“What makes the great, great?”

It’s a question that author Dennis Kimbro spent 20 years researching, interviewing leaders from diverse backgrounds and industries from Earl Graves and Bishop T.D. Jakes to Mae Jemison. Conversations with these leaders were eventually culled into a book of the same name. 

In his leadership keynote address at the inaugural Black MBA (BMBA) Diverse Leadership Conference held recently at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, Kimbro offered valuable insight and tools to aspiring corporate and entrepreneurial leaders for taking on work and life in the 21^st century.

“What can I tell you before [Goizueta Business School] unleashes you into this world?” Kimbro asked. His response was based on the four most common interview responses from more than 150 successful African-Americans:

Dream big dreams
1. Be inner directed versus outer directed
2. Dedicate your life to lifelong learning
3. Refuse to fail

Dreaming Big

In addition to discovering individual purpose, Kimbro advised conference attendees to be “driven by [their] vision. Get a big dream…Believe in yourself when no one else will,” he encouraged.

“This country rewards differentiation,” Kimbro advised. Wealth is obtained by “using what comes easy to you but is difficult for others. Michael Porter, a Harvard Business school professor, calls it ‘unfair competitive advantage.’” For example, “Phil Knight of Nike shoes could see from a distance what Converse couldn’t see up close.” In 1984, Kimbro recounted, Nike made a deal with Michael Jordan that Converse would not make with Magic Johnson—to name a shoe after an athlete. The outcome? Air Jordan’s first year of production run totaled $160 million. In one year alone, the shoes’ namesake, Michael Jordan acquired $250 million in royalties and sales from all endorsements. “How did it start?” Kimbro asked the audience. “It started with a vision," he reiterated.

Kimbro challenged students, “When are you going to begin to lead? Do you have a vision? Realize that everything happens twice in life— first, the inner then the outer; thought then action; mental then the physical.

”Determine what you love to do or what you would do for free. If necessary, ask people around you what they see in you or what they think you would be great at doing.” Then get moving.

Inside Out

Vision is defined by purpose and the ability to use differences to be successful. In pursing a dream, there is ample opportunity to be lax in leadership. “It’s great that you can see down the street but you’ve got to possess more than that. Anybody can see down the street.  You’ve got to possess the ability to see around the corner,” Kimbro said.

This ability, he maintains, comes from being inner directed instead of motivated by outside influences. For example, Kimbro noted that one out of every 854 people is a millionaire. While the 853 non-millionaires are busy listening to each other, the 854^th person listens to the “inner beatings of his or her heart.” How do you get there? “Focus on your area of excellence,” Kimbro advised.

Being inner directed also means a willingness to be different.

Reciting from Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, Kimbro surmised, “You cannot succeed being like everybody else. The opposite of success is not failure but conformity. You must be willing to take the lonely road.”

Lifelong learning

Adding value to his sentiments, Kimbro addressed the need for leaders to “confront life as if you are about to have a major exam.” In order to succeed, “all you [have to] do is show up,” he noted, adding that showing up will enable you to beat “80% of the competition. Someone who shows up on time with a plan will beat 90% of the competition. Someone who shows up on time with a plan and commitment to carry out that plan will beat 95% of the competition.” Kimbro gave the example of Bishop T.D. Jakes and rapper Kanye West, both men showed up on time, with a plan, and a commitment to carry out a plan they executed. The result? “They made the cover of Time Magazine.”

In regards to lifelong learning, Kimbro stressed that “there is a calculus to compensation, like between the haves and have nots.” According to Kimbro,  those that have much seek out education continually, while the “have nots” often limit learning to grades K-12. “You don’t go to school one period of your life,” he added, noting that purposeful learning doesn’t have to involve money. “If you read 30 to 60 minutes a day in a subject of your choice, after three years you’ll be known in your community, five years you’ll be known across the country, and after seven years you will draw worldwide recognition.”

Keeping up with the times is paramount, Kimbro added. “We live in an information based society and, therefore, the individual who takes time to seek out the information will always be rewarded.” This point was reiterated to Kimbro during an interview with the late John H. Johnson, founder of Ebony Magazine. “He said, ‘Black America will suffer more for what it doesn’t know than it ever will for the color of its skin.’”

Refusing to Fail

Of the many successful African-American leaders he interviewed for his book, What Makes the Great, Great, Kimbro said, “Failure was never a viable option for them.” Further encouraging the audience, Kimbro provided statistics to help clear up any misconception about to whom or how success happens.

The average millionaire does not find his or her dream until age 45 and does not become a millionaire until age 54. Many try at least 17 concepts before they are successful. The top two millionaire producing ventures are vending machines and dry cleaning businesses.

In one of many thought-provoking maxims, Kimbro said, “You are being trained to manage people and money, but you’re really not going to get on the fast track until you begin to manage yourself.” A lesson Kimbro learned from experience and recounts in the article Reaching Extraordinary Height of Achievement.  In it, Kimbro recalls what A. G. Gaston, founder of the Booker T. Washington Insurance Company and other businesses in Birmingham, Alabama, said during the lowest point of Kimbro’s life:  “Don’t tell me succeeding is too hard. Greatness takes time. If you are satisfied just to get by, then step aside for the man or woman who isn’t!”

Is it all about the Money?

Urging students to “tackle the thing that cannot be done and do it,” Kimbro attacked some African-Americans’ misperceptions about wealth.

Speaking of a little-known disparity, Kimbro revealed the staggering differences between the financial profile of the top 1% of African-Americans and the top 1% of white Americans. Through research acquired for his work-in-progress, a book entitled, Have versus Have Not, Kimbro discovered that (as of 2004) the top 1% of white Americans featured an annual household income of $3.29 million. Inversely, the top 1% of black Americans boast annual incomes of $200,000 or more. Subsequently, only 5% have an annual income of $100,000, which is normally satisfied by two wage earners.

Kimbro stressed the importance of wealth creation in the 21^st century, noting “we live in a hyper-competitive entrepreneurially driven economy.” As a result, he noted, it is imperative that African-Americans disavow cultural and societal stereotypes that would limit the vision and scope of entrepreneurial achievement and wealth creation.

It’s a topic Kimbro speaks to in further depth with an article entitled, “Reaching Extraordinary Heights of Achievement.” In it, he writes, “Within the shifting domain of discrimination, blacks have been told that the world is against them; that the prevailing powers wish to keep them down; that poverty, racism and discrimination are ubiquitous and insurmountable…Over the years droves of blacks have been taught to disdain wealth, specifically private enterprise….in favor of uninspiring more “secure” means of employment, millions of black Americans have relinquished any real prospects of accumulating great wealth and capital.” 

Finally, when navigating work and life in the 21^st century, Kimbro acknowledges that it is easy to get distracted with the vicissitudes of life. The answer, he maintains, is in filtering items through one of two choices: accept the circumstances as they are or take the responsibility to change them. “Everyone I interviewed took the latter approach” and the rest is history.