INTRODUCTION – STYRON

My life has been blessed with great mentors who helped me along my journey. Today’s blog was written by one of my mentors, Haves. Over the years I have observed Haves’ priorities: God, Family, Parenting and Career. He is a successful executive who continously gives back to his community and others. I asked him to share in his own words his path and lessons learned on his continous journey to success.

HAVES’ IN HIS OWN WORDS

Many years ago, at the age of 18, after being a basketball star in high school; I took a long walk and contemplated what I wanted in adult life.  I can remember that walk like it was yesterday.  I had a vision of becoming a successful leader, I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I wanted to lead people, like I’d done on the basketball court. 

I had waited a tad too late to be accepted into a four-year college and at the time, I wasn’t prepared to succeed.  However, I was certain my high school diploma was insufficient to realize my vision.  I enrolled in a technical college in search of an associate degree.  In my first year, I really applied myself, something I had never done in high school.  To my surprise, I received great grades and I learned an awful lot. That’s when I realized, if I applied myself, I really could have a shot at being successful.  Graduated from technical college in two years and immediately enrolled in a four-year private college, working full-time and attending school nights and weekends.  I was able to achieve my bachelor’s degree part-time in four years.  During that time, I continued to set tough but achievable goals.  I wanted to learn how to become a successful manager and at the age of 25, I moved from Wisconsin to Ohio and accepted an entry level managers position.  That move helped me to mature and learn how to manage people that didn’t look or think like me.

Three years later, I received a call from an old friend and was offered a mid-level management position and over the next few years, I served as a manager in multiple functions; including engineering, quality assurance and customer service. During that time period, I enrolled and graduated with a master’s in business administration.  And at the age of 36, was promoted to vice president and general manager responsible for leading over 1,000 people!  I was ecstatic, 18 years after my long walk, my vision was really happening.

After serving in that role for close to a decade, I left and moved again to Chicago and accepted a senior vice president role managing six manufacturing facilities with approximately 5,000 employees.  I enjoyed that position for several years but unfortunately, a new CEO was appointed, and he desired his own team.

I was separated from the company and went through a re-branding of skills.  Losing a senior management job is not easy and to be very honest, it can be quite painful and a blow to your ego.  I re-branded myself and purchased majority ownership in a small company that grew to employ 100 people.  Entrepreneurship is completely different than Corporate America and Non-profits.  While learning entrepreneurship, my Pastor placed me in charge of our new building committee. That meant once a month standing in front of the congregation and providing a status on funding the new church campus.  It took five years including negotiating loans with big banks, construction and the permit process but we achieved our goal and built a beautiful campus occupying 25 acres.

Setting goals and working diligently to achieve those goals are not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but they are definitely achievable.  I am a firm believer that education plays an important role, not that you need a bachelor or master’s degree to be successful.  Many of my good friends make a very good living in the trades. However, to be successful, you need to start with a vision, set some goals, work hard to achieve those goals and not be afraid of making mistakes during your journey.

CONCLUSION – STYRON –

EVERYONE CAN USE A GREAT MENTOR

Majority of successful people have mentors, including, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Former Presidents of the United Sates, etc.

I met Haves when he was a Senior Vice President and we worked for the same company. He is intelligent, a great strategic thinker, walks the talk, and is honest in his words and deeds.

Thank you Haves for sharing your life lessons and being my mentor.

My lessons learned from our 20+ year relationship.

Priorities in life: Church, Family, Giving Back and Career.

Set a vision for your future achievement and then DO IT! No excuses.

Leaders must master the art of leadership. We are NOT born leaders.

Achieve your dreams by applying yourself to: continuous education, marriage, family, career and financial security.

Failure is a reality. Successful people learn and move on.

It is never too late to rebrand yourself and accomplish a new dream.

Setting goals and working diligently to achieve YOUR goals is NOT EASY by any stretch of the imagination; but ACHIEVABLE.

Never be afraid of making mistakes during your journey. Champions get knocked down but they ALWAYS GET UP!

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DISCLAIMER

I am a proud nerd (as my beautiful wife and daughter have told me) investment and finance blogger, with a NC State, Chemical Engineering, University Rutgers, MBA and Harvard University, Advanced Management education.  

I started my first business at ~13 years of age. I am a successful investor in equities and real estate and happy to share my personal finance and investment lessons learned with you. However, I am NOT a licensed financial advisor.  Please do not construe my suggestions on this blog, as recommendations for your personal situation.  For individual finance advice please seek your own licensed CPA or financial advisors.