Over the last 45 years, William F. Pickard, Ph.D., has garnered a wealth of knowledge in entrepreneurship and business development. Not only does he serve as CEO and chairman for six different enterprises, he also owns several McDonald’s franchises and co-owns five black-owned newspapers. Plus, he demonstrates a passion for civic engagement as a member of the Detroit Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and a board member of the National Urban League.
Now, the business mogul is using his expertise to empower others in his new book, Millionaire Moves: Seven Proven Principles of Entrepreneurship. Over the next several weeks, Pickard will share snippets about each one of the seven principles of entrepreneurship as part of the #MillionaireMovesMonday series. The first principle explains the importance of visualizing success and the power of your attitude in the process of manifesting your dreams. Read an excerpt below:
Principle One: Vision & Attitude
That’s where attitude comes into play. Vision and attitude are like yin and yang. The vision you are holding is actually based on the attitude you have been nourishing. You see, attitude is the emotion that gives birth to your desires and propels you forward. It’s the perspective that fuels your imagination and enables you to see things today that will transform your business tomorrow. When you become a visionary, you learn to adjust your lens and shift your perceptions, especially the images you have of yourself.
I know this firsthand. In high school, I didn’t consider myself a scholar and I never excelled in sports. I used to hang out with the “losers†club that ate lunch under the staircase and did just enough homework to get by. Luckily for me, one of my teachers, Helen Steele, decided to push me beyond my self-imposed boundaries. She approached me one day after my English class and spoke to me quite bluntly.
“You have a good mind,†she said. “Why don’t you use it?†At first, I was baffled. A good mind? Me? I thought she had lost it. Yet a little voice deep inside of me toyed with the idea that she might be right. Her words sort of hovered and danced around my spirit. I delighted in flipping through my textbooks after that, and I read them with a little more zeal. I even started to walk differently. I don’t know if I ever told Ms. Steele this, but her statement shook me out of my complacency and marked a turning point in my academic years. I became more assertive. My curiosity was piqued and, before long, Ms. Steele’s accusatory question became the seed for a new and positive self-image. My doubts had waned and I was beginning to see beyond my narrow parameters.
Hip-hop artist and business mogul, Jay-Z, put it this way: “Your vision must be greater than the window you’re looking through.â€
Next Monday, Pickard will share an excerpt from “Principle Two: Opportunity.” You can also purchase a copy of Millionaire Moves: Seven Proven Principles of Entrepreneurship online or wherever books are sold.
Selena Hill is the Associate Digital Editor at Black Enterprise and the founder of Let Your Voice Be Heard! Radio. You can hear Hill and her team talk millennial politics and social issues every Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.
Follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @MsSelenaHill.