Artist. Entrepreneur. Author. Servant Leader. These are just a few words that describe Larry D. Thornton, Sr. You could also call him a father, grandfather, game changer, teacher and team player. Even though there are many words to describe Larry’s prowess leadership, hearing his life story puts everything in perspective.
Even though he is primarily known as a business man and continues to produce limited and open edition art, in April 2019, Larry established himself as an author with the release of his first book, Why Not Win? A Reflection on his fifty-year journey from the segregated South to America’s boardrooms – and what It teaches us all.
Another Winning Moment
A derivative of the conversations Larry has had with readers of the book, he discovered that everyone has a “winning moment” they just might not be aware of. As a way to showcase these everyday stories of everyday people, Larry created the blog Another Winning Moment. This blog will highlight people across the nation who are living life to the fullest and have Another Winning Moment. To submit someone who has had a winning moment, please complete the form.
The game has been scheduled, so we have to play…
Why Not Win?
The book is a front-row seat to how one man altered his thinking to transform his life. The book begins with his growing up with brown skin in the 1960s in segregated Montgomery, Alabama. A desegregation school pioneer, Thornton was a classroom failure until a perceptive English teacher showed him he had value and encouraged him to go to college. Like the educator who changed his life, Thornton became a classroom teacher. But budget cuts took his job, and he decided to rewrite his story using his artistic talent. Thornton’s artistry and work ethic got him attention at Coca-Cola, both for the good and the bad. He had to figure out a way to navigate this new world, where higher-ups praised him but co-workers reminded him of his “blackness” by drawing a noose in his workstation. He persevered by learning to appreciate and embrace diversity, people resources, and conflicting opinions.
He persevered by learning to appreciate and embrace diversity, people resources, and conflicting opinions. While his success grew at Coca-Cola, Thornton did the unthinkable: set out to be the first African American to own a McDonald’s franchise in Birmingham. This thorny journey was peppered with threats, attempts to thwart his mission and a marriage he could not keep from falling apart. He absorbed the “try, try and try again” motto, and came to see that failure was a prelude to feasting upon the sweet fruit of success. Thornton made up his mind that he would spend each day on a mission to show his unbending gratitude for his life and its benefits by fostering a supreme attitude and maintaining consistency in vision, purpose, and an unwavering commitment to principles. Thornton’s journey from Madison Park, Montgomery, has been a long one. “Why Not Win?” reflects on his most useful lessons and the anecdotes associated with them
The book is a front-row seat to how one man altered his thinking to transform his life. The book begins with his growing up with brown skin in the 1960s in segregated Montgomery, Alabama. A desegregation school pioneer, Thornton was a classroom failure until a perceptive English teacher showed him he had value and encouraged him to go to college. Like the educator who changed his life, Thornton became a classroom teacher. But budget cuts took his job, and he decided to rewrite his story using his artistic talent. Thornton’s artistry and work ethic got him attention at Coca-Cola, both for the good and the bad. He had to figure out a way to navigate this new world, where higher-ups praised him but co-workers reminded him of his “blackness” by drawing a noose in his workstation. He persevered by learning to appreciate and embrace diversity, people resources, and conflicting opinions. While his success grew at Coca-Cola, Thornton did the unthinkable: set out to be the first African American to own a McDonald’s franchise in Birmingham. This thorny journey was peppered with threats, attempts to thwart his mission and a marriage he could not keep from falling apart. He absorbed the “try, try and try again” motto, and came to see that failure was a prelude to feasting upon the sweet fruit of success. Thornton made up his mind that he would spend each day on a mission to show his unbending gratitude for his life and its benefits by fostering a supreme attitude and maintaining consistency in vision, purpose, and an unwavering commitment to principles. Thornton’s journey from Madison Park, Montgomery, has been a long one. “Why Not Win?” reflects on his most useful lessons and the anecdotes associated with them
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Transforming lives
Why Not Win? Institute
In the summer of 2018, Larry Thornton reached out to Zillah Fluker, an individual who he met while serving as chairman of the Board of Trustees at Alabama State University. At the time Zillah was the Vice-President of Institutional Advancement and had gotten to know Larry when he made the largest individual planned gift in the 150 year history of Alabama State University. Larry went on to become a mentor to Zillah and based on that relationship he saw it fitting to ask her to write the introduction to his book, Why Not Win?. Zillah agreed to do so, and after reading the book presented not only the introduction, but a curriculum to Larry and proposed that they launch a non-profit. This was the birth of the Why Not Win? Institute. An Institute that takes lessons from Larry’s story and has developed programming to transform lives through personal and professional development with an emphasis on personal accountability.
The Why Not Win Institute launched in November of 2018 and in a year has been delivered at 16 colleges and universities, to include Auburn University, Texas A&M University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Fisk University, Alabama A&M University and Alabama State University. The Institute has also presented to corporations to include, Harris Corporation, Alabama Power Company and a 6-part series with Coca-Cola Bottling Company United (Atlanta).
30 November, 2021
22 December, 2021
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