You're young, you're black, and you're smart.

This is, unfortunately, what makes many fearful of you.

Not because you are a threat, but because, well, you are the American Dream.

Quiet as it's kept, we are still the minority in an ever growing minority population. We see advancement in major cities, but what about major corporations? Did you know that as of right now, there are only 6 black CEO's of Fortune 500 companies? The picture for board members (officers of the company) is somewhat better, where there are 278 black board members.

We still have a long way to go. Do you wonder how to get there? I know I do. In my youth I fancied myself a corporate raider. I wanted to do what Richard Gere's character in Pretty Woman did, take companies apart and sell them to bigger companies.

What stopped me?

In my own journey I've had setbacks. I'm successful, to be sure, just not where I envisioned I would be. I made mistakes, I made great progress. At the end of the day, I did what was tried and true, and then what I wanted to do. And still, I am not where I want to be. In the next five years I should become a Director, then a VP, and then in 15 years, I should and could be a CEO of a large corporation. How? Simple. I follow the rules but I don't conform. Not anymore.

I spent the first 10 years of my career conforming. I wore my hair long and straight. I wore button downs and khakis like the boys. I learned to play golf, well. I even play poker, well. I had a white male mentor who gave me these rules for breaking the glass ceiling:

1. Get a mentor or advocate
2. Advertise and promote yourself (Speak up in meetings)
3. Make friends (Fit in)
4. Always be the last to leave
5. Never cry at work
6. Always be the best (smartest) in the room

All of these assimilation techniques brought me face to face with the greatest demon of my career...I was too good. Better than my white counterparts. What happens then? When by fitting in you outshine even their brightest moon, because you are the sun?

Have you ever fought this battle? The battle to dim your brightness because others can not comprehend from whence it comes? Have you found that your career's ceiling was not made of glass, but instead flaccid bodies, bent on blockading you from success?

In my world, I have been praised and given a raise on Monday and on Friday told there couldn't be any way possible I knew what I was doing. By the exact same person.

Over time I matured, and came into my own. I realized that I wasn't being my authentic self, and any success I found was in fact inauthentic. I wanted to feel whole and happy. I wanted my light to shine. I follow very simple steps to ensure my light always burns brightly. Just because one person can't handle the glare, doesn't mean you're not lighting the path of someone better, to something better.

I now work to one motto, and one alone. Do the ordinary extraordinarily well

And with that I've gotten further in the last two years than I did first 10. I actually pull up to work with my silamiscent (ceiling missing). I offer you the same advice. There is no right way to be successful other than hard work and being a good person. _Being yourself is good. Being your best is better. Try it, and watch that ceiling drop.