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Pickard, an entrepreneur
for decades in the city of Detroit, enthralled his audience
with his after-dinner talk about how to succeed in business
if you really, really try.
“Regardless of your
aptitude, if you have the right attitude, you can reach the
highest altitude in life,” he offered.
The night’s gathering was
organized by the Northwest Ohio Conservative Coalition.
Pickard, an avowed long-time Republican, touted his
conservative credentials during his address while making it
clear he did not vote for the current Republican president
and disagreed, when asked by an audience member, that the
president was an appropriate leader for the country.
He said that Trump and many Republicans put greed before
humanity and that is a problem within the party!
Pickard,
PhD, is chairman of Global Automotive Alliance; co-managing
partner, MGM Grand Detroit Casino; CEO, Bearwood Management
Company and co-owner of five black-owned newspapers.
Pickard’s
45-year entrepreneurial career began as a McDonald’s
franchisee in Detroit, Michigan. Since its founding in 1989,
GAA has generated more than $5 billion dollars in sales with
eight plants in the U.S. and Canada, and service
corporations such as Boeing, Mercedes Benz, Ford, General
Motors, Chrysler, Delphi, Johnson Controls, Starbucks, Home
Depot and Merck Pharmaceutical.
He has
served on numerous business and non-profit boards including
Asset Acceptance Capital Corporation, Michigan National
Bank, LaSalle Bank, Business Leaders for Michigan, National
Urban League, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Black
Chamber of Commerce and is a life member of Alpha Phi Alpha
Fraternity. In 2001, Pickard was awarded Michiganian of the
Year for his business success, civic leadership and
philanthropy. Pickard was the first chairman of the African
Development Foundation in 1982, appointed by President
Ronald Reagan, and under President George Bush he was
appointed to The National Advisory Committee on Trade Policy
Negotiations (1990) the Federal Home Loan Bank
Board-Indianapolis Bank in Indiana (1991).
Pickard is
also creating a new generation of entrepreneurs with his
most recent book, Millionaire Moves – Seven Proven
Principles of Entrepreneurship.
Pickard holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Western Michigan
University, a Master’s Degree from the University of
Michigan and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. He has
donated over $1M dollars to the National Museum of African
American History and Culture in Washington, DC. The William
F. Pickard Living Center is named in his honor at Grand
Valley State University. He has donated over $3M dollars to
Western Michigan University which was used to build a new
facility on campus Hall-Archer-Pickard East and
Hall-Archer-Pickard West.
Part of Pickard’s talk was an explanation of how to interact with
others in order to start a business and keep it running. He
noted that start-up capital could be raised from the three
“f’s” – “family, friends and fools,” he explained to
appreciative laughter from his audience. “You gotta find
them – there are people out here every day waiting to
invest.”
He also touted the virtue of being active in the community. “If
you don’t network,” he said. “You might not work.”
And, above all, he cautioned his audience not to fear failure.
“Failure is never fatal,” he said while informing his audience
that probably no one in the room had failed more times than
he had. “Failure is going from one bad situation to another
bad situation with enthusiasm,” he said. “Either you win or
you learn.”
Pickard will be releasing a new book soon – 100 Amazing
African American Business Success Stories – 1850 to
1950.
The following day, after his Manhattan’s appearance, Pickard
spoke to students at Jones Business and Leadership Academy
and later at the University of Toledo where he spoke to an
audience of about 200 at the Dorman Auditorium.
At Jones, Pickard stressed the importance of knowing the
importance of black history in order to understand the
contributions of ancestors.
At UT, Pickard spoke of the importance of relationships and
networking. From his own experience he mentioned his first
interaction with Toledo’s Paul Hubbard, who helped
coordinate his visit here, almost 50 years ago. Hubbard, at
that time in the Detroit’s Mayor Coleman Young
administration, gave Pickard one of his first jobs because
of the connection of Pickard’s girlfriend with Hubbard’s
wife. The Pickard/Hubbard relationship has endured over the
years.
He also mentioned the fact that as an undergraduate, his college
roommate at Western Michigan was Dennis Archer who would
later become the mayor of Detroit and who was instrumental
in Pickard becoming a partner in the MGM Grand Casino in the
Motor City. Relationships matter, he said.
Pickard announced at the UT event that on behalf of Alpha
Phi Boule - a fraternity for professional black men to
which both he and Hubbard belong – he pledged a gift of
$40,000 to UT to start the Dr. Don Baker Endowment Tuition
Scholarship Fund to be used by UT Alpha Phi Alpha Brothers
who need help financial assistance.
Pickard and the late Dr. Don Baker were friends when Pickard
was in graduate school at U of M and doing his internship at
the Toledo Board of Community Relations.
Pickard’s message on all occasions always held to one
central theme – the virtue of hard work.
“You got to get up in the morning; you got to work harder
than the guy next to you; you got to work harder than the
woman next to you.”
Alpha Phi Boule Archons Paul Hubbard and Mallory Williams,
MD, contributed to this article
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