Storytelling

Yes, Leslie is a content creator, marketing & communications strategist and business development professional who’s passion and purpose are fully aligned. Yes, she is known as an expert in providing innovative, effective messaging and delivering operational strategies that increase brand awareness and engagement.

But at the heart of it all, Leslie Gordon is a storyteller.

Dare to Be Extraordinary: A Collection of Positive Life Lessons From African American Fathers

Robin Roberts

Colonel Roberts never had to sit Roberts or any of his children down to talk about going to college or doing something important with their lives. Greatness was just expected. Roberts spent her childhood watching her parent’s example. She remembers a time in college when she had her heart set on buying a motorcycle, and she felt that she needed to tell somebody. So she called her sister, Dorothy, and said, “I saved up my money, and I’m buying a motorcycle. But don’t tell mom and dad!” 

Her sister replied, “Oh Robin, why are you doing this to me?” 

About an hour later her telephone rang, and Roberts’s roommate announced that her mom was calling. She picked up the phone to talk to her mother. “Dorothy won’t tell us what it is but she said that you’re going to do something you shouldn’t do, so technically she didn’t violate your trust,” her mother said. 

Roberts told her mother the truth: “I’m getting a motorcycle tomorrow.” 

Immediately her mother put her dad on the phone. Her father firmly said to his youngest child, “Under no circumstances will you buy a motorcycle. No daughter of mine will do that. You know it’s a deathtrap. You have a car to get you from point A to point B. You know, if that’s gonna be the case you can bring that car home, and you can just ride your bicycle to your classes.” Her father went on and on until Roberts relented. “Fine, I won’t buy a motorcycle!” Robin said and hung up. 

Many years later, her dad asked her, “Did I handle that right, Robin? Because I really don’t think I handled that right with you.” 

Robin replied, “Dad I’m fine! It’s okay. I’ve really let it go.” This lesson and his firm but gentle guidance has always stayed with her.

Knowing that her father came from humble beginnings and went on to fulfill his dream of becoming a pilot influenced her to pursue her own dream of becoming a sports journalist. “It was almost like, how dare I not try to do this. My father, who had nothing, went on to do extraordinary things in his life and when we look at the generations of blacks that came before us with very few rights and even fewer resources. How could I not go for it? How could I not try?” Robin shares. Her father’s life and the examples he set, dared Roberts to reach as high as she could to pursue her own passions. Her dad, through his actions and his commitment to giving his very best to his work and his family, taught her that with everything she did she should put forth her best effort. 

“My dad never played the race, gender, or any other card. That’s the simple, yet beautiful thing about my father. There was nothing grandiose about Colonel Lawrence Roberts. He was just a good, good, good man.”

Allan Houston

When true basketball enthusiasts speak of Allan Houston, the label pure shooter typically spills from their lips as they pay homage to the two-time NBA All-Star’s phenomenal shooting game. Some of today’s NBA greats might argue that their baseline turnaround jumper is better than Houston’s, but very few can prove it. With unrivaled focus and dedication, he brought an extraordinary work ethic to his venerable twelve-year NBA career, finishing as one of the league’s all-time greatest long-range shooters and one of the all-time leading scorers in Knicks history. As a preeminent figure in basketball, he demonstrated a sense of maturity and selflessness that eludes many players. He was recognized for four straight years as one of The Sporting News’ “Good Guys in Sports” and helped Team USA bring home the gold medal in the 2000 Summer Olympic games in Sydney, Australia. But for all of his on the court success, Houston’s extraordinary work off the court makes him a distinguished figure in the civic and philanthropic communities.

Houston is in the second phase of his basketball career as the New York Knicks' assistant general manager. He is also principal and co-founder of the Allan Houston Legacy Foundation, a non-profit entity with year-round programming that focuses on family, mentoring, and relationship building between fathers and their children. Houston was named father of the year by the National Fatherhood Initiative in 2007. In 2011 he received the President’s Council on Service and Civic Engagement Award from President Barack Obama’s administration. 

Houston is especially proud to have his father and mentor, Allan Wade Houston, Sr., by his side as a member of the Allan Houston Legacy Foundation management team and his de facto wingman. Houston’s father has fueled his love for basketball and his desire to succeed since he first picked up a basketball at age six. He draws from the life lessons his father taught him and looks to his father for advice on how to make the greatest impact in the lives of countless families. To understand where Houston’s extraordinary sense of integrity, exemplary values and overall greatness comes from, one only needs to peer into the window of his father’s life to witness an undeniable legacy of leadership.

In the midst of building a tremendous legacy as a college coach, Wade never lost sight of his most important job—being a husband and father. To this day, Houston cherishes the times with his dad growing up. He recalls sitting on the couch when he was a young kid watching boxing while his dad cut his hair. His also remembers that his father wasn’t afraid to give him a hug, show affection, and tell him, I love you. These experiences with his father fueled Houston’s confidence and taught him that he had to look no further than his own family to feel loved and supported. “He's very humble man who doesn't have to say a lot, but whatever he said, it's like gold because he backs it up with his actions,” Allan says. 

“When I played in the NBA, people in the professional ranks of basketball — from referees to coaches, from managers to players — would say that my dad is one of the classiest men they’d ever met. For me, this is very consistent with the example he set and what I saw growing up.”

Rosalind Brewer, COO, Starbucks

Rosalind Brewer is in the business of making history. She is the very first African American woman to hold the position of Chief Executive Officer of Starbucks. She was also the very first African American woman to become president and chief executive officer of Sam’s Club, one of three major divisions of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and the nation’s eighth largest retailer. Brewer leads more than 100,000 associates across 616 stores that generate close to $54 billion a year. She joined Wal-Mart in 2006 as regional vice president overseeing operations in Georgia. From 2007 to January 2012, she was division president of the Southeast before taking the helm at Sam’s Club. Despite being one of the most powerful women in corporate America, it’s her “realness,” her approachability, and her outright brilliance that wins over skeptics who find it incredulous that a woman could achieve and sustain this extraordinary level of success. 

Brewer’s father was born in 1929 in Bessemer, Alabama where he lived until he fled the South after being falsely accused of making a pass at a white woman. Brewer recalls talking with her dad about racial incidents that he and his eleven siblings endured, particularly the three male children in the Gates family. His mother, fearing that she would one day find one of her sons hanging from a tree, shipped all three boys out of the South when they were roughly 18yearsold. George went to live in Gary, Indiana where he worked in the steel industry. After a couple of years he moved to Detroit while he looked for work in the burgeoning auto industry. He moved into an apartment building with his first cousin where he met his future wife, Sally, and found a job with General Motors. George and Sally married in the 1950s and had five children. Rosalind, born in 1962, is the youngest of their children.

Despite putting in long hours, Brewer’s father came to every school event and was present for every award she ever received. “I don’t care where it was. If I got an honorable mention, I’d look out in the audience and he’d be sitting there,” Rosalind says. “I was the youngest of five and he was present at all of my violin recitals and piano recitals. He never missed one of them.” This show of love from her father is indelibly stamped on Brewer’s heart. It made her feel a huge sense of responsibility because she felt like someone was always watching, that someone cared—and that someone was her father. His absolute presence in all areas of her life, from the grandest school plays to the smallest violin recitals, made her raise her standards because her dad was going to come regardless, and she realized the sacrifices he made to show up to each and every event. Above all, she wanted to make her father proud.

“Despite working three jobs, my dad came to every event and was present for every award I ever received. I don’t care where it was. If I got an honorable mention, I’d look out into the audience and he’d be sitting there. For all of my violin and piano recitals, my dad never missed one of them.””

As she has ascended through the ranks to one of the very highest positions in corporate America, Brewer has thought a lot about her father and the lessons he taught her. She feels that her dad would be absolutely beside himself to see the level of success she has achieved. Her position as the president and CEO of Sam’s Club she believes would have far exceeded her father’s expectations. “In actuality, the day I left for Spelman to start my first year of college did it for my dad. A college education was his wildest dream for all of his kids. “The level of success I have achieved as an executive,” Rosalind beams, “I think would be breathtaking for my father, and I try each and every day to honor his legacy and make him proud.”