Colin Powell And Stephen Cruz example essay topic

The path that people take in becoming successful is always different and sometimes disappointing. Time, nationality, and society all have an effect on someone's success. Minorities are not always accepted in the work force, but two men, Stephen Cruz and Colin Powell have attained success in the corporate world. Both of their fights to the top were similar but because of the different types of corporate world they worked in, white collar and the army, Colin Powell is the more successful person. Colin Powell and Stephen Cruz are both different minorities, both hungry for success, but two different corporate worlds. Stephen Cruz was disappointed mainly because of how visible and unfair the corporate world mistreated minorities.

Stephen Cruz worked really hard to be successful. His state of mind was if he worked hard, he could make it. This was all different when he got exposed and saw how the corporate world worked. In Stud Terkel's essay about Stephen Cruz, Stephen is quoted as saying "I left Procter and Gamble because I really saw no opportunity. They were content to leave me visible, but my thoughts were not really solicited. I may have overreacted a bit, with the plant manager's attitude, but I felt there's on way a Mexican could get ahead here" (Terkel 336).

Stephen Cruz was given no opportunity, it didn't matter how hard Stephen Cruz worked, and it all depended on whether not his managers wanted to promote a minority. When Stephen Cruz does make it further in the corporate world, he realized that in order for him to make it to the next level he had to fall in line with the others. "My bosses were telling me I had all the "ingredients" for top management. All that was required was to "get to know our business" (Terkel 337). Stephen Cruz also realized that the American dream was not losing because the higher up in the organization he went, the more money he had to lose. Stephen Cruz started to fall in line, he didn't want to lose.

"I was becoming that way. I was becoming concerned about losing that fifty grand or so a year" (Terkel 338). Hardworking or opportunity had nothing to do with being successful; it was all power and fear. The more power his managers had, the more fear they put in coworkers.

Stephen Cruz was very disappointed at how the white collar world was, it was all a pressure game; he quit the corporate world. Colin Powell, an African American immigrant from Jamaica, is a man that worked really hard and was determined to make it to the top and when he did make it, he stayed there because of his background. Colin Powell's parents Maud and Luther Powell were serious people with a dream. They wanted a better life for their two children, which was accomplished by moving to America.

The two always told their children that success comes with hard work. "You must set a goal and do your job well", they said; (Blue and Naden 307). That is exactly what Colin Powell did; he worked hard. He was a C student in school and during his second semester in college, he joined the ROTC. "This C student got straight A's in his ROTC classes in all four years of college. When his group took summer training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he was named "Outstanding Cadet" (Blue and Naden 308).

Colin Powell graduated top of his class and he later went to serve in the army. Even though success in the military was not certain for him because of his minority status, he was determined and he worked really hard. At the time of his training in the army, things began to change. Blacks everywhere were beginning to demand civil rights. An advantage that Colin Powell really made use of was The Executive Order 9981 of 1948. The Executive Order 9981 according to The Redstone Arsenal's Web site, says that the document states. ".. that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.

This policy shall be put in effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary change without impairing efficiency or morale" (Redstone, "Executive Order 9981"). It was signed by President Harry S Truman. It officially ended segregation in the armed forces but the problem didn't go away overnight. Stephen Cruz's journey to success was somewhat different from that of Colin Powell's.

Stephen Cruz was a Mexican that came from a low class family. His parents didn't advice him on how to become successful. He was older than Colin Powell; he faced society when it was less accepting. He had a higher chance over an African American at attaining a job. "I guess as a Mexican I was more acceptable because I wasn't really black. I was a good compromise.

I was visible good" (Terkel 336). Another visible difference between him and Colin Powell was the type of corporate world he worked in. Where the Executive Order 9981 ended segregation in the armed forces, it didn't do the same in the white collar world. Stephen Cruz's corporate world was dominated with managers that were only into hiring minorities in order for them to be above the quota.

They hired Stephen so they could at least have said they had one minority in their company. Here he talks about how he was treated unfair. "Now I started getting wise to the ways of the American Dream. My office was glass-enclosed, while all the other offices were enclosed so you couldn't see into them. I was the visible man" (Blue and Naden 336).

Stephen Cruz was made visible to all co workers so they could see him and watch his every move. He was the only minority so they had to watch his every move. Stephen Cruz cared too much about his work surroundings. He worried about matters he couldn't single handedly change. "Why weren't we hiring more minorities? I realized I was the only one in a management position" (Blue and Naden 336).

Instead of him making good use of the opportunity he had been given and to tried fighting his way to the top. Stephen attempted to alter the system, he hired a minority. "I hired a black secretary, which was verboten. When I came back from my vacation, she was gone. My boss fired her while I was away. I asked why and never got a good reason" (Terkel 336).

Stephen Cruz's manager didn't favor hiring another minority. He didn't care if his department was promoting diversity or not. Stephen Cruz didn't want to be the only minority at his job. He wanted his environment to be diverse, but because of the system and how unfair it was, it wasn't possible. This is the main reason why Stephen Cruz wasn't as successful as Colin Powell. Colin Powell made use of all his resources; he took advantages of granted opportunities that came his way during his fight to the top.

He advised young Black Americans that might have gone down the same path Stephen Cruz went. Colin Powell spoke at local Universities across the nation. He said "Don't let your blackness, your minority status, be a problem to you. Let it be a problem to somebody else... Beat them at it" (Blue and Naden 309). Stephen Cruz did the exact opposite.

Stephen Cruz allowed his minority status bother him, instead of him to have kept on working hard to surpass his foes, he tried to change the inevitable. Even though Colin Powell worked in an environment where people kept on trying to bring him down, he never felt as if he had not being given the same opportunity just like his white colleagues might have had. "In the army", he once said, "I never felt I was looked down on by my white colleagues. I've been given the opportunity to compete fair and square with them". It helped, he added, that he "came along at a time of change, a time of growth in civil rights" (Blue and Naden 308). Once again the time advantage that Colin Powell had over Stephen Cruz plays a big role in his corporate world.

During Stephen Cruz's time, the work force was just being exposed to desegregation. Many mangers opposed it which was visible in their actions. When Stephen Cruz worked for Procter and Gamble, they made sure he interviewed most of the people that came in. One of this managers gave him a simple instruction on how to interview blacks. "Just check and see if they smell, okay?" (Terkel 336). This shows that people at the time of desegregation were not very accepting towards minorities.

Colin Powell came from nothing to the top. He is more successful than Stephen Cruz because unlike him he didn't let his environment bother him, instead all the negative things that were said to him made him hungrier for success. A Major message that Colin Powell received from his parents that were the keys to his success was "In my family we were taught that hard work and education were the keys to success. My sister and I were taught to believe in ourselves.

We might be considered poor, but we were rich in spirit. But, stick with it, because in America, justice will eventually triumph and the powerful, searing promise of the founding fathers will come true. We were taught by my parents to always, always, always believe in America" (Larson, "Winning Advice from a True Leader: an Exclusive Interview"). Believing in America is exactly what Colin Powell did.

He fought his way to the top and stayed there because he wasn't easily discouraged. He not only believed in America, he believed in himself, he believed in the strength of his physicality and mentality. He backed up his beliefs with intense desire and vigorous hard work and made great use of the opportunity he was granted. Colin Powell and Stephen Cruz.