ORLANDO, Fla. – When you have questions about building anything, a good person to ask would likely be a seasoned engineer such as Corey Freeman Scott. On top of that, if by “building” you refer to generational wealth — often the premier focus of “Black Men Sundays” episodes — Scott knows more than a thing or two about transitioning away from humble beginnings.
This week on the podcast, Scott tells host Corie Murray about the tenacity required in his earlier years to get back on track regarding school, work and life itself, a track that turned into a career path.
Recommended Videos
[TRENDING: Storms get started a little later in Central Florida | Woman killed, 4 seriously injured in crash off Dunnellon intersection, troopers say | Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]
“I remember sometimes my homework was sloppy. I wanted to go outside and play with my big wheel and my Voltron back in the day for anyone who remembers that, but (my mother said) ‘You gonna get back at the desk, at the kitchen table, and you gonna do this homework the right way all right? Because when you get into the real world, people don’t want to see poor quality.’ So I guess in a sense Corie, she was preparing me to be an engineer the whole time, so thank you mom, I know you somewhere watching me right now,” Scott said.
Years later, in engineering school — as Scott managed a difficult schedule involving education and a job at a Siemens engineering lab — the Virginia native said his falling grades led to a pivotal interaction with one of his professors, and a powerful lesson in time management.
“He said, ‘If you want to do this, go home, look in the mirror and take a look at yourself and decide that you want to be an engineer. If you don’t, that’s just a decision that you made and you’re gonna have to live with it.’ He said, ‘I think you could do it, but do you believe you can do it? So go home, make that decision and then, you know, make things happen from that,’” Scott said. “That’s what I did, I went home looked in the mirror, I said ‘You know what Corey? You coming out the projects, a lot of people didn’t believe in you, you have full scholarships you couldn’t take advantage of for other reasons. You know what? I’m willing to take the blows that come along with this,’ and I did.”
As brilliant as it is convenient, Scott’s solution to overcoming adversity of most any kind in this unfair world is to approach problems like an engineer, with an intent to come up with a plan, no matter what.
“You got to ask yourself, ‘Who do you want designing airplanes when you get in them?... You want somebody that can’t take the rigor of something being academically hard and they just give up — or you want that guy or that lady or anyone that says, ‘You know what, this is kind of challenging, but I’m going to take on that challenge and I’m going to beat the challenge, I’m going to make it happen no matter what’s going on.’ So that’s what engineering is all about. It’s about problem solving. And we all are engineers in a sense because we got problems every day that we got to get solved,” Scott said.
In addition to his more-than two decades working in engineering, manufacturing and product development environments, Scott is also the founder and acting president of the National Engineering League, “a premier league of engineering professionals, problem-solving consultants, and humanitarians aimed at increasing the number of engineers and scientific professionals being produced annually on a national level,” according to the organization’s website.
Black Men Sundays talks about building generational wealth. Check out every episode in the media player below: