About Lillian Lincoln Lambert :

Lillian Lincoln Lambert lives by the aphorism, “Success is a journey, not a destination.” 

A captivating speaker she speaks about the power of persistence, resilience, courage and morality in surmounting hurdles that prevent people from reaching their full potential.  As the first African American woman to receive a Harvard Business School MBA during the tumultuous 1960’s, then becoming a barrier-breaking entrepreneur in the mid 1970’s, she draws on her life experiences from the farm to Harvard, to show how to use obstacles and barriers as stepping stones to higher levels of achievement and success. Using the power of storytelling, she inspires audiences to dream big, act bold and pave their own paths. Her message speaks volumes, offering guidance, hope and inspiration for anyone who is striving to achieve a better life.

As a business coach, she works with businesses to help them go beyond their preconceived limitations and achieve their goals and aspirations. Her education gives her the theoretical knowledge.  Combining this with her experience as an entrepreneur, she brings a unique expertise that shows companies how to develop and grow successful businesses.

Born on a farm in the segregated South, she sensed that a better life awaited her. At the age of 18, she journeyed to New York City and Washington, DC to seek her fortune.  After enduring menial jobs as a maid and typist, she came to the realization that her journey was internal and that education would be her ticket to a new world. Her college-educated mother had been right all along - a better education is the best ticket to success and there are no shortcuts.

At the age of 22, she enrolled in Howard University. With the help of loans, scholarships and part-time jobs she obtained a BA degree. There a professor became her mentor and convinced her that she was Harvard material.  In 1969, an era forever linked with the civil rights and burgeoning women’s rights movements; she earned her MBA and achieved the historical milestone as the first African American woman to receive a Harvard MBA. She did not set out to make history, but simply wanted a better life.

Lillian Lambert at The Federal Reserve

Lillian continued to blaze her own path to success. She became a barrier-breaking entrepreneur, founding her own building maintenance company, started in her garage on a few thousand dollars. She grew the company to $20 million in sales with more than 1,200 employees. Headquartered in Landover, Maryland, with branch offices in other mid-Atlantic states, the company expanded, through acquisition, to the metropolitan Boston and Rhode Island markets. Her clients included blue-chip companies such as Dulles Airport, ABC News and Hewlett-Packard. Reflecting on the irony of a former maid now owning a janitorial business, she said “Owning the mop is better than pushing the mop.”

For more than 30 years, she has shared her hard-won wisdom on a range of business and inspirational topics to audiences small and large. Since selling her company a few years ago, she now devotes her time to speaking, writing and coaching. She has traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa, to speak to the South African Black Vintners Association on the importance of building alliances to gain competitive advantage. Other clients who have benefited from her speeches include Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Mississippi Bar Association, UBS Financial Services, Freddie Mac, Green Farms Academy, Wayland Academy, Smith College and other corporate, government and educational institutions.

Due to the passionate response of audiences to her speeches and comments from admirers who exclaimed “Lillian, you should write a book,” her memoir, The Road to Someplace Better: From the Segregated South to Harvard Business School and Beyond, was released by John Wiley & Son in Jan 2010.

In 2003, Harvard Business School awarded Lambert the Alumni Achievement Award, its highest honor for alumni. The award recognizes recipients for "the contributions they made to their companies and communities, while upholding the highest standards and values in everything they do.”                                                           

In March 2010, Enterprising Women Magazine inducted her into their Hall of Fame and featured her on the cover of the April 2010 issue. This is the magazine’s highest honor and is “reserved for women who have devoted a lifetime to building dynamic businesses or vital nonprofit organizations and giving back to the women business owners’ community in significant ways, making a tremendous difference in the lives of others”.

In Feb 2011, she was one of eight honorees for Dominion Resources Strong Men Strong Women: Excellence in Leadership Series.  This is a unique program developed by Dominion Resources, a regional utility company, to provide youth with positive role models, African-American men and women whose accomplishments and determination demonstrate true excellence in leadership.

The Library of Virginia selected her as one of ten 2011 Virginia Women in History recipients. These women were honored at its annual program in March 2011.
 

Lillian is the recipient of numerous other awards, including Harvard Business School’s African American Alumni Association’s Bert King Award; MBA of the Year, Harvard Business School African American Alumni Association; Small Business Person of the Year, State of Maryland; Entrepreneur of the Year, Black MBA Association; Top 50 Women-Owned Businesses, Washington Business Journal; and Finalist, Entrepreneur of the Year, Ernst & Young.

She is an avid golfer who also enjoys traveling, reading, listening to jazz and singing in her church choir. Currently, she sits on the Board of Visitors at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Board of Harvard Business School African American Alumni Association.

"It was an honor having Lillian as our guest speaker at the Richmond Risk Management Association’s (RMA’s) ‘2011 Women in Business Luncheon’ on April 19^th. We had an overwhelming positive response on the event. Lillian’s ability to connect with her audience was apparent from how engaged everyone was. Each person left inspired and convinced that, 'It does not matter if you bloom early or late, as long as you bloom,' as Lillian put it. Her authentic style and inspiring story made for yet another successful RMA luncheon. Thank you, Lillian"

Chitra Shirole , Women in Business Committee, RMA, Richmond, VA Chapter 

Speech Titles :

Inspirational Topics

Life’s Big-Little Secret: “There’s No Substitute for Education”

As a hopeful young girl full of fairy tales of finding her pot of gold and meeting Prince Charming, Lillian Lincoln Lambert learned the hard way that she was going nowhere fast because she was avoiding the very thing that would help her get ahead and fulfill her dreams – a college education. As she gutted out menial, dead-end jobs as a typist and maid, she woke up one day and realized that a college education was her ticket to a better world. Doing an about-face, she went to college and made history as the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Business School with an MBA. Lillian lives the maxim, “There is no substitute for education and there are no shortcuts.”

Victim or Victor? The Choice Is Yours

How did a poor black farm girl from the segregated South achieve a historic milestone as Harvard’s first black woman MBA? She did not set out to make history, simply wanted a better life.  According to Lillian Lincoln Lambert, “It’s not our circumstances, but how we respond to our circumstances that determine who we are and what we can be.” Instead of seeing herself as a victim of circumstance, she defied society’s expectations and became the master of her own destiny. Using herself as positive proof, Lillian shows us what is possible if we dare to challenge the status quo and self-imposed limitations and strive to be all that we can be. A quote she cherishes is by Michael Caine, an actor who said: “Success starts when we refuse to be captive of the environment in which we find ourselves”.

Who Said You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?

An advocate of continuous learning and developing new interests no matter what age you are, Lillian Lincoln Lambert debunks the adage, “You can’t teach old dog new tricks.” At the age of 46, Lillian teed off on a golf course for the first time in her life and has been an avid golfer ever since. Today, she could be retired, enjoying daily rounds of golf. But as satisfying as she finds playing golf, Lillian is not content to wind down and watch the world go by. Instead she has spent the past few years adding new challenges – starting new businesses and penning her memoir. She hopes her personal story will inspire people to never give up the good fight of living a full, active, rewarding life.  Her motto is “It does not matter whether you bloom early or bloom late, as long as you bloom?”

Success! From the Inside Out

At the end of your life, do you want this to be your last wish? I wish I had the courage to be what I really wanted to be instead of caving into the pressure of being what other people wanted me to me. Lillian Lincoln Lambert defines success as “being true to your authentic self,” as she encourages us to go deep inside our souls to discover who we really are. She also debunks the myth that success is attached to a chronological timetable.  She believes in the quote.”Success is a journey, not a destination.” Her advice is, “Never reach the point where you feel you have made it and can sit back on your laurels.”

Life Is about Giving Back a Piece of Yourself

Lillian Lincoln Lambert considers herself a very fortunate woman when she thinks about how she made it in the world, but she takes nothing for granted. From humble beginnings, Lillian attributes her success – personal and professional, material and spiritual – to all the people whom she met along the way who supported her, advised her, and encouraged her to develop her God-given talents. Lillian refers to these special people as “guardian angels.” Today, she feels she has a responsibility to mentor younger generations of Americans and support social causes to make our world a better and more just society. One of her favorite proverbs is “If we stand tall it is because we stand on the backs of those who came before us. Lillian leads by example as a role model, mentor, and volunteer. It is her intent to leave a legacy for others to follow.

Business Topics

Nine Ways to Build Leverage

Building a strong leverage helps a business run without the owner having to be deeply involvement in day-to-day operations. In order for this to occur certain things must be in place: attitude of the CEO, effective utilization of time, proper organizational structure, hiring the right talent and developing that talent, having systems in place, efficient use of technology, team cohesiveness and effective leadership for the team. With more than 30 years of successfully operating her business, she shares her business acumen based on her theoretical knowledge and her first-hand experience.  

Vision, Structure and Execution

Being an entrepreneur is not easy and you will face numerous challenges as you start and continue to grow the business. Many peoplehave dreams of becoming an entrepreneur and often have a vision for the business but have difficulty making that vision a reality. A vision without a plan is simply a dream. Getting it from the visionary stage to execution requires careful and strategic planning. A vision alone is not enough.  You must have determination, invincible fortitude, a positive can-do attitude and an unwavering commitment to your vision. The commitment is the motivating factor to get from vision to execution. 

Live Within Your Means or Better Yet Live below Your Means

We live in a society of immediate gratification, we want everything and we want it now. We have all heard the expression “keeping up with the Joneses”. Forget about keeping up with the Joneses. The truth is no one really knows how well the Joneses are doing. We may have heard the saying; the grass looks greener on the other side. It may look greener because we may be wearing "rose-color" glasses. The same may be true of the joneses. They may look successful but are they? If you gauge your success by the successful appearance of others, you are heading down the wrong path. Instead of looking outside yourself, go inward and search your heart and soul to clearly define your values. Only you can determine what things are important in your life. Lillian shares techniques and systems she uses in business and personal to be sure her finances are in order.