HARRY JEROME BUSINESS AWARD ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY CARLTON BRAITHWAITE TORONTO, MARCH 17. 1990 FULFILLING THE DREAM INTRODUCTION Madam Chairperson, fellow awardees, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen; I sincerely thank the Harry Jerome Award Committee and the Black Business and Professional Association of Toronto for bestowing this great honour on me tonight, and my sponsors for helping me to earn it. I humbly accept this first business award on behalf of my teachers, colleagues, mentors, students, friends, business associates and all those role models from whom I have gained very powerful insights; I include Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. I also accept this award on behalf of the members of the Uniprop Team, the Commonwealth Club of Ottawa and last, but not least, my parents, relatives and especially my wife Joyce, Elise and Carlos who have given me great love, support and understanding. I thank you all very much. This is our award. Bravo! Ladies and gentlemen, I view this award not only as a recognition of what we have accomplished to date, but also as an exhortation to further succeed in business and to continue to do as much as it is
2 possible to make Canada and the world a better place. I promise, you will not be disappointed; my organization will continue to achieve and serve. FULFILLING THE DREAM Tonight, I would like to share with you my views on what it takes to succeed in business, what has been responsible for the success we have achieved at Uniprop, and how I think we can share our success with others. I think it is important to do this, not only because of the award I have just received, but also because of its great relevance to our fulfilling the dream. As simple as it may sound I think success depends essentially on two things: i) The way we think. It is important that we think we can achieve any goals we set ourselves and that there are no limits to the number of goals we can set; that we believe in ourselves and think positively at all times. ii) What we are willing to do. To be successful it is absolutely necessary that we be willing to do whatever it takes to achieve the results we want: mentally, psychologically and physically, provided that in so doing we do not compromise our sense of values.
3 I know there are people who will immediately question this simple claim. They will ask: "Do you really expect us to believe this after the failures we have experienced?" My answer is that I am convinced that when you know your own mind and live your own life, you can wipe out a record of unsuccessful experiences just as you can erase a message on a tape recorder, and leave a wonderfully receptive mind - or tape - to receive new and positive impressions. While some people have been able to do this for themselves - the ones who are most likely to accept my claim - others need help before they can believe it and experience the success they seek. Let me tell you a story about a man I helped to find the success mode or consciousness to which I am referring. Once I got him started he was able to do the rest for himself. This man came to my office to find out whether I could help him to find a job. He was in rough shape. He looked thin and hungry and was willing to accept any job and any sum of money that I could give him to purchase a meal. As I listened to him, I could not help but ask myself: "Why is this man, with a respectable level of education in a country filled with opportunity, in such a state?" I asked him: "Why are you willing to settle for so little? How would you like to become a millionaire?" He looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "Mr. Braithwaite, please don't make a
4 joke of me." I told him that I was serious. I told him that every man has some kind of assets which, if used correctly, he could turn into a million or many millions of dollars. He got irritated: "What do you mean by assets? I don't even have a dime in my pocket!" "Get your mind to look at the positive side," I told him, "and you will have the most important asset you will ever have. Let us work on that now. Tell me: "What are your skills? What are you good at?" I learned that before he came to Canada, he was a salesman but in his last few jobs he had been cleaning houses and shampooing rugs, etc. He said that he was quite good at it, but the cleaning company went broke. At first, I got the impression that he did not believe that he could again become a good salesman. Clearly, he did know something about selling and in talking to him I discovered he still wanted to sell. However, the memory of past failures inhibited him and I had to help break those self-imposed mental blocks and help him see, not what he had recently been, but what he could become. As we continued talking, my own mind was busy at work. I knew of a company which had just developed a whole new line of household cleaning equipment and other materials that would be useful to housewives. Bingo!, I said to myself, here was a potentially winning combination, a company with good new products and with need for sales people and a man who had experience both as a cleaner and
as a salesman. 5 I asked him how he felt about representing a company and selling" its cleaning products, many of which could practically sell themselves. I told him any housewife to whom he could give some free samples would be glad to invite her neighbours to witness a demonstration, after which he could take orders from the ladies present. Some of them would be glad to run similar cleaning parties in their own homes and the business could become selfperpetuating. "Sounds good," he said. "But how am I going to get money to buy some food in the mean time? And where am I going to get some money to buy an appropriate outfit, etc. for this job?" Such questions were understandable in a mind focused on obstacles rather than on opportunities. I told him that if he got himself in the right frame of mind he would either find the things he needed, or find a way to do without those things and still achieve the goal. When your mind can truly picture a desired goal and feel success consciousness driving it towards that goal, you can attain the goal. Knowing this, I wanted to help him but I had to further investigate his frame of mind. Encouragingly, he was very close to having the desired positive state of mind. I waited until I was sure that he had it and,
6 assuming he was a good risk, I gave him money to buy food, and access to a charge account so that he could buy what was necessary to get him started. By the end of the first month he had made a thousand dollars, and had doubled that by the end of the second. After some time he was put in charge of training other people. Most of all, he instilled in them the positive success attitude which now had full hold of his mind and as they prospered, so did he. After three years, this man who had such limited expectations of himself is relatively comfortable and has perfected a home demonstration plan which nets him a good annual income. Now, I believe that Uniprop has been able to achieve business success because we understand and apply the principles that are necessary to achieve success. In our view, the way to succeed is to have clear goals, suitable strategies to achieve these goals, the ability to evaluate the results obtained in applying these strategies, and the willingness to be sufficiently flexible, to keep on modifying these goals and strategies until the desired results are obtained. Great emphasis is placed on ensuring that these goals are realistic and that belief in their attainment is shared by all members of our organisat ion.
7 In developing the strategies required to achieve these goals, the most important and relevant strategic areas of knowledge and ability must be identified. For our company, which is involved mainly in real estate investment, we have identified the following four key areas, the order and significance of which might vary depending on the situation: i) Knowledge of the industries and of the entire economic environment within which we operate, and of the analytical tools needed to assess the investment opportunities in these industries. This knowledge has to be accurate and timely, for it is a critical input for the analysis and ranking of the opportunities. ii) Knowledge of negotiating and financing techniques together with the ability to negotiate skillfully. These include preparing carefully, using win-win techniques, arranging financing creatively and using leveraging intelligently. When leveraging to a very high level, one should be careful to ensure that there are adequate cash flows to deal with recurring expenses and emergencies as well as clearly defined plans for repaying debt and reducing debt equity ratios to manageable levels until the loans are repaid. iii) Managerial ability: every attempt is made to attract managers who can communicate positively and motivate people to get the
8 desired results. iv) Marketing ability: this is a most important area of our business since the ability of the organization, to identify and penetrate its markets successfully, determines the revenues, profits and cash flows it must generate not only to stay in business but also to grow to its desired level. Also of particular importance to Uniprop is the way the organization "sells" itself and the image that it portrays in the community. To make good decisions in these four areas, it is critical to have an excellent data base and to have the technology necessary to process the data required, for example to produce good financial statements and reports on a timely basis. Thus, the data base and technology contribute in an important way to the development and evaluation of strategies. The results obtained on evaluating these strategies will indicate whether the strategies have been successful or need modification. It follows that as long as there is flexibility and willingness to keep on making modifications until the desired goals are achieved, success is virtually guaranteed. It should be clear, however, that, successful results depend on all individuals in the organization, the managers as well as those they
9 lead; both groups need to be highly skilled and motivated. In summary, everyone has to be so positive and willing to do whatever it takes to get the results i.e. so empowered, that they believe that they can do virtually anything they want. Until they get precisely the results they want, they view other unsuccessful outcomes not as failures but as learning experiences! To encourage our members to produce as well as to share in these successful results, individually and as a team, Uniprop has implemented a four part compensation package which rewards results and which includes the opportunity to participate in profits and ownership. There is also an ongoing staff development program and a generous benefits package which includes membership in one of Ottawa's leading health clubs. Ladies and gentlemen, I strongly believe that economic success is perhaps one of the most powerful ways of dealing with the many obstacles and injustices that have been experienced by Blacks and others in this country. I also believe that those who succeed should teach others how to do it, and should share it with them, if we are to fulfill the dream. This explains why, in addition to achieving the goals set for the Uniprop organization, I am committed to helping my people to gain economic power. But I would like to add that a very important way in which we can help ourselves increase our rate of achieving economic power is to
10 develop bonding power and to learn to love one another much more than we do now. In doing this, however, I strongly believe we should work with others. There are many people in this Canadian society who are capable and willing to help us fulfill the dream. As we work with these people we should gradually expand the numbers of believers, and free ourselves of myths and misconceptions, until I the dream is fulfilled. With this in mind, I shall continue to work with, and to share my success with my fellow Canadians not only in business but in such organizations as the Commonwealth Club of Ottawa - an international non-profit organization which helps people of all races to become wealthier, healthier and happier by participating in a series of networks which facilitate the achievement of these goals, and which also encourage them to put back into the community, some of what they gained. CONCLUSION In closing, ladies and gentlemen, I shall read you one of my favorite quotes: "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them," (George Bernard Shaw). I would also like to ask every one of us not to allow the obstacles to fill our minds with memories
11 of disappointment and failure, but to focus positively on opportunities and exploit them. And, as we do so, let us empower ourselves and others in an ever increasing way until we fulfill the dream -- right here in Canada!