Anthony Reed was asked to write From the Road Race to the Rat Race: Essays from a Black Executive Marathoner based on his lectures at various universities and keynote speaking engagements at technology, leadership, project management, human resources, and accounting conferences. He had the ability to apply grit during his unusual and trailblazing experiences as a student, Fortune 500 corporate executive, nonprofit organizer, social activist, and history making marathon runner. He clearly isn’t a “one trick pony.” He shows how he consistently moved out of his comfort zone and attacked when he was expected to fail or quit in academia, sports, and work.
ACADEMIA
He was suspended from college for poor grades. Yet, he earned two undergraduate (management and mathematics) and two graduate degrees (management and accounting) and became an adjunct professor. He even failed undergraduate accounting classes, but became a member of the National Accounting Honor Society as a graduate student.
When the classmates in his graduate advance accounting course refused to include him their study groups, instead of dropping the class or failing the exam, he struck back and forced all of them to fail the exam.
DISTANCE RUNNING AND BICYCLING
He finished 142 out of 143 at his first high school cross country meet. Yet, he became a certified distance running coach, completed over a hundred 26.2-mile marathons, won endurance trophies, and became the first Black person in the world to complete marathons on all seven continents, including Antarctica. He’s one of about fifty people in the world who completed the “marathon hat trick.” This consists of (1) finishing at least one hundred marathons and a marathon (2) in all fifty states and (3) seven continents.
When his bicycle had a major malfunction during a race, instead of slowing down or quitting, he attacked, while going uphill, and medaled in the race. His mantra is “Hills build character.”
CORPORATE EXECUTIVE LIFE
He worked on leading edge technology projects ranging from relational databases, AI, GPS, law enforcement, and financial applications. He transistioned from being highly technical to exceling in management and executive positions. He even became the CEO of a start up distance running marketing firm.
When executive recruiters wouldn’t believe that he had “excellent communication skills” and managed multi-million dollar international projects, he earned professional certifications in accounting (CPA), project management (PMP), supply chain management, and systems analysis (Oracle). He also wrote five books and had over fifty technical and leadership articles published in professional journals and newspapers, as well as speaking at conferences throughout the US, Canada, Brazil, and Europe.
These types of contrasting situations, where he initially failed and later thrived, continued throughout his life. He approached life like running marathons. The book’s topics range from having breakfast with President Gerald Ford and private meeting with the US Department of Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary to negotiating over $40 million of severance packages and working to build low income housing in upper class neighborhoods.
Here’s what publications have previously written about him.
Runner’s World magazine, “Anthony Reed hasn’t stopped running since. He ran while earning his MBA, master’s of accounting, and CPA certification. And he kept going while working as an Information Technology Director at Texas Instruments, heading up his own consulting business, and teaching college accounting courses.”
The University of Texas at Dallas’ Mercury newspaper, “Reed manages the risks of business and sport with determination and a commitment to life long learning. Risk management is a concept Reed applies to very different areas of his life. He said the process is similar for a marathoner and businessperson."
National Black MBA magazine, “Through the years, Reed has found that many lessons learned along the race course don’t differ much from corporate America’s hills and valleys.”
The Dallas Morning News, “Running has transformed Anthony Reed’s life. He simply set goals and set about accomplishing them.”
From the Road Race to the Rat Race: Essays from a Black Executive Marathoner is also available at in eBook formats (epub, mobi, pdf, lrf, pdb, txt, and html) at Smashwords.
Price: $9.95 (eBook)
Cenmar Publications
First Edition: November, 2020
Pages: 158
ISBN: 978-1-7355512-0-3 (Paperback) / 978-1-7355512-1-0 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020914906
