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Life opportunity found
'Apprentice' cast member Kwame Jackson visited SCSU Tuesday to discuss life, money and Trump
By Erik Anderson
Published:
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Media Credit: Kell Sanders
Kwame Jackson, the runner-up in "The Apprentice´s" inaugural season, talks about his experiences on the popular reality show and in the business world. Jackson lectured on his "Lessons From The Board Room" Wednesday evening in the Atwood Ballroom.
Speaking to SCSU students Tuesday night, Kwame Jackson, the former Apprentice cast member, never missed a chance to speak about not missing opportunities that present themselves.
In his speech called "Lessons from the Boardroom," Jackson spoke from his experiences as a reality show member, Harvard MBA, McDonald's employee and a son.
The first lesson Jackson spoke of was going through the system and looking for new perspectives to approach a problem from.
"You have to circumvent the system," Jackson said. "Think about ways to solve problems beyond what the obvious is."
Jackson credited this lesson as getting him on "The Apprentice."
The second lesson Jackson spoke of was taking "calculated risks."
"Everybody gets pitches in life, everyone gets opportunities," Jackson said. "It's the people who swing the bat (who) get the opportunity to hit the ball over the fence."
Jackson also spoke about encountering troubles and the decisions that have to be made at those crossroads.
"But where God closes a door, he opens a window," Jackson said. "The people who stare at the closed door...miss the opportunity that the wind is blowing through the window."
Jackson told of leaders needing to aspire and inspire others to continue to raise the bar.
"You may have done great things before," Jackson said. "But the people who are successful, are the people who continue to raise the bar beyond past achievements. The difference will be those who continue to raise the bar as a leader."
Another lesson Jackson related was that you can't have any fear.
"A lot of my friends started calling me Neo from 'The Matrix,'" Jackson said. "Because in the board room, I would dodge bullets just like Neo."
Jackson compared this to his experience at Harvard Business School, where he applied to graduate school.
"When I applied to Harvard Business School," Jackson said. "All I said was 'All they can say is no. They can take my $150 and read my essays and say no.'"
Jackson continued his statements about having no fear, telling the audience to look at the consequences and calculate the risk.
"Look at the worst thing that can happen," Jackson said. "If you can live with the consequences, than have no fear."
Jackson told of another lesson, that of a leader being part of a team.
"Never forget your team," Jackson said. "And your team will never forget you."
Jackson ended his speech saying that tenacity was the best personal quality needed to succeed in business.
The audience was appreciative of the advice.
"(The speech) was inspirational," said SCSU senior Kyle Storkamp. "It reassured and supported what I believed."
Other students agreed.
"I've never seen the show (The Apprentice)," said Kevin Knight. "But this put a face on his (Jackson's) success. It made you realize that no one has it perfect, and that you just have to keep on striving."
Jackson is currently on a national speaking tour concentrating on how to succeed in both life and in business. Tuesday's event was put on by the SCSU University Program Board National Events Committee, and was attended by about 300 audience members.
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