photo by steed media service

President/CEO, RLJ Companies

Few businessmen in the world are as successful as Robert Johnson. Everything he touches seems to turn to gold. From launching the first African American-targeted network, to becoming the first black majority owner of a major sports franchise; Bob Johnson is living proof that anything can be achieved with enough determination and focus.

“I don’t think that [money] motivates an entrepreneur to the extent that they just [want] to keep piling it up,” he muses. “Obviously, you get to a point where you feel comfortably successful and want to do other things, but most of us do what we do not because we’re going to get a bigger check, we do it because we’re good at what we do.”

The bigger check may not be the sole motivator for upper-echelon entrepreneurs, but Johnson doesn’t dismiss that finance is obviously a big part of the equation, and he understands the one fundamental that sets one on the path to ‘comfortably successful.’

” “The first road to success is belief in yourself,” he says matter-of-factly. “If you say you can do something because you believe in your ability, you’re already halfway down the road to achieving. Then you have to passionately articulate that belief to somebody else who might join your crusade.”

With his move into hotel ownership and his (and filmmaker Tracey Edmonds) fledgling film production company, Our Stories Films, Johnson continues to find ways to reinvent himself — but still holds onto that simple edict of self-assuredness that put him on the path to greatness. “You’ve got to become a leader and make the right decisions as to how you move it from point A to point B,” Johnson continues. “If you wake up in the morning saying ‘gee, I can’t get that deal, I can’t close that agreement, etc.,’ you’ve defeated yourself.” - todd williams

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