The Savage Way: Successfully Navigating the Waves of Business and Life

The origin of my memoir is a story in and of itself. It started years ago, when Cynthia Winston, the youngest tenured professor of psychology at my alma mater, Howard University, asked me to sit for an interview. Dr. Winston was eager to apply a new approach to oral history she was developing to chronicle my tenure as chairman of the university’s board of trustees. I was happy to comply.

This history was destined to be filed away in Howard’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, along with the archives of all of the university’s rich history. But along the way, something else happened, something I would have never anticipated.

Cynthia happened to be the daughter of one of my Howard classmates, Michael Winston, a former vice president of academic affairs at Howard and a Phi Beta Kappa. And this, perhaps, gave her the comfort to probe my experiences a little bit deeper than most might. At some point, during Cynthia’s questions regarding my background in the international business, philanthropic, and sailing worlds, she stopped almost mid-sentence and remarked, “Frank, you have a psychology of success that is unique. And your life is different from not only any previous Howard chairman, but any other African American I know. Your story needs to be told and disseminated around the world.”

I was taken aback, yet intrigued by her observation, and suggestion. With that, Cindy guided me on a journey of self-discovery which lasted five years. She has been with me all the way, and I could not ...