Profiles of Black success

About this book

Do blacks and nonblacks achieve success in the same way? Do cultural differences have an impact on success? Are there differences in the races when it comes to achievement? Does success have a color? Author Gene Landrum studied the lives of Maya Angelou, Shirley Chisholm, Bill Cosby, Berry Gordy, Michael Jackson, John Johnson, Michael Jordan, Reginald Lewis, Nelson Mandela, Thurgood Marshall, Colin Powell, Paul Robeson, and Oprah Winfrey, and found repeated patterns in their behavior. Yet, many of these were consistent with his findings on nonblacks. "Greatness is greatness," he says. "It is colorless.". Although the behavior patterns of these thirteen superachievers are consistent with his findings on nonblacks, Landrum concludes the book with ten cultural differences in the ways blacks and nonblacks approach creativity and innovation. Among these cultural factors was the fact that these thirteen black subjects were far better educated than the white subjects. They preferred the performing arts over technological pursuits and were substantially more competitive, insecure, spiritual, political, and family-oriented than the nonblacks studied. Consistent with his findings on nonblacks, these thirteen visionaries tended to be average people with abnormal drives who were armed with an indomitable will and insatiable need to succeed.