SOLDIER MENTALITY Youth and Young Adult Leadership: Balancing Education, Empowerment and Entertainment
“We Got Next” Youth and Young Adult Leadership Movement
Junichi Lockett Jr.
Soldier Mentality Youth and Young Adult Leadership: Balancing Education, Empowerment and Entertainment Success Movement Copyright Š 2009 by Junichi Lockett, Jr. ISBN 0-9705134-X
NorthStar Books A Division of Darden Publishing P.O Box 121961 Fort Worth, Texas 76121
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, or any other without permission of the author, or permission of the publisher acting on behalf of the author. Printed in the United States of America
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ..………………………..……………..….Page 4 Prologue ………..…………………………………………… Page 6 Introduction ..…….……………………….………………….. Page 8
Chapter One Soldier Mentality Page 11
Chapter Two Affirmation & Expectation Page 18
Chapter Three Mission & Aggression Page 23
Chapter Four Balancing Education, Empowerment & Entertainment Page 37
Photo Gallery ………………...……………………………...Page 54
About the Author …………………………………………….Page 62
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Acknowledgments I must show Love! I want to first give praise and honor to God, whom I have built an unbreakable, unshakable and unmovable relationship with. As a result, I can march in the faith that I have instilled in the power of the most high. I want to thank my family, from my mother, father, and little brother, Lucinda, Junichi Lockett Sr. and Jo-Jo, to all my aunts, uncles, cousins and even those distant relatives that I only see at family reunion time. I love ya’ll. I want to show major love to my friends who have seen me grow from an ignorant juvenile who liked to clown all the time to a purpose filled man, who still likes to clown every now and then. Ray Ray, Cotton, Byron, Bledsoe, Tap, Mike, Theo, Don, Mike D. and all the rest of the brothers who were connected to me early in my life. I definitely want to show love to all men and women, who believe in me when I seem to stand in my own way. I want to give much love to those who took and continue to take the time to mentor and advise a brother on this march. Special thanks to brother Andre Johnson, who is an inspirational force that the world will have to reckon with. Iron sharpens iron bro, and “We Got Next.” Special thanks to Eddie Griffin, a man of great wisdom and intelligence. To Shyra Smith, thank you for all that you do sister. I must show love to my fraternal brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. To the Devastating Zeta Chi Chapter at the University of Texas at Arlington and the Beta Tau Lambda Chapter of Fort Worth, we will continue striving to lead as our founders intended. I want to show love to all of you who I have had the pleasure to link arms with in my educational journey. Special thanks to Erika Moody, principal of A.M. Pate Elementary School, and to the entire faculty and staff, where we work each day to build leaders of tomorrow. Last but certainly not least, I want to dedicate this book to my son, Julani Uehara Lockett. Even in his innocence, he has truly been a motivating factor in my determination to march in purpose and ful4
fill my divine destiny. Son, no matter how tough things may become, I will never give up, because I want you to see a first hand example of a dream come true, so that you may continue a cycle of greatness. I love you with all that I know and all that I don’t. If I missed you, charge it to my head and not my heart beat. This book is not about paper and words but about stirring the souls, spirits and greatness of those from every generation who must impact future generations.
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Prologue
Solider Mentality Platoon Attention! Left Face Forward March! Left, Right, Left, Right Platoon Hault! Left Face! Parade Rest! Listen up! I just received orders from the highest of the most high of the highest of authority, And it Reads, Soldiers, this is your mission if you choose to accept it and make it a priority, I must admit that I sit and observe this war around you with disappointment, This appointment that you have on this battlefield of life should not be taken lightly, but quietly we have allowed life and society to cause too many casualties in our camp, emphasis on “We”, because we are….One, or at least that’s what it’s supposed to be, but supposedly, some of us have forgotten and have gotten too high class with more brass on our collars, more dollars, medals on our chest and yes it seems that the focus of the mission has… been… lost. And I am losing patience, because we are in danger of losing generations of future infantry, The devastation of the elimination of tomorrow’s leaders in their infancy would be a tragedy because before you were born I spoke Greatness into…. Your…. Destiny But somewhere along the line, in the midst of my voice, I gave you a choice and many of you have chosen individuality over unity and now the community reflects division with a precision that has sliced us into three… parts, Ten percent of us have embraced the movement mentality and the strength of spirituality have made us faithful and trustworthy in the trenches indeed, indeed our rifles are fired daily to protect the necks of our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. We are dedicated to teaching, reaching, changing and being…. Mentors… Because we understand what the blood, sweat and energy of our ancestors was spent…for And more than 20 percent of us are causing all the hell and well For the other 70 percent we have become either comfortable or complacent, placing time and energy into complaining, yet restraining from taking action, allowing distractions of things that are simply insignificant to the mission, And these things of insignificance are the equivalence of time bombs and landmines planted by the enemy In..a..you like teargas to blur your vision and bury your visions, destroy ambitions, taint decisions and cause collisions among those… “shepherds”… that I promoted to be devoted to not just entertaining the troops, but training the troops to be empowered physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally
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Building that soldier mentality to fight the guerrilla warfare brutality of social iniquity From entities that continue to infiltrate our… vicinity….. From the beginning when I begin building this brigade, to the day the ultimate price was paid, up until… this… moment, I built all you soldiers with the strength in your shoulders to hold boulders and move mountains, And with fountains of talents and abilities and all the amenities, I implanted you with dreams, aspirations and most of all…purpose With the purpose that you would walk, no march… daily with full faith in me, And faithfully pursue your highest potential And now it has become essential that I expect no more mess from you, No more excuses, because they are the nooses that choke and reduces the best from you I want the best… for… you….. But when I look out among my troops I see the fear of failure in too many eyes disguising your dissatisfaction with a Smile, All the while, because of Fear, you refuse to step out on faith, be fruitful and multiply, Because of Fear, you refuse to live life as champions…as Kings and Queens FEAR….And I know that I did not give you that Spirit… It’s an Atrocity…. Because if you are not willing to fight to reside with me in land of Victory, then you will forever settle in the city of Mediocrity… But, I bring you good news…. Today is the first day of the rest of your lives So forget about the days of your past… I know that we are not soldiers of perfection, but of progression So now you must channel your aggression And put all of your faith, trust and belief in me, Believing me, when I tell you that I… have… your back, So all the attacks from the enemy are just tests, And battles in a War that has already been Won, How bad… do… you… want it?!!! Because I expect you to fight to accomplish your dreams and walk in purpose, I expect you to expect greatness from those that you feed and those that you … lead, I expect you to expect the unexpected from those who have never expected to have purpose nor be called… “Worthy.” This is an indictment…. Mission Heighten Expectation has been so ordered…. So if the boot fits wear it…. But if the boot fits one….we all must wear it So pick up this cross…go forth… and by any means necessary… Bear it…Bear it…Bear it
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Introduction Before I delve into the first principle action of the “Soldier Mentality” I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this book. The mere fact that you are taking the initiative to read a book such as this is a testament that you are serious about growing into a more effective leader, regardless of the level you’re on now. Furthermore, you understand that your life has a divine purpose. The fact is that the more you enhance yourself mentally, spiritually, physically and emotionally, the better. No matter what our status in life is right now, from a student to a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, my vision for us through this book is to reinforce the fact that we are all powerful pieces to the mighty puzzle of hope that our world is dependent on. More importantly, I want to focus on the concept of building youth and young adult leaders. Through my experiences as a youth and now as a young adult I must say that I have truly learned the hard way how extremely important the leadership strategy of balancing education, empowerment and entertainment is. I can now look back over my years in high school, the military and in college and realize how much time I wasted by being out of balance, basically being inconsistent. I now realize how disconnected I was from my purpose in life and how allowed other people to control my actions and limit my potential. Now I understand that if we are not developing ourselves consistently to operate at our highest potential, then we are not only hurting ourselves but are also hurting the other pieces (people) that are connected to us, ultimately making the puzzle incomplete. One of my main missions is to open the eyes of youth and other young adults to the same understanding that I now have about purpose and leadership, so that we can collectively grow daily into our highest potential as opposed to wasting precious time out of balance and living to regret it later. I have had many conversations with older family members and associates, who, because they wasted so much time in their lives being disconnected from any true purpose, being controlled by others, and out of balance with education, empowerment and entertainment they are now singing the “Should have, could have, would have” blues. Furthermore, they spend a lot of their time complaining about why they can’t succeed at this point. Unfortunately, this defeated mentality is a major part of the cause for the det8
rimental cycles that are limiting the potential of far too many youth, weakening families and deteriorating urban communities. Now of course, this information is not hot off the press and has been prevalent for many years, but the questions that we must ask ourselves regarding the issues are renewed daily. • Are we going to waste our most valuable asset, time, by spending all of it on people and things that limit our potential? • Will we rob our families and future families of the blessings that flow from our divine purposes, because we are afraid of rejection, failure, disappointment and ridicule from others. • Will we be the ones singing the “should have, could have, would have” blues, complaining and feeling sorry for ourselves. OR • Will we commit ourselves to continual personal growth in all aspects of our lives and not allow mistakes to deter our focus on our mission. • Will we decide to manage conflicts in our relationships, which will strengthen our families and our communities. • Will we strive to balance education, empowerment and entertainment so that we may become the leaders that we are yearning for.
Please understand that by no means is this book meant to judge anyone or point fingers at any generation or culture but it is purposed to examine how we can grow together and become a powerful movement. Unfortunately, there has been a rift created between the generation of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement and the Hip Hop generation because of the difference in cultural characteristics. Interestingly, if we really take an intelligent look at the cultural differences we will find that they are really very similar, they just happened in different time periods. Ultimately, it is time out for the generational wars and misunderstandings, only communication and unification will move us towards realizing the message of hope and change that we are now resounding. The youth and young adults are next in leadership; so every generation, put away that blame finger and let’s march into our highest potential.
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Leadership Note: One myth about leadership that often prevents us from enhancing the leadership potential that we have is that we feel we have to be out in front of the spotlight and cameras making the big speeches and making the headlines. The truth of the matter is that there is true purpose in leading from behind the scenes, because without the supporting people a leader simply becomes a loner. I am a firm believer that it takes a leader to effectively support and follow leadership. So just because you are not the Top Dog such as a president, an executive board member, ministry leader, or the oldest sibling, that does not mean that you can slack off as a contributing member of that organization, ministry, or family. The understanding that “I am willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission of my people, family or organization,” is a foundational attitude of “solder mentality” leadership. Therefore a major mission of this “Soldier Mentality” Leadership Action Series is to impress upon you to be excited about, intense, and aggressive in being a champion in your purpose filled role and at the same time growing and preparing for the promotion that God may bless you with. In building this positive mentality your opportunities of promotion will come: from organization member to Vice President; from little brother to father of a household; from second string point guard to team captain; from the youth choir to the youth Pastor and so on. The key is that true leaders are faithful on every level. So now let’s get into the principles or the trenches as I like to say, of “Soldier Mentality” Leadership through balancing Education, Empowerment, and Entertainment. It is my hope and truly my mission that we will embrace this concept in every generation so that there is a cycle of empowered critical thinkers and decision makers. Furthermore, we must ensure that our leaders of tomorrow will become leaders today. Then we will have a powerful movement.
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SOLDIER MENTALITY
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As I look back at my days in the United States Marine Corps, I can remember that every military deployment, exercise, and operation was preceded by a briefing. In these briefings, someone in charge, such as a Staff Non-Commissioned Officer or Commanding Officer, would be the one leading the briefing. The leader would speak to us in a stern, strong and confident voice in hopes to accomplish two things. First of all, he or she had to establish the mission and its purpose of what we were about to experience. We then understood what we were pursuing and why we were pursuing it. Secondly, the leader had to motivate us to believe that we were ready and capable of completing the mission. He would expose positive consequences of accomplishing our mission, as well as the negative consequences of not accomplishing our mission. After all the loud, motivated “Yes Sirs” and “Hoorahs,” we locked into focus on our mission, and as a unit, we moved forward in confidence, truly believing that no matter what obstacles that faced us, we would remain in pursuit of our mission. We had embraced the soldier mentality. The same concept applies to sports, when a coach or a team leader is addressing his or her team before the championship game. The players are hanging on that leader’s every word as their adrenaline is bubbling and sparks of confidence are shooting all over the locker room, and just as in the above description - the purpose is being established. Now, after the team has huddled and shouted their final “1-2-3 WIN,” they are ready to go out there and give it everything they have to win the championship, or like we used to say when I played football at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, “leave it all on the field.” The truth of the matter is that those players would not be willing to give that extreme effort, if they did not believe that they could win. Therefore the soldier mentality or championship mentality has to be embraced through the belief that we are already champions and victors and our every action in life shall reflect that. So before we pursue the mission of building leadership through balancing education, empowerment and entertainment, it is necessary that we have a war briefing, so that we can get focused on the purpose of our mission and “get our minds right.” As a youth and young adult leadership instructor in a program called, “Images In The Mirror,”which targeted young men ages twelve to nineteen, the first principle that we taught the young men was “Belief.” This principle was 12
first because before we can go forward and accomplish anything in life, we have to first believe that we can be more than what we are right now. To put this powerful principle into an historical perspective, let’s look at the slavery of African ancestors in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. I know that we are all probably familiar with this history, but let’s really imagine being taken from our homeland and savagely shipped across the Atlantic to the foreign lands of North and South America, not for opportunity but to work as unwaged slaves. Now think about being a slave in America after 200 years of bondage, generation after generation, all you have experienced is slave life. But through some method of exposure to the possibility of freedom, our enslaved ancestors started to believe that they could be more than a slave. Through embracing this principle of “Belief” they begin to strategize and create ways to reach their established mission of freedom, and were willing to fight, struggle, suffer and break through any obstacles that they faced in that pursuit. Of course, many died in that mission, but many leaders such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth, emerged because they held the Belief that we are victors that shall be free. The wonderful thing is that today, because our ancestors believed and held the “Soldier” mentality and were willing to sacrifice, we are no longer in physical bondage and have the opportunity to live our lives to the highest potential as victors and not victims, champions and not losers. So with that in mind, lets ask ourselves, “Are we willing to give the same effort that our ancestors gave, to not only empower ourselves but to empower the future generations to come?” As leaders we must assert a positive self-image that reflects our confidence in our daily lives and in the pursuit of our goals and dreams. Just as importantly, we have to assure that we transfer this same positive self image and mentality in building leadership in those that we influence. If we fail to do these things we are subjecting ourselves to a modern day slavery of our minds.
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POSITIVE SELF IMAGE Young leaders The process of building unshakable confidence is greatly affected by our self-image. Our self-image is the perception that we have of ourselves or the way we see ourselves and the thoughts that derive from what we see. Consequently, the self-image that we hold of ourselves is critical because it is the origin or starting block of all of our live’s actions and experiences. When we are born into this world our self-image begins with a clean slate, but as we grow we become molded by the personalities of the people who take part in raising us. Herbert Harris of The LifeSkill Institute, Inc, examines the concept of self image in his book, The Twelve Universal Laws of Success. He expresses, In the first seven years of life, children develop the basic system of values that will take them through life. It is during this period that the child learns and develops emotions and feelings of fear and reward, pain and pleasure, love and lack of love, guilt, blame and shame, praise and discouragement, curiosity or lack of interest, persistence or discouragement, respect or disdain, manners or crudeness, courtesy or callousness, and other positive or negative emotions and feelings. The truth of the matter is, in our childhood we are extremely sensitive to the messages that are transferred into us from the people that make up our environment. So when those messages are made up of negative thoughts, emotions, and feelings, not only is our self-image of ourselves negatively affected but our self-esteem is also decreased. As a result, when we are in grade school, college and beyond we often allow people’s opinion of us to affect our decisions because we are afraid of what others may think. Many of us are so conformed to the opinions of our associations and friends, with hopes to be labeled as “cool” or “tough,” we allow that peer pressure to sway us into making decisions that put us in bad situations. I can recall when I was in high school, and was attending a varsity basketball game with two of my homeboys from the hood. One of the friends that I was with had recently endured a bitter break-up with his girlfriend. It just so happened that in the midst of the game, 14
he spotted his former girlfriend with another brother. He seemed to move like lightning from the section of seats that we were sitting in, to the section he had spotted his former woman and her new man. My homeboy decided that he would go over to his ex-girlfriend and attempt to plant a big juicy kiss on her lips. Unfortunately, this attempt to rekindle the flame was stopped by a stiff arm from her new man. Of course a confrontation erupted and consequently the former girlfriend and her new man left the game. My homeboy was hot, highly upset and declared that we should go after them. We were down, because at that time we believed in the unwritten code that if your homeboy is disrespected then you must do what it takes to get revenge. So the three of us huddled up like it was fourth-and-one on the goal line and decided to go after the new man. I was the one who had driven that day, so I was the one that would have to conduct this high speed chase. We hopped in my 1994 Dodge Dynasty and jumped on the tail of the “girlfriend thief.” Driving recklessly through streets and gas station lots, we finally made it back to our neighborhood in which the former girlfriend and new man also resided. My broken-hearted homeboy, along with my other friend, who was well known for his bad attitude and combative nature, decided to jump out of my car and assault (or as was called then “jump”) the new boyfriend. I drove up the street, out of sight so that my license plates could not be seen. The next day, I remember sitting in class reminiscing on the previous eventful evening, when all of a sudden I received a summons to go to the school’s police officer liaison’s office. When I reached the office I saw my two friends in the office with troubled looks on their faces. The aunt of the young man that my homeboys had assaulted had filed charges against us and had come to our school to report our names. Both of my friends received assault fines that went on their records. Fortunately for me, I was let off the hook because my friends said that I had nothing to do with it. But let’s just imagine the level of trouble I could have gotten myself into, simply because I wanted to be seen as tough, cool and live up to the “ride or die” code that signified my neighborhood. Just think if someone would have gotten seriously hurt or worst died in the assault, our whole lives could have turned for the worst. It is quite possible that I would have been an addition to the more than one million black men incarcerated 15
today. Think about how many of those brothers are incarcerated as a result of a bad decision made based on the perception and influence of their friends. As we step into the soldier mentality, as leaders it is crucial that we hold a self- image that does not allow us to be pushed into decisions that move us off the path towards the mission that God has assigned for us (we will talk more about mission in the next chapter). This mentality allows us to look into the mirror and see someone that has the capability to accomplish anything that is desired, no matter what anyone has to say about it. The truth of the matter is that no matter what you do, good or bad, there will always be someone who has a negative opinion about you and what you are doing, commonly referred to as “haters.” But the question is, are we going to allow the opinions of the haters to shake loose the foundations of our dreams and aspirations? The answer should be a resounding, “NO.” What is even worse, and can be a stronger attack against our self-image and self-esteem, is when those people closest to you, such as a mother, father, siblings and best friends show a disbelief in your capabilities or your desire to achieve a certain goal. They may say something like, “Why are you trying to do all that? That’s not necessary,” or “Why don’t you try to become something more secure?” The lack of support from the people closest can be extremely frustrating and hurtful. We have to understand that those close family and friends subconsciously put us into a box, based on their past experiences with us and their own life experience, and as soon as you venture outside of their box they are not comfortable with your ambition and express limited belief in you. This limited belief characterizes the detrimental cycles of poverty and mediocrity that have plagued many families and communities. Further, this belief is the basis for the “Crabs in a Bucket” theory, in which we act as human barricades to one another’s dreams. As I think back to brothers and sisters I grew up with on the eastside of Fort Worth, Texas, who were led into drug dealing, gangs and street life, I believe that they all had a wealth of potential to achieve great things. But as a partial result of the environment, associations, and the lack of exposure to positive influences their selfimage was damaged, allowing them only to pursue what they knew: street life and mediocrity. We must realize that today is the first day of the rest of our 16
lives. So no matter what environment you have come from, your thoughts and actions from this point forward can be focused on accomplishing your goals. Realize that this soldier mentality may cause you to make some tough decisions in regards to who you associate with. A great man once said, “Association brings about assimilation,” which simply means that if you are marching towards your passion and the people that you are associated with and spend time with are stagnant or moving in a negative direction, chances are they are going to slow you down. I know this is a hard pill to swallow, but we must primarily associate ourselves with those who complement our progress and enhance our growth mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. In Johnny Wimbrey’s audio series, “Think and Win Big,” he speaks on this situation by expressing that you have to spend time with people that celebrate you and not just tolerate you. This statement is profound because the positive vibes that we receive from the people around help confirm our positive self-image. I must warn you, the decisions and sacrifices that are necessary in strengthening our soldier mentality and self-image are not always easy. As a matter of fact, if the process is easy to you then chances are you have probably become complacent and you’re probably not moving aggressively towards your mission. So let’s just imagine ourselves moving away from our immediate circumstances and actually being in the ideal situation that we have envisioned for ourselves and our family or future family. Imagine the peace and joy that you feel in this situation. Imagine how your accomplishments have empowered your family to achieve and how you can bless your community and inspire others to pursue their dreams. You are imagining yourself as a great leader. Now soldier, you must believe and have faith that you have what it takes and be willing to do what it takes to turn this dream into a reality. “I am a soldier with the strength in my shoulders to hold boulders and move mountains”
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