Rickey L. Jasper - Walking in the Gray: How to Succeed When the Rules Are Not Black and White

WALKING
IN THE
GRAY

HOW TO SUCCEED WHEN THE RULES
ARE NOT BLACK AND WHITE

RICKEY L. JASPER

WALKING IN THE GRAY

HOW TO SUCCEED WHEN THE RULES ARE NOT BLACK AND WHITE

Copyright 2019 Rickey L. Jasper.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Scripture quotations from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Website

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9113-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-8932-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9114-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019921237

iUniverse rev. date: 12/31/2019

To my wonderful wife, best friend, and partner, Sheila Denese Jasper, who for over 33 years has stood by my side, in front of me, behind me, under me, and/or over me - wherever necessary to keep me going or to hold me up. When others left, she stayed. When they said I could not, she said I could. When my burdens got heavy, she helped me to bear them. When I slowed under the load, she gave me a push or a pull. When I wanted to surrender, she shared a word of encouragement. When she ran out of words, she prayed until something happened.

To my two young men, Rickey Lane Jasper II and Desmond Tyler Jasper who taught me through their birth and life that life is about giving; that there is more to life than just the accumulation of things; that life is about a legacy - not the things you get or the stuff you gain. Life is about what you leave behind.

To my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ , who has ordered my steps, taught me how to go in and out among people, expanded my territory and made all these things possible.

CONTENTS

OVER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, I STARTED WRITING A book entitled Walking in the Gray to share my thoughts on how to succeed in life. After many starts and stops and the passage of many years and experiences, it is time to share the book with you. While this text has been a long time coming, I felt, given the number of books and documents on the subject, I owed it to you to have ascertained the validity of my ideas through practice and proof. To that end, in addition to my experimenting with and using the ideas, I have shared and seen others use them successfully. I am confident that you too will benefit from the many thoughts and ideas as well as the encouraging and motivating words found within these pages.

I have been in the workforce since I was nine and a half years old, and I have gone from the cotton fields in Parkdale, Arkansas, to the executive suite in the federal government. I have learned how to succeed in areas where success was unlikely, unexpected, and not previously proven possible for someone with my background or pedigree. As a matter of fact, my success occurred in environments, organizations, offices, and agencies where neither my origin, nationality, associations, nor education created the opportunity.

I did not grow up knowing or understanding how organizations functioned; nor was I taught, mentored, or tutored on how to succeed when one employed me. However, I owe a debt of gratitude and appreciation to my mother, Louisie Mae Grayson, who despite her poor and humble upbringing, never stopped dreaming and taught my siblings and me to dream. She taught us the value of a dollar, the ability to economize, and the value and necessity of good ole common sense. She taught us that we had to be better than our competition, to work four times as hard to get half as much, to be the best we could be, and to value and build relationships.

Walking in the Gray as a topic came to me as I boarded a plane to leave the country for temporary duty. Having graduated valedictorian in a class of twenty-two students from Parkdale, I had a successful run through undergraduate school in three years and graduate school in a little over a year. I had married the girl of my dreams (Sheila Denese Jasper) from college, and now I had secured a good position with the federal government. I felt I had experienced a level of success that was worth sharing with others. So I started to write, but then I began to question whether what I had learned in life and observed in academia was transferable to the work environment. I asked,

Would the principles I applied at school operate the same on the job?

Would my people observations and interactions operate the same in the workplace as they did in academia?

Would my academic knowledge and understanding of organizations hold true?

Would my view of the organization as an organism prove to be more than a theory?

Would my ability to drive outcomes through motivations and understanding of the landscape prove applicable?

I questioned my ideas, my observations, and myself, and I waited, studied more, and tested my thoughts. For the past quarter century and more, I have successfully walked in the gray. I have also enjoyed both the journey and the success of others who utilized the ideas I freely shared with them to change their walk and outcomes.

I chose the topic walking in the gray because it lets you know that we are going to discuss something that is unclear. It tells you that

we are going to discuss becoming successful when the rules of engagement are not written or, if they are, are unclear;

we are going to discuss a topic that is secret, unknown, or not publicized; and

I am not going to talk about the obvious things that are clear, known truths, if they do exist.

What am I going to discuss? The answer is things that are not so obvious, not so clear, or not so known. We are going on a journey together to areas less traveled or perhaps frequently trekked to but undisclosed. I also chose this topic because as the topic suggests, we will discuss things that are not necessarily unknown, unseen, and unrecognized. They are just unclear. These are not real secrets, as they are not hidden to all, and they can be learned, seen, and observed.

It is worth noting that this places me at a bit of an advantage to those who desire to debate with me about this topic, as this work is a report on my observations and empirical experiences while walking in the gray.