CHAPTER ONE
From the Ghetto to Harvard Business School


It was a winter morning in 1996 and I was standing center stage in the pit of a jam-packed, wood-paneled lecture hall at Harvard University. Rows of wooden seats loomed above me in curving tiers. In those seats, with their expectant gazes bearing down on me, sat about one hundred razor-sharp young men and women--graduate students at the Harvard Business School--waiting to see what I had to offer. As a result of my work with inner-city kids and adults at the Manchester Bidwell Center in Pittsburgh, I had been asked to serve as an HBS case study, to share a little hard-earned business savvy from the other side of the tracks.

As Professor Jim Heskett introduced me to his class, I positioned my beat-up old slide projector on a tabletop, then opened a battered cardboard box, held together with duct tape at the corners, and lifted out a loaded carousel of slides. The students looked me over. In recent weeks, such other speakers as Disney honcho Michael Eisner and Southwest Airlines chief Herb Kelleher had stood where I was standing to share their business philosophies and reveal their secrets of success. Now it was my turn in the spotlight. I knew the kids weren't sure what to expect from me. To tell the truth, I wasn't so sure that they could get what I had to offer. After all, I don't run an airline or an entertainment empire. If you wanted to be technical about it, you could say I'm not a businessman at all. As the founder and CEO of Manchester Bidwell, a community arts-education and jobtraining center in Pittsburgh, my mission is to turn people's lives around. We do that by offering them two distinct educational programs under the same roof. The first program, which we call the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, offers rigorous after-school courses in the arts that light a creative fire in at-risk kids and inspire them to stay in school. Classes at the Craftsmen's Guild are taught by a staff of established artists and skilled instructors, and the curriculum is designed to rival courses taught at the best private schools and academies. Our center also houses the Bidwell Training Center, which provides state-of-the-art job-training programs intended to give poor and otherwise disadvantaged adults the skills and direction they need to land meaningful, good-paying jobs that provide the foundation for a much brighter future. Our students include welfare mothers, recovering addicts, ex-convicts, laid-off manufacturing workers, and others who have had hope or even dignity snatched away by the difficult circumstances of their lives. Our younger students at the Craftsmen's Guild face similar struggles. Many of them are on a fast track to failure when they come to us, flunking courses, skipping school, on the verge of dropping out or being suspended. Some of them swagger in, angry, defiant, bristling with hostile attitude. Others hide behind a prickly shell of apathy and withdrawal.

When we started out some twenty years ago, most of our students were African-Americans from the city's poorest neighborhoods. Today, almost half our student body is made up of disadvantaged white folks.We greet them all with the same basic recipe for success: high standards, stiff challenges, a chance to develop unexplored talents, and a message that many of them haven't heard before--that no matter how difficult the circumstances of their lives may be, no matter how many bad assumptions they've made about their chances in life, no matter how well they've been taught to rein in their dreams and narrow their aspirations, they have the right, and the potential, to expect to live rich and satisfying lives. It takes some time for...

 

"Passionate. Inspirational. Hopeful. Optimistic. Powerful. Compelling. And most important-- it works . . . Here is the cure to what ails this country. Take it home. Read it. Then live it."

 

"Bill Strickland is a genius, because he sees the inherent genius in everyone. Bill's ability to inspire hope is powerful, universal, and world changing. Make the Impossible Possible will show you how you can achieve even your wildest dreams. Bravo!"

 

"I have lived a jazz life for the better part of my 95 years, but it was not until I read Bill's book that I truly understood the influence that jazz has had on my success....Kudos to Bill who has not only put into words what I have always felt in my heart, but who has also laid out a path that others can follow."

 

"We often hear the word inspire, likely allowing it to pass and not sink in our psyche.
However we often will never forget things that inspire us. A visit to see Bill Strickland's concept in Pittsburgh was one of those events for me. Now you can read about how he was driven to build it."

 

"Are you yearning to pursue what others say is an unrealistic or impractical dream? This is the book for you. By telling his remarkable story, Bill Strickland shows us that an impossible notion is just an idea nobody had the guts to try.  With great flair and amazing range--you'll read about jazz, pottery, airplanes, even orchids!--he reveals how each of us can change our part of the world. Like the man who wrote it, this book is inspired and inspiring."

 

"Bill Strickland could sell anything . . . Read this book and you'll understand why he is such an inspiration to practicing and aspiring entrepreneurs."

 

"This is a provocative tale of meaning and substance about Bill Strickland's life and endeavors. At its heart, it's a story about greatness -- and the relentless pursuit of making the world a better place. One person. One town. One moment at a time. As we read it, it's humbling -- could we ever dare attempt something as profound as Bill has? His message on this point is quite clear: Within each of us is this greatness to be unleashed."

 

PRAISE FOR BILL STRICKLAND AND MANCHESTER BIDWELL
"One of the most innovative social enterprise thinkers I have ever met. The 'Strickland' thought process is that of a highly trained jazz musician, coupled with a keen business sense . . . He is definitely one of my major heroes."

 

"The Manchester Craftsmen's Guild is a testament to the power of the arts to transform children's lives. Its students learn much more than how to shape clay, take pictures, and appreciate jazz. They leave the Guild knowing that they have the potential and tools to become successful and productive citizens."

 

Make the Impossible Possible by Bill Strickland
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