High Impact Philanthropy: Gary Polk Of Polk Foundation Institute On How To Leave A Lasting Legacy With A Successful & Effective Nonprofit Organization
An Interview with Karen Mangia
Know your WHY…thought leader Simon Sinek said, “It starts with Why” Before people want to know what you do or how you do it, people want to know WHY you are doing whatever you are doing. Simon is right! My Why with Pi is to help underrepresented Black, Brown, Women, Veteran entrepreneurs.
For someone who wants to set aside money to establish a Philanthropic Foundation or Fund, what does it take to make sure your resources are being impactful and truly effective? In this interview series, called “How to Create Philanthropy That Leaves a Lasting Legacy” we are visiting with founders and leaders of Philanthropic Foundations, Charitable Organizations, and Non-Profit Organizations, to talk about the steps they took to create sustainable success.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gary Polk.
Gary L. Polk, Sr. is a proponent of social entrepreneurships, launching the Polk Institute of Social Entrepreneurship in 2021. Active in numerous organizations, Gary was selected by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurships (NFTE) as their 2020 National Individual Volunteer of the Year. As a Black businessman, CEO, business consultant, university professor and author, Polk is passionate about entrepreneurs…and why they succeed or fail… and has written three books on the topic, Why Entrepreneurs Fail (to Win), Why Black and Brown Entrepreneurs Fail (To Win) and Why Women Entrepreneurs Fail (To Win).
Thank you for making time to visit with us about a ‘top of mind’ topic. Our readers would like to get to know you a bit better. Can you please tell us about one or two life experiences that most shaped who you are today?
Getting my college degree created a passion for learning that later became teaching. My mother wanted me to be the first in our family to attend and finish a 4-year college degree. So, the question would not be if I go to college, but which college I would attend? The latter question was finally answered when I was accepted to Azusa Pacific College (now Azusa Pacific University) in June 1974. I fulfilled my mother’s and my personal dream in May 1978 when I graduated from Loyola Marymount University with my Bachelors of Business Administrations degree with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Finance. Upon graduation I realized that I really did not know that much after four years of higher education. There’s was so much that I still needed to learn. This began my quest to be a lifelong learner. Many, many years later I adopted Gandhi’s quote as my personal mantra, “Live as if you are going to die tomorrow, learn as if you were going to live forever.” Today, this is what encapsulated Gary Polk, the entrepreneur. Secondly, after my 10-year career as a banker with Bank of America, I learned two principles that would impact my professional life forever. First, I was taught the Five C’s of Credit (Capacity. Collateral. Conditions. Character, and Capital) with Character as the most important. While capacity is the ability to repay, without a doubt character reigns supreme. Bankers are taught that if a borrower had character, something could adversely happen to their capacity, but their character would prevail, and they would find a way to repay you. At the end of the day, they know that all we have is our word. This teaching about the importance of CHARACTER has proven to be rightful teachings more than once over my banking career and then beyond every other professional pursuit. The second thing that impacted me as a banker was the value of RELATIONSHIPS. During my heyday at BofA (Bank of America) in the early to mid-1980’s relationships were everything to us. We understood our 80/20 rule, 80% of our profits came from 20% of our loyal long-term customers. If you were a 10-year plus long-term customer, we would go out of our way to serve these customers. For example, if a long-term customer asked for a rate exception to match a competitor’s rate, we would leap at the opportunity, we would leap at the chance to serve. On the other hand, if someone walked in off the street and made the same rate match request, we would politely state, “Sorry, we do not do rate exceptions.” It was not our style to chase what we considered “hot money.” But, for our long-term customers the rules on the playing field were different. From that point on, relationship and character has been two of my personal pillars for success that has helped enable any success or accomplishments made today.
You are a successful leader. Which three-character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? We would love to hear a few stories or examples.
Humble. Hungry. Smart. I wish that I was smart enough to coin these three-character traits that have helped me to be successful. However, I cannot. That credit goes to the author Patrick Lencioni in his book “The Ideal Team Player” (Jossey-Bass, 2016). I first discovered these three magic words in 2016 or 2017 while visiting one of my CEO clients, Armen Alajian of Arto Brick in Gardena, CA. The book was sitting on his desk, and I happened to pick it up, thumbed through the pagers and was immediately drawn to the book’s content. I already knew about Lencioni’s first book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” so there was instant credibility for another Lencioni book. After Armen raved about the book and how it had already helped him to hire key leadership team members for this company, he gave me his copy of the book. I read the book in one week and was sold. First, I did as Lencioni suggested to first look in the mirror to ask myself if I in fact possessed these three characteristics. Yes, those who know me know that I am indeed humble, hungry, and smart. From that point on, I began recommending the concepts of this book to my other CEO Clients. I have shared my Audible version of the book with dozens of my CEO Clients as well as my students at CSU, Dominguez Hills, and my SBA CEO clients that I currently work with. You can say that I have drank Kool-Aid!
MY STORY…Fast forward to 2022, when one of my current CEO clients was ss the right help to grow her management team. After listening to Cinthya Vodanovich, CEO of the Aptus Group, during our monthly 1-to-1 coaching session, she explained her challenges, without hesitation, I recommended that she read the “Ideal Team Player” and then use the humble, hungry, and smart principles to hire her future staff. Today, she is ecstatic by the results of applying these three-character traits whenever she hires a new management team member. She is amazed how well it works and has shared this book with her CEO colleagues and thy grail of team building. BTW, yes, Cinthya is humble, hungry, and smart! She too has drunk the humble, hungry, and smart Kool-Aid!
What’s the most interesting discovery you’ve made since you started leading your organization?
My most interesting discovery is also somewhat humbling to see how people have donated so many volunteer hours based on their personal buy-in to our mission, serving social entrepreneurs to help make the world a better place and our vision, to launch 1,000 social entrepreneur…SHIPS by 2032. For the past two years, we have received an average of 7,400 volunteer hours from about 16 people, from our leadership team to our facilitators to our volunteer associates. I want to THANK all of our Pi volunteers for your support. You know who you are. Without you, the Polk Institute Foundation (Pi) mission is not attainable. We plan to continue to foster the ideals of social entrepreneurship to achieve our mission and vision. Our target markets are underrepresented Black and Brown entrepreneurs, plus Women and Veteran entrepreneurs. Our plan is to perfect our programming on a local basis, then roll out our program nationwide. We know that if the problem of growing a sustainable business in Los Angeles County metro region it exists nationwide and worldwide. We will provide the ‘right’ help in terms of training and technical expertise to develop Fundable CEOs with high character to do the right thing when no one is watching. We will help our targeted clients to build generational wealth from sustainable business that can be passed back to future generations. We will use capitalism the right way by fostering the triple bottom line — People. Planet. Profit.
What makes you feel passionate about this cause more than any other?
Because I am an educator at heart. I love to teach those who want to learn. Pi is my personal passion project that actually began in 1991 when I taught my first college course, “Introduction to Business.” I discovered that my true passion is teaching in 1993 while teaching at CSU, Northridge when I taught a course for free. Unlike my experience with a university-based Incubator, Pi is more fun. Because we no longer have to worry about academic bureaucrats, we are able to accomplish so much more without politics, egos, and academic snobbery getting in our way.
Without naming names, could you share a story about an individual who benefitted from your initiatives?
One of my favorite stories is about someone from our Cohort-1 Class that needed a job to support her entrepreneurial objective. During her job interview, things were not going well, until this person mentioned the entrepreneurial training received from Pi over the past four months. Once the candidate mentioned entrepreneurial soft skills the interviewed turned very positive and ultimately landed this person a job. It is not surprising to hear that corporate America needs people with entrepreneurial skills such as — collaboration, problem-solving, risk-taking, teamwork, communication skills, pitching, and the ability to figure things out with minimal supervision.
We all want to help and to live a life of purpose. What are three actions anyone could take to help address the root cause of the problem you’re trying to solve?
Make sure that it is your passion. Without passion you may be mediocre. With passion you may be world-class.
- Develop a mission and vision that is compelling and engaging. Then stay mission focused. Do not chase ‘Shiny Objects.’
- Be Coachable. Be open to learning new things. No one wants to work with the ‘know-it-all-type’ or worse, a narcissist.’ You do not know what you do not know, so find a mentor to help you, but be smart enough to never stop learning.
Based on your experience, what are the “5 Things You Need to Create a Successful & Effective Nonprofit That Leaves a Lasting Legacy?”
- Know your WHY…thought leader Simon Sinek said, “It starts with Why” Before people want to know what you do or how you do it, people want to know WHY you are doing whatever you are doing. Simon is right! My Why with Pi is to help underrepresented Black, Brown, Women, Veteran entrepreneurs.
- Develop a compelling and engaging mission (a qualitative statement of eight words or less.) For example, see my Pi Mission above in Q3.
- Develop a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) (Jim Collins, Good To Great, 2002). This becomes your Vision (a quantitative statement of eight words or less). It must include how many people or organizations you will impact AND five or ten years. For example, see my Vision statement above in Q3. If needed, use AI such as Chat GPT to put your existing mission or vision on a word diet to reduce to 8 words or less.
- Develop a Team of at least one Co-Founder who can shore up your biggest weakness by being smarter than you in a given discipline where you are weak. For example, at Pi I asked Mike Manahan, CFO as he is a whiz at numbers and entrepreneurial finance. Better than me with numbers.
- Think like a for profit entity. You are NOT, “just a nonprofit!” You are a business entity with real expenses. For example, salaries and payroll must be paid monthly. You can only go so far on volunteerism. At some point ALL nonprofits will need paid staff to make an impact.
How has the pandemic changed your definition of success?
While the Pandemic was a negative and disruptive element for most of us, it was a blessing for the Polk Institute. Without Covid-19, there would be no Pi. Zoom Technology came to the forefront because of C19. With Zoom we are able to deliver our Workshops via Zoom. We are able to work remotely. We are able to have 1–2–1 coaching. We are able reach people on a nationwide basis. We are able to make a bigger impact at a much lower cost. My only wish is that I had invested in Zoom stock in 2019!
How do you get inspired after an inevitable setback?
Focus on the positives that we have accomplished. Understand that setbacks are part of the business. Do not take it personal. Failure is normal. Celebrate the little things. Keep positive people around you. For me, my wife Claudine and my PR Director Devon Blaine are two of my rays of sunshine. My three dogs are the most unconditional beings that love me no matter what! They keep it simple…just a back scratch and a puppy treat keeps them happy. Remember that Life does not have to be wonderful to be Perfect. When all else fails, the 23rd Psalm is my go-to spiritual empowerment.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world who you would like to talk to, to share the idea behind your non-profit? He, she, or they might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Unfortunately, she is no longer with us in this world. My mother, Thelma Polk Callis, passed away on 2/15/17 at the age of 91. I would love for her to see what her son has accomplished as all credit should go to her. I pray that she would be proud of the little boy that she and my dad adopted 65 years ago. RIP mom!
You’re doing important work. How can our readers follow your progress online?
Website: polkinstitute.org or email gpolk@polkinstitute.org
Thank you for a meaningful conversation. We wish you continued success with your mission.
As they say in Hawaii, “Mahalo”
About The Interviewer: Karen Mangia is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world, sharing her thought leadership with over 10,000 organizations during the course of her career. As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she helps individuals and organizations define, design and deliver the future. Discover her proven strategies to access your own success in her fourth book Success from Anywhere and by connecting with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
High Impact Philanthropy: Gary Polk Of Polk Foundation Institute On How To Leave A Lasting Legacy… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.