An Attitude of Gratitude Can Take You Far ? By: Susie Taylor

• By:?sataylormade
• April 19, 2021

Gratitude.

That’s what?Johnathan Kimbrough?says is the key to his success in life and business.

Kimbrough is the founder of The Institute for Resilience, which he promotes on?LinkedIn?and?Facebook. He has a team of advisers and coaches from all over the world who support the members of the group as well as each other.

I first “met” Johnathan while I participated in a week-long LinkedIn challenge to learn more about the platform how to better use it.?I think it was one of those friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend things, where I connected with other people in the challenge who were connected to Johnathan.

After getting the invite to join the Institute for Resilience, I was hooked by the positivity being spread and by this person who seemed to be everywhere spreading his good news. I interviewed him back in October right before my shoulder surgery. Life kept getting in the way and it took me a few months to finally write about that interview. If you’d like to see it, Johnathan posted the video of our Zoom call on his?YouTube channel.

A Rough Start

Johnathan is a master at offering support and encouragement to anyone he’s connected with. But he didn’t always have the same kind of support himself. He grew up in Mississippi in what he called “a dark place.” It seemed to him that when he wasn’t in a foster home, he was in a homeless shelter or living in his car.

In fact, he was living in his car when he enlisted in the Army.

“I gave my brother my car and all my clothes. I had this bookbag … in 2003 the slogan was ‘Army of One,’ so they gave you like a shoulder book bag. That’s all I had. I had nothing else to my name other than my ID and what I had in that bag,” he said. “I haven’t looked back. No matter what goes on in my life, I’m going to be resilient.”

And resilient he has been. His 11 years of service in the military and three tours in Afghanistan gave him the structure and the building blocks he needed to become successful. He took those skills and used them when he entered the workforce after his time in the Army.

'That's Just Who I Am'

He started working in a hospital cleaning patients’ room. He was promoted to supervisor on the third shift. Then on first shift. Add in the responsibilities of college, which he started in 2016, and you have a young man putting in a lot of hard work.

“That’s just who I am. You’re not going to out-give me; you’re not going to out-work me; and you’re not going to out-serve me,” Kimbrough said. “I’m going to give more.”

He earned his bachelor’s degree and started working for a commercial cleaning agency. When that business was sold, the new owner named him director of operations.

“I take a lot of pride in whatever I do. I’m a very passionate person,” he said, “so no matter what the job is, I’m going to give it 120 percent.”

Currently, he is plant manager for The Vincit Group in Atlanta, Ga.

Promoting Positivity

His drive to promote positivity is what led him to build The Institute for Resilience. He said he’s been active on LinkedIn from the time he was in the military. “I started to pull some positive quotes” from other people’s feeds and sharing them to his own network, which started to grow “just from sharing.”

Then he realized he should start promoting his own content instead of sharing other people’s posts.

“I used it (LinkedIn) for positivity. That’s who I am. I’m a motivator. I’m the type of person who loves to build other people up. I get gratification out of that,” he explained.

When the lock-down because of the pandemic occurred in March 2020, he realized he had an opportunity to really support people who had lost jobs and were feeling that there was no more hope.

When he decided to start his own group dedicated to positivity and building people up “I wasn’t thinking globally at the time,” he said. “I wanted to create a space for them (his followers) – a safe haven – a place for them to come and look for jobs.”

Since that initial push, the Institute for Resilience has attracted more than 64,000 followers on LinkedIn and more than 1,000 members of the group on Facebook.

And the group has gone global. Kimbrough has made connections with people all over Africa, Asia and Europe, as well as in the United States. His team of managers also is a global effort, with team members in the U.S., Australia and Europe.

“I get a lot of negativity,” Kimbrough said. “People go in there (the Facebook group) and post whatever they want, and I have to tell them ‘This is not the type of platform for that.’ It’s more uplifting.”

This is part of IFR’s Statement of Purpose:

“This group is a place of encouragement, inspiration, and motivation for Warriors, Champions, Victors, and Heroes. We believe that the world is a better place when people are free to discover, develop, and demonstrate their strengths. We want this page to be a positive place for people to post encouraging words, videos, and any other ideas that may help others to discover, develop, or demonstrate their strengths. Additionally, we want to encourage people who are going through difficulty to post here to receive encouragement to help them on their journey.”

His focus hasn’t just been on IFR. He earned his master’s degree in December 2020, all done while working full-time and staring the Institute for Resilience as a side hustle.?

“I’m a dreamer. I know that it takes work to get to where I want to be in life,” he said. “Have you ever heard that if they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair? Well, I’m going to show up (with my chair). … I’m not going to wait for you to come help me, and I can’t wait for you to see my value. … I’m going to create the opportunities.”

Until next week,

About Me ...

Who is this woman who thinks we can change the world?

I am a middle-aged wife to a hard-working middle-aged man, and I am the mom of three, adult men.

Our oldest has multiple disabilities and requires total care.

Our middle son has wanderlust and has lived in West Virginia, Montana, Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado … all within the past few years. He and his significant other work on a hog farm in Washington State near Seattle.

Our youngest is a creative soul, who has lists of all the historic weapons and equipment he wants to make, ranging from forging hunting knives, to building a medieval crossbow, to weaving fabric that he then used to make a hooded jacket. And he’s a book nerd. He is the only person I know who has as many books as I do.

During these past few years, I have witnessed the divisiveness and lack of compassion and empathy that we see every day on the evening news, and my heart is broken.

I have asked, rhetorically, on many occasions: What can I do? Can one person really change the world? I believe the answer is “YES.”

That’s how this blog and site were born. I can’t hold it in anymore. I HAVE to write about what I see, what I feel and how I think we can fix things.

I actually have a “Mission Statement” for Stix-N-Stonez:

• To encourage civil discourse and demonstrate the power of positive words on our society.
• To disavow hate-speech and teach how to disagree with respect and dignity.
• To lift others up and elevate all peoples.
• To spread truth, peace, love and joy.

You can see I have some pretty lofty goals for this site. I’ve heard several people, famous and not so famous, say that if we want change, we have to?be?the change.

That’s what I’m trying to do here at Stix-N-Stonez. Let’s make a difference. Let’s lead the change. Let’s start a peaceful revolution. Won’t you join me?

If you have a suggestion for something you’d like me to address, or if you just want to touch base, send me an email at?[email protected]

Susie from Stix-N-Stonez

In case you missed the links sprinkled throughout the article here they are again:

• The Institute for Resilience on Facebook
• The Institute for Resilience on LinkedIn
• Johnathan Kimbrough on LinkedIn
• The Institute for Resilience on YouTube