The Road to Someplace Better

Lillian Lincoln Lambert

Description

The first black woman Harvard MBA tells the remarkable story of how she achieved the American dream

Lillian Lincoln Lambert rose from humble beginnings as a poor farm girl in the segregated South to become the first black woman to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School and, later, the founder of a $20 million maintenance company with 1,200 employees. In The Road to Someplace Better, she shares an inspiring personal journey that took her from dead-end jobs in New York City and Washington, D.C., to the ivory tower and the world of entrepreneurship. In addition to her own hard work and tenacity, she shows how her love of reading?instilled in her by her mother?spurred her to reach her goals. By sharing her inspiring life story, she helps others see that they, too, have the power to dream big, act bold, and achieve their goals.

• Charts Lillian Lincoln Lambert's inspiring rise from a poor, rural upbringing in the segregated South to success as a barrier-breaking CEO and entrepreneur
• Inspiring memoir of a groundbreaking business pioneer who broke down racial, gender, and social barriers to achieve unprecedented success
• Lillian Lincoln Lambert received Harvard Business School's Alumni Achievement Award in 2003 and has been featured on Good Morning America and in Time, the Washington Post, and Entrepreneur

The Road to Someplace Better is a book you'll want to read whether you're interested in business, history, or an unforgettable story of personal triumph against the odds.
Foreword by Cathy Hughes.

Acknowledgments.

Prologue.

1 The Farm.

2 Fifth Avenue on a Wing and a Prayer.

3 In the Company of Angels.

4 Howard University and Lucky 13

5 Harvard Business School: 1967-1968

6 Harvard Business School: 1968-1969.

7 Life beyond Harvard.

8 Life as a Double Minority Entrepreneur.

9 The Birth of a Company.

10. Letting Go and Moving On.

11 Giving Back.

Epilogue.

Index.

Sujets

• Ethnic
• Cultural
• Biography
• Lillian Lincoln
• African-American history
• Regional
• Autobiography
• Harvard Business School

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 09 avril 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780470536995
• Langue: English

Extrait

Table of Contents
 
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Prologue
 
CHAPTER 1 - The Farm
CHAPTER 2 - Fifth Avenue on a Wing and a Prayer
CHAPTER 3 - In the Company of Angels
CHAPTER 4 - Howard University and Lucky 13
CHAPTER 5 - Harvard Business School: 1967-1968
CHAPTER 6 - Harvard Business School: 1968-1969
CHAPTER 7 - Life beyond Harvard
CHAPTER 8 - Life as a Double Minority Entrepreneur
CHAPTER 9 - The Birth of a Company
CHAPTER 10 - Letting Go and Moving On
CHAPTER 11 - Giving Back
 
Epilogue
INDEX
Photo Insert

This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright © 2010 by Lillian Lincoln Lambert. All rights reserved
The poem “Lillian Lambert” on page 221 copyright © 2010 by Steve McLemore. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Lambert, Lillian Lincoln, date.
The road to someplace better : from the segregated South to Harvard Business School and beyond/Lillian Lincoln Lambert with Rosemary Brutico.
p. cm.
Includes index.
eISBN : 978-0-470-53699-5
1. Lambert, Lillian Lincoln, 1940- 2. African American women executives—Biography. 3. African American businesspeople—Biography. 4. Centennial One, Inc. I. Brutico, Rosemary, 1954- II. Title.
HD6054.4.U6L56 2010
338.7647—dc22
[B] 2009015960
To two extraordinary forces in my life: My mother, Arnetha Hobson, and my mentor, H. Naylor Fitzhugh
FOREWORD
 
 
 
 
Lillian’s story resonated with me because we are contemporaries and entrepreneurs who were born during one of the darkest periods of American history—segregation—and who broke the color barrier in our respective fields. I was a poor city girl from Omaha, Nebraska, who grew up in the projects and, as I like to say, “surrounded by concrete.” Lillian was a poor country girl who was raised on a hardscrabble farm in rural Virginia. Although similar circumstances and a common heritage tie us together, Lillian’s story has a compelling universal appeal: it’s a testament to the transcendental power of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
The Road to Someplace Better is the soul-searching, inspirational journey of a poor black girl who left the farm at the age of eighteen and headed up North in search of her fortune, thereby dashing her mother’s long-held hope that her daughter would follow in her own footsteps and go to college. That Lillian’s mother was a college-educated black woman in the early twentieth century was in itself an extraordinary achievement.
Lillian’s courage, drive, and mettle would be tested time and again as she fought off the forces that surrounded her: racism, sexism, the tedium of menial dead-end jobs, and, most of all, her own illusions of what it meant to succeed and achieve the American Dream. As Lillian grows in self-knowledge, she begins to understand that what she needs does not lie outside her—in wanting and getting—but instead lies deep within her being. Doing an about-face, she comes to the realization that her mother was right all along: “There is no substitute for education, and there are no shortcuts.”
As she pursued her academic studies—with loans, scholarships, and part-time jobs—Lillian became keenly aware of another phenomenon: no matter where she was and what challenges she faced, there seemed to be a band of angels—earthly angels in plainclothes attire-surrounding her and giving her encouragement, shelter, and guidance to stay the course. One of these angels turned out to be a distinguished black professor at Howard University who was instrumental in changing the direction of Lillian’s life. Seeing the depth of her intelligence and ambition, this professor convinced her that she was Harvard material. This learned man would know, because he himself was Harvard educated, earning an MBA from the school in 1933. His name is H. Naylor Fitzhugh.
Following in her revered professor’s footsteps, Lillian went to Harvard Business School and achieved a historic milestone in 1969 as the first black woman to graduate with a Harvard MBA. After graduating from Harvard, she continued to garner historic “firsts” as a black female entrepreneur who founded a company in her garage with just a few thousand dollars. Over the next twenty-five years, Centennial One grew into a $20 million operation with more than twelve hundred employees.
In an age when our youth reveres the lifestyles of the rich and famous as worth emulating, Lillian offers an antidote. She makes us realize that a celebrity-crazed culture produces false role models and false expectations of what the youth of America can realistically achieve and, more important, what is worth achieving.
In this regard, Lillian’s personal journey delivers a powerful message, showing us that our true role models are real people who are embedded in our communities. They are touchable, squeezable, huggable, down-to-earth folks without famous names. In short, they are our parents, our ministers, our teachers, our firefighters, our next-door neighbors, and our social workers. They are those who have our best interests at heart and who are willing and eager to offer guidance and hard-won wisdom.
Ultimately, Lillian is living proof of what we can achieve if we open up to God’s earthly angels and let them guide us on our life journey. Lillian is a remarkable woman with a remarkable story. She has something to teach us if we are willing to listen.
—Cathy Hughes, Founder and Chairwoman, Radio One, Inc.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
 
 
 
The publication of my memoir has been a journey that involved the support and enthusiasm of many people along the way. To paraphrase a common expression, “It takes a village to write a book.” The project started innocently when a fellow Harvard Business School graduate, Tamara Nikuradse (class of 1990), planted the idea by asking me to provide a quote for her own book, My Mother Had a Dream: African American Women Share Their Mothers’ Words of Wisdom, which was published in 1997.
After our conversation, she said, “Lillian, you should write a book.” Although I was flattered, I responded that I knew nothing about writing a book. Besides, I was too busy running my company. Tamara ignored my reservations and referred me to her editor, who showed interest in my story, but we couldn’t work out a satisfying arrangement. The proposal was shelved, and I thought that was the end of an interesting idea.
However, that was not meant to be the end. Thanks to Catherine Walsh, a staff writer at Harvard Business School at the time, who resurrected the proposal after she interviewed me for an article about my winning the HBS Alumni Achievement Award. She was the second person to say, “Lillian, you should write a book.” This time I was more open to the idea because I had sold my company and now had more time on my hands.
The book project was brought to life when Cathy introduced me to my coauthor, Rosemary Brutico. Over the next two years, Rosemary and I were inseparable as we came to trust and appreciate each other. Rosemary, through her persistent but gentle probing, unearthed the details of my life while wielding her pen. In turn, I gained an appreciation of the writing process, which was at times frustrating and at other times exhilarating. In the end, our collaboration bore fruit, which is a testament to the power of two minds working together as one. Thanks go to Rosemary’s husband, Joe Gallagher, who stuck by both of us, offering encouragement as well as constructive criticism as he pored over many drafts.
This book would never have seen the light of day if it weren’t for Dr. David Thomas, H. Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at HBS, who put us in touch with our indomitable agent, Helen Rees. Helen took us under her wing, and thanks to her, we found a publisher and our editor extraordinaire, Hana Lane of John Wiley &