From South Side to Six Figures

 

Chapter 8

From South Side to Six Figures

The Felicia Yoakum Story

Felicia with her daughter and son.
Circa 2015

Felicia Cockrell Yoakum is an African American female in her mid-40s. She lives in a major American city where she has worked as a staff technical program manager for Netflix since 2023. Before that, she was employed as a project manager for Google—fulfilling a lifelong career dream she had held since the year 2000. 

Prior to working for Google, Yoakum was employed as an operations engineer for the power grid of a major urban area in the United States. Before that, she worked for the oil and gas giant, ExxonMobil, served her country in the United States Navy, and graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering technology. 

These impressive life and career successes were by-products of Felicia's ongoing commitment to Self-Action Leadership. Even more impressively, Felicia has demonstrated that SAL is possible even in the midst of challenging environmental, familial, and social circumstances. 

Before she became a successful college student, Naval Officer, and rising star for multiple Fortune 500 companies, Felicia was born "poor and Black" on the infamously poverty-stricken and often violent South Side of Chicago.

Felicia's life is dramatically different now than when she was growing up, and not because she won the lottery or otherwise lucked her way into prosperity. Her life is different, and better, today because of her effective and consistent practice of SAL over long periods of time, which has, in-turn invited a great deal of Serendipity into her life and career as well.  

Felicia as a baby growing up
on the South Side of Chicago.

If she had wanted to, she could have found plenty of disadvantages to complain about and excuses to make for why she could not rise above the circumstances into which she was born. Instead, she chose to be proactive, focus on what she could control and accomplish, and always take advantage of positive opportunities that came her way. 

Consequently, her life and career have consistently taken very inspiring turns, to say the very least. 

Growing up on Chicago's South Side, Felicia spent the first 18 years of her life in a small house with her parents and two siblings (an older sister and a younger brother). The neighborhood in which her home was located was one of the most dangerous in all of Chicago, and her first elementary school was situated right in between two government project buildings. 

Despite these and other infelicitous realities of her upbringing, Felicia began exercising SAL principles and practices from a young age. These early seeds of SAL would eventually grow and mature into a rich education and career harvest down the road.  

Felicia and her mom at their home on the 
South Side of Chicago.

Felicia's exercise of SAL was focused first and foremost on her education. Simply stated, she paid attention, worked hard, and got good grades in school. Her efforts paid off and in eighth (8th) grade she became valedictorian of her middle school's graduating class. 

Building on these successes of her early adolescence, Felicia began applying to choice program magnet and charter schools in order to avoid having to attend the much rougher public high schools near her home, which, in her words, "were usually really bad high schools."  

Her outstanding grades and test scores earned her admittance to the prestigious Whitney M. Young High School, which consistently ranks among the top-rated Magnet high schools in the United States. 

In addition to her academic ambitions, Felicia also found time to excel at athletics, competing in cross-country and track & field all four of her high school years. 

At age 15, she also began working at a variety of jobs, including at her dad's restaurant, so she could earn her own money.   

During her senior year of high school, she became interested in computer programming. She also wrote a report on a piece of equipment used in World War II that piqued her interest in the military. This led her to apply for a full tuition scholarship to Purdue University through its ROTC program. She was unsuccessful in this attempt; however, her diligent efforts enabled her to procure some smaller scholarships—ensuring her entrance to Purdue. 

Before being accepted into Purdue, Felicia had set her sights sky high and seriously considered applying to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the California Institute of Technology (Cal-Tech), and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).

Her top two priorities in picking a college were, first: a "Quality Engineering Program"; and second: "Football."

The latter criterion eliminated MIT and Cal-Tech, so she applied to Georgia Tech and Purdue—both of which boast top-tier engineering programs and Division 1 football teams from major athletic conferences (ACC and BIG-10).

At Purdue, Felicia studied electronic engineering technology—not an easy major! With the exception of the few smaller scholarships she received, she paid for the rest of her schooling herself through student loans and by working a part-time job throughout college.

Felicia as a Commissioned Officer
aboard a naval vessel.

Felicia played sports (rugby) herself at Purdue, where, after four years of hard work, she graduated with her bachelor's degree in engineering. She then worked toward, and earned, an Officer's Commission in the U.S. Navy, where she was posted to various bases around the world, including Australia, Canada, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). She also spent time on naval ships in the Pacific and Indian Oceans as well as the Mediterranean Sea. 

After serving her country for a few years and fulfilling her commitment to the Navy, Felicia was hired to work for ExxonMobil, an energy giant and Fortune 100 Company headquartered in Texas. Her work with ExxonMobil also took her to Japan for a two-year assignment. 

It was through Felicia's association with my wife, Lina, at ExxonMobil that we first became acquainted in the Houston, Texas area, where a significant chunk of ExxonMobil's workforce resides.  

Felicia served as one of Lina's earliest mentors at ExxonMobil immediately after she began her post-collegiate career with the energy giant. Lina was fortunate to be mentored by someone as accomplished, capable, intelligent, and kind as Felicia, and we fast became fans of and friends with her.  

On the job with energy giant, ExxonMobil.
Houston, Texas
Circa 2010

After spending several years with ExxonMobil, Felicia got a new job with the tech giant, Google, in Austin, Texas. It was a dream come true for Yoakum, who had wanted to work in Big Tech since she had been a teenager.

Felicia attributes her life and career success to working hard and staying focused as a student. Her academic performance empowered her to receive educational opportunities beyond what was available at the public schools in her poor and sometimes violent Chicago neighborhood. According to Felicia, "anyone can go to the [academically superior] magnet schools if you have good enough grades."

Felicia was determined to get the grades she needed to expand her future educational and career opportunities. 

Thus, SAL empowered her to earn the grades required to attend these better, safer school. And Serendipity further favored her with wonderful opportunities that had been opened up by virtue of her outstanding personal efforts.  

Growing up on Chicago's South Side gave Felicia opportunities to witness the structural inequities that existed between different schools and communities in the greater Chicago area. 

In her own words: 

"Chicago is very segregated. The South Side of Chicago is about 95% African American. When I was in middle school, I competed in a math competition that gave me an opportunity to see other schools. That is where I started seeing white students and students of other races. In that interaction, I discovered that other kids often had access to more and better resources than I did. For example, the white teams would have matching jerseys and clothes, and food that was provided by their school. You could also tell that they were more groomed than we were. We had practice, but that was all we had; there was no extra stuff. 

"We had much better facilities at the magnet school (Whitney M. Young High School), and parents were much more involved in their kids' education. The main difference, however, between magnet school students and regular public school students was not race or a lack of intelligence; it was a lack of focus and parental involvement. Other than that, there wasn't a big different in the demographics of the students at the magnet schools versus the regular public schools. There were a few students who you could tell weren't from around the neighborhood, but most of us were locals, and most of us were Black—just like at the regular public high schools."  

In addition to building healthy relationships
with others, self-action leaders are careful
about cultivating a rich inner life and
positive relationship with oneself.

Felicia did not have many friends as a teenager, and attributes her ability to stay grounded to consciously cultivating a rich inner-life as a self-action leader. 

"I pretty much kept to myself, and my family always made fun of me because I would talk to myself. Don't get me wrong; I was a friendly person, got along with people, and was never an outcast; but, I was not into the typical teenage socializing scene—it just wasn't for me. I'd talk to people and occasionally hang out, but I rarely went to parties. In fact, I can probably count on one hand how many parties I went to my entire life growing up."

Felicia attributes her unorthodox, intrapersonal social approach to helping her resist many temptations common to adolescents and the tremendous peer pressure faced by inner city youth in the Black community. 

"Peer Pressure is a big problem with inner city youth. Of course, it is likely a problem with all youth, but I think it's more intense in the inner city because there is a lot of pressure to be "Black." The Black stereotype is: you don't care about work or anything else except clothes and the opposite sex. 

"These attitudes are perpetuated throughout the community, so if those things aren't a high priority, people think there is something wrong with you. Worse still, if you aren't focused on those things, you get talked about; and when I say talked about—I mean YOU got TALKED about—you got reamed. Another part of being "Black" is that you can't talk about college and you're not supposed to like school. My peers would make fun of me for being smart, and they would call me "White Girl" because I talked proper and I liked the television show, Seinfeld." 

Felicia utilized SAL principles and practices on many occasions to avoid growing angry or bitter at peers who would verbally jab at her. Fascinatingly, the more her peers sensed her inner security, self-confidence, and self-worth, the more they left her alone. 

"I did not get made fun of a lot because they could tell I wasn't ashamed of who I was. My idea of what to do and what was right was mostly developed internally. I also wasn't really involved with other people who were concerned with making sure I looked cute for the boys. I didn't really hang out with people like that, which helped me avoid the peer pressure that so strongly pushed other people in my community to focus so much on clothing and image and prioritize it above education and inner security." 

Felicia also discovered that negative reinforcement doesn't always come from peer pressure only. Sadly, parents and other family members can sometimes be a big part of the problem as well. 

"One of the things I've seen hurt many people in the inner city is the pressure to not be successful. You would be surprised at how many parents will jab at their kids and say things like: "you're never going to be anything, so why do you even try?" Tragically, that kind of stuff is said in a lot of households; and there is a lot of negative reinforcement to not achieve goals. The aim is to maintain the status quo, which isn't anything to brag about. My advice to everyone who faces that kind of pressure and negative reinforcement is to not let other people bring you down. And believe me, they will try! Some people will even make it their goal in life to bring you down. Do not let them do it!"

Developing inner security and esteem is an important element in SAL development. But where does it come from and how is it developed? 

Felicia's actions and habits give us an important clue. 

To compensate for the lack of meaningful relationships with her peers, Felicia developed a friendship with herself that emboldened her sense of internally-located self-worth. 

Stephen R. Covey effectively corroborated the importance of self-worth when he wrote: 

"Intrinsic security ... doesn't come from what other people think of us or how they treat us. It doesn't come from the scripts they've handed us. It doesn't come from our circumstances or our position. It comes from within. It comes from accurate paradigms and correct principles deep in our own mind and heart. It comes from inside-out congruence, from living a life of integrity in which our daily habits reflect our deepest values." (1)

In Felicia's own words, this is precisely how she developed the kind of internal security spoken of above by Covey, which helped her to repel negative influences in her social life.  

"When you're a kid, you want to play, so you seek other people to play with, and that's how you develop friends, but when I wanted to play, I would just play with myself. I didn't look to other people as much because I had myself. I realized over time that I didn't really care much if other people thought I was cool or not. I discovered that I was perfectly okay with being alone, and that I am capable of being happy without doing things that other people think or say I should do."  

Felicia also discovered she could use HUMOR as a defense mechanism for bearing up under the scathing verbal salvos of her more sophomoric peers.  

"Rather than get angry or upset, I would just laugh at their mocking comments. It never really upset me because the things they would make fun of me for (e.g. being smart) didn't bother me. I liked the fact that I was smart, so when people would call me names, I would just smile and carry about my business."   

Though she may not have been fully conscious of it at the time, humor can definitely be a valuable asset in SAL development, as well as an effective communication technique in your toolbox as both a self-action leader and leader.

For example, a twice-elected President of the United States—George W. Bush—has written, "I often use humor to defuse tension." (2) Viktor Frankl put it another way when he wrote: "The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living." (3)

Felicia does not consider herself to be "religious," but spirituality does play an important role in her life. Moreover, as a self-action leader, she strives for self-awareness and seeks to be in tune with her conscience.  

"I am not religious, but I am spiritual. You might say that my God is the same things as my conscience. I can feel in my heart the difference between right and wrong, and I try to follow that inner compass. I also feel that I have a high level of self-awareness, so I know when I do the wrong things, but I also know when I do the right things. I also know when I'm achieving things that make me happy. I know when I'm being myself, so that self-awareness keeps me from being influenced by negative peer pressure because I know I don't want to do things just to please other people or look good in their eyes. If I don't want someone in my life, I really don't care what that person thinks about me. I also question things before I act. I conduct an immediate subconscious evaluation of what I am planning on doing before I do it."

Growing up on Chicago's South Side gave Felicia opportunities to understand the realities of structural inequality that marked her community when compared to the more affluent Northern Suburbs. As she got older, she became increasingly aware of the unofficial cultural and racial segregation that exists in the Chicago metropolitan area.  

"The first time I remember really noticing it was on the trains. The Red Line and the Green Line both run to the South Side of Chicago, but the Brown Line doesn't even come near the South Side; it runs pretty much from downtown to the northern suburbs. So, I always rode the Red and Green Line trains. One day, by mistake, I ended up on one of the Brown Line trains. It felt like I was in another world because it was brand new and impeccably clean. The Red and Green Line trains are filthy. They smell like pee, the seats are torn up, and graffiti is everywhere. But the Brown Line train looked and felt like the First Class train.

"As I looked around, the metal was shiny—like chrome—and I just figured it must be a new train. Later on, I found out that this was how all the Brown Line trains were because the Brown Line went to the North Side, where the white people lived, and where the money is. It was definitely the "White Train." Chicago is unofficially segregated. I can tell you what area you are in based on who gets off at which train stop."  

The North Side of Chicago, including Wrigley Field
in the forefront, downtown in the top right, and
Lake Michigan in the top left and center.

Felicia's positive SAL worldview empowered her to invest energy on things she could control, rather than focus on things she could not. Instead of feeling victimized for whatever structural inequities temporarily impeded her world, she confidently and courageously exercised her freedom to choose her own thoughts, speech, actions, attitudes, and beliefs in ways that led her to a better, brighter, and more prosperous future where her personal freedoms were massively expanded. 

As a result, she was able to rise above the circumstances and structures into which she was born to eventually become very successful, even when compared to many others who had started out in life with far greater privileges and opportunities than she did. 

A natural self-action leader, Felicia is always seeking out insights about the way things really are in the world in an effort to reject victimization and become all she is capable of becoming as an ambitious, creative, intelligent, and savvy human being and self-action leader. Her desire to access and apply nuggets of insight and wisdom in her life is illustrated in a conversation she once had with a friend. 

In her own words: 

"My friend and I were talking the other day and he made an interesting observation. He said that unsuccessful people tend to see freedom as being from something. For example, some Black people view freedom as being primarily from slavery, an attitude that adversely affects them 160 years after slavery was abolished. Successful people, however, tend to view freedom as being for something, or freedom to do something.

"People often refer to freedom as being all about having less restrictions, so that a given person or thing is no longer holding them down. But that really isn't what freedom is about. Freedom isn't about having less restrictions, it is about focusing my energy on what I can do, what I can accomplish, and what I can become.

"We are talking about two totally different outlooks on life, and there is a big difference between the two in terms of the personal results you are likely to get."

Felicia's conversation with her friend is more than just a token exchange of passing thoughts. It is the reaffirmation of powerful concepts iterated and affirmed by some highly intelligent and sophisticated authors and scholars. To illustrate, consider the words of Haddon Klingberg, Jr., and Dr. Stephen R. Covey, respectively.

"Spirituality is in its essence self-transcendence [and] it brings with it human freedom. But it is not freedom from as much as [it is] freedom to. We are not free from our biological nature, whether instinctual drives, genetic legacies, or the functions and malfunctions of our brains and bodies. Nor are we free from the grasp of social, developmental, and environmental influences. But we are free to take a stand towards these, even against them. We are free to do what we will with the cards we are dealt, to choose what response we will make to fateful events, to decide what cause or persons will receive our devotion. And this freedom to carries an obligation to." (4)

"Even if you live in horrible circumstances, it is in those circumstances that you will find your call to choose your own response. It is then that "life calls out to us" to serve those around us whose needs we become aware of; it is in so doing that we find our true "voice" in life." (5)

Passionate about her freedom to grow and succeed, Felicia has achieved much in her life, and one of the secrets of her success involves mentally turning negative experiences into positive learning opportunities. 

"I have been able to view almost all of the negative things I've experienced as an opportunity to grow. For instance, when I've met someone that I didn't really like, someone who was a total asshole, I think, "well, you know, he's not a great guy, but now I've learned about him, and I've gained experience how to deal with that kind of person. So, the next time I meet someone like that, I'll be prepared."

"Experiences make up life, and you can either make them ruin your life or help your life, so I just allow them to help me in some way."  

Although she is a big fan of "just walking away" from peer pressure, Felicia also understands and acknowledges that in places like Chicago's South Side, it isn't always that simple for everyone.

"In some cases, if you just walk away like I did, they'll hurt you. Take gangs for instance. If someone proposes an opportunity for you to join a gang and you say "NO," you could be badly beaten or even killed. It can be difficult to walk away. 

"But, the good news is that you can claim a lot of personal power if you demonstrate belief and confidence in yourself. I credit my personal belief and self-confidence with repelling those who might have otherwise pushed too hard. If those people had at least tried to get me caught up in the wrong things—especially when I was younger—I probably would have said "YES" to doing whatever, but as I grew older and more confident, the way I felt about myself seemed to turn them off, and they ended up just leaving me alone. 

"It sent the message to them that I wasn't weak enough to infiltrate or trick."

Her comment about gangs roused my curiosity, so I queried further if she had ever been approached to join a gang herself.

She replied:

"The gangs weren't that big with girls, but for me, they knew I was different, so gang members' interest in having me around wasn't that high. 

"I really can't describe it, because it's not like I was an outcast. I still hung out with some people who were either affiliated with gangs or in gangs themselves, but I just wasn't that close to them. We'd hang out at the park and we'd talk. 

"For example, when I was 14, I technically had an 18-year-old boyfriend, yet this boy never tried to do anything [sexually] with me—never. And it wasn't because I was literally saying "NO." He was definitely not a virgin, but he just seemed to sense something about me that communicated to him that I'm not that kind of person." 

To better confront the many challenges faced by inner city residents, Felicia believes leaders should focus on education initiatives, including after-school activities that provide young people with something to focus on and do in between the end of school and bedtime, which is the time of day when many youth-aged persons are most likely to get into trouble. 

"In the schools, we need an increase in the availability and advertisement of after-school activities. Being on the track team is probably something that kept me out of a lot of trouble. I think they should start such opportunities in elementary school. That way, your children are in school, they attend after-school activities, they come home, they eat dinner and do their homework, and then they go to bed. They have no time to get into trouble. They have no time to be negatively influenced."

Felicia with her husband, Gregory Yoakum,
 and her two children.

Felicia Cockrell Yoakum is a tremendous inspiration to me, everyone at Freedom Focused, and many others who know her or have worked with her. She is one of the most pleasant and cheerful persons I have ever met. Her personality and disposition radiate hope and possibility—not a contrived charisma or affected enthusiasm—but an authentic effervescence born of a genuine positivity and optimism that is both attractive and infectious. For all of these admirable and likeable qualities, she is one of my favorite people.

Her force of character and sense of self are inspiring and contagious.

She is a remarkable self-action leader and a beautiful human being both inside and out. 

And her intellect speaks for itself. In fact, later in life as an adult, she earned a MENSA membership by scoring an impressively high IQ of 130. 

Her capacity for, and dedication to, SAL has empowered her to achieve many impressive accomplishments in both her personal and professional life. At Freedom Focused, we greatly admire who she has become as a by-product of embracing SAL principles and practices over long periods of time—and thereby opening her life up to Serendipity all along the way.   

It is our sincere hope that many people throughout the United States and World will likewise be inspired by Felicia's tremendous personal example and journey of professional success. I further hope that her story will influence many others to give it their all to rise above the pressures, temptations, and circumstances of their lives to make the most out of themselves and take full advantage of every opportunity with which life has blessed them—regardless of where they were born or what obstacles may currently stand in their way.    

In Your Journal

• Why do you think Felicia was able to rise above the challenges in her neighborhood, community, and schools when many others around her did not?

• What background or circumstantial challenges do YOU face that were not of your own making?

• What is something you could do beginning TODAY to begin to transcend a background or circumstantial difficulty that you presently face?

• What have you learned from Felicia's story that could help in battling structural inequalities in your nation, community, organization, or school?  

 

—Dr. JJ

Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 486th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 276th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 485 FF Blog Articles 

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Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS   

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Chapter 9 Notes 

1.  Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York, NY: Fireside. Page 298.

2.  Bush, G.W. (2010). Decision Points. Crown: New York, NY. Page 35.

3.  Frankl, V. E. (2006). Man's Search for Meaning. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Page 44.

4.  From Haddon Klingberg Jr.’s biography of Viktor and Elly Frankl: When Life Calls Out to Us, quoted in Covey, S. R. (2004). The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. New York, NY: Free Press. Page 315.

5.  Covey, S. R. (2004). The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. New York, NY: Free Press. Page 315.

Self-Action Leadership TRAINING for Business Professionals

Leadership Training on a Personal Level

Today's blog post explicates the practical functions of Self-Action Leadership TRAINING and consulting in organizations, especially business, corporate, and other professional or work entities.

We begin by elucidating...

The Five C's of Organizational Success

The long-term success of any business or organization is contingent on FIVE (5) fundamental ingredients: Character, Competence, Consequences, Connections, and Consistency.

Character

Competence
Consequences

Connections

Consistency

1). CHARACTER refers to who you are in terms of honesty and integrity.

2). COMPETENCE refers to your ability to think, speak, and do.  It is your capacity to efficiently and effectively complete tasks and objectives in a timely manner.

3). CONSEQUENCES refer to expectations and systems of discipline (including punitive measures) and accountability that maintain order and standards.

4). CONNECTIONS refer to who you know and work with, and how you relate with, regard, and respect them, as well as the relationships you have with human beings in general.

5). CONSISTENCY refers to the ability to endure tests of time and the adversity that accompanies it.

Any combination of these ingredients may (and often will) bring about short-term successes.  But without ALL five working synergistically together, your organization will eventually meld into the median, molder into mediocrity, or atrophy away into oblivion.

Ingredients for Sucesss

SAL Training = Corporate Recipe Gold

One of my hobbies is making chocolate chip cookies.  In the world of cooking and baking, using the correct ingredients is absolutely essential to a successful outcome.  Moreover, the quality of the ingredients, as well as the way and order in which you apply them can be as important as the ingredients themselves.  Such it is with the five C's of organizational success.

According to the SAL Model, CHARACTER must always precede everything you do.  Without good character rooted in correct principles, you'll lack a strong foundation and find yourself "building mansions upon the sand" (Ella Wheeler Wilcox) in everything you endeavor to construct—physically or metaphysically.

Without COMPETENCE, you will never accomplish anything—at least not efficiently or effectively.  Without CONSEQUENCES, there will be no accountability.  Without quality CONNECTIONS and healthy relationships, whatever CONSISTENCY you may apply will prove to be little more than the "foolish ... hobgoblin of little minds" (Emerson).  If any ingredient is missing, or improperly mixed, your final product will exit the oven soggy and distasteful—a failed exercise in culinary artistry, construction, and palatability.  

The two incontrovertible KEYS to ensuring that your own batch of corporate cookies are properly made, mixed, and baked, are LEADERSHIP and EDUCATION.  You must have leaders and managers who both exemplify and execute the five C's and other SAL principles THEMSELVES and then in-turn teach, coach, and mentor their subordinates to do likewise through the pedagogical practice of... 

Rote and Reiteration

There is no complete substitute for
old fashioned rote learning

However postmodernists may spin it, if the teaching and learning of correct principles is to authentically occur, there must be a degree of rote instruction and reiterative review.  In layman's terms, this means you must both implicitly model and explicitly state exactly what you desire and expect of your subordinates and then REPEAT it over and over and over and over and over and over again (5-7 times minimum before it will stick).  And even after that, indefinite reminders never hurt anybody.

There is no other way!

Click HERE to read more about postmodernism and postmodernists, and how Freedom Focused is working to put an end to this lost bygone era and replace it with an Age of Authenticism.

This may sound simple, and in theory it is.  But in actual practice, it can be very challenging.  This is because leaders must not only exemplify the standard themselves, but they must be constantly shepherding their flocks.  There is no room for letup or laziness—two inclinations to which all humans fall prey, and both of which exacerbate organizational entropy and invite further atrophy of individual character and capacity.

To illustrate how rote and reiterative leadership and education works, consider the following example from a Fortune 100 Company... 

ExxonMobil's Sterling Safety Record

Giant oil tanker, similar to the Exxon Valdez vessel

On March 24, 1989, the infamous Exxon Valdez oil tanker crashed into a reef off of the coast of Alaska, spilling tens of millions of gallons of crude oil into the ocean.  Aside from the billions of dollars of cleanup cost, Exxon's reputation was marred for many years by the incident.

Fortunately, the organization learned from its mistake.  Today, partly as a result of this terrible accident over a quarter of a century ago, ExxonMobil has a sterling safety record that is envied throughout the oil and gas industry and corporate world.

Why?

Because their leaders committed themselves to exemplifying stellar safety standards, and then religiously taught those principles and expectations to their subordinates via continual rote and reiterative pedagogical practices.  

My wife got a job with ExxonMobil in 2009—twenty years after the Exxon Valdez disaster.  But ExxonMobil has not forgotten.  To this day, they still drill safety standards and practices into the minds and hearts of everyone in the organization with a fervor and regularity that I would describe as religious.  Indeed, they talk about and train on the subject of safety all the time.  They also hold regular meetings—referred to as "Safety Moments"—whereby each individual (regardless of their position) receives opportunities to further herald the rules and expectations by teaching the subject themselves to their colleagues and supervisors.  This is a brilliant pedagogical strategy on ExxonMobil's part because it is widely accepted that teaching something is the best way to learn it.

Simply stated, safety has become a sacred cow at ExxonMobil—and not just on their oil tankers and offshore rigs.  They also carefully regulate safety standards at their white collar corporate campuses, including strict speed limits in and around their parking garages and other on-campus areas.

In addition, consequences are set up for those who disregard the standards.  For example, if you break the speed limit, your license plate will be photographed and you will be issued an official warning (I know, because I accidentally got photographed going 5 miles over the limit while visiting campus to lunch with my wife one day, and my wife got an email about the incident).  If you break it again, your supervisor will receive an e-mail notifying him or her of your infraction.  If you break it a third time, your Vice President will receive an e-mail.  Now how many e-mails do you think ExxonMobil Vice Presidents receive because their subordinates are speeding?  The number is probably very close to zero.

Safety is so sacrosanct at ExxonMobil that they even expect their employees to hold onto handrails when going up and down stairs.  And to encourage any OCD-type personalities like me, they ensured that their handrails were hewn out of germ-resistant material—to further encourage everyone to take their safety caveats seriously.

Self-Action Leadership Training

In order to ensure the health and SAFETY of your organization's body, mind, heart, and soul, and thereby ensure the long-term viability and prosperity of your bottom line, your company, team, and group needs comprehensive Self-Action Leadership TRAINING.  SAL Training is the key to developing WHOLE executives, managers, employees, and contractors of solid character who are competent, emotionally intelligent, team players who get results.  

Our MISSION at Freedom Focused is to herald the FIVE (5) C's and other principles and practices of Self-Action Leadership with the same kind of passion and persistence that ExxonMobil heralds safety standards.  And our VISION is to see that every organization on the planet who desires this training, actually receives it.

It ALL begins with the ONE

Virtually everyone agrees—at least implicitly—that CHARACTER, COMPETENCE, CONSEQUENCES, CONNECTIONS, and CONSISTENCY are absolutely key to the long-term success of any organization or venture.

The great irony, however, is that most organizations don't end up devoting much time, effort, or capital to ensuring that everyone in their organization actually receives explicit SAL-oriented training that is regular, repeated, and rote in nature.

Doing so would require that you engage deeply in one of those pesky Quadrant 2 activities (Covey) that nearly everyone agrees is incredibly important (in theory), but almost never urgent (in actual practice) until the median has slipped into mediocrity, or the mediocre has digressed into disintegration and it is too late.

A generation ago, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People became a household name because organizations around the nation and world recognized the essential need of holistic, personal leadership training.  Freedom Focused is positioning itself to become the FranklinCovey of the 21st Century through the development of a brand new, cutting-edge self-leadership Theory & Model called Self-Action Leadership.

Click HERE to learn about how Freedom Focused is positioning itself as the FranklinCovey of the 21st Century, and how Self-Action Leadership serves as a new age analogue to The 7 Habits.

Click HERE to learn more about the SAL Theory & Model.

Click HERE to read about the Vision & Mission of Freedom Focused.

One of the greatest misnomers about achieving long-term success is that its recipe is enigmatic, and that if you could only decode its inscrutable formula, achieving it would be relatively simple.  In reality, the exact opposite is the case.  The recipe for success is really quite simple and basic.  The trouble is that applying it is tremendously difficult because it takes a LOT of time and energy and effort.  But in the end, there is no other way, and that is precisely why relatively few individuals or organizations are able to unearth large quantities of success.

SUCCESS!

The recipe to lasting success is simple because authentic success in any life arena ultimately boils down to an effective application of the FIVE C's and other SAL principles and practices.  Now I am not going to lie to you... actually achieving success is quite difficult because it requires Leaders and Followers who actually exemplify and then reiteratively teach the rote fundamentals without ever giving up on the simple disciplines of the basic formula.

Once again, this basic formula is: Character x Competence x Consequences x Connections x Consistency = Long-Term Existential Growth (or Success); or written in shorthand:

C⁵ = LTEG (S).

No matter how successful you have been in the past, or how much capital or brain power or talent you possess in the present, you will eventually falter or fail if you do not put in the hard work required to consistently apply this simple formula.  To maximize your potential and success, Self-Action Leadership oriented training must be delivered in the same way that ExxonMobil consistently models, teaches, and then reiterates their rote safety training principles and practices, that is: early, often, and always.  

There is no other way.

How then have organizations in the past achieved remarkable long-term successes without Self-Action Leadership training?  After all, the SAL Theory & Model is a relatively new theoretical construct.

The answer is, they did have SAL training.  It was merely delivered in a different package (implicitly or explicitly).  With the exception of the new SAL Theory with its groundbreaking astronomical and atmospheric conceptualizations and the SAL Model with its unique construction metaphor, there is nothing new about SAL principles and practices.  SAL is simply the most creative and effective way (to date) to teach a holistic range of personal leadership knowledge and competencies.  Imagine how much better those same successful organizations might have been if they had received explicit training on this invaluable material!

Dr. Jordan Jensen
Master Facilitator

The opportunity is now here to bring explicit SAL training to YOUR organization.  This opportunity includes the possibility of revolutionizing, or at least evolutionizing, your workforce into pathways of holistic personal growth and progress that will produce quantum leaps in the long-term prosperity of your bottom line.

SAL Training is the training of the future.  It is training for the organizational soul.  It is the silver bullet to long-term success.

To read about one leader, Joe Jensen's, successful, implicit use of SAL principles and practices in leading his team to extraordinary, even outlying, results, click HERE.

If you are an organizational leader or manager thinking about brining SAL training to your company, where do you start?

Simple... just call us at 832-618-5451, or e-mail us at jordan.jensen@freedomfocused.com, and we will provide you with a free consultation to discover which SAL training would be right for you.

SAL trainings are deliverable in five different time frames.  Additional consulting services and a variety of related soft skills training options are also available upon request.

2-hour     ~   Introduction to SAL*

Half-day  ~  Abridged SAL training*

Full-day  ~   Abridged SAL training*

Two-day  ~  Abridged SAL training*   

Four-day  ~  Full SAL training* 

*All SAL trainings include a copy of Dr. Jensen's new book: Self-Action Leadership: The Key to Personal, Professional, & Global Freedom, seen below...

Note: This article is one of SIX articles in a special series dedicated to different AUDIENCES that Freedom Focused specifically targets with Self-Action Leadership training. We invite leaders and managers of these different audiences to click on links below to read the articles pertaining to your field or constituency.

Click HERE to access article for  BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS (Leaders, Managers, & Workers)

Click HERE to access article for  EDUCATORS  (Administrators, Teachers, & Staff)

Click HERE to access article for  STUDENTS & INDIVIDUALS

Click HERE to access article for PARENTS & FAMILIES

Click HERE to access article for ELECTED OFFICIALS, LEADERS, & ROLE MODELS

Click HERE to access article for PERSONS dealing with MENTAL ILLNESS

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Self-Action Leadership  ~  The Book

SELF-ACTION LEADERSHIP is the key catalyst for initiating transformational leadership that lasts in any organization. The truth of the matter really is that simple; and the transformation of organizations through the holistic development of individuals really is that difficult—yet altogether possible for anyone willing to invest the time, effort, and sacrifice required to achieve authentic, transformational results.


Unlike any training program that has ever preceded it, Self-Action Leadership provides a single vehicle wherewith individual self-leaders can discover—and then act—upon the great truth that HOLISTIC personal development and growth spanning the mental, moral, spiritual, physical, emotional, and social elements of our individual natures is within the grasp of each one of us.

Back Cover of Self-Action Leadership, the Book

Note: Freedom Focused is a non-partisan, for-profit, educational corporation.  As such, we do not endorse or embrace political figures.  We do, however, comment from time-to-time on historical or political events that provide pedagogical backdrops to illuminating principles contained in the SAL Theory & Model.

Click HERE to learn more about the SAL Theory & Model.

To receive weekly articles from Freedom Focused & Dr. Jordan R. Jensen, sign up with your e-mail address in the white box on the right side of this page where it says "Follow by E-mail."

Click HERE to buy a copy of Dr. Jordan Jensen's new book, Self-Action Leadership: The Key to Personal, Professional, & Global Freedom.

Click HERE to read more about Dr. Jensen's book, Self-Action Leadership, and to review what experts in the leadership field are saying about this groundbreaking new personal development handbook.

Click HERE to learn more about Dr. Jordan R. Jensen.  Click HERE to visit the Freedom Focused website.