The Dirty Shite podcast focuses on personal and professional success by developing oneself. They are currently running a series called "Crafting an Unforgettable Presence" where they share stories to help listeners make an impact in their chosen field. The latest episode features the biography of Sir Arthur Lewis, a West Indian economist and Nobel Laureate. Lewis was the first black person appointed to an academic post at the London School of Economics and achieved many other groundbreaking accomplishments. The podcast also discusses the importance of learning from the experiences of others and the value of gaining skills outside of academia.
Hello, hi, welcome to this week's installment of the Dirty Shite podcast with me, your host, Geo. This is where we focus on holistic professional and personal success by growing and developing the common denominator to all your successes, all your failures, and everything in between, you. It's about the mindset, emotional regulation, and the intentional personal development that underpins holistic success. As you may or may not know, we've been running a series on the podcast called Crafting an Unforgettable Presence, inspired by the book, Make Yourself Unforgettable, written by Dale Carnegie.
The idea behind the series is to share stories that have something to teach in helping you craft an unforgettable presence for yourself, in helping you make, become a force in your chosen area, in helping you and I learn more about the things that have already been figured out by the people who've gone before us. They say only fools choose to learn only from experience. You learn from the experiences of others. I find that learning from the experiences of others also saves us the pain of reinventing things that have been invented already.
If we lean on the knowledge of those that have gone before, we are able to build on it rather than to spend all our life's energy doing work that has already been done. The Crafting an Unforgettable Presence series is not necessarily run on a particular timeframe or number of episodes, and it doesn't necessarily follow that it will come in any particular week. An episode in this series comes as and when a story worth sharing is found, and the stories are generally aimed, the stories that are selected are generally selected for their lack of visibility or the fact that they are not known to many people, and it's usually stories about people who are not known to many people.
To the extent that a person who is known is featured in this series, we will also endeavor to talk about an aspect of their story that is uncommon. Last week, I was trying to find someone of interest to talk about that I didn't know about, someone I had never heard of before, and as I was blundering around the Internet, I came across some research from the New York Public Library done by Nelson Oburn, who is a librarian there, and it was published in June 2021, and I think it is supported by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
And in reading this publication, I learned about Sir Arthur Lewis, a West Indian economist and Nobel Laureate, and I had never heard of the man. As I worked through his story, I realized very quickly that this was a story worthy of the series and that I should share it. And so here I am sharing with you Sir Arthur Lewis's biography as shared by the New York Library and their very hardworking librarians. Now, you might be wondering what Lewis's claim to fame is, and let me tell you, Sir Arthur Lewis is the first black person appointed to an academic post at the London School of Economics.
He's the first black professor at the University of Manchester. He served as economic advisor to Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of the newly independent nation of Ghana at the time, the first black person to serve as vice chancellor at the University of West Indies, the first black person to be a full professor at Princeton University, the first and still the only, at the time of publication, black Nobel Prize winner in economic sciences. How remarkable is that? And I thought, how have I not heard of this person? And so I started reading.
You may or may not know that in academia, and in research and in universities, winning a Nobel Prize is perhaps is considered one of the greatest honors on earth. The Nobel Prize and the Nobel Prizes have been awarded since 1901 and currently cover six categories. They have been 962 Nobel Prize winners. The librarians at the New York Library sought to find Nobel laureates from Africa and its diaspora. And what they learned was that only 16 of the 962 were black Nobel laureates.
These recipients fall into three categories, peace, literature, and economic sciences. There were multiple laureates in the categories of peace and literature, but only one in the category of economic sciences. And that one was Sir Arthur Lewis. So let's hear more about his life. Lewis, Arthur Lewis was born on January 23, 1915 in St. Lucia. Interestingly enough, the literary great Derek Walcott was born on the exact same day 15 years later. St. Lucia is known for its gorgeousness and its towering mountains.
They have a special name that I can't pronounce. But for a black boy born in 1915 on this gorgeous island, his life would have been one of hard labor. Careers of the mind, so academia and white-collar careers, were highly unlikely for citizens of far-flung British colonial outposts. And that was certainly true of the West Indies. Following emancipation in 1838, there was a small rising class, many of whom were teachers like Lewis's parents. But the general path for an island resident was hard labor, either in agriculture or in another form of manual labor.
The island had a lot of agricultural produce, and a lot of people simply were marshaled into agriculture over time. Lewis quickly became a shining star in the West Indies. He was a sickly child, but he was taken out of school due to an ailment, and his father homeschooled him. And his father did such a great job that by the time Lewis was well enough to get back in school, he was advanced by two grades. He excelled at his studies, which assured his path to tertiary education, right? But getting a university admission was particularly arduous.
In that era, you had to earn a scholarship to a university, usually in Britain. Since he was a student who had skipped two grades, you would think that this would give him an advantage, but no. Lewis had to wait two years until the rest of his classmates had caught up, that part pained me, to sit the exam that would then lead to the scholarship. So in the interim, he took a job with the Department of Agriculture.
And I thought to myself, that is a great example of patience in motion. I think one of the things that we easily fall into is sitting and waiting for the opportunity of our dreams. While you are waiting, be working on something. While you're waiting, be in motion, whether it is moving to meet your dream or moving to create something else while you wait. Do not sit down and wait, rather move while you wait. So finally, in 1932, Lewis won the coveted scholarship.
And you might wonder, so just let me go back to that point, because I feel I haven't completed the thought there. You might wonder what it would serve him to work in the Department of Agriculture, for example. But things like work ethic, things like learning how to be in a working environment, things like earning your money, these are skills that scale with you in every job that you earn. In every job that you have, rather than sitting and waiting for the opportunity to come, and it would come because it was known that he was an excellent student, rather than simply sitting and waiting for that opportunity to come because he had finished learning everything that he needed to learn for that exam, he went to work to learn skills that didn't come with academia, to earn money that didn't come with the things that he had already been taught.
He started preparing for the future beyond the future. Some of the most powerful lessons or some of the most useful lessons that I learned that helped me in my career even today are things that I learned not as a lawyer, not as general counsel in a big company, but maybe as a waitress in Pennsylvania. I worked as a waitress for a few months, and one of the most powerful skills I learned from that job is to keep my bad day to myself.
I can show up and be a ray of sunshine even when I am tortured by something. That and understanding how to be part of a team when you're working in the kitchen, because in order for the customer to get a plate in front of them, someone has to have taken the order correctly, delivered it correctly, someone has to have cooked it correctly, someone has to have put it out correctly, someone needs to have picked it up correctly, you need to be kitted safely so you don't fall on the slippery floor, and then you need to deliver that food with a cheerful smile.
Understanding that you're part of a system that must be working well in order to deliver a result is a skill that doesn't easily come from sitting in a classroom. I would even go as far as saying it doesn't come at all from sitting in a classroom. So learning that patience in motion has value is such a critical skill. Finally, in 1932, Lewis won the coveted scholarship by successfully passing the London matriculation examination. The scholarship covered all undergraduate fees at any university in the United Kingdom.
He chose the London School of Economics. He dreamed of becoming an engineer, but in those days under the Union Jack, it was highly unlikely that a black man could pursue a career in that field. He entered the London School of Economics in 1933 with the intention of earning a Bachelor of Commerce degree. Economics, a field new to him, was required for the degree. As expected, he excelled at his studies and graduated with high honors. He searched for employment in a variety of places such as the renowned magazine, The Economist, and at Britain's colonial office where he hoped to secure a position in the West Indies.
Unfortunately, his efforts did not bear fruit, and only The Economist offered an explanation as to why he was refused a position despite being excellent. Open quote, they said they could not hire a black journalist since he would have to interview people who might refuse to see him because of his color, close quotes. In spite of these disappointments, his alma mater was so impressed with his exemplary academic performance that they recommended him for a PhD. I thought this was very interesting.
I cannot even begin to imagine what level of racism people experienced in those times, but I do know that we live in a time where it's not entirely gone. Only 10 years ago, I was working in my first job. I was a couple of years into my first job. I was mature enough in the job to be trusted to handle certain clients by myself. I recall dealing with a person who seemed to me like a nice elderly man on the telephone.
We would chat about what he needed me to do, the work he needed us to do, the firm. I would give him feedback, and I would say I was working on it. Then I was finally ready for him to come through and sign. He had reviewed all of that via email, and like I said, we chatted on the phone. I'll never forget, I walked into that room, and I was with a lovely older colleague who happened to be white.
We walked in, and I said, hi, my name is Chiyo. The client, who happened to be white as well and older, looked at me in very clear shock, and he said, but you're black. I said, I am. What followed was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life, because he essentially told me, and when I say essentially, I am going to tell you exactly what he said. I'm sorry, he said, but black people just aren't as smart as white people.
You just haven't had the same opportunities. I'm not sure you can do this job, and I said, but the work's already done. You were only meant to sign, because you already approved the work, and he said, yeah, but I didn't know you looked like this. It was exceptionally difficult for me, and I went back upstairs upset. My colleague was very red-faced, apologizing profusely for this guy. The guy had refused to sign, and he had left. It was all a huge mess, and I went upstairs to see my boss, who happened to be a white female, and I said, I'm not going to talk to him again.
I'm never going to look at him again. I don't want to deal with him ever again, and she said, no, he is not going to get to deal with anybody else in this firm besides you, so you will call him, and you will tell him that if he would like to complete this, he can only do it with you. You are going to go, and you're going to meet him, and you're going to face him, and you're going to complete this.
I'll be honest, I cried a bit that night. I cried a bit that night, and then I made the phone call. I think I had made contact with his son, who had been helping him, and I just explained that it had been a difficult engagement, and could he come along for the process, and they came. I held my ground. One of my colleagues, who is now my friend, went with me. He was closer to me in age, and he also happened to be white.
There wasn't any other black person on the team. We went down to the boardrooms. We sat across from him, and my colleague kept his mouth shut, which was very kind of him, and he said they must speak to me. I was the specialist that they had come to see, and they had to speak to me, and in as much as it was difficult for them, it was far more difficult for me, and I've always hated when people say these things build character, but it is true.
These things build character, and leaving that room triumphant, knowing that he had to complete the work, and he had to put his signature there, and he had to accept that the quality of my work was what it was, somehow was healing for me. It didn't change how horrid the experience had been, but it told me that I do not have to run from the room when a person is racist towards me. I don't have to run from the room when a person is sexist towards me.
I stand my ground, and if they don't like what happens in my space, they are the ones who should leave, and I think that is what my boss taught me, among other things. She taught me that you do not cower when a person is behaving badly. You do not run and hide. You stand and you face it. It also helps to have a team that supports you. It also helps to be part of an ecosystem that is there to stand as support, not necessarily as a shield, because these things do grow you.
So when you face this sort of discomfort at work, and it's the nature of the world that we live in, be mindful of how you respond. Be mindful not to be consumed by the anguish and the anger and the bitterness of it. Be mindful to remember that you take your power back not by going to cry, but by returning to stand your ground. Anyway, so Lewis had a very supportive team because, like we said, his alma mater was impressed with his exemplary academic performance, and they obviously were comfortable with the fact that he was black, and they recommended him for a PhD.
While pursuing his PhD, the staff at the London School of Economics offered Lewis an opportunity that would be one of many firsts in his life. The institution extended an opportunity to join the faculty. He would be the first black man hired for an academic post at the London School of Economics. I got another thought from this. As I read this part of the story, I realized that Lewis's excellence spoke for him. I got a quote from somewhere that excellence is a habit.
Excellence is how you show up, and what I got from this story is, notwithstanding all the odds against him, Lewis's ability to excel was beyond doubt, and no matter how many people said no to him, his excellence was not doubt, or dimmed, or capable of being hidden, so much so that inasmuch as some doors were shutting, that excellence still opened the door where it would have seemed impossible. You see, just to tell you how excellent you had to be, the school was scared to even give him a long-term contract, because they weren't sure how people would respond to his blackness.
So the school cautiously offered a one-year deal as an assistant in the economics department, and wouldn't allow him to take on any student advisement. He excelled in the position, so this one-year deal was quickly followed up with a four-year contract and a promotion. His duties expanded to include advisement, and it was quickly revealed that his color, that had previously been feared would be an issue, was not a deterrent to students. In fact, he was quite popular.
From this part of his story, I got something that we've talked about before, which is, a career is a jungle gym and not a ladder. Do not be afraid to take an opportunity that is not exactly in line with what you had hoped for. While you wait, patience in motion. While you are in that opportunity, show up as the best possible version of yourself, even if you feel that you could be doing more. Those are the ways in which you open the doors to the next level, and those doors will open.
It was during those years that Lewis planted the seeds for what would later become known as development economics. Lewis's interest lay in the plight of his far-flung home and the persistent economic hardship that plagued that region of the world, as well as the solutions and paths taken by developing nations to improve the economic situation. Coincidentally, similar interests were held by many of the students, many of them being from less developed countries. He offered his first course in colonial economics in 1943 into 1944, and continued to climb the academic ladder.
You see, not only did he put his time, waiting, his patience in motion, to work being as good a supporting role as he could be, he also made an effort to try and learn how he could develop, how he could grow. This excellence of his is how he came up with the novel idea of development economics. And this idea that would come to fruit when he eventually got promoted was one that he began developing while he was waiting for an opportunity.
In addition to his work in academia, Lewis consulted for the colonial office, which afforded him, remember the colonial office that had turned him down, which afforded him an opportunity to better grasp the economic situation of Britain's numerous far-flung economically challenged colonies. What I got from this is that Lewis did not let his pride or his ego get in the way of what an opportunity to consult with people who had looked down on him for his race.
He did not let that get in the way of accepting that position or accepting that collaboration later. Much of that consulting work would ultimately provide the data for the growing subfield of development economics that would inform many of his published works. In 1947, Lewis was appointed an academic post at the University of Manchester, also a first. The following year, he was appointed a full professor and remained with the university until 1957, also a first. During his tenure at the University of Manchester, Lewis was prolific.
He produced numerous publications on economics, including his highly praised work published in 1954, Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour. This article was key to his winning a Nobel Prize nomination, wait for it, 25 years later. 25 years later, that article would win him a Nobel or would be a cornerstone of his achievement of a Nobel Prize win. In Unlimited Supplies of Labour, Lewis started from a premise that most non-economists accepted without question. The poor countries of Asia and the Caribbean were characterized by two separate and distinct economic sectors, a traditional agrarian sector and a capitalist industrialist sector.
The agrarian or traditional sectors were burdened by a large pool of surplus or redundant workers who contributed little or nothing to output. Indeed, in some cases, their output was thought to be negative. The situation of stagnation, however, had a silver lining since workers could move out of the sector with no loss of agricultural output and at near subsistence rates into the modern sector, turning the latter into an engine of economic change. Critical to this process of labour transfer were the activities of a nascent entrepreneurial class or an emergent interventionist state.
So long as both groups were capable of recognizing the opportunities that an unlimited supply of cheap rural labour created for rapid industrialization, Lewis' knowledge in the field of economics and the foundation he laid for the newly created subfield of development economics made him an internationally known development expert. Isn't that interesting? While he was working, he was an activist. He did a lot of work with immigrants. In newly independent Ghana, he put his economic theory to the test, where he served as the chief economic advisor to the newly independent nation of Ghana, formerly the Gold Coast.
He was personally recruited by the president of this new nation, Kwame Nkrumah, who had worked with him previously on a short-term project in 1952. I cannot emphasize enough what it means to show up as the most excellent version of yourself in every opportunity. He did not happen to be recommended to Kwame Nkrumah. Kwame Nkrumah experienced him and the excellence that he brought to every project on a daily much smaller scale at a time long before. And when Kwame Nkrumah became president, he remembered who he would like to work with.
And that opportunity allowed Lewis to put his economic theories into practice and also introduced him to the political and economic challenges of a new nation. This, along with other projects he took throughout the years, would provide him with experience in public affairs. He continued to be open to exploring new paths, there's a lesson there, and after decades in academia as a professor with a stint as economic advisor in Ghana and consultant to the British colonial office, he accepted a post as an academic administrator.
He would serve in his home region at long last, which is what he had always wanted, as principal and ultimately as vice-chancellor of the University College of the West Indies based in Jamaica. The university was on the verge of becoming a wholly independent institution, severing ties from the University of London. His intention to leave the University of the West Indies was known to Princeton University over time, who then recruited him to join the Woodrow Wilson School.
And his experiences both in academic and in the government and public affairs appealed to the recruiters. Do you see how every opportunity that comes to him, comes to him because of the manner in which he has shown up in the previous opportunities? So yes, it's patience in motion, but when an opportunity comes, you show up as the best version of yourself, and then you do it again, and then you do it again, and as each door opens and you step into a new space, you also show up there as the best version of yourself.
And ultimately, after years and years of simply showing up as the best version of himself and applying himself as much as possible, it culminated in his winning the award in 1979. Lewis vowed to do nothing in retirement, which is the dream, I think, but he split his time between his Caribbean home and the home that he and his wife owned in Princeton. He continued to give classes on development, at least until the late 80s. And in the islands, he participated in organizations or presented affairs that he deemed worthy.
He died in his home in Barbados on June 15, 1991. June 15 happens to be my birthday. The tremendous output of Dr. W. Arthur Lewis can be found in a section called Collections in the New York Public Library and in partner institutions. His story is certainly one worth sharing. And when I read it, I am inspired beyond measure and reminded that it is not wisdom, it is only ego to sit back and think, oh, I've made it, oh, I've done enough.
There is such a thing as showing up as the best version of yourself because you don't actually know what those pieces build you towards. You don't actually know what comes next, but by showing up as the best version of yourself, by practicing patience in motion, by giving, by making excellence a habit, by learning to pivot when doors are closed, by learning not to let your ego stop you from collaborating with people who perhaps let you go and not shown up for you before, by allowing yourself to be flexible just enough, you'll be amazed by what you'll achieve because sometimes the things that you end up achieving are not things that you could have conceived of because they should not be possible for a person like you.
Life is tough, life is not fair, but a lot of power lies in our choices of response. And I thought because of this, this story was one worth sharing in crafting an unforgettable presence and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And if you did, please like, share, subscribe, leave me a review. I appreciate it and thank you for spending yet another week with me. We are one episode away from the full year of episodes.
Isn't that an amazing thing? Thank you so much.
