and business moguls in the nation. I quickly became disappointed, however, as I transitioned from dreaming about talking to ‘Deity XYZ’ to actually speaking to him in person.

After exchanging small talk for a few minutes, I asked each person one simple question, “What are you passionate about?” My goal was to attain deeper insight on what made them successful. After proposing the question, each individual looked at me for a moment with a perplexed expression. After a much anticipated silence, most of individuals said, “Wow . . . No one has ever asked me that before.”  As people answered this question for me throughout the evening, I slowly became saddened and disappointed by their responses. I was shocked by the amount of times I heard “making money”, “ballin’”, and “I have no idea” as simple responses to the question asked of them. I then asked myself a vital question . . . Is there really anything more to life than fast cars, chartered jets, and high class sporting events?

On the other side of the spectrum were the people from Kentucky who came to the Derby events to stargaze and take pictures with celebrities. For example, there was a lady, the wife of a multi-millionaire, who was having a conversation with Kandice about how she was ecstatic to meet all of the great celebrities. The lady then pointed out the fact “Famous Man X” was right behind Kandice and if she turned around at that moment, she would be able to meet him. Kandice told the lady she would be fine without meeting him at that very moment and she was sure they would eventually meet sometime throughout the weekend. The lady was definitely confused by that comment.

The Wizard of Oz Syndrome

The entire Derby weekend was like being in the movie The Wizard of Oz. You had Dorothy and her crew searching for an additional attribute thought to make them a better person as they say to themselves “If only I had a brain, a heart, or courage, then I, too, would be a success.” They ventured on down the yellow brick road in hopes to find the great Wizard of Oz. By the end of the movie, they found out that the Great Wizard was a fake and each person had the characteristics of greatness in them all along!

The Derby was similar. Many of the locals felt by mingling with famous people, they too would become successful, even though they already possessed the formula of success already found within them.  Incidentally, many of the celebrities appeared successful on the surface but were struggling with the same core insecurities as the rest of the world.

The Importance of Passion

It is vitally important that we do not become fooled by the illusions of success that are fueled by lazy thinking. In business, there is a term called local optima. This is when a company maximizes one small part of a large system at the detriment of total system productivity. What the company usually optimizes is the part of the system that investors observe to determine its total viability. This has long term negative effects and can cause a company to implode over time because they are tricking themselves into believing in a false sense of success. 

The local optima companies face on a large scale is similar to the type that individuals face daily. We attempt to optimize money and notoriety at the expense of our friends, our community, and our values. Many people make money the end goal not realizing that it is just a tool to attain happiness and fulfillment. The end goal should be for individuals to find and act upon their passions to make sure that they have a fulfilled LIFE and not only a full bank account.

At some level we all hunger for meaning in our lives. Having passion and a great purpose can uplift you mentally and physically every day. You should not be here just to make a living, but you should also strive to make a difference in the world. When people have a greater purpose for their lives beyond money, they do not feel obligated to perform. They WANT to perform because that is what they love. Knowing my own passion and purpose was the key for me when I made the decision to forgo corporate America and start my own company. Being in tune with your passions makes it easier to make tough life decisions.

How to Find Your Passion

I wish I could say I was one of those people who knew what I was called to do since I was a young child, but that would be a lie. I did not know that I was passionate about entrepreneurship until my sophomore year in high school when my biology teacher allowed me to mass produce and sell the teacher-authorized cheat sheets for our examinations. It took me another 7 years to move from just knowing my passion to acting upon it.

Learning one’s true passion is a self-discovery process full of intense thinking. The best way I have found for a person to discover their passions is to answer the following questions

• What are you good at and what energizes you? Why? – A person’s passion is often in alignment with what they are naturally good at. Humans want to be successful and are attracted to activities that allow them to excel.
• What are you discontent about in the world? Why? – This is part of your bigger purpose in life. Your passions should not be things in which you are the sole benefactor. It’s hard to think about the bigger picture sometimes because we can feel insignificant and feel that the larger problems are not within our social influence. We fail to realize the power we possess inside of us to change the status quo. Get out of that habit now!
• What do you want for your life? Why? – Think about the things that truly make you happy. Here, the “why” question is just as important as what you want. People often talk about how they want to be millionaires, but what they really want is to be able to experience the lives that millionaires have. This realization can only become clear after you ask yourself why money is important. Do this for all aspects of your life.
• What do you really care about? Why? – List the things that are most important to you in a no-holds-barred fashion. Anything that you can think of should go here.

Once you have answered these questions, see what common themes appear in your thoughts. I cannot stress enough the importance of asking the question “why” to all of these questions. This is the deeper meaning and true insight into what you are truly passionate about.

Acting Upon Your Passion

Knowing your passions is not enough. You have to have the courage to act upon them. To move from knowing to doing, you need to do be determined. Going against the grain of the rest of the world can be a lonely position to be in. Many people lose their direction in life because they are easily distracted and influenced by other people instead of being true to themselves. Do not let this be you.

Conclusion

People should start aiming to have a wealthy life and not just a wealthy bank account. I am not saying that money is not important. I am saying that money should only be a tool to accomplish something greater in life. Inferiority can creep into our lives if we judge people on outward possessions and appearances. We can feel like we do not measure up because there is not a black BMW in our driveway. It is time for us to change the measurements of success to things that are more valuable in order to progress to true happiness.

It is important that we do not underestimate our own potential and overestimate the abilities of others. Doing so will cause feelings of self-worthlessness and unhappiness.  Remember what the movie The Wizard of Oz taught us about life. If we search for a brain, a heart, and courage for ourselves within others, the end result will be disappointment. We all have amazing potential within us longing to be released. If you learn how to use your brain to determine your strengths, to use your heart to show compassion for the others, and to have the courage to follow your dreams, then you, too, will be and can be an unstoppable force for change!

Kevlar is a material that is five times stronger, but is lighter and more flexible than steel on an equal weight basis. It is used in many products ranging from bulletproof vests and cables to sports and audio equipment. It has been around for over 40 years and more uses are being discovered for this “wonder” material every day. When I think about goal setting, Kevlar provides a great analogy on how individuals should structure their inherent wants and desires for maximum clarity and performance. When creating the mastermind plan for your life, you should have strong goals that challenge you, yet have enough flexibility to change your path if a great new opportunity comes your way.

As Lewis Carroll eloquently said in Alice in Wonderland:

 “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” said Alice.
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where…” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

It is easy for a person to become diverted from fulfilling his/her passions and true calling. It becomes even easier if you do not have an end goal in mind, similar to the way Alice was feeling in Wonderland. I do not want you to be in Wonderland and you should not want to be! The most important thing is not for your goals and vision to be perfect. The most important thing is to aim for at least the general vicinity on where you want to be. 

In the classic self-help book Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr. Maxwell Maltz talks about humans’ innate self-correcting mechanism. As humans, we have a trait that automatically guides us to self-improvement. Think about the basketball player who endlessly improves his/her jump shot or the foreigner who learns a second language well into adulthood. Each person has an end goal and they learn from their deliberate practices by correcting their mistakes when they veer from their original course. We can harness this self-correcting power to accelerate the goal achievement process. However, it all starts with knowing a general direction on where you want to go. You can relate this concept to riding a bike. Have you ever ridden a bike standing still? I haven’t. The bike only stays balanced as you are pedaling and pushing forward.

Now that we have talked about why creating a vision is important let’s get into the fundamentals of the life vision development process.

Developing your Kevlar Vision

There is a lot of debate on whether your overarching vision should be all encompassing or narrow in scope. Proponents of having a narrow vision say that this is to keep you focused on the end goal and enable you to not become distracted by items that do not line up with your plan. A simple example of this goal forming process would be to become a CEO of a Fortune 100 company whose work focuses on telecommunications. This vision is very focused and allows the goal-setter a specific task in which to focus.

Another strategy is to have your vision statement flexible and all encompassing. An example of this is Google. Their mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” No part of this mission has to do with creating a great search engine or text advertisements. This structure gives Google the freedom to change with the times and not have a myopic view of what it originally set out to accomplish.

I am a strong proponent of the Google strategy over the first example which gives a very focused vision. As I previously mentioned in a prior article, my mission is “to become a tycoon politically, socially, and economically so that I can have a positive impact on my community.” I originally developed this statement my junior year of college and I strategically tweak it every year. I use this statement as a guide to make both large and small decisions in my life. When I decided to forgo corporate America to start my own business, I used my mission statement as guidance. When it came time to decide on a business school, I continued to use this statement as a guide.

Use Backward Planning To Set Your Vision

Imagine that you are about to attend one of the most important events in your life. It will be held in a room big enough to hold your friends, family, and others who are important to you. The room is conservatively decorated and at the front is a large table with candles all around. In the middle of the table is a large box. What is in this box? YOU! It was a celebration of your life and there was not a dry eye in the place. Coming from the back of the room is an old friend with a tape recorder playing your voice. You are explaining to the people close to you about your life. How would this story go? What did you want out of life? What did you value most? Who did you wish to be? Answering these questions is the first step of developing your Kevlar vision.

Backward planning is a process of starting with your end goal(s) and working backwards to create an action plan to achieve the aforementioned goal. You cannot plan any further out than your funeral! Once you truthfully answer the previously questions, you can then work backward and think about what you need to do to turn your vision into a reality. Remember, the intermediate goals do not have to be concrete, just make them like Kevlar and rely on your self-correcting mechanisms to guide your course. Life is nothing but a series of decades, years, months, weeks and days. People always look far to the future and say that they want to live an extraordinary life. But how are you going to live an extraordinary life if you wake up thinking you want to have an ordinary day? Backward planning is an important step to an extraordinary life.

Guidelines for creating powerful goals

Chicken Soup for the Soul author, Jack Canfield, defines a goal as “the ongoing pursuit of a worthy objective until accomplished.” I want to walk you through some of the attributes you may want to look for when deciding on your goals.

Your Most Important Goals Must be Yours

This sounds obvious, but many people have their life purpose created by someone else. These people may be your parents, a spouse, friends, etc. I have a friend who is a doctor at a prestigious hospital. He is making great money while helping sick patients become well. The only problem is that he is miserable. When asked why he went into medicine he states, “My grandfather was a doctor, my father is a doctor, so my parents told me I was going to be a doctor too.” You only have the chance to live life once. Do you really want to spend your life living someone else’s dreams? When you let someone else, or society, determine your definition of success, you are sabotaging your future. I do not condone lying, however, the last person you should ever lie to is yourself, especially when it comes to planning your life.

A technique that I use to make sure that my most important goals are my own is continuously asking myself one question. What do I really want out of life? The introspective process of regularly asking this question helps you to focus and organize your goals and determine what is really most important to you.

Your goals must be meaningful

The pursuit of meaningful goals will help you achieve greatness much quicker than the pursuit of non-meaningful goals. This is because meaningful goals are exciting and a person does not mind putting in the extra effort to accomplish them. This is analogous to school. Have you ever had a class that was too easy? The class was so easy that you did not offer the proper effort and instead of excelling you underperformed? Suddenly, the class that was a definite “A”, turned into a “B” or worse? I have done this numerous times. In fact, this was the story of my middle school and high school years.  The classes did not challenge me enough and I did not perform anywhere near my highest potential or capability. Granted, in grade school you do not have as much control over your life compared to your adult years, however, individuals show symptoms of this problem well into their adult life.

Subsequently, total commitment to your goals is a critical ingredient if you want to be the best person you can be. This is true for both professional and personal goals. I recently finished the book Call Me Ted, which is an autobiography of the billionaire, Ted Turner. Turner’s father was a successful and wealthy billboard entrepreneur back in the 1960’s. Although successful in his career, the elder Turner was depressed and ended up committing suicide in his forties. In the book, Turner hypothesized why his father committed suicide. He is confident that the reason was that his father did not set his goals high enough, resulting in a lack of purpose for his life.  Our situations may not be that dramatic, but as philosopher Jim Rohn once said,

“There are two major pains in life. One is the pain of discipline, the other is the pain of regret. Discipline weighs ounces, but regret weighs tons when you allow your life to drift unfulfilled.”

Your goals must be measurable

Although your vision statement needs to be flexible and answer questions about your life’s intents and purposes, the intermediate goals and objectives need to be firm. Management guru Peter Drucker says that “What gets measured gets managed.” This is true in business and in life. Remember, a goal without a number is just a slogan. It is easier for your brain to operate day-to-day on concrete items as opposed to the abstract. Both are important, but concrete is more important to execution.

Conclusion

I cannot stress enough the importance of developing a strong, but flexible vision for one’s life.  Do not underestimate the power of the self-correcting mechanism present within each of our lives. I use this concept when initially training people who work within my company. You will be surprised by what you can accomplish by aiming even for the general vicinity of your ultimate goal. If you do not remember anything else I have written, please remember one thing . . . If you aim for the stars, you will at least hit the moon! Always aim for something!