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| Leaders, Mentors, and Role Models |
Special Entrepreneurs Edition Exclusive Interview With George Fraser
Chairman & CEO Frasernet, Inc.
Best Selling Author, Speaker, Networking Expert
 By any standards, our leader, mentor, and role model for this month, Mr. George Fraser, has achieved great success. However, what many of our readers may not know about Mr. Fraser is that he was one of eleven children, he was orphaned at the age of four, he spent fourteen years in foster care, and he grew up in the streets of New York. At one point in his life his high school guidance counselor suggested that he drop out of school because he didn't consider him to be college material, but Mr. Fraser was determined and graduated anyway. For several years he worked his way through college, and paid his own tuition and supported himself by mopping floors on the midnight shift at LaGuardia International Airport in New York City. Mr. Fraser today is considered by many to be the new voice for African Americans and one of the foremost authorities on networking and building effective relationships. He is also a best selling author, a highly successful speaker, and Chairman and CEO of his own company, FraserNet, Inc., which is the world's #1 network for Black professionals worldwide and reaches over 1 million Black professionals and business owners per year. Mr. Fraser is also the publisher of the award-winning SuccessGuide Worldwide: The Networking Guide to Black Resources. As busy as Mr. Fraser is, he was generous enough to give the CWR an hour of his time for this interview, which will be presented in two parts. The concluding part 2 will be presented in the May issue of the CWR. Now, let's meet Mr. George Fraser.
CWR: Let's talk about how you came from very challenging circumstances to become one of the most respected entrepreneurs, speakers, and authors in the world. As a child living in foster care for fourteen years, what did you experience or learn that helped prepare you for your success in business and in life?
Mr. Fraser: I think the foundational principle that kept me, two foundational principles that kept me on the path towards success: It doesn't matter where you start, it matters where you finish. It doesn't matter where you start it matters where you finish. That was the hand that God had dealt me, those were the cards that I had to play. And, this is what I would tell any young brother or sister, it doesn't matter where you start it matters where you finish. It doesn't matter what hand that was dealt you, whether you are living with both parents, living only with one parent, whether you are living in the suburbs, living in the city, whether you have one leg or two legs, whether you are the smartest kid in the room, or not the smartest kid in the room. It doesn't matter where you start it matters where you finish. And it's very, very important because God deals all of us cards, and we have to learn to play those cards. And if we learn to play those cards as smartly as we can, with as positive of a mental attitude as possible, you will get new cards. And I tell this to young brothers and sisters all of the time.
First I tell them my story, because when you look at me you would not know my story. As you have pointed out my story is, yes, I am one of eleven children; eight boys and three girls. And I spent most of my life in foster homes, growing up on the tough streets and the mean streets of Brooklyn, New York. So, once I tell young people my story, I connect with them. And my story is actually no different than their story. It varies from here to there, but fundamentally we, if you are a person of African descent, for the most part, certainly of my generation you grew up with modest means. So, that's the most important thing; it doesn't matter where you start, it matter's where you finish. That's the first principle.
The second principle is I learned, and where I learned this from is through observing others who were succeeding as I tried to climb the ladder of success in life. I learned the need to remove toxic people and bloodsuckers from my life; people who drain you of your time of your energy and of your patience. This is very, very important, it is very easy to say, very difficult to do, why? Because many of those friends or those people are your family members, or your significant others, or people who claim to be your close friend.
I say you need to really, really discern and to discriminate who you are hanging out with, who are your circle of friends? Introduce me to your five closest friends and that will tell me who you are. As they know and as they go, you go. In other words don't spend major time with minor people. People going nowhere want you to go nowhere with them. People doing nothing want you to do nothing with them. If you want to change your life, change your re-la-tion-ships. Life is about re-la-tion-ships, and a lot of people think it is about education.
CWR: When you were a child in foster care, and there were people in authority, particularly your guidance counselor, who said negative things about you, was there ever a point in which you were overwhelmed and experienced low self esteem as a result of their comments and their actions?
Mr. Fraser: Oh absolutely! That was an ongoing, state, in which I lived my life. And my guidance counselor was the one who suggested that I drop out of high school, because he didn't believe that I was college material. I had to fight that tooth and nail, amidst all of these things that can bring about low self esteem; how you see yourself, how you feel about yourself, no question about it. But you have to fight it and know that God made you in his image. That each of us were put here with a unique purpose in mind, there is a job that God has assigned only you to do, and if you do not do it it will not get done in the universe. So you are here for a reason, so this also requires some strong moral and spiritual ground. But you have got to keep the most important source that you will have, all of us will have, for our renewal of our faith, renewal of our self esteem, and hope in ourselves, is ourselves. That is the most important source that we have, because life is an inside job, and it begins and ends with you. So no matter what people tell you, because people will try to put themselves in charge of your dreams, you know. You cannot allow that to happen. You cannot allow it. So, you have to be in charge of your dreams, and your visions, and you must chart a good and righteous course and you must stay that course come hell or high water, and that is no different for me or for anybody else. My story is not unique to me, in fact my story is probably common. The need for us to arise out of the ashes, as the Phoenix arose, and we all really are charged in a sense with the same thing in life.
CWR: Let's go back in time to your high school graduation. At that time you had been in foster care most of your life, you had no family to speak of, no home, no money; where did you get the motivation and the determination to go to college, and to support yourself while going to college and paying your own tuition?
Mr. Fraser: Well, ah, because, I believed, I believed in me. I didn't believe, what people said about me. In fact, I am, quite frankly, I think it probably inspired and motivated me. Now this is different for everybody. Some people can be told that they are not about anything, and that depresses them, and depresses their spirit. Then some people can be told that and that inspires them. Right! "I'll show you!" Right! So I think that kind of conversation in my life, which I did not welcome but it was there, inspired me. I fought against what people said about me, in the sense that it inspired my spirit to essentially to make a liar, or make a fool out of, or to make the person who was saying something negative about me, to prove them wrong. It, motivated me.
CWR: So after getting your college degree, you laid the foundation for your business enterprises by working in management for seventeen years with companies and organizations like Proctor and Gamble, the United Way, Ford Motor Company. Were you aware at that time that someday, at some point, you were going to become an author, an entrepreneur, or at what point in your life did you realize that this would be your destiny?
Mr. Fraser: That's a great question. No. I was not aware of that. I was not consciously saying to myself someday I want to be a speaker, someday I want to be a writer, someday I want to be a leader, no, I did not say that. What I did say all along in my life, is that I want to be successful. Because I want to make a contribution. I did say that, that was in my mind.
Now what I didn't know was what was I going to do, what was I going to be able to do, in order to be able to do that. I knew that I had some skills, I knew that there were things that came very easy to me. I was always good in English, I was always good at writing, and I never had any fear of speaking. So I knew that those were some tools that the Creator had given me to utilize. And so all I had to do was pursue opportunities that would allow me to utilize those gifts.
And so I pursued those opportunities wherever I got them. And when I couldn't get the opportunities that I wanted, I volunteered. I joined organizations so that I could expand on my skills and do things that I was unable to do on my job at the time. So I was constantly pursuing, new opportunities that would allow me to stretch, and grow. In other words I was learning on somebody else's time. So, the opportunities I had at Proctor and Gamble, were wonderful opportunities. Did I outgrow those opportunities? Yes. And did I move on? Yes I did. Because the objective is to seize an opportunity wherever you can, get your foot in the door wherever you can, do whatever you have to do to get the opportunity, and then once you are inside you can grow the opportunity, until the point that you've learned everything you can learn at that point and time. And then you go on to the next thing. And how will you know that you have learned everything that you can learn. Because you're bored! Because you can do whatever it is you're doing with your eyes closed. And you are not interested in doing it any longer. That means that you're bored and it's time to move on. Now, so many people don't recognize this. They get bored, they become mediocre in their work, its easy, they only have to put in five or six hours of work, and then they can screw around and do whatever they want to do. As a result they get lazy, and they think that this is good, and they stay in those positions and never look outside of those positions to take on new positions to challenge them. And they end up living an average to mediocre life. I have never, been, satisfied with the work that I am doing. I am always looking for new opportunities to grow and to stretch, and to challenge myself; to walk on the edge. Because I think that's where life is, life is on the edge. If you're not living life on the edge you're not living. CWR: You brought up several interesting points about recognizing one's strengths, one's talents, and then developing those to the fullest extent possible. Do you recommend that a person take an assessment or evaluate their strengths and talents, especially college students? Mr. Fraser: Absolutely! There are all kinds of technical and scholastic assessments you can take. But there is a very simple assessment; a very simple assessment. I didn't take any of these very sophisticated assessments, but they are available. Just simply ask yourself, what gives you the greatest fulfillment, the greatest joy, and the greatest satisfaction. What things that you do, that you truly enjoy, that gives you the greatest fulfillment, the greatest joy, and the greatest satisfaction. And whatever those things are, that is what God has put you here to do. And then you have to find a way to make a living doing those things. Here I am doing, what I absolutely, truly, enjoy. Therefore, here is what I know about people who do, work that they absolutely love and enjoy. They are really good at it. They are excellent! I have never met anyone who hated what they were doing and was good at it. People who don't love what they are doing are average to mediocre. But people who love what they are doing, are students of what they are doing, and these are the best people, at whatever it is that they are doing. Because they love it! They love it! So that's a very simple, simple question to ask yourself. What gives me the greatest fulfillment, joy, and satisfaction? What is that? CWR: One of the things that I experience in discussing with high school students and young adults, what their career plans are, they will most often answer my question with the question, in what career can I earn the most money? Mr. Fraser: Wrong question, and wrong answer. CWR: Then I redirect them by asking what talents they have, what they really have a passion for, what would they enjoy doing for the rest of their lives and would never get bored?
Mr. Fraser: That's exactly right. And that's where you make the most money! By the way, that's where you make the most money. You make the most money, doing, that which you enjoy the most. That's really the answer to that question when they say what will make me the most money, the answer is, the thing that you enjoy most doing in life. What gives you the greatest fulfillment, the greatest joy, and greatest satisfaction. What do you love doing? I tell people all the time Donell, that the people who earn the most money, serve the most people. The people who earn the most money, serve the most people. Michael Jordan was the best basketball player ever. So when he played basketball he pleased, and provided enjoyment for millions of people, did he not. He made millions of dollars. Tiger Woods is the best golfer, when he plays, he provides enjoyment, and fulfillment, and excitement for millions of people; he earns millions of dollars. So the more people you serve, the more money you earn.
CWR: The question I was really trying to ask is when speaking with someone with that kind of mentality, is there a way to get them to understand that it is much more important to focus on doing what they enjoy and what they have the ability to do, rather than just thinking about how much money they may make.
Mr. Fraser: Yes, absolutely! You have to use words. And words are the most powerful things on earth. We have stopped wars with words. We have fallen deeply in love with words. Look what Jesus did with just words. So, you as the wordsmith, me as the wordsmith, me and you and others who, young people who don't really know they are talking about, we have to use the power of words and examples carefully to redirect them. Because they are really asking us a question in search of an answer that makes sense to them. So we have to make sense to them. So it's our job, that's the job of the adult, that's the job of the mentor, that's the job of the coach, is to change people's minds, through the power of words and examples. Give them examples of what we're talking about. I'm just explaining to you the more people you serve the more you earn, and then I used an example; Michael Jordan served millions with his game, and he earned millions. And by the way, Michael Jordan loved what he did. Tiger Woods loves what he does. Ben Carson, the great brain surgeon, loves what he does and he earns millions of dollars.
CWR: Let's talk about some of your books, which have been just phenomenal.
Mr. Fraser: Thank you.
CWR: Your first book, Success Runs In Our Race, was a critically acclaimed bestseller. Your second book, Race for Success: The Ten Best Business Opportunities for Blacks in America, was selected as one of the ten best business books of 1999 by Booklist. And your newest book, Click, has been endorsed by a list that reads like the Who's Who of America, and has been endorsed by a very broad spectrum of people from all walks of life and from diverse backgrounds and experiences, and is on its way to perhaps being your most successful release.
Mr. Fraser: Yes, yes, it's doing very well.
CWR: What would you say to someone who is reading this interview, perhaps a college student, who has an idea for a book and maybe aspires to become an author, what would your message to them be in regard to what it takes to become a successful author?
Mr. Fraser: I think to become a successful author requires discipline. Discipline. In other words, in order to write, you must read. You cannot become a great writer without reading. So I read a hundred books a year. A hundred books a year. So that's two books a week. So, to be a great writer, you must be a great reader. So that takes discipline. That's time. You have to sit down, turn off the television set, open up a book and read. So that's discipline.
Then, you've gotta write. If you think it, you've gotta put it on paper because you're gonna forget it. So you have to discipline yourself each and every day if in fact you really are inclined to want to write and to put your thoughts on paper, you have to do it. And you have to do it every day. It's no different than the discipline of becoming a great golfer, or a great basket ball player, or a great brain surgeon. You have to practice. You have to do it every day. So discipline, is the number one thing that you have to have to be a great writer.
I think number two, is you have to have courage. You have to have courage to tell your story, and to be honest, and write it and to say it like you feel it and see it, and not be so interested in being politically correct or hurting somebody's feelings. So you have to have courage. That's easy to say, very, very difficult to do. You really, in other words, the old saying, spill your guts. If you see something and you have a feeling about it, you have to have the courage to write about that feeling. Not necessarily what you see, but what you feel, or what you think. Life might be entirely different than what you see! So you have to have, then, so that's number two.
And then you have to develop the skills. There are basic requirements, basic skills, to learn how to write. So that requires, generally speaking, formal training.
CWR: So discipline, courage, and the skills.
Mr. Fraser: Acquiring the skills. These are the basic, writing skills.
CWR: You mentioned something that is very, very important to me, and that is the power of reading. In fact we are introducing our new reading feature, It's A Reader's World, in this month's issue of The College World Reporter.
Mr. Fraser: I am a huge, fan of reading. I have been a ferocious reader, since I can remember. And I think the reason I began reading was to escape my circumstances. I knew that the minute I opened up a book, that I could travel any place in the world, I could know anything I wanted about anything, I could escape my circumstances.
CWR: You are considered by many very knowledgeable people to be one of the foremost authorities in America on economic development, networking, building effective relationships, in fact, you are sought out for your opinion by such organizations as CNN and the Wall Street Journal. You state in your book Success Runs In Our Race that "networking must become a way of life." Please explain for our readers what networking is, why it's so important for success in one's career, and how our student readers may begin now to master networking skills and concepts that you teach.
Mr. Fraser: Networking is the identification and the building of relationships, for the purpose of sharing information, opportunities, and resources. And the emphasis on that definition is on the building of relationships. Sharing; because all of life is about relationships. All of life is about working with and through other people. In fact there is no success that you can attain, sustain, or maintain on your own, by yourself, in a vacuum. In fact the most powerful asset that you will have in the 21st century will not be your computer. It will be your relationships. It will be your relationships. Why? Because all entrepreneurship, all job searches, all upward mobility in the public and private sector workplace, all organization building, all community building, all nation building, are inherently, networking initiatives, that it is your ability to shape the scope of your search for human resources, and bring those resources to bear on your challenges and opportunities in life, is what will ultimately determine your level of excellence for success in life. It's all about relationships. No one told us that, they told us it was about education. Now, don't get it twisted here. I'm not saying that education isn't important; it's very important, but it's not enough by itself. Our ability to cultivate, nurture, and build relationships, at work, at home, and in the community, will be the ultimate determinant of those who succeed at the highest level, and those who don't.
To be continued in the April 2009 issue of The College World Reporter - Part 2 of our exclusive interview with Mr. George Fraser.
About George Fraser: George C. Fraser is the author of two critically acclaimed books: Success Runs In Our Race; The Complete Guide to Effective Networking in the African American Community and Race For Success; The Ten Best Business Opportunities for Blacks In America. He is the founder of the annual PowerNetworking Conference, where thousands of Black professionals, business owners, and community leaders gather to discuss and do business with each other. Mr. Fraser is also the Chairman of Phoenix Village Academy, which consists of three afrocentric charter schools that serves Cleveland and Akron, Ohio inner city children. Over the past decade, the prestigious publication, Vital Speeches of the Day, has selected, reprinted and distributed worldwide, five of Mr. Fraser's speeches; a first for any professional speaker in America, regardless of color.
About FraserNet, Inc: FraserNet, Inc. produces and delivers products and services that teach and promote effective networking; facilitates business-to-business and business-to-consumer trading; and promotes mentoring and models for business development. The mission of the company is "To promote and showcase our menbers'/partners' products and services and help them achieve their professional objectives."
FraserNet, Inc.
2940 Noble Road
Suite 203
Cleveland Heights, OH 44121
216-691-6686
Copyright 2009, Donell Edwards Media. All Rights Reserved. |
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