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RANDAL PINKETT: FROM APPRENTICE TO AUTHOR: 2004 ‘Apprentice’ pens entrepreneurship how-to.
Pinkett has established himself as an entrepreneur, speaker, author, scholar, and community servant. And this was all before his appearance on the NBC show.
He is the Co-Founder, President and CEO of BCT Partners (his fifth business venture), a multimillion dollar management, technology and policy consulting firm based in Newark, NJ. He has an extensive academic background including five degrees: a bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Masters in Computer Science, Masters in Engineering, an MBA and a PhD in Media Technology.
And now, all while running his company and acting as a consultant for Trump, he’s written a book called “Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching a Multimillion-Dollar Business.”
“The book is a reflection of my experience, of being a student entrepreneur,” Pinkett described. “Over the course of my year as the apprentice I was able to carve out some time, in the midst of managing projects for Mr. Trump, to write and think and reflect on my experiences and to get it on paper.”
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Dr. Randal Pinkett and Sheryl Lee Ralph at LA book signing for Campus CEO.
Pinkett said that the idea was a combination of sharing experiences he had and information that he wanted to encourage others with.
“I had a lot of ideas of books I wanted to write, but I wanted something that differentiated in the marketplace,” he explained. “I recognized the trend of student entrepreneurship. I looked at people like Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs who started at Howard and Russell Simmons, who started at City University of New York and I look at my story of starting at Rutgers and I [figured] there’s a trend here that folks are starting businesses by leveraging their resources on college campuses. Hence ‘Campus CEO.’ It’s autobiographical and biographical – telling the stories of other entrepreneurs; and then it’s practical.”
At a recent book signing and reception in LA, Pinkett told EUR’s Lee Bailey that at every stage, in pursuing his five degrees, his goal was to be an entrepreneur.
“Education for me was one of the ways I was able to pursue my dream and make it a reality. Naturally there are other ways to accomplish that. You don’t need five degrees to be an entrepreneur. That was the path that I followed.”
But, with reason, Pinkett is very proud of his educational background and said that those degrees have been a great platform and foundation for entrepreneurship.
“Getting an education is an asset,” he proclaimed. “You have to have it to be competitive in the marketplace. But I’ve certainly experienced my fair share of stereotypes; that I shouldn’t, I couldn’t, and I wouldn’t end up getting the education that I received. But nothing was given to me, I’ve worked hard for everything and that’s the message that I try to bring to young people in particular.”
Not only did Pinkett have the education, but he had the drive, which was instilled in him by his family at a very young age.
“They always stressed education and really gave me my the sense of confidence that I could do whatever I wanted to do,” he said explaining that he had always been good in math and his family urged him to focus on his talents in that subject matter. “[My degrees] tap into my passions and tap into my skills. Now I run a company that piggy backs off that expertise. It’s not like I was in school just for the sake of being in school; I’ve been able to parlay that into a multi-million dollar firm.”
In addition to being a partner at that million dollar firm, BTC Partners, Pinkett also works as a consultant with Donald Trump threefold: Working on the youth apprentice program in Philadelphia; spokesperson for the Trump Institute’s wealth-building seminars; and faculty at Trump University online courses in entrepreneurship. With that, Pinkett also tours and speaks on business and entrepreneurship. His book, “CAMPUS CEO: The Student Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching a Multimillion-Dollar Business” is the latest venture for the venturous and available in stores now.
“The book is my attempt to bring together all the information that I would have wanted in my hands when I decided to be an entrepreneur. We made a lot of mistakes, and learned a lot through trial by error. I want ‘Campus CEO’ to help others not make those mistake and have a leg up. Anyone who wants to learn about being an entrepreneur can go to this book and get the tips and tools and lessons of what it means to be an entrepreneur.”
For more on Dr. Pinkett, his companies, and his new book, go to his website at www.randalpinkett.com.
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