Black Faces in White Places: 10 Game-Changing Strategies to Achieve Success and Find Greatness by Randal Pinkett (PDF)

Description

If the name Randal Pinkett sounds familiar, it may be because Pinkett was the first African-American winner on The Apprentice. When he won, this black man also became the only contestant to be asked to share his victory-with a white woman. The request (and Pinkett’s subsequent refusal) set off a firestorm of controversy that inevitably focused on the issue of race in the American workplace and in society. For generations, African-Americans have been told that to succeed, they need to work twice as hard as everyone else. But as millions of black Americans were reminded by Pinkett’s experience, sometimes hard work is not enough. Black Faces in White Places is about “the game”-that is, the competitive world in which we all live and work. The book offers 10 revolutionary strategies for playing, mastering, and changing the game for the current generation, while undertaking a wholesale redefinition of the rules for those who will follow. It is not only about shattering the old “glass ceiling,” but also about examining the four dimensions of the contemporary black experience: identity, society, meritocracy, and opportunity. Ultimately, it is about changing the very concept of success itself. Based on the authors’ considerable experiences in business, in the public eye, and in the minority, the book shows how African-American professionals can (and must) think and act both Entrepreneurially and “Intrapreneurially,” combine their collective strengths with the wisdom of others, and plant the seeds of a positive and lasting legacy.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “…important and groundbreaking book…provides the tools necessary for African Americans and members of other minorities, to achieve success and respect on their own terms.” —BlogBusinessWorld “…Pinkett and Rutgers Business School Professor Jeffrey Robinson present a trailblazing path for leveraging ethnic and cultural assets to not only win the game of success in any arena, but to reshape America and leave a powerful legacy for generations to come…. They show how to achieve professional and personal success while affirming and amplifying racial pride by learning, mastering, and ultimately redefining ‘the ever-changing game’ – their new metaphor for our competitive world of work and life. Building on the four dimensions of the contemporary Black experience – identity, society, meritocracy, and opportunity their book provides a strategic roadmap to keep African Americans moving forward in their journey toward not simply equal treatment but equal respect for their diversity and uniqueness. Covering ten groundbreaking strategies, they inspire and empower every Black man and woman.” — Career News Service “…a trailblazing path for leveraging ethnic and cultural assets….[the authors] inspire and empower every Black man and woman.” — Career News Service “A helpful handbook designed for the average African-American armed with credentials yet in a quandary about how to flourish in the midst of a corporate culture tainted by intolerance in terms of skin color.” — Caribbean Life “Black Faces in White Places is the perfect book for any Black job hunter who seeks a real career….[a] thoughtful, helpful book.” – The Chicago Crusader Book Description If the name Randal Pinkett sounds familiar, it may be because Pinkett was the first African-American winner on The Apprentice. When he won, this black man also became the only contestant to be asked to share his victory—with a white woman. The request (and Pinkett’s subsequent refusal) set off a firestorm of controversy that inevitably focused on the issue of race in the American workplace and in society. For generations, African-Americans have been told that to succeed, they need to work twice as hard as everyone else. But as millions of black Americans were reminded by Pinkett’s experience, sometimes hard work is not enough. Black Faces in White Places is about “the game”—that is, the competitive world in which we all live and work. The book offers 10 revolutionary strategies for playing, mastering, and changing the game for the current generation, while undertaking a wholesale redefinition of the rules for those who will follow. It is not only about shattering the old “glass ceiling,” but also about examining the four dimensions of the contemporary black experience: identity, society, meritocracy, and opportunity. Ultimately, it is about changing the very concept of success itself. Based on the authors’ considerable experiences in business, in the public eye, and in the minority, the book shows how African-American professionals can (and must) think and act both Entrepreneurially and “Intrapreneurially,” combine their collective strengths with the wisdom of others, and plant the seeds of a positive and lasting legacy. From the Inside Flap As an African American, you’ve heard the adage that you need to work twice as hard as white counterparts to succeed. So you play “the game” and anticipate being rewarded for your talents and hard work. Now you’re up for a prized promotion, landmark business deal, or other professional breakthrough—this is your moment…. It’s at this point that many African-American professionals experience a “black faces in white places” moment: a point at which it becomes all too clear that just playing well isn’t enough— because the rules can change on you in a heartbeat. This scenario plays out countless times each day in American workplaces, and for Randal Pinkett it played out on national television—when Pinkett’s seemingly storybook ending during the finale of The Apprentice was about to get an unexpected twist. Black Faces in White Places is about that very game—the one played in the competitive world in which we all live and work. While exploring the ideals and realities of identity, meritocracy, opportunity, and society, the book lays out ten concrete strategies to help you become a “game changer.” The ten strategies will advance you to the next level of personal and professional success and unleash the greatness that lies within you. Along the way, you will: • Learn how to use your ethnicity as an asset • Expand yourself beyond your comfort zone • Recognize and demonstrate the four facets of excellence • Build beneficial relationships and powerful networks • Identify different mentors and learn from others’ experiences • Discover ways of working with others to facilitate collective action • And much more The book also examines social responsibility, institution building, and longstanding traditions of giving throughout African-American culture and history. Based on interviews with dozens of prominent African Americans and the authors’ considerable experience in business, in the public eye, and in the minority, Black Faces in White Places shows how as an African-American professional you can (and must) think and act both entrepreneurially and “intrapreneurially”; combine the strengths of your peers with the wisdom of others; and plant the seeds of a positive and lasting legacy. Randal Pinkett, Ph.D., was the winner of season four of The Apprentice and the show’s first minority winner. He is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of BCT Partners, an information technology and management consulting firm. Jeffrey Robinson, Ph.D., is a leading business scholar at Rutgers Business School. Philana Patterson is a business news editor for the Associated Press. From the Back Cover Advance Praise for Black Faces in White Places “Randal Pinkett and Jeffrey Robinson’s book has much to say about solutions to our challenges in the Age of Obama. Don’t miss it!” — Cornel West, Princeton University “There are three types of people in this world: those who make the rules, those who follow the rules, and those who redefine the rules. Drs. Pinkett and Robinson have given us a revolutionary roadmap for people of color to accomplish the latter, and to do so in a way that benefits everyone.” — William H. Cosby, Jr., Ed.D., and Camille O. Cosby, Ed.D. “An intriguing exploration into the personal, professional, and spiritual dimensions of being Black in 21st century America. If you care deeply about the future of our communities and our country, you should care about this book.”— Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO, NAACP “This book is a ‘must read’ to fully understand the Black experience in any professional setting. Black Faces in White Places takes a look at race and professional accomplishment in post-Obama America. Drs. Pinkett and Robinson interview entrepreneurs, corporate execs, educators, religious and community leaders to identify 10 clear strategies to be successful oneself–and to help others as well.” — Soledad O’Brien, Anchor and Special Correspondent, CNN “The ‘10 Game-Changing Strategies’ in Black Faces in White Places are so powerful, so compelling, and so simple, it made me wonder why someone didn’t think of them sooner! Thank you, Dr. Pinkett and Dr. Robinson.”— Judge Glenda Hatchett “Pinkett and Robinson’s ‘10 Game-Changing Strategies’ should be for people of color what Stephen Covey’s ‘7 Habits’ were for highly effective people.” — Roland S. Martin, Analyst, CNN Host, Managing Editor, Washington Watch, TV One Cable Network Senior Analyst, The Tom Joyner Morning Show “At last, a one-stop resource that addresses the particular issues associated with being a minority within a majority culture. This book could not have come at a better time. Thank you, Drs. Pinkett and Robinson!”— Stephen R. Covey, Bestselling Author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families “At last, a book that isn’t narrowly focused on how to become ‘successful.’ Black Faces in White Places challenges each of us to look beyond our individual agendas and chart a course for ‘greatness’ – a collective agenda of helping others, thus creating a ripple effect that is felt for generations and generations to come.” — Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League About the Author RANDAL PINKETT, PH.D. is the co-founder, chairman and CEO of BCT Partners, an information technology and management consulting firm. He was the season four winner of “The Apprentice.” JEFFREY ROBINSON, PH.D. is a leading business scholar at Rutgers Business School. PHILANA PATTERSON is a business news editor for the Associated Press. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 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 w w w 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 . . . w w w 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 soleApprentice 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. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Although it was an amazing book, I would not say it is for everybody. This book is written in a firm and sophisticated manner. This book will help individuals overcome inferiority in “white” places. I do not feel the author used “white” as a derogatory statement against one’s race, but to help readers understand unfair practices that occur in many organizations. These practices are sometimes “hidden” and one “can” remain oblivious to these actions. This is not another Robert Greene: 48 Laws of Power, or Mastery, but a tool to engage an oppressor’s attitude as well as your own. My favorite message in the book is: (In a nut shell, not verbatim) Remain cordial, diverse, and convinced of a greater good, so when you go out to expose others, your track record is squeaky clean. I have shared this information with my co-workers, (especially the dread heads, and one’s wanting to furlough) without— starting a conspiracy or an abrupt non-profit civil rights movement. Together we have started a black faces in white places African-American support group. We offer positive and direct strategies, without being passive-inferior. We are breaking down back-woods mindsets, and gambling with new game changing ideas. This book is only the beginning, you have to do the work; educate and pave on your path to autonomy and interdependence.

⭐As a Black man serving as an entrepreneur serving in the energy technology arena, I found this book to be so relevant. The book offers viable strategies that are fundamental to navigating my world that is high-tech, ever-changing, and global. The anecdotes and stories also allowed me to relate to the book in real tangible ways. The fact is that this book is relevant to anyone trying to reinvent themselves in a world that has been redefined by emerging markets, globalization, changing demographics, and new technology.Furthermore, the strategies are offered in the context of improving the “ecosystem” as opposed to offering strategies in a stand-alone manner. Although entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship are emphasized, there is a strong endorsement of social entrepreneurship and a triple bottom line (people, profit, and planet) approach to success. However, the authors do a great job in connecting the dots by aligning such principles with the principles of giving (time, talent, and treasure).In a world where the concept of the traditional job is vanishing, this book offers some poignant strategies of redefining yourself in ways that align with the changing landscape. My business is benefitting from cross-cultural partnerships, and the authors really affirmed our strategy to connect across borders. As the United States heads toward becoming a “minority majority”, we can all heed the call of “Black Faces in White Places”. This is a must read!

⭐Basically expose yourself and your kids to as many white circles as possible and try to assimilate without losing your identity. Essentially life is a team sport so make sure you are always part of some group or organization of your own people to prevent you from going insane whenever you have to step out into their white world! Good advice! Book wasn’t bad, was just looking for some secret strategy to maneuver in their world like: “if they think you’re at a disadvantage and they like you they will go out of their way to help you, but if you tell them of your successes like buying a house or a fancy vacation they will then conspire to sabotage you”!

⭐Black Faces in White Places contains ten strategies that are grouped into four distinct categories:1) Learning the Game. This is the foundation. It is made up of three strategies designed for self-examination, finding your purpose in life, seeking broad exposure & diverse experiences and demonstrating excellence.2) Playing the Game. Once you’ve established your foundation, you move on to relationship-centered activities. The three strategies here are: Build Solid and Diverse Relationships, Wisdom of Others and Strength in Numbers3) Mastering the Game. This part consists of an ongoing cycle of two complementary strategies: Intrapreneurship and Entrepreneurship.4) Redefining the Game. Redefining the game is about “…facilitating positive, lasting, widespread change.” The two strategies are: Synergy & Scale, Give Back Generously.If you’re a person of color looking for a handbook on how to navigate white corporate America, this is not the book; at least not in its entirety. I found the first two parts, Learning the Game and Playing the Game somewhat stimulating but the latter two seemed more applicable to entrepreneurship, having an entrepreneurial mindset, affecting change in the community and giving back.Although `Black Faces…’ didn’t hold my interest from cover to cover, there is always something you can learn from others. No matter what your station is in life, something good can be gleaned from this book.One final point. The authors chose to – and it’s their prerogative to do so – imprint their personal narrative throughout the text by: providing a semi-gratuitous recount of Randal Pinkett’s victory on Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, providing a glimpse into their religious beliefs and correlating their “Black Faces…” game plan to Kwanzaa.

⭐Great book bought on kindle

⭐I am delighted with my purchase, thank you Prompt delivery and the book appears new and in perfect condition.

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