Take a LessonTake a Lesson

"'The passing on of information and history from one person to another to another has always served us well. Ours is an oral tradition.' So begins Take a Lesson, a groundbreaking book of oral history. Twenty years later, every word in this book holds up as relevant, resonant and, in some ways, prophetic. Here we are, in a profoundly different world that, in its relationship with Black people, has barely changed at all. Powerful first-person accounts from Black business heroes and role models--super-achievers across diverse industries and backgrounds--the second edition of Take a Lesson will do more than reveal; it will teach. Openly exploring who they are will inspire, instruct, and give readers the confidence and determination to set ambitious goals and reach past and through every hurdle to achieve them. The original interviews for Take a Lesson occurred just prior to 9/11. Picking up in a post-COVID world, in the midst of an insistent, unapologetic Black Lives Matter movement, and with the nation's first black female Vice President in office, we are living in an entirely different time. And yet, the hurdles Black people encounter as they dare to succeed remain as daunting, demoralizing, and deeply rooted as ever. At the same time, Black Americans are more organized and active in pressing for measurable change than we have been in more than a generation. This book will illuminate both sides of that coin via 10-12 updated interviews from the original book combined with 10-12 entirely new interviews, each with critically important lessons to teach, not just to other Black people, but to allies and anyone who seeks to learn more about contemporary Black aspirations, Blacks in business, and Black life"--