We Will Break the Glass
When I was a student at the US Air Force Academy, I had my class ring engraved with the phrase “We will Break the Glass.” The “We” is a group of young Black men who helped support each other through a tough academic, physical, and emotional college experience.
My hope and prediction was that we would break through the glass walls and ceilings that exist in the military and civilian life, business and personal. Not only that, our goal was to help others do the same thing and here is a short list of a few things folks in our class have accomplished.
- Multiple people achieved the rank of Lt Col
- Three pilots including an F-16 fighter pilot squadron commander and a long tenured pilot for FedEx
- One woman who was the English Department Head at the Air Force Academy
- Ran a Christian nonprofit with world wide impact
- Successful business owners including one who leveraged experience working at the pentagon into a consulting business and two who run successful a financial planning practicing
This list could go on and the great thing is that over the last 20 years, we all have met successful men of color beyond the Air Force. To achieve the things we have, we have mentored folks and been mentored by some.
What is this Website For?
This site is started to build a community that will help others with Breaking the Glass. With all of the challenges that face people of color, here’s my simple formula to overcome and succeed.
- Learn what you need to in order to succeed
- Teach others how they can succeed too
- Highlight the success stories
- Shake the haters off
Learn What You Need to In Order to Succeed
Over time, this site will build up a large repository of information on how to succeed in any endeavor, personal or professional, no matter the career field or stage in life. From artists and athletes to engineers and doctors and elementary school kids to new moms with kids, we will interview them and make the lessons available to you here.
Teach Others How They Can Succeed Too
With all of the interviews and articles, we will take the success of some and pass it on to you and others to learn what they did. We will also build a community so you can find groups to encourage you in your process and possibly mentors or coaches. In this way, we can share knowledge that used to be hidden from people of color and hard to come by.
Highlight the Success Stories
A stated purpose of this effort is to showcase the many untold success stories of people of color. In the US, especially for Blacks, the dominant depiction is that success stories are the exception and not the rule. The net effect is to promote a negative stereotype to other communities and worse within communities of color it begins to seem impossible for people to achieve the success they dream of.
I know so many success stories that I believe that if they were told, that it would act as a public relations machine that could turn the tide of public opinion. The ripple effect is potentially huge. People in positions that discriminate against people of color could be influenced to stop and people of color could look to this as a beacon of light.
And while I admire LeBron James and President Obama (and hope to interview them one day) we want to highlight the successes of the big names you know and the every day successes as well. The goal is to show that success for people of color is real and wide spread more than the news would lead you to believe. Then hopefully show you how you can achieve success for you. #changethenarrative
Shake the Haters Off
I used to say ignore the haters, but I don’t want to ignore them. I acknowledge that there are many forces, visible and invisible, current and historical, personal and systematic, apathetic and actively antagonistic set up against the success of people of color. At the same time, many have overcome them or succeeded in spite of them.
Many of us have learned to persevere and develop attitudes and habits that have led to this success and we want to encourage you to do the same. The struggle is real, but it is not insurmountable if we hit steps 1-3 and work together to make it.
We welcome all opinions and discussion. That’s how we get stronger in our pursuit and sharper in our points of view as we grow and progress. At the same time, we will monitor comments and remove hateful language at the discretion of the owner and moderator of this site. We want growth, but this is mostly here to build people up for success.
Send Us Success Stories
We are always looking for stories you have about people of color overcoming challenges and succeeding that will inspire others to do the same and teach them how to get there. If you have a story you’d like us to know about so we can include it in our podcast or videos we will produce, please click the button below and share the story with us.
Also feel free to share with us on social media @WeWillBTG