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AuthorHouse - Colin Duncan

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57 pages

English

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Navigating the complexities of professional services careers is hard and often riddled with frustration and disappointment. No doubt the lucrative compensation is not to be ignored, and of course the distinguished opportunity to serve and lead at the highest ranks of your chosen profession. While the glimpses of what success looks like are all around, it can sometimes feel beyond the realm of imagination for someone to realize such gains for themselves. Many people stumble into successful career outcomes after humble beginnings with little or no plan. Sadly, there are large groups of talented and ambitious people who continue to struggle to align interests to opportunities that will yield their desired outcomes. These people represent a kaleidoscope of backgrounds and experiences for which there are no established criteria. This book captures my journey as an immigrant from Jamaica to the leader I am today, highlighting key principles that helped me endure many challenges and lead a successful business. Based on countless mentoring conversations I’ve had throughout my career, I know my story will resonate with many professionals who had or are having similar experiences. My hope for the reader is to be inspired, encouraged, and most importantly be able to extract tactical actions that can be applied along their journey to help them achieve their desired career aspiration.

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Inspirational

Biography

Autobiography

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Publié par	AuthorHouse
Date de parution	19 février 2023
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781728378367
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

STUMBLING into SUCCESS is GOOD
HAVING A PLAN IS BETTER
My Journey So Far
COLIN DUNCAN

AuthorHouse™
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.authorhouse.com
Phone: 833-262-8899

© 2023 Colin Duncan. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/16/2023

ISBN: 978-1-7283-7838-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-7283-7837-4 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-7283-7836-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023902204

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
CONTENTS
The Foreword
Introduction

Humble Beginnings
Coming to America
Growing Up in Jamaica
Coming to America — The Promise Realized
Growing Up in America
The College Years
Transitioning to the Workplace
Life with My Helpmeet Begins
Game On!
We Did It!
Reflecting & Looking Ahead

To Daddy and Mommy, thanks for the inspiration
To my wife, Essita, together we inspire
To my children, Celeste and Gavin, keep inspiring
THE FOREWORD
This book was written by Colin in his attempt to give back to other people - what has taken him almost half a lifetime to learn - on how to be very successful in business! You cannot really appreciate how far a person has come in being successful without knowing where their journey started from in life. How else can you get a true measurement of one’s attainment? And this is why Colin spends two thirds of the book letting you know his personal journey from his birth to the present! Colin is declaring to anyone that if he can do it, then you can do it IF you know and practice these concepts that were revelations to him - the foundational concept being - the power of a changed mind! Colin grasped that his success in business was conditional upon his continual need to implement the power of a changed mind!
Therefore, the last third of this book is where he reveals the concepts that were life changing to him in his business routines and practices. How many of us have discovered our purpose through our pain? Our power through process? And, our strength through our stress? Do we really - I mean really realize - that we are now at this very moment good or bad, successful or a failure, because of the decisions we made in the past? And, do not forget that no decision is still a decision! But, success in business can become reality to you through the power of a changed mind! I highly recommend you read this book.
Apostle Don Meares
Evangel Cathedral
Upper Marlboro, Maryland
INTRODUCTION
There is nothing as powerful as a changed mind. Let that sink in for a moment. There is nothing as powerful as a changed mind. Why does this matter? Why start with such a statement? This profoundly changed my life about eight years ago. My pastor delivered this message on a Sunday morning, and it has made a big difference in my life. This statement made clear for me that whatever I decided to do, nothing would deter me from achieving my goal. For me, that meant I needed to change my mind in terms of how I was approaching my professional aspirations. That week, I decided I would become a partner in one of the largest professional services firms. This goal had long been my aspiration, and while I had made some progress to that end, the deep conviction that I must achieve this goal didn’t resonate until that week. There is nothing as powerful as a changed mind.
Looking back over my life, the lives of two older brothers, and of my parents, the principle or truth of having a changed mind is scattered throughout. It has been fascinating to think about my family heritage in this manner, considering the many scenarios that might have transpired because of having a changed mind. I’ve adopted this principle of having a changed mind to guide my aspirations and commitments. I am writing this book so others can learn about the insights that shaped the paths I’ve taken prior to and since that memorable Sunday morning. Most important, however, is for the reader to gain useful insights that will inform their own journey ahead.
My father was the first in our family to come to America. Prior to that, Jamaicans leaving the island for better opportunities for their families were mostly going to England. That’s the approach that my dad’s eldest brother took. No surprise, that was also the path that my mother’s older siblings took—all three of them. Why did my father, at age twenty-eight, decide to go against the grain and do something different? Why did he change his mind from what appeared to be the normal course of operations for most people he knew? Did he understand the principle of having a changed mind? Maybe he did in some realm, but not based on the circumstances of his immediate environment. So many unknowns, so many opportunities to say no, and yet he said yes.
For many years, I’ve felt led to write a book about my life’s journey that would be an inspirational and useful resource for people. As I began putting hand to keyboard, I was intrigued to see that many of the ideas that I had been applying throughout the last eight years of my career were not new concepts. The idea of having a changed mindset was most impactful for me through the lens of my pastor. However, this concept is prevalent in many self-help and professional development books available today. Whether or not you see life through the lens of a Christian, the principle of having a changed mindset is of critical importance to achieving your career destination and shifting the trajectory of your life and those of your family.
My dad shifted the course of his family’s trajectory by changing his mindset. He took a leap of faith that his skillful abilities for fixing cars would be best served if he went to America versus continuing as the foreman for a company that made mattresses in Kingston, Jamaica. As it turns out, with his limited education, my dad is in good company with many successful people who followed their dreams and adopted the principles of having a changed mind. This further supports my belief that change comes from within, and that no matter where you are on your career journey, you can pivot for better.
While he was the first in our family to migrate from Jamaica to America, my dad wasn’t the first to take the risk of pursuing another path for our family. For example, my maternal grandmother was a teacher who decided to save money to send her children to England for a better life. The principles of having a changed mindset were either pushed on my family by their ancestors or they felt led to imagine a different outcome from what they saw for their parents. Either way, they acted upon the idea they had to better themselves. For that, I am appreciative of the pioneering spirit that fueled their actions. It’s no surprise that the actions and ensuing challenges, disappointments, and hurdles were not easily overcome. My father came to America with about one hundred dollars in his mother’s old purse and some mechanic tools. He left Mommy with two young children and was determined to build a better life.
The four decades that followed have seen significant successes and excruciating setbacks. I’ve seen many ups and downs in my journey so far. The bitter disappointments were balanced with sweet successes that have catapulted our family from humble beginnings to having tremendous impact across the world. This is the story I want to share with you, the reader. Not only the rewarding mountaintop experiences that many see today, but also the valuable valley lows where I wanted to quit. The concepts described throughout this book are ideas and points of view that I stumbled on along the way. Many might believe that my accomplishments were the results of a thoughtfully executed plan, but that would be far from the truth. Instead, I picked up bits and pieces during the valley years and stitched them together, with God’s help, to become the person I am today. As I look ahead, my hope is that you will be encouraged by my story and apply many of the principles to achieve the career you aspire.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

I WAS BORN IN KINGSTON, JAMAICA, at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. I know the details because on my birthday each year, Mommy would recount the story. I am the third of three boys all within four years of each other. My older brothers spent the first six years of their childhood with my maternal grandmother, aunts, and cousins in Broughton, Westmoreland. To get to Broughton, which is about thirty minutes from Negril, from Kingston would be a nearly full-day travel experience, with multiple bus transfers, long wait times, and a daunting walk for the last three miles. I would always look forward to the journey but not the walking part. And I never really liked being in the country because the amenities were very different. Perhaps things had gotten better for Mommy when I was born because I wasn’t sent to the country like my brothers were. So I got accustomed to the finer things available in town, as we affectionately referred to Kingston.
For context, the finer things were basic compared to what’s in the country—such as having a kitchen and bathroom as part of the house, streetlights everywhere, and running water in the pipes for drinking and taking baths, among other things. For young Colin these were easily noticeable when Mommy wo