2010-12-21T22:02:55Z On Success interviews achievers and shares those conversations here. tag:views.washingtonpost.com,2010:/on-success/what-it-takes/96 Copyright (c) 2010, WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive 2010-12-21T22:02:55Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-12-22:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/12/johnny_taylor_jr.html

Johnny Taylor Jr. has built a career by going left when people expected him to go right. Educated in public schools in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., he graduated from the University of Miami before heading to Drake University and frigid Des Moines winters. By 23, he had earned his master's and law degrees and went to work at one of the largest law firms in Florida as a labor and employment lawyer. After two years,...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-12-14T17:38:53Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-12-14:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/12/ernie_allen.html

Ernie Allen graduated from the University of Louisville Law School, but chose a career in public service in Louisville and Jefferson County, Ky. -- including work as crime commissioner and public safety. His work made him aware of tragic cases of child exploitation -- the kidnapping of 6-year-old Etan Patz as he walked to school in New York, the Atlanta children who were abducted and murdered -- and he urged the Justice Department to create...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-12-01T04:40:37Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-12-01:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/12/anthony_wellington.html

Anthony Wellington was young when his parents gave him his first guitar for Christmas. But instead of playing it, the then-aspiring scientist was only interested in taking it apart to learn how the components worked. A few years later, his sister's boyfriend loaned him an electric bass and he fell in love. His first job was playing gigs out of a tractor-trailer rigged with a fold-out stage as part of the D.C. summer youth...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-11-22T22:20:08Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-11-24:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/11/entrepreneur_paul_strzelec.html

Paul Strzelec and his partner, Dirk Liebich, founded their company, Digital Tempus, in 2001 to provide consulting and business intelligence to manufacturing companies looking to expand. But when the terrorist attacks shook the nation on September 11 of that year, they put the company on hold and decided to keep acquiring knowledge while working for others. Strzelec had met Liebich, who lives and works near Dusseldorf, Germany, while both worked for the now-defunct Manugistics,...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-11-16T04:14:48Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-11-17:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/11/entrepreneur_rob_mcgovern.html

Rob McGovern is on a mission to top his own success. In 1995, he founded the Internet job search site CareerBuilder.com, which grew into a $150 million company by the time he sold it seven years later for $680 million. After taking two years off, he launched Tysons Corner-based Jobfox.com, a top-five job search site that goes beyond listing jobs to matching suitable candidates with companies seeking to hire. McGovern, 49, is author of...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-11-10T04:50:53Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-11-10:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/11/adam_tenner.html

Adam Tenner began volunteering with nonprofits as a teenager. After a favorite teacher died of AIDS while Tenner was in college, he focused on helping young people develop habits to keep themselves safe from the disease. He worked with homeless teens in Seattle, a city credited for its progressive work with HIV/AIDS, before heading east to the District, which has the highest rate of infection in the nation. In 2001, Tenner took over as executive...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-11-08T17:41:42Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-11-03:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/11/cari_dominguez.html

Cari M. Dominguez was a top executive at Bank of America's corporate headquarters in San Francisco when she was recruited to Washington, D.C. She held presidential appointments under both presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, who nominated her as the 12th chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She served in the Department of Labor Department under then-secretary Elizabeth Dole as director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance, where she ushered in...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-11-08T17:51:01Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-10-27:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/10/doug_laughlin.html

Doug Laughlin was drafted into the military right out of college and he says his time in Uncle Sam's armed forces turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him, career-wise. A stint in public affairs at the U.S. Army's headquarters in Europe led to opportunities when he got out of the service to work on the advertising campaigns for the U.S. Army's "Be all you can be!" campaign, and later,...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-11-08T18:03:39Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-10-20:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/10/restaurateur_jeff_black.html

Local restaurateur Jeff Black learned to cook growing up in Houston with four sisters. At 13, he got a job in a restaurant doing everything from chopping onions to scrubbing toilets. By 17, he was waiting tables and tending bar. He trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., where he also met the woman who would become his wife and partner, Barbara. Today, they are the chef/owners of four restaurants...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-10-15T17:10:42Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-10-13:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/10/singer_justin_jones.html

After more than 10 years in the music business, Washington-area singer-songwriter Justin Jones is making headway. He and his band, the Driving Rain, recently wound up a tour with pop sensation Sheryl Crow. He's playing regular dates around Washington D.C. and is heading out of town for several performances. In between, he's tending bar at the 9:30 Club on V Street NW, where he was working when the club's legendary owner, Seth Hurwitz, offered...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-11-08T18:09:35Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-10-06:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/10/chuck_brown.html

Moving from point A to point B with Chuck Brown can be a challenge. Outside a Largo office building recently, a lawyer wanted to shake his hand. A delivery man chatted him up about his new record. A woman told him about how she used to get punished by her mother for sneaking out to see his shows. "Her mother was probably in the place, too!" Brown said, laughing. "I love the fans. I...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-09-29T03:13:04Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-09-29:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/09/carlos_castro.html

Northern Virginia entrepreneur Carlos Castro was a 24-year-old factory worker living in poverty in San Salvador when he decided to try his luck at coming to the United States more than 30 years ago. It was 1980 and El Salvador was in the midst of a political conflict that would lead to 12 years of bloody civil war. Castro, then the father of a young daughter and son, left his country on a warm January...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-09-23T03:27:07Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-09-23:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/09/dennis_friedman.html

Dennis Friedman studied political science and criminal justice at Indiana University until he was, as he puts it, "bit by the restaurant bug." The dynamics and culture of the kitchen intrigued him so much that he abandoned plans to become a lawyer and, after graduation, headed to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. He trained with famed chef Daniel Boulud at Restaurant Daniel on East 65th Street in New York City,...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-09-14T01:22:39Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-09-15:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/09/orlan_johnson.html

Orlan Johnson has forged a reputation as an under-the-radar deal maker in a town that runs on deals. Johnson, now a partner in the Saul Ewing law firm, cut his teeth on the law while interning on Wall Street for the late power broker Reginald F. Lewis, the Baltimore-born former chief executive of Beatrice International, the Fortune 500's first black-owned company. He worked at the Securities Exchange Commission and for Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester 2010-09-08T03:35:22Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-09-08:/on-success/what-it-takes2010/09/norman_scribner.html

Norman Scribner was not yet 30 when he founded the Choral Arts Society of Washington in 1965. Since that time, the organization has grown from a community choir to a world-renowned chorus with a staff of 12 and an annual budget of more than $2 million. It has worked with some of the most respected conductors and orchestras in the world. Scribner, a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, has held a number of music-related...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Avis Thomas-Lester