A 37-year-old man named Ron Lewis, Jr. who dropped out of school due to poor grades, achieves success by obtaining three degrees despite feeling like a failure.
Ron who grew up Jacksonville, Florida, was once a two-time high school freshman with a 1.3 grade point average. Fortunately, he was never placed in Special Education and had to repeat the ninth-grade according to Black News.
He said the lowest point was at the age of 22 when during two semesters at Florida Community College (now Florida State College at Jacksonville), he earned straight F’s — eight in all.
Ron stated that he became so discouraged that he dropped out of college, shut down his thriving promotional products printing company, and joined the United States Army.
Join any of these WhatsApp Groups to receive more good news on WhatsApp
Ron mentioned that in the Army, he began following motivational speaker Eric Thomas and Les Brown,which made him become a “motivational conference junkie. He added that with determination, he frequented many motivational conferences and surrounded himself with others who were just as determined to stay motivated.
He stated that he began reading books like The Secret to Success: When You Want to Succeed as Bad as You Want to Breathe by Eric Thomas, and it was then things began to shift.
“That was the first book I ever read from front to back, and I was 27 years old. Thomas wrote, ‘If you can look up, you can get up,’ and something in me shifted,” Ron said.
”When I learned it took Thomas twelve years to earn a four-year degree, I could relate to that. I also realized a Bachelor’s degree is still a degree. The amount of time it takes to earn a degree doesn’t matter,” he added.
With a determined mind and as an Army veteran, Ron returned to college. He enrolled at the University of Phoenix, United States where he majored in a subject he was passionate about, Business classes, creating a marketing strategy, a business plan, branding, and other creative aspects of Business Management.
Focusing on the coursework he enjoyed helped Ron succeed. After nine years at Florida Community College, he became the first in his family to earn a college degree.
Despite starting the MBA program at the University of Phoenix on academic probation, he improved his GPA to 3.00 after completing four courses. Motivated by this success, he became a motivational speaker in his community, emphasizing the importance of focusing on others and setting bigger goals.
“If you focus on yourself, you don’t mind losing. When I focused on my community, my goals became bigger than just me. That made me determined to complete the journey,” she said.
Currently, Ron speaks to students all over the country including a recent assembly of over 1,000 students at the community college where he once earned eight straight F’s.
He is now a Doctoral candidate who is also on the Dean’s List student and a Delta Mu Delta International Honor Society member maintaining a few points shy of a perfect grade point average.
He has also successfully defended his dissertation entitled “How Learning Entrepreneurship at an Early Age Could Possibly Reduce Poverty and Homelessness.”
“I show up and approach the conversation with full transparency, and I share how I learned to hold myself accountable. I may be the doctoral candidate walking across the stage in June, but failure is a huge part of my success story,” Ron said.
”When I explain that, it helps students recognize that they have the same potential, no matter their background, and even those struggling right now can relate,” he added
In June 2024, he will be awarded his Doctorate in Business Administration degree from the International University of Leadership. Asides from being a motivational speaker, he is also a real estate ageant and enterpreneur.
Receive Scholarship Updates through our Social Media Channels:
- WhatsApp: Scholarship Region WhatsApp
- Facebook: Scholars Region
- Twitter: @scholarsregion
- Telegram: Scholarship Region
