We recently connected with Dennis J. West and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dennis, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
My Mom, She birthed seven children and raised six of them most of time as a single Parent. She did it all worked, taught us, educated us spiritually and most importantly taught us to be nice, productive and how to take care of ourselves. She instilled in us that education is the key to success as well as It’s nice to be important, but is more important to be nice. She didn’t earn much money, but she knew how to stretch a dollar. We always had food to eat, lights and even enough food to share. She taught us all to be givers. she provided any and all the things we needed and in life nothing is free. Work for whatever it is you want, set goals make adjustments if need be but never give up.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
All of my young adult life was spent in the restaurant business, as a matter of a fact I started at the tender young age of “14”, but don’t tell anyone, I told the manager I was 16. I worked for the world’s leader in the food business at the time (McDonald’s). I had no clue as to what I wanted to do for a career? I met 2 guys Bob Rogers who was the manager of the local McDonald’s at the time and later I met Paul Taylor. These 2 guys took me under their wing and taught me about the business as well as I could do this job really well and that I could be promoted and that I could go as far as my goals would and could take me. I kind of listened halfway due to the fact that I was a Blackbelt Karate champion. I had this crazy thought that I could teach Karate and enter Karate tournaments, After all I was teaching Karate classes at the time and making really good money for a teenager. Wouldn’t you know I would get promoted to a Shift Manager while in school, after I graduated from high school I attended college and I would come home on the weekends to work at McDonald’s. I guy name Jerry Gorman took a lot of interest in my development and said why don’t you come back to Thomson and take classes at the local college and work on the weekends. I tried that and I got promoted to a salaried manager as a second assistant manager, then to a first assistant manager and something I thought would never happen. I got promoted to a General Store Manager. After holding just about every position in the food business and being quite successful at it. Other brands came calling and lured me away from McDonald’s with more money and better benefits. I would always end up back at my first love McDonald’s. I’ve worked in 7 states and held numerous positions with McDonald’s until October of 2022 I worked my last day with McDonald’s. Now I spent my time consulting to other restaurants and brands as well as writing about my experiences personally and professionally, I’m on my third Book now.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Learning how manage the mix of people as we use to call it back in the day, which is the ability to work with young people, mature people, males, females it really doesn’t matter where you are from, what language you speak, creed or color. I learned early on how to get the best out of people by setting the pace and the example. (I picked this up from someone over the years that PEOPLE DON’T CARE HOW MUCH YOU KNOW, UNTIL THEY KNOW HOW MUCH YOU CARE) I’ve used that as a measuring tool for years. Being prepared for the task or job. That means reading, researching and finding out everything that you can to prepare yourself, then present yourself “not as a know it all” but as a resource and a leader with a wealth of knowledge. That’s always ready to share the knowledge and develop a person or persons to the next level in his or her career and life. Lastly Integrity is one of the building blocks to being successful in business and in life. People that you report to and the people that report to you have to know that your word is your bond without equivocation. Set small short term goals as well as goals so big and farfetched that it scares you. Make adjustments and revisit your goals or success plan often, it is a must to have an accountability partner or a mentor. One of the things that has kept me centered and grounded from day one is my faith and beliefs “I make it no secret that I’m a proud subject of the KINGDOM OF GOD” I am who I am, unapologetically and on occasion I’ve had to put a few people in their rightful place and while teaching them how to treat me.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
All the questions that were presented are really great. Having to chose one person is totally impossible here’s my reason for saying this is, Most people go through phases and or quadrants in the growth process. On your life’s journey or whatever quadrant that you are in at the time GOD places people in and on your path.Their mission is to teach and or mold you for your next level. 1 person can literally change the total trajectory of your entire life and or plan. With that being said, I will mention a few. The phase or quadrant of my life as a little boy these were my teachers my Grandma, my Mom, my Siblings, Elementary teachers especially Mrs. McCorkle. The next phase was 2 of my best friends Nathaniel Culpepper Jr. and JR Reid, my coaches Coach Powell and Coach Sampson, Mr. Tyson, Tony and Melvin Bell, and my Karate Instructor that took a special interest in me Mr. Virgil D. Kimmey. I entered the workforce early there was King Olive, Mike Davis, Howard Lazenby, Uncle Bob, Ken, Paul, Jerry Gorman, Jerry Baine, Arleen, Larry, Dennis and Anita. That next phase and 3rd quadrant was so vital to my development that I can’t thank them enough, but I will try Mrs. Bolden, Ms. Washington, Ms. Drummer, Coach Williams and the one teacher and another one a mentor, that didn’t let me get away with anything. Most of the time you would hear a person say “he or she called me out” I give Dr. Sandra H. Smith and ( Delores “Dee” Crawford former McDonald’s franschise owner) they both get credit for not only calling me out, but more importantly THEY CALLED ME UP, to go higher and further than what I could even imagine. They saw it in me early.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dwestconsolidated.com
- Instagram: @dennisjwest
- Facebook: dennisjwest
- Linkedin: dennisjwest
- Twitter: dennisjwest
- Youtube: dennisjwest
Image Credits
All photos from my private collections.
