Introduction

I wrote these words for everyone who struggles in their youth.
Who won’t accept deception instead of what is truth.
It seems we lose the game, before we even start to play.
Who made these rules? We’re so confused. Easily led astray.

—Lauryn Hill, “Everything Is Everything”

Not Getting Trumped: Randal’s Nationally Televised “Black Faces in White Places” Moment

It had all come down to this moment: Onstage at New York’s Lincoln Center, on live television with millions of people watching the possibility of me, Randal Pinkett, being chosen as real estate mogul Donald Trump’s next Apprentice.

It was the fourth season of the NBC hit reality show The Apprentice, and Trump would ultimately choose one person, out of eighteen candidates—selected from more than one million applicants—to work for The Trump Organization. At stake: the $250,000 prize and the opportunity to be part of a renowned company that runs—in addition to real estate—gaming, entertainment, media, and educational enterprises.

The competition was whittled down to Rebecca Jarvis—a financial journalist who had previously worked for a short time in investment banking and trading—and me.

I believe Trump’s choice should have been clear. Each week on The Apprentice, teams were charged with tasks under the direction of the team member selected as project manager. As project manager, I was undefeated, while Rebecca had a record of one win and two losses. When other project managers had a chance to choose team members, I was picked far more often. Rebecca was twenty-three years old at the time, and just beginning a career in business journalism. Ten years her senior, I was running BCT Partners, a multimillion-dollar consulting firm, and had already founded four other companies. Rebecca did have great education credentials, having earned an undergraduate degree from the prestigious University of Chicago. Still, my academic experience included five degrees, including an MBA and PhD from MIT, and a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University.

But this was reality television, and things turned on the unpredictable, so I was prepared for almost anything to happen. The final show of the season was a two-hour live event. Our final tasks, the outcome, the boardroom evaluations, and the debriefing of our team members had been taped and aired. It was time for Trump’s choice.

For those of you who missed it, or need a refresher, here’s how those final seconds went down:

Trump said, “Randal you’re an amazing leader. Amazing. Rarely on this … (Applause) Rarely have I seen a leader as good as you, and you lead through niceness. I mean, you really lead through example, and I think you’d be the first to admit that, Rebecca. People follow Randal whenever there’s a choice—we want Randal—I mean it just happened four or five times. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

Then he declared, “Rebecca, you’re outstanding. Randal, you’re hired.”

I leaped out of my chair, did a bit of an end-zone-esque celebratory move, and was embraced by several of the previously “fired” Apprentice candidates. My family and friends in the Lincoln Center audience and a group at a party in Newark, New Jersey, cheered my victory.

Then, the “moment.”

My celebration was stopped short when Trump’s voice called over the applause and well-wishes.

“Randal. Randal. Randal. Randal. Randal,” Trump said. “Sit down for a second. I want to ask your opinion.”

I took a seat at the “boardroom” table next to Rebecca.

Trump continued: “You two were so good, I have to ask your opinion. What do you think of Rebecca? If you were me, would you hire Rebecca also?”

I thought, Is he serious? Apparently he was, and I was insulted and angered. No previous winner had ever been asked that question before. That marked my nationally televised “Black Faces in White Places” moment.

—Randal Pinkett

Your “moment” may not have been viewed on-air by millions of people, but if you’re Black, it’s likely you’ve had one. Perhaps you are the only Black in your predominantly white high school and have been asked to speak to the student body, as if you represent the entire Black community. Perhaps you serve as the founder and CEO of a Black-owned business that constantly has to prove and re-prove itself to the marketplace while larger firms are allowed to fail without any repercussions. Perhaps you work for a corporation with little to no minority representation and, for some reason, your opinion seems to fall on deaf ears, while the opinions of your colleagues somehow always carry weight. Perhaps you are one of the few, if not the only person of color in your department, division, or even company, and feel the weight of your race with regard to basic performance. You’re worried that if you’re late, all Black people are considered tardy. If you fail, all Black people are considered failures. But if you succeed, you’re the exception!

The range of such moments is as varied as we are as a people. While the larger society often views Blacks as a monolithic group, we know better. We are liberals and conservatives. We are rich, poor, working, and middle class. We are laborers, blue-collar and white-collar workers. We are Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, and agnostics. Though small in number, there are even Black Jews. Some of us have dropped out of school and some of us have earned multiple degrees. We are diverse—but at the beginning of the day, in the middle of the day, and at the end of the day, we are Black. And at some point—whether it’s early in life or late, we all will have our “moment” when we are confronted with a challenge related to our race.

Coach C. Vivian Stringer and the women of the Rutgers University women’s basketball team had their moment when radio personality Don Imus decided to refer to them as “nappy-headed hos” the morning after they played in the championship game of the NCAA Tournament. But they spoke back with dignity and held their heads high as they graced the cover of Newsweek magazine and received the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award from the Women’s Sports Foundation—awarded to female athletes who exhibit extraordinary courage and surmount adversity. Coach Stringer and her team “redefined the game.”

Olympic speed skater Shani Davis had a moment when he was unfairly criticized by a white skater (who had previously lost a race to Davis) for not being a “team player” when he chose to participate in an individual competition over the team event: an educated decision that was actually as much (if not more) for the benefit of the team than for himself, since Davis had never practiced or participated in the team event. But rather than submit, Davis stood by his decision and redefined the game when he became the first Black athlete to win a gold medal in an individual sport at the Winter Olympics.

Cathy Hughes had her moment when she realized the inherent limitations of remaining at a white-owned radio station, WYCB. Though she had faced thirty-two rejections before a bank granted her husband and her a loan, she persevered and redefined the game by creating Radio One, the largest radio broadcasting company targeting African American and urban listeners.

And perhaps the most stunning “Black Faces in White Places” moment of our time: Barack Obama making the bold decision to run for the presidency of the United States when many, including prominent Civil Rights leaders, said America wasn’t ready. But not only did he win the Democratic nomination, he redefined the game by becoming the first African-American president of the United States in the face of millions of naysayers—a Black man in the White House.

What all these people have in common is that they learned the game, played the game, mastered the game, and, at that “Black Faces in White Places” moment, found themselves in a position to redefine the game.

So how did Randal perform in his moment? Read on …

Randal: Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump. I firmly believe that this is The Apprentice—that there is one and only one Apprentice, and if you’re going to hire someone tonight it should be one.

Trump: Okay.

Randal: It’s not “The Apprenti”!

Trump: Okay.

Randal: It’s “The Apprentice.”

Trump: All right, I’m going to leave it at that, then. I think I could have been convinced, but if you feel that’s the way it should be.

Randal: I think that’s the way it should be.

Trump: I’m going to leave it that way, then. Congratulations.

Randal earned the right to be named the sole Apprentice and refused to be one of two apprentices. (The plural form is, of course, “apprentices,” not “apprenti”—but, hey, it made for a great one-liner!) He asserted himself and did not allow the rules of the game to change at the last minute. In front of millions of Americans, in his own modest way, he redefined the game. And Trump never asked that question of any winner on The Apprentice again.

But you don’t have to be a college basketball player, a world-class Olympic athlete, a radio titan, a presidential candidate, or a reality TV star to have such a moment. Many others have overcome their moments, too. This book is designed to help you transcend your own “Black Faces in White Places” moments, redefine the game, and make it easier for the next generation to do the same.

FROM “THE GLASS CEILING” TO “THE EVER-CHANGING GAME”

The long-standing metaphor to describe the barriers to advancement for minorities and women is the “glass ceiling,” a term that was originally applied to white women who had the abilities to advance and sought to follow the pathway men had taken to run organizations, but found they could only get so far in corporate America. Since then, the term has also been used to describe the phenomenon of African Americans and other underrepresented groups being denied access to higher-level positions. African Americans represent 12 percent of the U.S. workforce. Yet, according to some sources, African Americans only hold between 3 percent and 4 percent of senior-level positions in Fortune 1000 companies today, a scant increase from 2.5 percent in 1995.¹

As a metaphor for the challenges facing minorities, we believe the glass ceiling is outdated. To be clear, we are not suggesting that the impediments suggested by the term “glass ceiling” don’t exist. Undoubtedly, several barriers for African Americans still remain. We are suggesting that “the glass ceiling” is no longer an appropriate metaphor or symbol in the new millennium.

As a metaphor, the phrase suggests unseen and impenetrable barriers (hence the adjective “glass” and the noun “ceiling”), and it applied when we were still new to professional environments, had yet to understand their inner workings, and when minorities were not represented at all at the executive levels. But those days are now gone. Today, it’s time for a new metaphor. So we are officially retiring the glass ceiling and suggesting as a replacement a new metaphor that we call “the ever-changing game.”

The word “game” is subject to multiple interpretations:

It can be a noun meaning “ability,” as in “He’s got game.”

It can be a verb meaning to “cheat,” as in “Don’t try to game me.”

It can be an adjective meaning “ready and able,” as in “I’m game,” or “She’s game.”

A common definition of the word game, “activity engaged in for diversion or amusement,” is perhaps the furthest from our use of the word, as we in no way intend to trivialize the very serious issues raised in this book. To the contrary, we use “game” to refer to a very specific phenomenon. The closest definition of our usage of the word game comes from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which defines game as “any activity undertaken or regarded as a contest involving rivalry, strategy, or struggle.”

In the context of this book, we define “the game” as any activity undertaken to pursue personal and professional pathways to success involving rivalry, strategy, or struggle, and that are governed by a collection of spoken and, more often, unspoken rules.

Along these lines, there is a “game of politics.” There are activities in the political realm that must be undertaken to achieve success, whether it is to get yourself elected or reelected or to work to help someone else get elected or reelected. There is a “game of corporate America,” where success can be defined as becoming a highly paid executive. There is a “game of entrepreneurship,” where success can be defined as generating millions, if not billions, of dollars in revenue. And there is even a “game of education,” where success can be defined as achieving good grades and being accepted to an institution of higher learning.

Each of these games is governed by a collection of rules; some are spoken and others are unspoken. As times and conditions change, so do the rules. We therefore propose using the adjective “ever-changing” to elaborate on the game metaphor. The ever-changing game applies to any competitive environment where the rules are differentially applied and subject to change. Unlike the glass ceiling, the ever-changing game is something we encounter from grade school to graduate school and from the classroom to the boardroom. It applies to employees and entrepreneurs, high school students and graduate students, as well as professionals, politicians, and professors.

The twentieth-century glass ceiling conjured the associated metaphor of the ladder. This focused our attention on individuals who “climb” the ladder in an attempt to “break through” the glass ceiling and ultimately “reach the C-suite” once they get the title of CEO, CFO, or COO, etc. But today’s ever-changing game conjures the metaphor of the playing field. By comparison, this focuses our attention on teams or groups of people who “work together” to “change the game” and “level the playing field” for everyone. The game and the playing field are appropriate metaphors for anyone aspiring to reach the top of their field, not only those who aspire to reach the C-suite, but also those who aspire to become school principals, head nurses, nonprofit executive directors, or reach other career heights, since they too are in the midst of a competition (whether they realize it or not).

So we are not concerned with breaking through a glass ceiling. Rather, the strategies you’ll find in this book are those we have found to be most effective for African Americans to compete, win, and ultimately change for the better an ever-changing game.

WHY THE GAME MUST BE REDEFINED NOW

Since the Civil Rights movement, African Americans have made great progress in the United States. In 2006, 19 percent of Black adults, age 25 and older, had completed college; it was only 4 percent in 1970. We are represented at every level of business, academia, corporate America, nonprofit organizations, and government, including the presidency. The growth of new African-American businesses at 6.4 percent is almost five times the rate of new companies overall. African Americans’ buying power is more than $913 billion today, and is expected to grow to $1.2 trillion by 2013. Yet these and other statistics reflect a persistent “illusion of full inclusion.”

As a group, we still lag far behind whites. In 2002, the Black poverty rate was three times greater than the white poverty rate, according to a study from the Pew Research Center. Based on the rate of change since 1968, it will take 150 years to close the gap. Black homeownership rose from 42 percent in 1970 to 48 percent in 2002, while white homeownership climbed from 65 percent to 75 percent in the same period (Pew study again). At that rate, it would take a staggering 1,661 years or fifty-five generations to eliminate this gulf.

For years, African Americans have passed down conventional wisdom that they must work twice as hard as their white counterparts and they must go to school—preferably to a good college—and make good grades. The advice isn’t completely off the mark, but if that’s all it takes, certainly many of us should be much further along.

Working hard and getting an education or training are cornerstones of success for any race of people. But the world is changing, and today these strategies simply aren’t enough. African Americans who cling to strategies that worked in the past, without taking into account how the world is shifting, will likely feel frustrated as they progress at a snail’s pace or, worse, lose ground in the future.

We must redefine the game now because while we have made tremendous progress, we still face tremendous challenges, and tremendous work remains to be done. Our communities and our country cannot afford to wait.

The Four Dimensions of Black Faces in White Places

So what do we mean by “Black Faces in White Places”? It is more than just a numbers game and being the only person of color in a predominantly white environment. It is more than being subjected to racism and discrimination based on the color of your skin. It is even more than being a “Black first.”

It is, in fact, about pursuing greatness in ways that leverage your culture and ethnicity as assets, not as liabilities.

The experience of being Black while pursuing such a path may raise issues along four dimensions (see Figure I–1): identity, meritocracy, society, and opportunity.

IDENTITY: WHO AM I?

The foundation of personal identity is often your ethnic and cultural background. Are you African American or Caribbean American? Were you, or your parents, born in Africa? Is one of your parents white, Latino, or Asian?

Then there’s professional identity. Are you working toward becoming (or already working as) a lawyer, doctor, professor, graphic artist, or software developer? Often our career aspirations shape our interests and social groups—even how we dress. Do you wear a suit most days—or maybe it’s a lab coat. Perhaps you find yourself in environments where jeans and polo shirts are the norm, even at the highest levels of your profession.

Another element is how you think of yourself. Are you a founder of, say, a business or a community group? You could be an activist—working to organize people in communities to fight for social change. Or perhaps you think of yourself as a trailblazer. Maybe you are the first Caribbean American to have earned a degree in a particular field or to develop a technical process.

Why Is Identity So Important for African Americans? According to Patricia Hewlin, PhD, a professor of organizational behavior at McGill University, African Americans are particularly aware of the issue of identity because we often make choices between our own personal and cultural identity and the identity and culture of our surroundings, especially if we are in predominantly white institutions and workplaces. And, Hewlin noted in an interview, “Since race has been such a prominent issue in American history, it is often the most salient when we ask people to define who they are.”

Figure I–1. The four dimensions of Black faces in white places.

This complicates the internal and external conversation that African Americans have with themselves and others. Is race important to me because it is central to who I am or because I am defined by it in society?

There are many examples of these questions of identity. Am I the manager who happens to be Black or the Black manager? Am I the Black professor or the professor who happens to be Black? Who do I want to be and how do I want to be treated by others? This is where the first dimension of being a Black face in a white place, identity, intersects with questions about meritocracy, society, and opportunity.

MERITOCRACY: CAN I BE JUDGED ON MY MERITS?

When you are the Black person in a white institution or workplace, you won’t be alone if you wonder, “Can I be judged on my merits, or will race always be a factor?”

The idea of meritocracy (a society that is based solely upon merit) is illusive in America. Instead, we ask ourselves: How do people view me? Are the decision makers evaluating me based on my education, skills, character, and performance, or on the color of my skin?

Let’s recall the play-by-play of Randal’s final seconds before being named Donald Trump’s season four Apprentice, and then right after his victory, when he was reminded that he was a Black face in a “white place.” Here’s some of what the TV viewers that night didn’t see …

In the days leading up to The Apprentice finale, there were hints that Trump might throw a curveball. Reality TV message boards were lighting up and cast members were abuzz with rumors that Trump was considering a double hiring—which would have been the first in the show’s history. However, it was also clear that Randal still faced an uphill battle despite his standout performance on the show. One week before the finale Trump was quoted as saying, “He can be lazy” with respect to Randal, while referring to Jarvis as “smart” and “beautiful.” The article not only identified Jarvis as the “front-runner,” but also included separate pictures of her and Trump while conspicuously omitting a picture of Randal.²

Was it a coincidence that Randal was set to be the first-ever African-American Apprentice? This is the kind of question we’re talking about here; many people have concluded that Trump’s curveball was based on race. It certainly couldn’t have been based on performance—Randal won every time he was a project manager and had a winning team record, while Jarvis had a losing project manager and team record. During the final task—a charity fund-raiser—Randal raised $15,000 for his assigned charity while Jarvis raised zero dollars for hers. At the second to last episode, when it was clear that Randal and Rebecca Jarvis were the finalists, an NBC poll showed that 81 percent of respondents thought Randal should win. And many of his competitors—about nine of them—joined Randal for dinner the day before the live finale. Much of the conversation that evening centered on how unacceptable it would be if Trump decided on a double hiring.

We jumped into action, meeting with several friends to strategize how Randal should respond to Trump in the event of a double hiring—or if he hired Randal and then consulted him on how to handle Jarvis. We didn’t play out that second scenario with any great level of detail because it seemed so implausible, but the response we decided on was essentially the same as if there had been a double hiring. If Trump insisted, Randal would stick to his guns and settle for nothing less than being the sole winner, or else he would quit!

In the end, Trump accepted Randal’s argument and named him the sole winner. But even then, Randal was only able to enjoy his victory for so long. Randal’s response resulted in a firestorm of media controversy and hundreds of blog posts from people who thought he should have allowed Rebecca to be hired. One website, RealityTV.com, registered 582 comments, many of them negative, about Randal’s response. Hackers took down his personal website. Hate messages were left on the voicemail at his company. A “Fire Randal” website popped up within hours.

Conversely, Randal still gets kudos from people—particularly African Americans, but also some whites, who think he did the right thing.

Even still, when Randal travels the country, a similar scenario often plays out: A Black person will approach, congratulate Randal on his success, and then whisper, “I’m glad you did what you did, but I wouldn’t have done it.”

We have two questions for all those folks who say they wouldn’t have made the same choice. Why not? And why are you whispering?

There’s no need to whisper when you are confident about what you bring to the table. (In Randal’s case—it was his winning record.) There’s no need to whisper when you know the facts. (In Randal’s case, this was a competition billed from the very beginning as having one winner.) Instead, you should be willing to stand up and speak out for what you believe in and what you have worked for and earned. That’s what Randal did, and that’s your responsibility as well.

SOCIETY: IS AMERICA COLOR-BLIND?

No, America is not color-blind.

Okay, we said it, and if you’re reading this book, our guess is that there’s a 99.9 percent chance you agree. Minorities represent about 28 percent of the U.S. population; however, our collective businesses only represent 2.7 percent of all U.S. gross revenue. In 2001, the typical Black household had a net worth of $19,000—including home equity—compared with $121,000 for whites. The median net worth for whites is $88,000, while for Hispanics and Blacks, median net worth is only $8,000 and $7,000, respectively. And the number-one company on the Black Enterprise 100, World Wide Technology, doesn’t make the Fortune 100, or even the Fortune 500.

Power, wealth, and influence continue to be concentrated outside of Black America, and the institutions of influence have not changed sufficiently to allow for a color-blind ideal.

So where does that leave Black people? There are three key things you must understand before moving forward.

1. Relationships to people and organizations have importance. We must identify and connect with influential institutions. Whether it’s a university, a workplace, or a professional or volunteer organization, we must determine (and follow) the patterns that will enable us to successfully navigate those structures. Additionally, we must recognize and link to social and professional networks that help people progress. That means building meaningful relationships both inside and outside of predominantly white institutions.

2. Disparities exist, but there is progress. It’s easy to get mired in the negative statistics. But there are more highly educated, well-compensated Blacks than ever before. We can learn from those who have made it to the C-suite, opened high-growth firms, built wealth, wielded influence, and risen to the top of their professions.

3. As a Black person, the rules, though often subtle, are different for you, and the same strategies—good or bad—employed by your white counterparts will often yield a different result for you.

OPPORTUNITY: DO I HAVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO FULFILL MY DESTINY?

The question that defines the final dimension of Black faces in white places is one that weighs on the heart of every American. Can I achieve my dreams in this country? Can I have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness just as anyone else in this nation? Can I achieve my American dream?

African Americans want what everyone in the United States wants. We want a level playing field. We want good schools for our children, good jobs and businesses that flourish, safe places to live, and fulfillment in what we do. But often, African Americans do not believe they have equal opportunity to achieve their highest potential and fulfill their dreams. Many believe that there still are many obstacles to fairness and equality in the workforce, in our schools, and throughout society.

African-American professionals wonder why the “pursuit of happiness” looks so white, given the lack of African Americans at the executive level. We wonder why the boardroom doesn’t reflect the diversity of America. We wonder why the number of Black professors at the nation’s top-fifty institutions is so low. And we wonder why all institutions of power are not proportionately filled with people that look like us.

Consider your own access to opportunity, and try to answer the following questions:

How can I reach my highest potential in the organization or field I am in right now?

How can I find fulfillment in my personal and professional life?

How can I give back to others to help them fulfill their potential?

When we asked these questions of ourselves, we did some soul-searching and sought the advice of others. Finding answers to these key questions propelled us to a higher purpose, and ultimately, this book will challenge you to do the same.

Table I–1 provides a summary of the four dimensions and how they will relate to the ten strategies on which we’ll be elaborating.

A Roadmap for Redefining the Game and Reshaping America

For centuries, African Americans have been learning the game, playing the game, and mastering the game, based on rules traditionally defined by others. Overcoming barriers to advancement for African Americans has generally meant developing effective strategies to learn, play, and master their game. The roots of these barriers are found in historical, overt, and legal restrictions in voting, housing, employment, and education. Modern-day manifestations take the form of subtler yet observable obstacles that make it difficult to advance in corporate America, establish businesses, create wealth, and pursue one’s dreams.

Table I–1. Four dimensions and 10 strategies for Black faces in white places

The rules of the game for Blacks have evolved and changed significantly over time. As a result, some strategies that worked in the past are now less effective, while others are simply outdated.

Additionally, the rules of the game have been, and continue to be, applied differently to Blacks: Greater penalties are often levied on African Americans for failure; higher expectations are often set for African Americans in order to achieve; and in response to those African Americans who reach a certain level of success, circumstances can often change in ways that make it difficult to attain even greater accomplishments.

Generally speaking, these dynamics are no secret to Black people. However, what is not as widely acknowledged is that the rules of the game for African Americans are becoming more complex, and therefore the strategies needed to win the game and succeed in life now require greater and greater levels of sophistication.

To thrive today, it is no longer adequate to be the smartest student in class, the top employee on the job, or the highest-scoring athlete on the field. Whether the landscape involves the cutthroat milieu of business and politics, the hallowed halls of academia and the church, or the popular fields of sports and entertainment, African Americans need to know and apply a new set of lessons for the twenty-first century.

In this book, then, we present to you a roadmap to help you apply those lessons so that you can learn the game, play the game, master the game, change the game, and, in the process, ultimately reshape America.

The 10 Game-Changing Strategies to Achieve Success and Find Greatness

First, we’ll be guiding you through the ten strategies we have determined to be most effective for African Americans to navigate today’s rapidly changing professional landscape. Along with our stories, we’ll share the stories of the dozens of accomplished African Americans we interviewed while completing this book. Excerpts from these interviews, which can be found throughout the book, clearly demonstrate how the ten strategies have unfolded in their lives. We interviewed a broad spectrum of people, ranging from prominent elected officials, corporate executives, nonprofit and community leaders, entrepreneurs, and educators to foundation executives, pastors, entertainers, artists, and scientists, such that the ten strategies we’ve identified reflect a wide range of paths. Our objective is not that you emulate their paths or even our paths, but that we help you to find your own path. Like any good roadmap, ours will provide a range of options and pathways that can lead you to the same destination of learning, playing, mastering, and redefining the game your way.

As you read on, you’ll see that we are following the roadmap illustrated in Figure I–2. The first three strategies are the seeds of Part I: Learning the Game. A firm grasp of these principles is necessary to move forward in your journey, since these strategies provide the foundation upon which all the other strategies are built.

Figure I-2. The “10 strategies” roadmap: the path to greatness

The stories we present for Strategy 1 explore the complexities and importance of establishing a strong identity as an African American, with strategies that will help you determine your purpose.

In Strategy 2, we stress the importance of obtaining broad exposure and diverse experiences and moving beyond your comfort zone—and we show you how you can do so in your own life.

Strategy 3 illustrates the concept of demonstrating excellence through the application of discipline and empowering beliefs to your individual passion and God-given gifts.

With the first three strategies as a foundation, you will be ready to move on to Part II: Playing the Game, which will bolster your playbook with additional strategies that are all about relationships.

Strategy 4 shows the benefit of building solid and diverse relationships with all kinds of people as you move through your education and career.

Strategy 5 emphasizes the importance of developmental relationships with coaches, sponsors, counselors, and mentors, and helps you unlock the mysteries of finding and utilizing them. Tapping the “wisdom of others” is a vital aspect of playing the game.

Strategy 6 discusses informal and formal group relationships and the benefits of joining with like-minded people, within your organization or in outside groups, not only to boost your own success but to work for collective gain (the “strength in numbers” concept).

At this point, you are prepared to make a steady climb to the next set of strategies, so you can take the game to a higher level in Part III: Mastering the Game. Strategies 7 and 8 encourage you to tap into a mindset of thinking and acting intrapreneurially and entrepreneurially. Intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship are part of an ongoing cycle; they are different sides of the same coin. They represent an inside game and an outside game, depending on whether you find yourself working inside an established organization as an intrapreneur or working outside to create an entirely new entity as an entrepreneur. You’ll notice in Figure I–2 that the transition from Part II to Part III represents an inflection point—the incline becomes steeper moving ahead. That’s no accident. We regard this transition as the most difficult one because the entrepreneurial mindset is not a traditional way of thinking and acting.

Strategy 7 applies the principles you added to your repertoire to strategic career management, networking, mentoring, and organizational involvement, so that you can become an intrapreneur who not only effectively navigates your organization, but also exerts your influence to help the community.

Strategy 8 orients what you’ve learned so far toward starting your own company or organization—and understanding your responsibility as an entrepreneur to launch ventures for a profit and for a purpose.

Once you’ve mastered the game, you are ready to move on to Part IV: Redefining the Game. Here, everything you’ve learned from Strategies 1 through 8 comes together in harmony to bear fruit, while we introduce two new strategies for how you can work with others to effect large-scale change in your industry, in the community, and in society.

Strategy 9 describes how to achieve synergy by creating connections between people and organizations, and then reach scale by amplifying their collective efforts to have the broadest or deepest possible impact. We harness the capabilities, relationships, and organizations discussed throughout the previous strategies and show how to apply them to leveling the playing field. As you can again see in Figure I–2, the transition from Part III to Part IV represents the final inflection point—the incline becomes less steep as you continue forward because, like a lever, you are able to multiply your efforts by working with others who share a common agenda.

Strategy 10 reveals how being generous with your time, talent, treasure, and touch throughout your life and career not only benefits others, but solidifies your sense of identity and purpose. It enables you to create a powerful and lasting legacy that makes America a better place and levels the playing field for everyone.

To guide you in applying the ten strategies to your daily life, throughout the book we will provide Game-Changing Strategies or strategic considerations, most of which are geared specifically to African Americans. Be sure to also visit the website www.redefinethegame.com to browse or contribute to the wide range of resources available there. You can also download additional materials that supplement this book and learn more about us.

So, with great joy and excitement we invite you into our lives and the lives of the intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs profiled in these pages. Learning, playing, mastering, and redefining the game is an uphill climb, but as we have found in our own lives, when you are armed with the right set of strategies, reaching for the top is that much easier. And the opportunity to put oneself in a position to reshape America is simply awesome.