This episode of The Jake Dunlap Show features JeVon McCormick, President & CEO at Scribe Media. JeVon was born in a time when being born of a black father and white mother was illegal.
He grew up under tough circumstances, from the fact that his father was a pimp and his mother was an orphan on welfare, to racism which saw him unaccepted in both the black and white communities.
JeVon shares pivotal moments in his life, from learning about entrepreneurship from prostitutes, to learning about compound interest cleaning toilets, to impressing his boss enough to shoot up to vice president of Payday Loans, and meeting Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial.
JeVon also shares his own formula for success. He keeps it simple and sums it up with mindset, choices, and hard work equals success. It is this formula which allowed him to overcome the circumstances he was born into and turn it completely around.
Quotes
JeVon : "He would say, 'don't be common in the way you walk the corner. Don't be common in the way you dress. Don't be common in the bed.' And that's what he would preach to the prostitutes. But we would hear it so often, it made its way down to me. So for me, don't be common meant, okay, do shit different than everybody else."
JeVon: "When I was a kid, my dad shared with me and some of my siblings, he said, I don't care what you do in life, whatever it is, be the best at it. And his exact words were, if you were going to be a street sweeper, be the best street sweeper. Now he could have given us a little more to aspire to, but I got the point was be the best."
JeVon: "The common thread is I always outworked everyone. I've never been afraid to work. I've never been afraid to ask questions. I've never been afraid of someone saying no to me. No, just meant not right now. I'll just come back next week, next month, whatever. So, I keep going."
JeVon: "Confidence is a choice. You can choose to wake up and be timid and meek, or you can choose to wake up and be confident. And, for me, many a day, man, confidence was all I had. Confidence was free and the confidence got me through the streets. It got me out of a lot of ass kickings."
JeVon: "I created a formula for myself, mindset, choices, and hard work equals success."
More about JeVon
JeVon is 1 of 23 children and is the son of a black pimp and a white mother who lived on welfare. Arguably, his circumstances almost dictated that success was not for him. But JeVon is living proof that what you you born into does not define you.
JeVon was not afraid of working and, as a matter of fact, outworked everyone else so much that he impressed his bosses enough that they opened up new opportunities for him, opportunities that were simply not available to anyone else in a similar stature as he was back then.
His first job was cleaning toilets of a restaurant, then he moved on to crunching numbers in proofing reports. He was outperforming the office record so much that his then boss brought him in to ask what he really wanted, to which he replied he wanted to be vice president. And he got it. He joined the company when it had 3 offices and left it with 8, thanks to him.
He’s made millions in the stock market (even though he didn’t go to college), he was the President of a software company (even though he can’t code) and he’s currently the CEO of a publishing company (even though he can’t spell).
JeVon also devotes part of his time mentoring and creating opportunities for at-risk youth, young men and women in the juvenile justice system, and those in lower economic communities.
Find out more about JeVon in the following links:
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