Dennis Kimbro - What Makes Great Great

Also by Dennis Kimbro

Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice (coauthor)

Daily Motivations for African American Success

A previous edition of this book was originally published in 1998 by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. It is here reprinted by arrangement with Doubleday.

What Makes the Great Great. Copyright 1998 by Dennis Kimbro. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information, address: Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: Excerpt from My American Journey by Colin L. Powell with Joseph E. Persico. Copyright 1995 by Colin L. Powell. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc. Excerpt from Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters First One Hundred Years by Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth. Published in 1993 by Kodansha America, Inc., by Amy Hill Hearth, Sarah Louise Delany, and Annie Elizabeth Delany. Excerpt from The Creation, from Gods Trombones by James Weldon Johnson. Copyright 1927 The Viking Press, Inc., renewed 1995 by Grace Nail Johnson. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA, Inc.

BROADWAY BOOKS and its logo, a letter B bisected on the diagonal, are trademarks of Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

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The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has cataloged the previous edition as:

Kimbro, Dennis Paul, 1950
What makes the great great: strategies for extraordinary achievement /
Dennis P. Kimbro.
p. cm.
1. Afro-AmericansPsychology. 2. Afro-Americans
Life skills guides. 3. Motivation (Psychology)
United States. I. Title.
E185.625.K55 1997
158.108996073dc20 96-24662

eISBN: 978-0-307-78608-1

v3.1

To M Y S TUDENTS , past and present, at Clark Atlanta University. Ive said it before: Youre too sharp to fail. To Joseph McCauley, my father-in-law, the role model that we desperately need; and to Pat, officially you are my wife; in reality youre much more: champion, coach, best friend, and the greatest person Ive ever known.

No effort over time is without roots somewhere else. This book is no exception. In my case, I had the pleasure of working with some real pros. They include: my agents, Carl DeSantis and Jerry Butler, whove been by my side every page of the way. Together, theyre the best in the business.

Lori Lipsky and Rob Robertson, my editors, whose appropriate blend of enthusiasm and criticism strengthened the book immensely.

Gloria Gilbert and Pauline Roberson, dear friends, who have been wonderfully supportive.

Without the help of Diane Howell, Linda Keene, Raymond Fears, Amy Hilliard-Jones, Cheri Henderson, and my 1994 MBA class, the Kimbro Executive Profile would not have been possible.

Lisa Oliver, my assistant at Clark Atlanta University, kept me on schedule and allowed me to put my best foot forward. Elizabeth Waters at Nike offered much-needed financial support.

Ruby McCauley, a real gem, and Louise Sims and Alice Hopkins, all experts in life, whose nuggets of wisdom were felt on every page of this book.

My daughters, Kelli, Kim, and MacKenzie, whose love drives me on. They are constantly forced to share my time. I promise to make it up to you.

The Greatest Discovery

The Power of This Strange Key

Change Your Thoughts and Change Your World

How I Uncovered the Secret

The Nine Principles of Extraordinary Achievement

The Best Medicine

If you want to be great and successful, you must walk
hand-in-hand, side by side with great and successful people.
N IDO Q UBEIN

People with dreams know no poverty.
Each of us is as rich as our own dreams.
B ENJAMIN E. M AYS

Build it well, whateer you do;
Build it straight and strong and true;
Build it clean and high and broad;
Build it for the eye of God.
A NONYMOUS

H OW much better it is to get wisdom than gold!
And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
P ROVERBS 16:16

As Bill Pinkney entered his office for the last time, he saw shock in the faces of his coworkers and heard anger in their voices. On most Fridays, friendly greetings echoed the plant. Anticipating the weekend, workers normally waved and smiled across chest-high dividers. This particular morning they clustered in small groups, whispering among themselves as though the world had come to an end. And then the news hit.

What? Ive been fired? You must be joking!

Pinkney couldnt believe his ears. He went to his office with a sense of dread. A long envelope from personnel lay on the desk with his name typed on it in bold print. That morning, along with several of his coworkers, Pinkney learned that his services, though valued by his employer, were no longer required. Imagine, after nearly thirty years of tireless duty for a major Chicago-based cosmetics firm, this fifty-seven-year-old black man was just the latest statistic in the never-ending corporate battle to trim costs and improve efficiency. Though his employer was simply reacting to economic downturns within the health and beauty aids market, Pinkney felt cheated and defeated.

He had struggled up through the ranksfrom an hourly worker in research and development with Revlon to a well-paid makeup consultant with Johnson Products, gaining promotions and admiration along the way. What he lacked in terms of formal education, Pinkney more than offset in industry know-how, touting a wide range of experience. It hadnt taken him long to prove his worth. And although hed heard rumors about layoffs on different occasions, no one really believed the day would come. The industry seemed safe. Pinkney, along with many of his coworkers, felt blessed to have a job that was so secure. Hed felt his position would be around for a long time.

Then, out of the blue, reality hit me, Pinkney sadly remembers. After all those years of hard work, they just handed me a pink slip and it was over. I was loyal, talented, and committed to the bottom line. I even took work home to meet deadlines. But none of it seemed to matter. Dear Mr. Pinkney, we are sorry to inform you that

By midmorning, Pinkney had said sad good-byes to old friends, collected his belongings and severance check, and boarded the train for the long ride home to face his wife and reorganize his life. He was heartsick with disappointment. What was he going to tell her? What was he going to do? Stuck with no job and no income, and with little to tide him over, he could only visualize himself pounding the pavement searching for work. And then it happened!

As the train neared his stop, Pinkneys life flashed before him. He began to think of lost opportunities gone by; of all the empty dreams he had entertained since childhood. Throughout his adult life, he had never given much thought to his career, or to finding the work for which he was best suited. A job was a job; any work that came by his hand was good enough for him and his family. He reflected, I was raised that, when you graduated from high school and you got a job at the post office or on the railroad, this would be your lot in life. You couldnt hope for anything more.