Black In Business

I had the good fortune to manage many black professionals during my career as a leader of great teams. It is heart warming to know, observe and realize what outstanding people these folks are. Many if not most have gone on to have remarkable careers and now are in leadership position themselves. All of these great people were underappreciated by the white system, and had to out work, deliver better results and were successful nerverless.
Eugene Jackson was in Chicago last night and we had the opportunity to spend a few hours together. Eugene would not let me reach into my wallet which only added to my enjoyment. I am excited to share Eugene Story with this blog because he exemplifies the sprit of Blackinbusiness.We are a blog for ordinary people doing extraordinary things!
The hope is, by sharing the stories of inspiring black success stories; others will feel success is possible. When I review Eugene’s credentials some may feel he is beyond ordinary. He is now because of a lifetime of dedicated effort. Here are a few bullet points regarding Eugene.
Graduate of Jackson State University, ROTC
Military Officer
Army Ranger
Army Ranger Instructor
Million dollar salesman at Abbott Laboratories.
Worldwide Marketing Product Manager
Sales Manager
Number 1 sales manager at Beckman Coulter INC
Currently regional director for Johnson and Johnson, Ortho Division
Eugene is fluent in English, German, Korean and Portuguese. He understands Spanish and Ebonics.
He is the father of 5 children and is a husband.
Pretty cool stuff, wouldn’t you say? Eugene became a member of my Million dollar club by exceed 200% of his annual sales goal. His reward was to have his name enshrined as “The Great,” Eugene Jackson and receive a million dollar club ring. Since that time in 1996, Eugene has grown in stature, 6ft 2in, 285 lbs of a lot of muscle, but he still wears his million dollar club ring.
He demands excellence from his team and reminds a sought after medical sales professional. Eugene we are proud of you.
On a separate note, I posted about Minister Farrakhan, my links went from 247 to 227 and even though, he was all over the news, and a part of the Presidential debate, there are no comments. I guess is too hot to handle but I hope some readers will study some of my notes from his saviours day address. There is a lot to ponder. Keep Hope Alive!

On Sunday, February 24, 2008; at Chicago’s McCormick Center, close to 20,000 mostly black followers of “The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, gathered in celebration of the Nation of Islam’s Saviors Day. Minister’s Farrakhan’s address, “The Gods At War,” offered a compelling overview of current times. The Minister lead a spellbound audience through facts and figures as an assemblage to help our understanding of the world, past present and future. Every citizen should seek out the audio tape of this address. Granted Minister Farrakhan is a figure surrounded in controversy but one could not help to think, what an asset he could be to the United States as an advisor to President Bush.
Here are some highlights.
President Bush new budget calls for spending of 3.1 trillion dollars!
The US collects a total of 2.0 trillion dollars after the Bush Tax cuts in revenue.
We have to borrow the rest of out budget from formerly third world economies.
There was a time when you could dress your self, head to toe in goods made in the USA.
We, the USA, are now a third world economy, since we a unequal trade balance, we have become a service economy and are no longer a manufacturing economy.
The value of the dollar is at an all time low, gold a all time high.
The money in our pockets is losing value.
America is for sale, some of the best properties in our country are being sold to foreign governments.
Our jobs are over seas, the banking industry is collapsing.
It is time for change.
Barack Obama has inspired the world that he may save America.
The Senator is the one to bring us all together and because of his heritage he loves all people.
Some may ask “Is he black enough!” Obama visited his grand mother in Kenya, you cannot get ant blacker than that! He was raised by white grand parents in Kansas, he is truly a African American!
The world will trust Obama.
With out vision we will parish. There is no experience to prepare for solving the problems we have, it takes vision.
The majority of the world is people of color, what an advantage Obama would have in Foreign Policy.
Obama could be the Messiah.
Satan’s reign is over; The God’s have sent Obama to bring people together, regardless of race, color, political affiliation, age or experience.
The world can change for the better but it will take a visionary leader.
Farrakhan did not endorse he did not want to harm the campaign of Obama.
Minister asked the audience to pray for the safety of Obama and his family.

These highlight are based on mental notes I took from Minister Farrakhan’s 2 hour speech. Please visit the Nation of Islam’s web site for more detail and the ability to purchase the audio tape. If you have never listened to Farrakhan you will be surprised at his compassion, understanding and incredible intellect and charm.
In closing, there was a international federation for peace panel on the stage with Minister Farrakhan. There was also a youth Islamic group of national leaders that helped deliver this program. Every body was well dressed and humble but very generous in giving during the collection period. Many thousand dollars was collected in a 30 minute time frame.
This was truly an extraordinary event given by an extraordinary person providing insight to the true mess we are in as a nation but offering hope for the future.

A big part of sales and business is rejection. The word no, as in, I like your proposal and your product but we have decided to buy something else. Poor Hillary, she has heard no 11 times in a row and it a no the entire world sees. Think about it, you have 35 years of experience come from the best schools, married to a former President that lead one of the most success periods in history, yet no.
I heard no today and maybe yesterday. I rather hear no than maybe but the best answer is yes. He is what I shall do; I will review my notes and discover what I can learn from hearing no. Thomas Edison the famous inventor, failed in over 1000 experiments before his light filtration system worked. When asked how he could handle over 1000 failures, Edison replied, “I did not fail 1000 times; I learned 1000 ways it would not work!” Even in disappointment we must learn and move on to the next opportunity. There is a value to failure. If you make 1000 dollars each time you get a yes, but you only succeed 1 in 10 times, in theory you make 100 dollars with each no.
It is critical you can handle the rejection and disappointment of the ups and downs of business while in business. At the end of the day, “you are not judged by the number of times you fail but rather the number of times you succeed, and the amount of times you succeed is in direct proportion to the amount of times you can fail and keep trying, so keep trying!”
You may question why I rather hear no than maybe. No means, NFW, time to move on to new opportunity, Maybe often means false hope and often times at the end, NFW.
Let us know, what is your philosophy on rejection? How do you turn no into yes? Keep Hope Alive.

We have to realize history is being made. Barack is making a larger step than Neil Armstrong’s “small step for man but giant step for mankind!” This is bigger than Dr. King’s dream. His dream included children being able to play together and being judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Not even a visionary like Dr. King could have imagined a black President of the United States.
I mentioned in a recent post, where I projected the race was over and Barack would not only be the nominee but our next President, that if so I would be proud of America. I further stated that the chair of the Presidency was an empty one for black Americans. We have not been included as a viable part of the heritage of this country. Slavery was a part of the Constitution.
Mrs. Obama is 44 years old. Do the math; in the last 23 years what has America done to make any black American proud?
Governor Deval Patrick of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts helped put all of this into perspective in a speech I saw yesterday on CSpan. He eloquently told a story of looking out his state house window and seeing little black school children. These school children were happy, excited and pointing at the state’s first black Governor. Governor Patrick mentioned he saw hope in their eyes and anticipation regarding their opportunities. They had witness to a black running their state government. They had a right to work hard, study hard and know success is possible. For that all of us should be proud of this country. If the United States can put aside it’s well documented bias toward black citizens and elect a black President, the empty chair would be filled with hope.
For blacks in business, we are witnessing confirmation that can and will restore our dreams.
As the mother of 2 small children, Mrs. Obama wants hope to be a part of a country she can be proud of! What is wrong with that?

I have 2 brothers by birth, Al and David. Richard Burns is like a brother to me as well and we have been working our careers together for the past 30 plus years. I think back to my days in college when me and my roommates, lived for our dreams of a better life. I cannot not stress enough the important aspect of having contemporizes that want to do great things in life. This is a blog for ordinary people wanting extraordinary success. When you have made that decision for your self, you need to surround yourself with others that either want great things out of life or already have them. Over the past 16 months I have told the stories of several black success stories and Richard Burns and his success is one I am very proud of.
I first heard of Richard during the early days of corporate integration via Affirmative Action. I was a member of the Syracuse branch of Xerox Corporation and Albany was within our branch as a remote field office. Richard was a star already and established an affinity for great performance and results that have been a hallmark of his career. He was my and the other black sales reps idol.
Richard left Xerox to sell capital equipment for Abbott Diagnostics. I was left behind at Xerox but as soon as I was able to establish myself as a sales talent I followed Richard to Abbott. I remained there for 23 years until I no longer fit the culture and I retired. Richard went on to a career as a great salesman, selling telephone integrated systems, medical device, blood testing products, laboratory data management systems and eventuality hospital software for data management.
He has been a success every where and now as a Regional Director for the Midwest has realized his most recent honor, Salesman of the Year. Richard is one of two black businessman in his company and in his first years has distinguished himself as the best. In a moment of surprising modesty Richard informed me, “this is a small company but I was named Salesman of the Year.” It was a side of him I had not witness prior and I was more excited than he was.
Richard Burns is your quintessential salesman, tall broad shouldered, loud, life of the party, but willing to lend a helping hand to those in need. He was a college basketball player and a campus leader at Albany State University, a family man with 2 college educated kids, and is active with inner city issues.
Richard attributed his success to; hard work, being competitive, understanding his product, and his love of people. His customers respect and trust him and he elevates their total satisfaction of products to his highest priority.
Richard Burns, salesman of the year, congratulations and I hope somewhere a young salesman is inspired by your story.