Lillian Lincoln Lambert

• Is there a smaller dream that might be the first step in getting to the larger dream?
• What skills do you have that will aid you in the pursuit of this dream?
• What steps can you take today toward pursuing your dream?

When you uncover what you love to do and recognize your inherent skills, you’ll realize that there are opportunities to follow your dream all around you.

While I don’t claim to be an expert on religion, as I look back over the years, and examine the development of events. I am convinced that it was Divine Intervention that caused both Martin Luther King and Barack Obama to pursue their life’s purpose with such dedication and vigor. I feel that Martin King was put on this Earth for a very specific purpose, just as we all are, but he was more dogmatic than most of us in finding and continuing to work at his life’s purpose. MLK’s life work was cut short by his untimely death. Yet, he lives on in Barack Obama. I reflect back on this young man who seemingly came out of nowhere to become a US Senator, who gave a dynamic speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and ran for president in 2008. This young man, Barack Obama, spoke of Hope — Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope. HE SAID “In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead. Yes, Barack Obama is carrying “MLK’s Dream” to the highest office in the United States. An African-American whose name “Barack” means “Blessed!”

We all have our personal stories. Growing up in a small farming village in VA, not only did I not plan to go to Harvard but I had no plans to go to college until I was forced to look at my circumstances and realize that I needed a college education to make something of myself. So at the ripe age of 22 years old, I became a full-time student at Howard University and that changed the course of my life. That’s WHERE I was influenced by a professor, H. Naylor Fitzhugh, who became my mentor and who had gotten his MBA from HBS, one of the first black men to do so in 1933. Never in my life had I heard a black person speak with such conviction and eloquence about business and our race. I was transfixed by his words: “Business is a way for blacks to take control of their destiny.”

How did I, a poor, black farm girl from Ballsville, Virginia, end up here? , Why am I here? In that instant there was my dear mother, a former school teacher who wanted nothing more than for her daughter to continue her education; my mentor at Howard University, Professor Fitzhugh, another professor at Howard who handed me a Harvard Business School application and demanded that I complete it’ a cousin who kept nagging me to stop wasting my time in menial jobs and go to college. Finally, there was my father, a man with a 3rd grade education , who didn’t even know the name of the school but was so proud to tell everyone that “Lillian is going to the same school that President Kennedy went to.” Reflecting on all these people, I knew the course of my life was set: I had a responsibility, and I could not disappoint the people who supported me. I had to move forward.

Throughout the campaign the President emphasized the need for everyone to become involved. It does not need to be big but something as small as tutoring a child, or working in a soup kitchen or just picking up pieces as trash instead of walking by it. It is so simplistic. Sometimes we look for complicated answers and overlook simple solutions. Just a few hours of your time. You will be the richer for it. We must all do our part. In his speech in Phila. on Sat as part of his train ride to DC, he again emphasized the need for service and announced the creation of – Organizing for America – an organization through which everyone can find something to do. And he said, “Let’s make sure this election is not the end of what we do to chance America, but the beginning.” That was his dream and he took every step imaginable to get there. There is a role for each of us. Have you decided what your part will be?