What Malcolm X can teach about a career…

What Malcolm X can teach us about a career - The Autobiography of Malcom X

I wanted to kick off our book reading with The Autobiography of Malcolm X. This book has made an indelible impression on me for many reasons which I will explore. The book journey’s the life of Malcolm X. It’s inception describes a complicated and very troubled start in life (not least because of the murder of his father, his mother’s battles with her mental health and his time spent in a broken childcare system) to an equally worrying and troubled adolescent – mired in a world of criminality. We then travel the literary journey to??see the evolution of Malcolm Little to Malcolm X, after a custodial sentence, to the public figure that we know of him – an eloquent, educated and spiritual man often invited to some of the leading educational establishments to give academic lectures. A far cry with from his ‘hustler days’ which led to his incarceration.

Malcolm X was a complicated man with an equally complicated life and I will not do his full life justice in this post. Thankfully, that is not the purpose of his book review.?Reading his autobiography made me reflect on the lessons of his life and naturally, being in my line of profession, I wanted to take some of the lessons of his ‘career’ to see if there are any principles that can adopted. For the purposes of this review we will take the Nation of Islam as his ‘employer’ as he eventually worked for the organisation.

Before we embark on this reading review, I think it is necessary to note that I appreciate how polarising a figure?Malcolm X may be to some. This post is not designed to be polemic or to advocate for or dismiss his views.?

This book review is not intended to discuss his politics or the morality of his arguments. I am separating the lessons that I have taken from his life/career from the politics of his world view. It is the lessons of his ‘career’ that I intend to be our focus here, not his politics.?

There are a few key lessons that I feel that anyone can take away from the autobiography. This is not an exhaustive list but simply the lessons that jumped out to me after reading his book. I am sure if you explore his book you will find more – this is part of the joy of reading autobiographies. The messages that come through from the authors’ experience are personal to the reader, as we examine the lives of others through the optics of our own lived experiences.?

Notwithstanding this, here are some of the lessons that I have learned from Malcolm X’s autobiography on a career.

Lesson 1: Malcolm X was a reader and believed entirely in the transformative power of self-education.?

“…let me tell you something: from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, I I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn’t have gotten me out of books with a wedge…months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life” (Pg 267).

“I have often reflected on the new vista’s that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” (Pg 274).??

Malcolm acknowledges his limited education at the time of his incarceration but leaves prison an entirely transformed person. We learn in the book that reading allowed Malcolm to express himself more clearly, draw on a depth of information across various subjects and ultimately argue his position on his world view with eloquence. When he left prison he eventually (not immediately) worked for the the Nation of Islam. he was able to ascend the structure fairly quickly under their employ, helping to establish several ‘Temples’.?

His life is a story of preparation by reading, self-education and opportunity. He was entirely transformed from a criminal to a philosophical leader. By the end of the book we see Malcolm keeping company with world leaders and royalty. He attributes the initial change in his character to his ability to study. In fact, [Malcolm notes] “many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television or those who have read something that I have said will think that I have went to school far beyond the eighth grade. This impression is due entirely to my prison studies” (Pg 265).

Career Lesson 1 then is: read and self-educate as much as possible to cultivate ideas and thinking. The career opportunity, once it presents itself, will be met with your preparation of reading which will allow you to excel in your career path.?

Lesson 2: Evolution is a necessity of growth: be flexible to the idea that in your career your viewpoint (on anything) can change – even those positions that you feel are integral to your belief system.

The word?evolution?encapsulates the story of Malcolm really well.??There are several junctions where this evolution is witnessed. We see Malcolm evolve from an innocent child to someone, understandably, impacted by his disruptive and disturbing early life experiences. We then see the evolution of Malcolm, through friendships and the company he keeps, to his days of criminality. This evolution then takes a new turn, during his incarceration, to him becoming a reader, thinker and taking on religious disposition. We see this evolution again as he assumes position as an outspoken leader in the Nation of Islam. Finally, we see the evolutionary theme at??play again following his journey to Mecca and his understanding of the structural injustices of the system in question rather than the inherent and intrinsic evil of any set of people - a view that he vehemently rejected prior to his pilgrimage.?

The growth in Malcolm’s X’s life is marked by his ability to change. We see how his relationship deteriorates with Elijah Muhammad (the leader of The Nation of Islam) who through Malcolm’s own admission held with excessive adulation which ultimately blinded him to some of the misgivings of the organisation. His growth as a person was made once his belief and viewpoint changed. In one’s career,??there is a redemptive quality in the ability to change.

Career lesson 2 then is: being willing to change your view allows scope for growth.?

Lesson 3: The power of long tutelage and taking a slow road.

“During the spring of nineteen fifty-two, I joyously wrote Elijah Muhammad and my family that the Massachusetts State Parole Board had voted that I should be released” (Pg 288).?

After his release from Prison, Malcolm’s journey with the Nation of Islam (his eventual employer) began but it was in 1964 that Malcolm left the organisation to incorporate his own organisation. His 12 year engagement with the Nation of Islam allowed him time to grow as a leader, an orator and to formulate his approach and philosophy before he eventually ‘ventured out’ on his own sole leadership journey.??

Arguably it was never Malcolm’s intention to venture out on this sole leadership journey – this was fundamentally caused by differences that eventually surfaced with the Nation of Islam. Nevertheless, the journey was commenced after a long service to his ‘employer’ before leaving to embark on his own.

We all have our own sole leadership journey to follow. It may be setting up your own business, or working as a freelancer or eventually becoming senior management at your organisation. A long tutelage will serve us well in pursuit of this.?

I think this is particularly poignant at this time. Our world now rewards the fast paced accession of position. The idea of committing to a long and slow road runs counter to our culture. In the world of ‘viral posts’, technology that provides answers to the most abstract of queries in seconds or the technology company that had an asymmetric exit after only 2 years of trading, it is hard to conceive of a world where we endorse a slow cadence. There is nothing wrong with the viral post, the quick query response or indeed the??quick and asymmetric billionaire exit of the tech startup. They are all very laudable. But by the same token, there is??nothing wrong with the slow and steady approach of learning and taking time under a long tutelage.

The autobiography of Malcolm X is an interesting read. As I mentioned, I have not done his whole book justice by the three lessons I have gleaned. I would recommend reading regardless of whether we agree with his politics or not. This book definitely has an incendiary tone to it so readers should remember that it has several contextual references to the time that it was written that may make modern day readers feel uncomfortable. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see Malcolm consumed by his vision for a fairer society for African Americans and to see how his personal story weaves into that narrative.?