“Never again be afraid to go out on a limb – ‘cause that’s where the very best fruit lies!”
Tony Magee, MS, MBA – The Destiny Doctor
Q: How did you become The Destiny Doctor?
Q: Why do you consider yourself to be a “penny stock”?
Q: What does it mean to get my “Destiny On Demand”?
Q: Who inspired you to live your dreams out loud?
Q: What was the incentive to write your first book “Can’t Shove a Great Life into a Small Dream”?
Q: What are the 12 Life-Essentials?
Q: As an author, what is your advice to those who feel they have a book “waiting to come out of them”?
Q: What personal characteristics are essential for getting your thoughts organized for a publication?
Q: I want to become a professional speaker. What’s the biggest tip you can offer to a beginner?
Q: How can I hire The Destiny Doctor to speak to my organization or better yet – become my life coach?
Q: How did you become The Destiny Doctor?
As an African-American “man-child” growing up in South Central Los Angeles amongst gang violence, juvenile delinquency, academic underachievement, low teacher expectation, and high school drop outs – I knew at a very young age that I wanted more out of life. I wanted a life greater than the one that I had inherited. I didn't want to be held down by my unstable environment and background. I was too aware of what a dead end this could be. (For this I gotta thank my mother and grandmother.) So I worked hard, got an education, and a couple of graduate degrees, thinking, knowing that this was what I needed – for the most part. And in so many ways this was right. But as I climbed the mountain of education and attainment, I began to realize an incredibly important fact: one's Destiny isn't out there, ahead, in the fogbank of the next accomplishment. One's true Destiny was right here, immediate.
This is how DESTINY ON DEMAND® got born. Before creating visions, goals and game plans – demand this moment that you're already there. Praise, enthusiasm and gratitudeare the tools to fulfill one's destiny in an instant! Then go on and decide what you want to accomplish, how much money you want to make, what kind of car you want to drive, what kind of mansion you want, the color of your yacht, etc. If you do it in the reverse order, you may get to your goals, but you won't have fulfilled your Destiny! (Folks, there are lot of unfulfilled, truly unhappy millionaires out there!)
Thus, I’ve been branded the The Destiny Doctor ™ to remind everyone — including myself — that we can all have a doctorate in life the minute we choose the power and magnificence of this exact moment!!!
Q: Why do you consider yourself to be a “penny stock”?By the beginning of the twelfth grade, I knew it was time to prepare for my freshman year in college. Applications were due and I had to get ready for my SATs. My grades were pretty good, but I didn’t quite have all of the necessary course requirements to get into engineering school. Yes, I had completed all of the general subjects — like history, government, English literature, physical education, earth science, and art. However, the highest level of math that I had studied was only geometry — not to mention that I had never taken any chemistry or physics. Nevertheless, my mind was set on going to college and somehow getting into engineering school.
To make this happen, I solicited help from three teachers at Westchester High; my goal was to train my brain to pass the college entrance exams. I’ve heard others say that the teacher will appear when the student is ready — boy was I ready! Mr. Brian Kataoka — my math teacher — trained me in math. Mr. Mario Tan — my science teacher — prepared me for chemistry and physics. Mrs. Margaret Bower — my art teacher — helped me improve my writing skills so I could pass the English placement portion of the exam. All of my college preparation occurred within six months before finally being accepted to a university.
I had little money on my side, so I needed financial assistance for tuition, food, and housing. Luckily I was one of Mrs. Bower’s favorite art students. She decided to invite me over for dinner one evening to meet her husband, Larry, and their four children, Justin, Erin, Ann, and Mary. The Bowers lived in Hermosa Beach, a suburban seaside community south of Los Angeles. Their beautiful home had an awesome view of the Pacific Ocean. It was as thoughOzzie & Harriet had moved toFantasy Island — certainly nothing I’d ever experienced. After a full course meal — which included broccoli fettuccini Alfredo, tossed salad, roasted Italian chicken, and homemade chocolate cake — my stomach was full and I was too happy. Mr. Bower took the time to review my college and financial aid applications to make sure everything was in order. Before the night was over, he said, Margaret, I really like this kid. He’s going to go far in life — really far. I say we adopt him. And they did. They call me “Son” and we’ve been a family ever since 1986.
In college, two wonderful women sustained what my high school mentors had begun. These women went out of their way to continue to make things happen for me while I was attending California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Margaret June Brown was a well-known academic advisor who had looked out for my cousin Darryl Claiborne when he had attended CSUN a decade earlier. She kindly agreed to do the same for me. Ms. Brown helped me secure my course schedule, financial aid and housing. Gigi Littlejohn-McGuire was my other “shero” who served as a recruiter for the Minority Engineering Program at CSUN. Gigi strategically got me conditionally accepted into the School of Engineering for one year while I completed all of the prerequisites for full acceptance. She told me: Tony, your positive attitude and enthusiasm for learning are more important in recruiting you than your transcripts. A lot of folks have the transcripts, but won’t have the guts to finish the race. My bet is that you’re not only going to finish — you’re going to pass many at the grandstand. I believe in you! In one year, I made a quantum leap from geometry to calculus — from literally no real science to college chemistry and physics. My self-esteem was running on high.
Now, all I needed was a fine example to model myself after. I wanted a professor who would show me how to be an engineer — how to think, walk, talk, and dress like one. During my second year, it happened for me. Dr. Behzad Bavarian was not only my teacher; he became my mentor, friend, father figure, and lifetime advisor. Dr. B. would always say to me, Tony Magee, you will never be defeated! I believed anything he said. With his unconventional style of teaching, through the principles of discipline and preparedness, I found untapped excellence that would allow me to finish my undergraduate education and go on to earn two master degrees — one in engineering and the other in business. My relationship with Dr. Bavarian was like Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albom’s book about his relationship with his old college professor Morrie Schwartz.
Each one of the aforementioned people chose to help a challenged young person up out of his mud. They all invested their time and money in me. They recognized that I was just like a penny stock — an undervalued gem that would bring an excellent return on their investment!
Q: While growing up surrounded by poverty and violence – what was the significant “turning point” in your life?Surviving a very painful childhood and overcoming the enormous odds that were up against me, I was determined to escape. In my mind, I figured like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, who sang, if itty-bitty birds can fly high over the rainbow – then why can’t I? Somehow, I just needed to develop my wings.
December 17, 1986 was the day that changed my life forever. On this exciting day, I took my SAT exam to become one of the first in my family to go college. This would be a dream come true for everyone involved – especially my mother. On that same day, my mother – my earth who gave me life and many tidbits of wisdom unexpectedly died of heart failure. I was just sixteen years old and devastated. What was I to do now? I realized I had a choice – was I going to become another negative ghetto statistic and succumb to the unstable situation that surrounded me or was I going to raise myself up out of the mud of my wretched environment? Well I didn’t want to be stuck in the mud.
You might wonder how I managed to move upward. Tony, how did you go from the poverty and violence of the Nickerson Gardens Housing Projects in Watts to one day become an international scholar in business at Oxford University? Looking back, I can see that the odds were against me. However, when I learned about my mother’s death, I realized that I had to keep on going – that I could not enjoy the great life I wanted so badly with a small dream. My basic goal was to make my mama proud of me. I just wanted to make her smile up in heaven and say – now that’s my baby right there.
Today, whenever I think of my mother, the first thing that comes to my mind is the engraving on her tombstone. It simply reads:
Novel Jean Taplin-Magee
May 18, 1938 – December 17, 1986
The first date is the day she entered into this world. The second date is the day she exited. Her three children she had nurtured, the lives that she touched, and all of the wonderful memories that she created for us are all summarized by one hyphen between those two dates. Everything my mother ever accomplished – or didn’t – is now an unassuming little dash. It seems when its all said and done, life ends up being that tiny little dash between two dates engraved on a tombstone, and that tombstone sits on a graveyard plot that hardly anyone ever stops to visit.
What can we do to make our life an awesome life? What can we do to make our dash an awesome dash? Life just may be a little dash between our birth date and our death date, but we want to experience the best life possible – right? Right! The best thing we can do is to reduce our problems, prepare ourselves for the unforeseen, enjoy the good times, endure the bad times, and then handle whatever is expected.
Q: What does it mean to get my “Destiny On Demand”?Tony Magee, MS, MBA — The Destiny Doctor TM — states unequivocally that it is the Destiny of the human being to have a truly amazing life. A life filled with abundance, love, success, health and well-being. He also quickly adds that achieving one's Destiny is not a casual undertaking. You have to "demand" it — first of yourself, then of your supporting cast.
Human beings are creatures of habit, and unless one's habits are truly pointed to the top of the mountain — Destiny — you will not get there. You may make it part way, you may attain a "comfortable" life, but you won't fulfill your Destiny.
It's as simple as that.
"DESTINY ON DEMAND® helps you discover where you want to go and how to get there.” – Tony Magee, MS, MBA
Q: Who inspired you to live your dreams out loud?
Mattie Marie Taplin , born August 6, 1916 - my “witty” grandmother is my number one shero. She taught me the most valuable lesson of my life – “Baby, with a good education - your life’s work will be as light as a pen; without it your life’s work will be as heavy as that spade.”
While coming-up as a youngster in my elementary school years, my mother would often allow me to stay with my grandmother during extended school holidays and summer vacations. “Mama” that’s what everyone (family and friends of the family) called my grandmother, lived in Stevenson Village a Los Angeles suburb in Carson, California at the time. Carson is just Southwest of Compton and Watts. I loved to go stay at Mama’s house. It was a safe community for children to play. Mama lived on a cul-de-sac. The best part was she would let my cousins and I eat as many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as we wanted, and buy one pack of “Now & Later” candies from the ice-cream man everyday - for us all to share. Plus, Mama made the very best hot-water cornbread and southern fried chicken in the world.
I had lots and lots of friends in Carson. I remember how we used to play red-light-green-light, hide-and-go-seek, flag football, ride our bikes, and skate all around the neighborhood in those all familiar blue skates with the red and white stripes all of us got for Christmas (every year). My playmates and I were much like “The Little Rascals”. We would play outside all day long - sometimes up to ten hours.
My grandmother loved to tell us stories of her childhood while growing-up on Big Daddy’s farm in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Big Daddy or Papa as she would affectionately call him was Mama’s father.
Mama had noticed just how much time kids were spending playing foolish games, running around outdoors, and some of the mischief we would get into. She would sometimes discourage me from wanting to play so much with my little knuckle-headed friends. Mama loved telling us stories about how hard life was back on Big Daddy’s farm. She had told tells of how she and her siblings had to walk 150 miles to school, over a big hill, in the snow with no shoes. Then 150 miles back home just to help Big Daddy on his farm. No matter how fantastic the stories were she always made her point. There was always work to be done. In the summertime she said they would work on Papa’s farm from “can’t see in the morning until can’t see at night” – plowing the fields, picking vegetables and cotton, milking those cows, and they even made their own ice-cream out of the fresh snow no one had walked on.
It felt like the inside of an oven – outside on that hot summer day in 1978. My team was up by two touchdowns and Jimmy passed me the pigskin. I ran as fast as I could – darting left, then faking right as I headed for the end zone. I was flawless – just like Tony Dorsett flying in the wind making another spectacular touchdown. Suddenly the air was filled with the sound of TONNNNNNY!!! I froze right in my tracks. I knew that sound and so I hollered back, “Yes Ma’am Mama!” She said, “Come home right this minute, I have some work for you to do.” All my friends were upset mumbling, “Man Tony, we’re almost finished with our game. Why does your grandmother always call you when we’re having fun? Do you really have to go?” I said to them, “Yeah man, but if I don’t go, she might whip me with her Mississippi strap. Look, it’s embarrassing to get your behind whipped by a woman who’s four-foot-nine when you’re five-two. Man, I gotta go - I’ll see y’all later.”
I knew that if I did not respond with a quickness, Mama’s threat would result in that strap across my behind. And believe me, I didn’t want any part of it ‘cause my grandmother knew how to whip.
When I got to the house – we headed for the backyard. Mama asked me to dig a hole for her new rose bush. That day, it was hotter than any July, all of Africa, two Indias and a Victorville. Mama said to me, “Baby, I want you to take that there spade (a shovel) and dig Mama a hole for this here rose bush.” Using her hands to emphasize the dimensions, she said, “Dig Mama a hole this big-of-round and this here deep.” She instructed me to dig the hole near an old brick-walled fence away from the rest of her garden, where Mama like to plant her turnip, collard and mustard greens.
My face dripping with dirty-salty sweat, I took the spade and began digging the hole. Mama went inside the house to fix us some lemonade and said she would be back to check on me. As the sweat drenched my clothes and the inside of my mouth felt like I just ate a lemon - my mind drifted. I thought I smelled…Mama’s good ol’ southern fried chicken and hot water cornbread. Then I thought…I’d give anything right now for a plate, but instead I have to dig this stupid hole. The time passed so slow, that with each beat of my heart it seemed like an eternity.
Thirty minutes went by, then an hour, then an hour and fifteen minutes. I had not even gone two inches passed the top surface of the soil. Frustrated and thirsty I started getting mad at the dirt. I even kicked it a few times. I couldn’t believe I was missing football to dig a hole in the ground. Finally, Mama returned to the backyard with a pitcher of ice-cold lemonade and two large jelly-jar glasses. She said, “You ain’t finished diggin’ Mama’s hole yet, Baby? What’s taking you so long?” I told her, “Mama this dirt is harder than steel.”
Mama told me to take a break and have a glass of lemonade with her. I was happy ‘cause it was burnin’ hot and plus Mama made that good kind of lemonade. It would be so good and sugar-sweet that you’d have to take your shoes off so you could wiggle your toes – it was that Mississippi stuff. I gulped down my first two glasses in less than a minute. After wiping my face and mouth with my dirty shirt, I told Mama “sorry I couldn’t dig the hole for you. I tried Mama. I even have blisters on my hands to prove it.”
Her voice was filled with compassion as she told me the reason I could not dig a hole in that particular area was because there was a block of excess cement just beneath the surface of the dirt - from that old brick fence. She said, “Baby, on the surface, the ground by that there fence looks the same as the rest of the yard. But ain’t it funny how folk always say ‘what you don’t know won’t hurt you?’ I want you to know what you don’t know can kill you. You didn’t know about that hidden chunk of concrete - now did you? Now tell me again - how does those blisters on your hands feel?”
Mama knew all along what she was doing. I was upset, but knowing Mama – she had a reason for it all. She was teaching me about life and education. She would sometimes discourage me from wanting to play so much with my little knuckle-headed friends. She said, “Children now-a-days play entirely too much and think they know everything. What they need to know is the value of hard work, and spend more time preparing for their future. They need that down home kind of discipline. It takes a village to raise a little child, but if that village is crazy – then they will raise some very crazy kids. You are my grandchild and I want you to go to college some day and become more of yourself. I want you to have the best chance to live your best life. It’s of great importance to me. You see…Mama didn’t have all the great opportunities that you young folk take for granted today.”
As a working farm girl from Clarksdale, Mississippi, my grandmother was only able to finish the ninth grade. Not because she wasn’t bright – in fact she was one of the smartest pupils in all of her classes. Mama and her eleven brothers and sisters all had to lend their hands to labor Big Daddy’s farm. She thought wisely to place an emphasis on the value of education for my life.
In retrospect, this event has become the most important defining moment of my life. I often ask myself where would I have been without my grandmother’s wisdom and her belief in me becoming a major success?
Surviving the poverty and violence within concrete-block walls of Watts Nickerson Gardens Housing Projects - earning a BS in Industrial Engineering; becoming the first African-American to receive a Master’s degree in Material Science and Engineering from Lehigh University; an MBA from Pepperdine; completing Executive MBA studies at Oxford University in England and enjoying a quality life - turned out to be the easiest things I’d ever accomplished. The hardest thing was - believing that I could. My grandmother knew it and surely believed it. That’s why we must always thank God for those who believe in us when we sometimes don’t believe in ourselves.
The moral of the story is this, as Mama would put it, “With education, you’ll gain the knowledge and power to effectively communicate and use words constructively. You’ll be able to enhance your life, change your game, add letters to your name, change your address and more importantly, change your bank account. Baby, with a good education - your life’s work will be as light as a pen; without it your life’s work will be as heavy as that spade.”
Q: What is one simple piece of advice would you offer to anyone who has had enough of feeling stuffed into a bucket?Living well cannot be an accident. Your life must be on purpose; you must intend to do what you do. For instance, you must intent to be happy. If you don’t intend to be happy, happiness will escape you. Happiness requires work. You have to work at it. You have to try to be happy.
Sometimes you need to reorganize your priorities in order to be happy. And certain things that make you unhappy should not be thought about. We must think ourselves into happiness.
Yes, living well will never happen by accident. A good marriage doesn’t happen by accident. Good kids do not happen by accident. A good day doesn’t happen by accident. You choose to make it a good day. It is totally up to you!
John Mason once said, “Your DESTINY is not a matter of chance – it is a matter of choice. Many people have the right aims in life – they just never get around to pulling the trigger.”
Q: What was the incentive to write your first book Can’t Shove a Great Life into a Small Dream?As an American child, I was born to a single mom caring for two teenage kids. My mother had to drop out of high school in the eleventh grade due to certain hardships. She raised us amid the poverty and violence at the hardened Nickerson Gardens Housing Projects in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. Facing these harsh conditions, what would the future hold for Tony Magee? My mother told me that I might’ve been born into poverty, but poverty was not born in me. She said that I was her son, a child of God, and that I was made out of some very special ingredients. My mom told me that I was special – that I was bold, beautiful, black and brilliant. At an early age, she convinced me that it was possible to obtain anything my eyes could see. She said, “Son, all it takes is hope and a good plan.” All I ever wanted was a better life than the one I had inherited.
One might wonder how I managed to move upward. “Tony, how did you go from the poverty and violence of the Nickerson Gardens Housing Projects in Watts to one day become an International Scholar in business at Oxford University in England?”
Looking back, I can see that the odds were against me. However, when I learned about my mother’s death, I realized that I had to keep on going – that I could not enjoy the great life I wanted so badly with a small dream. I would need to learn the 12 Life-Essentials that would make my dream possible.
Q: What are the 12 Life-Essentials?Use t he 12 Life-Essentials to grow your dreams to match the life you want.
Q: As an author, what is your advice to those who feel they have a book “Waiting to come out of them”?Never be afraid to go out on a limb – ‘cause that’s where the very best fruit lies! Everyone has an award-winning story to tell. And thousands upon thousands of others are indeed interested. Someone once asked, Tony how did you write your book and make it seem so easy? I responded kindly, by saying… “One page at a time – with a well thought-out outline that I followed!”
People should embrace their creativity! I thought like Alan Alda who said… “Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.” So start writing your best-seller today – one page at a time!
Q: What personal characteristics are essential for getting your thoughts organized for a publication?Networking with other successful authors and book manufacturers is key. The key to “networking” is – it’s not what you know, or really whom you know that is so important – it’s who knows you! When important folk know who you are it makes everything much easier to accomplish. “Getting Good” at communicating with your audience is another. In putting my first book together – I practiced the three Cs to Effective Communication:
- Content – Make sure I have something of value to say…
- Comfort – Make sure that I am comfortable saying it… and
- Communion – This is what occurs when my readers are feeling what it is that they are experiencing.
Creating an Effective “Dream-Team” is the other. In my first book, Can’t Shove a Great Life into a Small Dream – Life-Essential No.11 states that it takes a Team to fulfill a Dream. Your life-fulfilling project should be filled with diverse people who are committed to a common goal. You can’t rise above mediocrity without learning how to use the minds of other people.
Q: I want to become a professional speaker. What’s the biggest tip you can offer to a beginner?There are several different steps one can take to becoming a professional speaker. However, the biggest key factor that will determine the ultimate success or failure is this: Your success as a professional speaker or consultant will be determined more by your ability to market and promote yourself than by your program content or presentation.
Many people think all that they have to do is learn how to present a good speech or presentation – and then be able to make a living as a professional speaker or consultant. I have just five words for you – that’s not all you need!
A decent program and an effective presentation are not sufficient for success as a professional speaker. Most are not aware of this starting out. They believe a good message and an effective presentation is their key to success. They soon find out that having a great message and delivery is only a part of what it takes to become prosperous as a professional speaker.
In the long run you will need a quality program and effective communication skills, but the bottom line for your success lies in your ability to become a marketing guru. You have to be able to market yourself strategically – with clarity of purpose.
Q: How can I hire The Destiny Doctor to speak to my organization or better yet – become my life coach?No worries. The Destiny Doctor TM has your cure! Just contact us today at 818-992-6443 or email us at bookings@platinumstar.com.
