Ed Smith And The Imagination Machine: The Untold Story Of A Black Video Game Pioneer

At APF in the 1970s, as the second-known African-American video game engineer, he helped create an industry.

Ed Smith at the Winter CES show in 1981 with the Imagination Machine II personal computer

Thirty-seven years ago, New York-based APF Electronics, Inc. released The Imagination Machine, a hybrid video game console and personal computer designed to make a consumer's first experience with computing as painless and inexpensive as possible.

APF's playful computer (and its game console, the MP1000) never rivaled the impact of products from Apple or Atari, but they remain historically important because of the man who cocreated them: Ed Smith, one of the first African-American electronics engineers in the video game industry. During a time when black Americans struggled for social justice, Manhattan-based APF hired Smith to design the core element of its future electronics business.

What it took to get there, for both APF and Smith, is a story worth recounting—and one that, until now, has never been told in full.

Edward Lee Smith was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1954. He grew up in Brownsville, an impoverished neighborhood within the borough. His parents moved there from Mississippi a few years prior, and they weren't alone. Between about 1910 and 1970, millions of black families like the Smiths fled north in a Great Migration, as historians now call it, to escape the terrors of the American South during the Jim Crow era.

What his parents found when they got to New York wasn't much more promising than the South: Government policies and widespread racism kept black residents concentrated in small areas of low opportunity and high poverty. Places like Brownsville were the result. The neighborhood had once been primarily occupied by Jews, but later became known as a black ghetto, replete with scenes of crime and misfortune that unfolded every day. It was in this environment that Ed Smith came of age, the third eldest of six brothers and sisters, in a public housing development called Nobel Drew Ali Plaza. His mother was a domestic, and his father, an Army veteran, drove trucks for a living.

Early on, Smith's father told the younger Smith not to expect any greater aspirations for himself. "Get your chauffeur’s license so you can learn how to drive a truck," Smith recalls him saying, "because that’s all you’re ever going to do." And yet such expectations could not suppress Ed Smith's intense curiosity about how things worked. He began taking apart everything he could, and he soon taught himself to repair basic electrical gadgets like toasters and irons. Later, he moved on to radio receivers and TV sets. Smith's electronics skills came in handy as he began doing odd jobs around the neighborhood to help make ends meet for his family. At times, he largely provided for himself.

Through exposure to books and TV, Smith learned about the larger world outside of Brownsville. He devoured epic science fiction works and titles by black intellectuals such as Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and the works of W.E.B. Du Bois. As his knowledge of the world grew, Smith began to feel like Brownsville was his personal cage, holding him back from greater opportunities. He recalls the many times he sat at his window, watching the traffic on the busy four-lane street outside. "My only wish was to be sitting in one of those cars, driving down Eastern Parkway," he says. "Anywhere, any direction, I didn't care. I just didn't want to be there."

It was a tough life, but he tried his best to steer his own fate. At age 13, Smith recalls waking up to a commotion, his sisters and brothers crying. In another room, he found his mother on the floor, his father pummeling her with fierce blows. Smith tried to pull his dad off, but the elder Smith knocked him unconscious. When the teen came to, he grabbed a frying pan from the kitchen and knocked his father out. "I dragged him out of the house and locked the door," recalls Smith. "That was the last time my father ever came into our home."

In January 1968, two brothers named Albert and Philip Friedman, both veterans of the consumer electronics industry and Asian import specialists, founded a technology company named after their initials: APF Electronics, Inc. The new firm opened an office on Madison Avenue in Manhattan and got to work quickly, making deals to bring in the latest transistorized calculators and stereos from Japan.

Albert Friedman, the company's first president, then in his 60s, had previously worked for Olympic Radio, then later served as president of Delmonico International—the first company to import Sony products to the United States. His brother Philip grew up in prewar Japan, steeped in Asian culture, and had for decades been an essential liaison to U.S. firms that sought to do business with the Far East.

The pair hired other Delmonico veterans to fill out APF's initial team, including Seymour "Sy" Lipper, who took on a marketing role, and Irving Boilen, an electronics engineer that would serve as the head of their new engineering department.

On the broader American stage, 1968 marked a tumultuous low point in a decade that saw rapid social and technological change. While the Vietnam War weighed heavily on the nation's collective conscience, it was a domestic event that set the chaotic tone for the rest of the year: On April 4, an assassin shot and killed Martin Luther King, Jr., as he stood on his motel balcony in Memphis.

The murder of America's most famous proponent of black rights triggered riots in many communities around the country, including Brownsville. The day after King was killed, 14-year-old Ed Smith sat on a street corner, watching in disgust. "I remember all of the looting going on around me," he recalls. "People were taking bricks and throwing them into white people's cars. It was mass rioting." The experience solidified his resolve: He was going to find a path out of the projects.

Smith's friends were skeptical of his passionate interest in electronics. "When they heard what I was doing, they would say, 'You would never understand that, a black guy can't do this kind of thing. It's not your world. They will laugh you out of the room,'" he says. The negative remarks only served as a challenge to Smith, who sought to prove them wrong.

During his last year of high school, Smith met his future wife, Sheila, and unexpectedly found himself becoming a father at age 18. The desire to provide for his family intensified Smith's drive, and after graduation, he started working full time doing electrical odd jobs like wiring security systems.

In 1972, Smith moved to Coney Island and landed a position at Brooklyn-based Marbelite, one of the nation's largest manufacturers of traffic signals. The job gave Smith his first taste of digital electronics technology, which would drive consumer electronics of the 1970s, '80s, and beyond.

Behind every traffic signal is a device called a traffic controller—a timer that keeps track of when to turn on and off certain lights. Prior to the 1970s, most controllers relied on electromechanical parts, but the boom in solid-state electronics saw the controllers become transistorized in the early 1970s. In 1971, Intel had introduced the first commercial single-chip microprocessor, launching a new era in electronics. Just as other industries scrambled to incorporate the new technology into their products, it wasn't long before Marbelite wanted to use the power of a microprocessor to control traffic signals.

To that end, Marbelite paid for Smith, who was then working as a technician, to attend local vocational classes on microprocessor-based circuit design. He learned to program the brand-new Fairchild F8 microprocessor (coincidentally the same chip used in the Fairchild Channel F, the first cartridge-based video game system in 1976). The classes brought big dividends to Smith, who soon leveraged the knowledge to get a taste of life in other parts of the Big Apple.

By 1972, APF Electronics had established itself as a leading manufacturer of desktop electronic calculators. In fact, the firm was doing so well that it contracted Sy Lipper's brother, Martin "Marty" Lipper, as a specialist to take the company public that November. Looking back, Marty (who joined APF full time as its CFO in 1973) emphasizes the role of calculators in the company's early success. "We built 70% of all the calculators ever sold at Sears in those days," he recalls. "The same goes for Montgomery Ward."

Calculators would carry APF's business forward until the next great revolution in consumer electronics came along: video games. Just as APF was going public in 1972, a young California company called Atari made waves nationwide with Pong, an arcade video game sensation that soon spawned dozens of shameless rip-off games and launched a wider arcade video game industry. Ironically, Pong itself was a shameless (but improved) rip-off of the first home video game system, the Magnavox Odyssey, which launched just a few months earlier.

In December 1975, Atari released the home console version of Pong through Sears under its Tele-Games label, and it proved wildly successful. Like it had done in the arcades, Pong as a home product inspired dozens of knock-offs, most of which were built using a custom "Pong-on-a-chip" integrated circuit created by General Instruments called the AY-3-8500. The mass production and general availability of this chip, and several follow-ups, made the engineering of dedicated "ball-and-paddle" consoles almost trivial affairs, with more work going into their plastic cases than into the electronics within.

In 1976, APF became one of dozens of firms that jumped headfirst into the home video game market, releasing its first Pong-like decidated console, the TV Fun. It was a sleek, compact, plastic cabinet with faux woodgrain and silver trim and two built-in rotary knobs that contained four built-in variations of the simple ball-and-paddle game. While the TV Fun utilized the same Pong-on-a-chip circuit that many other manufacturers used in their own clone consoles, APF's model quickly became one of the best selling on the market, moving 400,000 units within its first year—a stunning figure at the time.

Over the next two years, APF followed the first TV Fun with several improved models that added more games and a light gun, although sales dropped with each successive unit as the market became increasingly saturated with Pong-like consoles.

APF also found, as other companies did, that it became prohibitively risky to keep releasing new dedicated consoles—which often needed their own distinctive cases, circuitry, and marketing campaigns—to accommodate new types of video games. The solution to this problem first entered the market in 1976 with the Channel F, which was codesigned by an African-American engineer, Jerry Lawson. The Channel F approach allowed the sale of one universal console player device and many smaller, less expensive game cartridges that would add lasting appeal to the system.

An interchangeable, programmable approach to video games required the games to be written as software and run through a microprocessor—in other words, it meant designing a computerized video game system. From APF's point of view, creating such a console would require specialized expertise that few engineers at the company had developed. That led to the search for a new hire who could help design a new console that would lead APF into the next generation. Thanks to Marbelite, they would soon find their man.

Ed Smith loved his job at Marbelite; it introduced him not only to new concepts in electronics, but also to a wider world. While attending his microprocessor classes, he visited Manhattan and took special notice of Wall Street brokers that projected a fancy, clean-cut look. "I definitely wanted to be that kind of person," he recalls. "Somebody who would be able to dress for success."

With that aim in mind, Smith signed up with an employment agency, and soon he landed a job interview with APF Electronics in midtown Manhattan. There he met Kenneth Boilen, the son of Irving Boilen and one of APF's chief engineers. After a brief greeting, Boilen introduced him to another engineer named Craig who sat Smith down at a table with a schematic and said, simply, "Build that," then left the room.

"The man was an engineer, and he knew his business."
Smith found the task fairly simple; he completed the construction just after lunch. An hour later, Craig returned, surprised to see the task complete. "You're done?" he asked Smith in amazement, to which Smith replied that he had been finished for some time. Soon after, Craig reported to his superiors: "This guy knows what he's doing."

Just like that, Smith landed his dream job in buttoned-down Manhattan.

According to Marty Lipper, Smith's race never played a part during the hiring process at APF. "The man was an engineer, and he knew his business," he recalls. "When we interviewed him, he was a decent guy, and that's all I cared about." Still, it's a reflection of APF's culture that it chose, in the mid-1970s, to hire a black man who grew up in one of the most impoverished neighborhoods of New York City to design the linchpin of its future electronics business.

When pressed, Lipper emphasizes the diversity of the company's workforce. He recounts an episode when he got a call from the Department of Labor, informing APF that it was being sued for being anti-Semitic. "I started laughing on the phone," he recalls. "And the one from the labor department says, 'Mr. Lipper, this is not a funny situation.'" Lipper went on to explain that APF's entire upper management team was Jewish. "I told them, 'We have 150 employees. Twenty-five percent or 30% have to be black. We have about 50 Chinese. We've got Middle Easterners, you name it. We're the League of Nations.’"

Both Marty Lipper, a Korean War vet, and his older brother Sy—the firm's president when Smith was hired—describe living lives steeped in diversity. Sy Lipper, who is now 90, grew up during the Great Depression in a poor Jewish ghetto in the Bronx. Later, he served in the European theater during World War II alongside a diverse cast of characters from all over the U.S., some of whose deep poverty meant that their government-issued combat boots were the first pair of shoes they ever wore. He also witnessed liberated Nazi concentration camps firsthand, and he says these experiences gave him a deep appreciation for the opportunities available to him in his home country—and of those denied to others. "I got to see what was going on elsewhere in the world, how people were living," recalls Sy. "I saw that what [my family] had was so much better, even though we had nothing."

Nine years his brother's junior, Marty Lipper recalls attending the first integrated high school in New York City, Morris High School, where he took classes with future Secretary of State Colin Powell, whom he knew well.

In the minds of APF's management, there was never a question of whether or not to hire a black man. Smith was fully qualified for the job. That's how he became not only APF's first microprocessor specialist, but also (after Fairchild’s Jerry Lawson) the second known black engineer in the history of video games.

At APF, Ed Smith "learned to translate binary code pretty fast," he remembers. "I learned the motto of any good engineer, which is "plug it in and let's see if it blows up." After getting established, he took the opportunity to go back to school part-time, studying computer science and marketing at Pace University. Three days out of the week, he would leave Brooklyn, go to work in midtown, leave for Pace in lower Manhattan, then come back home at night.

Around 1977, an engineering crew at APF, led by Kenneth Boilen, began work on the firm's first cartridge-based video game system. Ed Smith took the lead on designing the prototype for the console, drawing from a wide range of inspirations like the Apple I and TRS-80, but ultimately coming up with a unique design based on the Motorola 6800 microprocessor—an unusual CPU choice in the industry at the time, which was handed to him by his boss.

With contributions from APF's design team and engineers in Hong Kong, Smith developed the console's electronic design through numerous iterations over the course of six months. Meanwhile, the company's marketing department christened the new product the MP1000 (MP for "microprocessor").

What APF came up with was a small, black plastic video game unit with silver buttons and woodgrain trim. The MP1000's base doubled as a stand for two hard-wired hand controllers, each with a joystick, a large fire button, and a 12-button numeric keypad. The system generated blocky color graphics and contained one built-in game, Rocket Patrol.

Most importantly, the MP1000 also played games sold separately on removable cartridges, with each cartridge including multiple game variations that were selectable from an on-screen menu. After design was complete, Smith recalls his job as switching to play-tester for a time. He learned to complete every game on every difficultly level, and it became a mind-numbing chore before long.

The MP1000 launched commercially in mid-1978. It sold well initially, but received mixed reviews from the press. On the positive side, with the home video game industry being as new as it was at the time, there was still a general sense of wonder among the public that games could be played on a TV set at all, and thus the bar for game quality was relatively low. As such, not much public criticism was levied on the quality of the MP1000's individual games.

Meanwhile, Atari retained the industry's sales lead with its cartridge-based console, the VCS (later known as the Atari 2600) thanks to home ports of its hit arcade games. Through its coin-op division, Atari mastered the design of visceral, action-based gameplay that attracted players and kept them coming back for more, raising the bar on perceptions of home video game quality dramatically during the last few years of the 1970s. Notably, in the press, Atari's games stood out as individual cultural works worthy of review and attention separate from the VCS console itself.

In contrast, APF fared poorly in regard to game quality and innovation. At a time when Atari's games often featured tanks, jets, race cars, dragons, and haunted houses, APF's MP1000 offered low-energy games like Bowling, Backgammon, Hangman, and Tic-Tac-Toe. The few action games the MP1000 had often involved no more coordination than timing when to push the fire button to shoot a single spaceship flying slowly across the top of the screen.

Most of APF's games had been programmed by one man, a British expat named Harry Cox. According to the Lippers, APF could hardly spare the capital required to hire additional programmers. (The question of third-party game software, a business pioneered later by Activision, did not enter their minds.)

Sy Lipper describes a huge culture clash between WW II-era upper management, who expected rigid nine-to-five schedules and clockwork production, and the new generation of laid-back baby boomers who they hired to write the software. Game development is an inherently artistic and creative process, and that proved difficult for many 1970s consumer electronics companies to grasp. Among the first batch of game console companies, Atari alone embraced the creative artistry of game design, and that fact above all others allowed the firm to dominate the industry.

Upon the launch of the MP1000, Ed Smith felt deep personal satisfaction from the completion of the project—the first commercial consumer product he had ever worked on. Thanks to nimble work by APF's sales team, the console was available through large merchandisers like Sears and Montgomery Ward.

One day, Smith visited a local Sears department store like a proud father, excited to see his progeny on the shelves. The trip quickly turned bittersweet as he beamed his pride to a salesman. "I said to the sales guy, 'I'm one of the guys that designed this,'" and he goes, 'Yeah, right.'"

Back in the lab, Smith was always conscious of how skin color limited opportunities for African-American kids in the projects, most of whom would never get a chance to play home video games because their parents couldn't (or wouldn't) buy a game console themselves. He saw an opportunity to help.

"Every other day I would take a console and give it to someone in the projects."
After the launch, APF began to stockpile spare and returned MP1000 consoles for demonstration and testing purposes. Roughly 300 consoles sat unused in the back of a closet at APF headquarters, ultimately destined for scrap. "Every other day I would take a console back home to the neighborhood and give it to someone in the projects that I lived in," recalls Smith, who lived in Flatbush. "So, when I was done, there were probably a good 50 people that I knew in the projects playing the MP1000." Smith, who considered his unsanctioned experiment not only a charitable exercise but part of play-testing, became impressed with the reaction he witnessed.

"They didn't know what to expect," says Smith, "But once they got it in front of them, it was all intuitive. They loved it. It was a chance to interact with someone else in the apartment versus going outside and doing something crazy. So a lot of times, people would play the video games for hours in the day, like they do today, and not be on the street."

Around the time the MP1000 was in its planning stages, APF's head of engineering, Irving Boilen, spearheaded the firm's first personal computer project, the PeCos One (short for "Personal Computer One"). According to Sy Lipper, it was Boilen who chose to base the machine around an obscure defense contractor programming language called JOSS rather than BASIC, the industry standard. That one decision ensured the quick market death of the awkward computer upon its launch in 1978.

The failure of the PeCos One would not keep APF from trying again, however. The Apple II, launched in 1977, had proven there was a strong market for easy-to-use personal computers for consumers, and APF wanted in on it. Others did too. During the development of the MP1000, APF's management heard news of Mattel's upcoming Intellivision console, which the toy giant planned to later transform into a full-fledged personal computer using a separate keyboard. Hoping to get a jump on the competition, APF decided to pursue that path as well, using Smith's microprocessor-powered MP1000 as the core of a larger computer system.

The Imagination Machine debuted to the press at the 1979 Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago with the clever name thought up by Howard Boilen (brother of Kenneth) and another APF employee named Gary Sharp. APF's marketing materials emphasized the Imagination Machine's potential as a creative tool for music, art, language, education, and programming.

What the firm showed off at CES was a large off-white computer base unit with an integrated full-sized, full-stroke keyboard and a built-in cassette tape drive for data storage. The base unit and console would be mated via a J-shaped connector that plugged into the MP1000's cartridge port. With the two units combined, the Imagination Machine relied on the Motorola 6800 CPU in the MP1000 and added an additional 8K of RAM, making for 9K of memory in total.

The Imagination Machine, as a $599 personal computer, received very wide press coverage in magazines and newspapers across the U.S. at a time when a 16K Apple II Plus retailed for $1,195. Its playful logo, combined with its emphasis on ease-of-use and creativity, were attractive targets for journalists writing roundups of the first-ever wave of lower-cost, family-oriented "home computers" that arrived from manufacturers like Atari, Texas Instruments, and Commodore during the last few years of the 1970s.

To target the Imagination Machine at a home audience, APF decided to rely on traditional retail channels as it had with its calculators and video game products. But unlike the MP1000 alone, the Imagination Machine was a fully programmable microcomputer, which was inherently trickier to operate—and much harder to sell to a suite of retail executives who often possessed no technical background whatsoever.


As shown in Popular Science, the MP1000 console plugged into the Imagination Machine base unit
To bridge this gap, Ed Smith's boss, Kenneth Boilen, approached Smith one day with an offer that would completely change his career trajectory. "We’re going to change your role to a technical specialist," Smith recalls them saying. "And we want you to go to Sears and talk about the Imagination Machine."

Smith embraced the opportunity now laid out before him: "I threw on my suit and [grabbed] my briefcase, and I’m off to Chicago." During a large lunchtime sales call, Smith found himself in Sears Tower, then the tallest building in the world, pitching APF's new computer to Sears executives. "The sales person is there and he’s hearing my pitch, and I’m talking about RAM and ROM and all of the inputs and outputs."

Smith breezed through the presentation, and at the end, the former resident of Brooklyn's poorest neighborhood, whose father had told him that he could expect no greater career than truck driver, stopped at a window and paused in a moment of triumph mixed with astonishment. Looking past his own reflection, he says, he saw the Chicago skyline and thought, "How far I have come."

The Sears meeting was one of the highlights of his career, Smith says, but it was only the beginning of a new era for him. Back at the office a couple weeks later, an APF sales rep approached Smith at his engineering drafting table and slapped him on the back. "Ed, you did so great," he said. "You just made me ten grand this month." Smith's jaw dropped. At the time, he earned about $20,000 a year.

"I got up from my drafting table, and I walked over to Howard Boilen, who was the VP of sales, and I said, 'Howard, if I’m going to pitch this, don’t you think I should sell it?'" Boilen, pleased with Smith's performance at the Sears meeting, agreed, and Smith soon switched from engineering to sales. "I started selling the machines that I helped to build," says Smith.

Throughout 1980, Smith traveled the country showing off the Imagination Machine to executives at department stores and computer retail chains, with a string of optimistic successes. However, big-name retail support for the Imagination Machine could not make up for shortcomings in the computer's design.

Today, Smith recalls that APF’s marketing department insisted on including a tape recorder with the system. The engineering team resisted, but marketing won out. APF's cassette-bound machine launched over a year after Apple had rocked the personal computer world with its low-cost Disk II drive, making slower, less reliable cassette drives commercially unattractive. And yet there it was, permanently built into each unit.

1980 passed with very modest sales of the MP1000 and the Imagination Machine, and in January 1981, Smith traveled to CES for the last time as an APF employee to demonstrate the Imagination Machine II, a remodeled unit with more memory and integrated MP1000 circuitry that looked nearly identical to the original except for a smooth surface on its top where the core console used to sit. Strangely, it retained the built-in cassette drive, but alongside the $399 base unit, APF pitched a complex "System III" constellation of peripherals and disk drive add-ons that upped the price of the machine to a far less appealing $1,195.

"This personal computer nonsense, there's no future for them."
Such incremental, expensive improvements did not improve sales, and in the face of heavy competition from Apple, Atari, Commodore, and Texas Instruments, APF's PC failed to gain significant market share. Still, the company’s management sought to keep going and try again. In fact, the Lipper brothers insist that sales of all its products were good enough to sustain the company into the future. "Nothing we did was a disappointment," says Marty Lipper with perhaps a hint of rosy glasses. "Everything we did worked out either good or excellent. We were making money, there was no problem."

The core reason for APF's downfall, according to Sy and Marty Lipper, centered on the skepticism of the two New York banks that held APF's lines of credit—the loans that APF relied on to fund production runs. Marty Lipper recalls the scene: "The banks said to me, 'You have three businesses, and we don't think there's any future in TV games because that's a fad. And this personal computer nonsense, there's no future for them. The public doesn't want or need them. But if you stay in the calculator business, we're not going to call the loans. We're happy with that business.'"

Sy and Marty Lipper refused to cave in to the banks' demands, knowing that calculators, which had become a low-priced commodity at that point, did not represent the future of the consumer electronics industry. "The banks could not understand the personal computer," says Sy Lipper. "Because as far as they were concerned, it was a toy, and the computer itself was in the hands of IBM."


Smith poses with The Imagination Machine (and some Atari gear) in 1982
In 1980, the market capitalization of Apple, one of the most successful personal computer companies up to that point, was still minuscule compared to IBM. It wasn't until August 1981 that IBM would release its Personal Computer and legitimize the market in the eyes of the banks. By then, it was too late for APF.

The Lippers warned their staff of an impending shutdown, giving them time to find new jobs, and making sure to pay the employees what they were due. "Ken Boilen, one of the best bosses and best friends I’ve ever had, was always honest and straightforward with me," says Smith. "He came to me and he said, 'You know, the company is not going to make it. We’re not doing well with this thing, and I don't want you to get stuck here and be on unemployment and not take care of your family. You should go look for something else.'"

During a final tense meeting that Sy and Marty Lipper had with its credit lenders, bank officials threatened one last time: Leave the video game business or immediately repay your $7 million debt in full. Marty stood up, pulled the company's office keys from his pocket and set them on the table. He urged his brother to do the same, then said, "Here it is. The company is now yours."

APF Electronics effectively ceased operations in 1981 and never declared bankruptcy, although it took some years for the banks to fully wind it down.

"BEING ONE OF THE FIRST TO DO ANYTHING IS AMAZING"
When Ed Smith moved on from APF, he also left the video game field. "Frankly, had I the forethought to know the industry would become what it is today, I would have stayed the path," he says.


Ed Smith today
Still, his experience at APF stuck with him. "I learned to develop myself from an introverted bench guy to an extroverted corporate speaker," he explains. "I learned to take alternate paths when one seems to be clogged. Mostly, I learned to trust my abilities and to never think I was any less capable than anyone else."

After APF, Smith spent four years managing an Apple dealership in upstate New York. Then he worked at a computer dealer in Albany and helped expand a computer chain called The Computer Factory to a new location in Philadelphia. Another fresh start came when he signed on with PC networking pioneer Novell during its formative period.

At that point, like Smith, all of his brothers and sisters had established careers for themselves and escaped life in the projects. But over a decade after Smith had moved out, his mother still lived in public housing, among high crime and badly maintained facilities.

One day in the mid-1980s, he drove from New Jersey to Brownsville in a U-Haul moving truck. Neighborhood regulars looked on with skepticism as he stepped out and entered his mother's apartment. A few minutes later, he returned with armfuls of his mother's possessions and began loading the truck.

"Where are you taking her?" the neighbors asked with incredulity. "I'm taking her out of here," he replied. As the rolling U-Haul door closed shut and he stepped into the cab, Smith heard someone say, "Whoa, he's actually doing it." He moved his mother to a apartment not far from where he lived in New Jersey, and two years later, he bought her a condo, freeing his family from the projects at last.

Today, Smith is still a successful tech salesman, although he is nearing retirement. He has been married to his high school sweetheart for 40 years and his kids are now grown with their own families.

A few decades removed from his work at APF, Smith has a new appreciation for what it meant. "Funny, when you are head-down doing the work, the last thing you think about is being an African-American," he says. "You're just another engineer doing his job. Once you have a chance to digest what you're able to accomplish, time passes by because you are head-down on the next thing."

In retrospect, he adds, "I can say with certainty that being one of the first to do anything is amazing. To be a man of color and a leader in the video game industry will be my legacy, and one that I am very proud of."

Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/3063298/breaking-the-status-quo/ed-smith-and-the-imagination-machine-the-untold-story-of-a-black-vid

Chess for Success: Using an Old Game to Build New Strengths in Children and Teens

Maurice Ashley immigrated to New York from Jamaica at the age of twelve, only to be confronted with the harsh realities of urban life. But he found his inspiration for a better life after stumbling upon a chess book and becoming hypnotized by the game. He would eventually break the chess world's color lines by becoming an International Grandmaster in 1999.

Ashley realized that chess strategies could be used as an educational tool to help children avoid the pitfalls often associated with growing up. In this book, he serves up compelling anecdotes about how chess has positively affected young players. He also offers tips on technique, how to make the game fun for children of all ages and levels, and how to overcome the myth that chess isn't cool. Through his guidance, readers will understand how chess strategies can improve a child's mental agility, creativity, and problem-solving skills. Chess for Success is a much-anticipated resource for parents, teachers, counselors, youth workers, and chess lovers.

Maurice Ashley: INTERNATIONAL GRANDMASTER

Maurice Ashley lives his passion. Through his love for chess, he not only made history as the first African-American International Grandmaster in the annals of the game, but he has translated his love to others as a three-time national championship coach, two-time author, ESPN commentator, iPhone app designer, puzzle inventor, and motivational speaker. He is now working as a Joint Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center and MIT’s Media Lab to bring the benefits of chess and other classic games to a wider educational audience through the innovative use of technology.

Maurice has traveled the world as an ardent spokesperson of the character-building effects of chess. Coming from the rough and tough streets of Kingston, Jamaica and Brooklyn, New York, Maurice has tirelessly shared his compelling story with young people in places such as the crime-ridden neighborhoods of Detroit, the townships of Cape Town, South Africa and the poverty-stricken jungles of Belize. His book, Chess for Success (Broadway Books, 2005) crystallizes his vision of the many benefits of chess, particularly for at-risk youth, and he continuously spreads his message of living one’s dream to universities, businesses, chess clubs and non-profit organizations around the globe.

His app, Learn Chess! With Maurice Ashley, has been sold in over 30 countries, and he has received multiple community service awards from city governments, universities, and community groups for his work. His drive and enthusiasm always have him on the go. In the fall of 2011, Maurice toured six Caribbean nations to bringing chess, books, and technology to kids in the region.

WHAT MAURICE DOES

• Speaking Engagements
• Teaching Life Strategy
• Chess Strategy Teaching
• Tournament Host

Source: http://mauriceashley.com/

Dr. Dennis Kimbro On How To Become Wealthy

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a roadmap to becoming a millionaire? Well, according to Dennis Kimbro's new book, "The Wealth Choice," there absolutely is.

Roland Martin sat down with author, Dennis Kimbro to discuss the roadmap to becoming a millionaire.

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Universal Talk Laws

KINJADIXON.COM Everyone who's attained wealth, regardless of how, had to SPEAK to someone. Whether the aspiration was to start a company, acquire a promotion or seal a multimillion dollar deal, it was by means of skillful communication that their lives were forever changed. The most influential person you know has a way with WORDS that causes everyone to be drawn to him or her no matter what the situation. We have all heard of the person who can SELL anything to anyone at anytime with seemingly no effort. The secret to how these people do this is in your hands right NOW •How to gain disciplines and create actions to ensure that each day of your life is productive •How to vitalize your family's core value with proven mindset principles dated back as far as the 18th century •How to recognize and utilize opportunities in your current role as preparation for your next position •How to manage all fears •How to become self-reliant in a sales environment and in life •What Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Andrew Carnegie, and many more successful people have in common •How to turn each of your employees into independent bosses •How to live a more joyous life regardless of your conditions •How to turn pain into positive production. Kinja Dixon is a motivational speaker, life coach, and sales guru with more than a decade of consistent sales excellence. Most recently awarded the 2013 Stevie Award for Sales Represenative of the year and 2013 ARDY for Inhouse Salesperson of the year. Kinja has personally helped thousands of families from all over the globe enhance their quality of living by spending more time together away from home.

Source: http://www.kinjadixon.com/

I Can I Will I Must

There are countless examples of people who refused to give up in the face of impossible obstacles. In this episode of TGIM learn how to tap into yourself to overcome any adversity you may face...

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Soundtrack : Hans Zimmer - Time

Excerpts from:

Pirates of the Carribean 3
Lost
Inception
I am Legend
The Lord of the Rings
Gladiator
G.I. Jane
Spiderman 3
The Book of Eli
Harry Potter
Crossing Over
Band of Brothers
300
Robin Hood
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight Rises
The Pursuit of Happiness
Mission Impossible 2
Men of Honor

Eric Thomas: GREATNESS IS UPON YOU

Greatness Is Upon You is Eric Thomas' highly anticipated sophomore release!  Get 24 life changing principles to help you grow personally and professionally as you strive to achieve your goals.  Designed to literally help you think and work through challenges that we all face on a daily basis, in this book, Eric mentors you and gives you techniques to defeat the odds; provides you with daily exercises; asks you thought provoking questions; and shares with you stories, events, and people who he attributes as being iconic in the arena of SUCCESS.  Each lesson brings readers one step closer to the unyielding truth behind Eric's message: Greatness Is Upon You…act like it.

The GIUY Success Journal allows those who are truly serious about redefining their course, to follow along with Eric on his journey on a more intimate and thought provoking level.  Get bonus activities and exercises, summary notes, and more… Package Includes:

Unsigned copy of Greatness Is Upon You

Greatness Is Upon You Success Journal

Greatness Is Upon You Instructional Video and Audio download  (Download will be emailed 48-72 hrs after purchase.) 

Source: http://etinspires.com/

Transforming Pain to Power: Unlock Your Unlimited Potential

Pain doesn’t last always
Sometimes only for a night
Try not to resist
It hurts the more we fight

Overcoming life’s difficulties is daunting. At times, it seems the burdens that we bear are too painful to overcome. They keep us from even trying to accomplish the things we want most. It seems the only way to outlast the pain is to ignore it, when, in truth, the only way to discover the unlimited potential inside of us all is to embrace the pain, face the Authentic Self at our core, and use the strength therein to triumph over any obstruction in our way.

Based on his powerful, true journey from a childhood rife with poverty, incarceration, addiction and rage to the successful adult life he achieved, award-winning performer, writer, and motivational speaker Daniel Beaty presents the tools that readers need to overcome any obstacle and tap into their full capabilities. By outlining an alternative mode of thinking, especially for the modern African-American man bombarded by negative stereotypes in the media, Beaty empowers the individual and encourages readers of all backgrounds to learn from their cultural and family heritage while forgiving and letting go of the negative so that only the positive remains.

Beaty’s story, supported by deeply personal advice from notable mentors such as Bill Cosby, Leontyne Price, Sydney Poitier, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee, serves as a strong reminder that success is ultimately possible, not in spite of struggles but as a result of lessons learned and power drawn from those lessons.

Magic Johnson - Quote Image: Kids

Source: http://www.rugusavay.com/

TGIM: S6E6: #YouMatter

In this truly inspiring video, Eric discusses the importance of self worth by letting his audience know "YOUmatter" Please forward this video to any family member or other loved one that may be experiencing hardships. #YOUmatter 

Our Deepest Fear Quote from Marianne Williamson

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Intro Music by:
Fame of Juliet
Dreams of Reality
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(2013) Success Speech (NEW) - Eric Thomas - Nothing Short of Greatness 2013

Alumnus Donates $30,000 to the University of Washington to Support Their Diversity Efforts

Los Angeles, October 3, 2013- Alumnus Mr. Kim L. Hunter announces a $30,000 contribution to The University of Washington’s (UW) Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity (OMA&D) to develop the Kim L. Hunter Internship Support Fund. This support fund will enhance OMA&D’s ability to maintain the economic development of underrepresented students who major in Business with an emphasis in marketing, advertising or communications.

“UW has been an important part of my life from the moment I came on to the campus more than three decades ago,” says Hunter. “This thirty thousand dollar contribution represents the thirty years since I left my alma mater and I am honored to make this contribution to the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity to make education available to students who might not be able to afford it.”

OMA&D works to increase diversity on campus and enrich the collegiate experience through programs such as academic counseling services, the Educational Opportunity Program and the Instructional Center. Their programs currently serve more than 13,000 middle and high school students with college preparation and more than 4,900 undergraduate students with academic advising, instructional support or financial aid.  As a result of their efforts, the number of applications received from underrepresented students has increased by 57 percent and UW freshman underrepresented enrollment has increased by 23 percent over the last five years.

“The University of Washington has a long legacy of transforming lives,” said Vice President for Minority Affairs and Vice Provost for Diversity at University of Washington Sheila Edwards Lange. “We have had the opportunity to develop powerful stories of discovery, learning and growth through the support of our loyal alumni leaders. I truly appreciate Kim’s interest and support for the next generation. He walks the walk and we all benefit from that.“

Understanding the invaluable experience gained from internships, Hunter’s support fund will provide students with industry experience and career development. During his time as an undergraduate, Hunter participated in multiple internships with major companies such as IBM, Xerox and Dow Chemical.

This is not the first time Hunter has donated to his alma mater. In 2007, the philanthropist donated $25,000 to the Michael G. Foster School of Business at UW for an Endowed Scholarship fund to benefit students from an underrepresented background pursuing a degree in marketing. Hunter is also a member of the Vice President’s Club, which includes generous alumni and friends who contribute $1,000 or more annually to funds within OMA&D.

Hunter brings more than 30 years of corporate and agency experience in advertising, marketing and public relations. A serial entrepreneur and diversity advocate, he currently manages three separate companies LAGRANT COMMUNICATIONS, an integrated marketing communications firm specializing in multicultural markets; The LAGRANT Foundation, a non profit organization whose mission is to increase the ethnic representation in advertising, marketing and public relations; and KLH & Associates, a multicultural executive search firm. Hunter received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing and a minor in Anthropology from the University of Washington in 1982.

The Secret To Success: Audio Book

It’s officially here!!! “The Secret to Success” THE AUDIOBOOK! No actors, just me sharing my story with you. We tried several different editors and it just wasn’t what I had in mind, so we went back to the lab and what came out was crazy! I’m proud to say I know it’s a product that you will enjoy, but more importantly this audio book will help you to elevate your current circumstances if you follow the outlined principles. It isn’t just a good story, these are the exact steps your boy took to go from the streets of Detroit to the person you know today. Special thanks to Jamie Cook and Ben Rickert for working with the team and pulling this amazing project together. Now you can listen anywhere, anytime…

                               

Source: http://etinspires.com/the-audiobook-is-here/

Derrick Jaxn: Biography

A man is as a man does; not says, hopes, nor promises. Derrick Jaxn(Jackson), a native of Enterprise, Alabama, found his purpose in his exceptional ability to impact lives by relating to others through literature. As the youngest of 5 in a single parent household, he witnessed his mother overcome life threatening illnesses while working multiple jobs, which would later become the catalyst in his drive to impose a standard of excellence, logic, and originality on a world dictated by blind conformity.

Derrick Jaxn founded a non-profit teen mentoring organization, won national and multiple conference football championships, was a community leader, and landed a position in Fortune 500 corporate America, all before completing his undergraduate studies at the historic Tuskegee University. While his story is nothing short of inspirational, more importantly, it’s only just begun.

In a considerably short amount of time, he’s taken his personal blog from being a diary of thought and perspective, to a lifestyle pulpit that millions have experienced and found value in for themselves. Popular articles such as “12 Things She Wishes You Understood” and “The Wake Up Call, Sincerely Trayvon Martin” have been shared among social network users over 75,000 times each.

Even as a lifestyle blogger, Jaxn continues to express himself across various mediums, in particular his highly anticipated first publication, “A Cheating Man’s Heart”. He has an undeniable talent, unwavering ambition, and boundless potential to be one of the most influential men of his generation.

Source: http://derrickjaxn.com/

Keith Harrell, CSP, CPAE

Known across corporate America for his energetic, innovative presentations, Keith's unique style of delivery, solid content, and practical application, spiced with the right amount of humor, leaves his audiences ready to take action!

Keith speaks from his own leadership experience and what he has gleaned through his interaction with some of the world's most respected business leaders. He spent fourteen years as a corporate marketing executive and top training instructor at IBM. Today he addresses audiences at more than 120 events annually for corporate clients such as McDonald's, Microsoft, and American Express.

It doesn't take long to understand why The Wall Street Journal calls Keith Harrell "a star with attitude." Speaker, consultant, and author, Keith continues to mesmerize and motivate audiences with his charismatic style, humorous insights, and contagious high energy.

As a Professional Speaker, Keith has:

Written several best-selling books, including Attitude Is Everything, showing people how to achieve their personal best in business and in life.

Earned the highest designation presented by the National Speakers Association, "CSP" or "Certified Speaking Professional."

Spoken to hundreds of organizations such as Coca-Cola, Boeing, Bellsouth, Merrill Lynch, and the CIA.
Been named by one of the country's leading lecture agencies to its list of the "22 Guaranteed Standing Ovations!"

Won the prestigious Council of Peers Award for Excellence conferred by the National Speakers Association. Only five speakers of 5,000 annually are bestowed with the honor.

Source: http://keithharrell.com/

Great Black Speakers

WHAT IS GREAT BLACK SPEAKERS ?

Great Black Speakers was founded in January 2007 by Lawrence Watkins, a 28 year old, successful entrepreneur. Great Black speaker’s bureau is committed to providing excellence, reliability, and an elevated measure of integrity on a daily basis. Check out this quick video that explains how we can help you and your organization:

WHAT DO WE DO ?
Great Black Speakers Bureau is a speakers’ bureau that helps Universities, Corporations, and High Schools find high quality, African-American speakers for different events.

We currently have over 200 speakers that are a part of our bureau and have worked with various colleges and universities around the nation. A great benefit of Great Black Speakers is that we have speakers that fit all price ranges. We work very closely with our speakers and clients to ensure that they receive the best experience possible. The speakers we represent are very well trained in their craft and are able to provide keynote speeches, workshops and seminars, panel discussions, as well as conferences.

Great Black Speakers is devoted in helping you find the right speaker that will convey an unforgettable message to your organization. We take pride in our work and will guarantee great service by providing you with speakers who are reliable and devoted to our company’s mission.


Great Black Speakers also assist African American speakers with the opportunity to increase their exposure. We offer services to help speakers advance, promote and manage their speaking career to achieve future success.

Source: http://www.greatblackspeakers.com

Wally Amos: Famous Amos Cookies

Today, his name is a household word. Wally Amos’ most recent venture is Chip & Cookie, a unique cookie boutique in Waikiki and Kailua, Hawaii, and an e-commerce business, www.chipandcookie.com. Chip & Cookie features 5 flavors of cookies from Wally’s original recipe and the Chip& Cookie characters, originally created by Christine Harris-Amos and the venture’s mascots for literacy. Wally & Christine created the Read It Loud! Foundation in 2005 (www.readitloud.org). In 2008, a three-year public-private partnership with The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress was formed to stimulate 5 million parents nationwide to read to their children every day. Wally also co-founded the Uncle Wally’s Muffin Company which produces a full line of muffins.

As founder of Famous Amos Cookies in 1975 and father of the gourmet chocolate chip cookie industry, he has used his fame to support educational causes.  Wally was National Spokesman for Literacy Volunteers of America from 1979 until 2002 when they merged with Laubach Literacy Council to create ProLiteracy Worldwide.  He now refers to himself as a Literacy Advocate.  He serves as a Board Member of the National Center for Family Literacy and Communities in Schools.  In addition, he serves as Chairman of the Chip & Cookie Read It Loud! Foundation.

Wally Amos has received many honors and awards.  He gave the shirt off his back and his battered Panama hat to the Smithsonian Institution’s Business Americana Collection.  He has been inducted into the Babson College Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs, and he received the Horatio Alger Award, The President’s Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, and The National Literacy Honors Award.

Wally is also an author who has written eight books; his autobiography, The Famous Amos Story: The Face That Launched A Thousand Chips, The Power In You: Ten Secret Ingredients To Inner Strength, Man With No Name: Turn Lemons Into Lemonade, Watermelon Magic: Seeds of Wisdom, Slices of Life, The Cookie Never Crumbles: Inspirational Recipes for Every Day Living, Be Positive, Be Positive!: Insights Into How To Live A Joy-filled and Inspiring Life, The Power In Self-Esteem: How To Discover And Fulfill Your Life Dreams and Live An Inspiring Life: Ten Secret Ingredients for Inner Strength.

Over the years, Wally Amos has acted in a number of network sitcoms and appeared on hundreds of interview shows, news programs, educational programs and commercials.  On the lecture circuit, he addresses audiences at corporations, industry associations and universities with his inspiring “do it” positive attitude.

Over 150 million Americans know Wally Amos.  His fame is grounded in quality, substance and a positive attitude.

Source: http://www.bluefeathermanagement.com/speakers/wally_amos.php

Mario Armstrong – Digital Lifestyle Expert

- TV Commentator – TODAY Show, CNN, HLN
- Emmy award winner 2011 “Best TV Show Host”
- Radio &TV Technology Talk show host, Journalist and Tech Reporter,
- Small Business Tech Advocate
- Youth Tech Motivator!
- Heard & Seen on: TODAY show, HLN, CNN, NPR, WYPR & SiriusXM
- Founder, TechTechBoom & Co-Founder, Urban Video Game Academy for Youth

Mario Armstrong–much like the technology he loves–has always been an amalgamation of many different things: radio, TV & online media personality, motivational speaker, public servant and social entrepreneur. At his heart, Armstrong wants to better people’s lives by educating them to leverage technology to enhance their personal and professional lives. Armstrong translates technology for the public and businesses, for tech enthusiasts and non-tech audiences, through his radio shows, TV segments, public speaking, print and online programs.

Mario covers the stories, headlines, business, issues, gadgets and news makers of the day. He entertains and educates audiences as to how technology impacts our society and businesses. He appears regularly on radio and TV; Mario is the Digital and Technology Commentator for HLN, CNN and NBC’s TODAY show. In addition, he has appeared on the Rachel Ray Show, Nate Berkus show, MPT, PBS and C-Span.  In print, Mario recently started a quarterly column in Black Enterprise Magazine. On radio, Mario hosts the technology talk show on SiriusXM Satellite Radio and is a technology contributor for NPR’s Morning Edition and Tell Me More programs.

Before his media career, Armstrong worked in the tech industry for 12+ years and was the first Chief Technology Officer in Baltimore City government for then Mayor, Martin O’Malley. Armstrong also served as the IT Director for the State of Maryland’s Tourism Department. In addition, Armstrong was one of six chosen in the United States to be a part of a Technology Delegation to meet with tech entrepreneurs in Seoul Korea to discuss new international business partnerships between the United States and South Korea.

Additionally, Mario is considered a social entrepreneur as he is super passionate about influencing, engaging and educating youth to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) academics, careers and entrepreneurship. Mario worked directly with teenagers to develop and design an online youth tech social network called TechTechBoom.com. This company will morph kids from passive users of cell phones and laptops into the next generation of digital scientists, innovators and activists by increasing their interest and knowledge in STEM. Armstrong is also a co-founder of the Urban Video Game Academy–an educational non-profit program that uses the allure, interactivity and development process of video games to increase students’ interest and academic achievement in STEM. The program has been featured in USA Today, on CNN & in Newsweek magazine. His voice is featured in a fun and educational video game entitled, “SpaceStation Sim,” developed by Vision Video games for NASA.

Mario has been recognized as:

Emmy award winner for “Best TV show Host” – 2011
“Daily Record VIP List” Successful before 40
“The Root 100” recognized in the top 100 people alongside actor Nick Cannon, Pro-Athlete Lebron James,  Musician and Producer Wyclef John and Singer John Legend
“Top 40 under 40” Emerging Leaders – Baltimore Business Journal
“Modern-Day Technology Leader” – Career Communications Group
“Best Technology Guru” City Paper, Best of Baltimore
“Best Cable TV Host”- Beacon Award Winner
One of Baltimore’s “Top 25 Young Rising Stars” – Baltimore Times
“Service Above Self Award” – Rotary Club of Maryland
“Technology Advocate of the Year” – Urban League
Hope for Today, Visions for Tomorrow award – Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland

Source: http://www.marioarmstrong.com

Conscious TV - This man will INSPIRE you TODAY!