“When I see a barrier, I cry and I curse, and then I get a ladder and climb over it,” said Johnson.

All his life, Johnson had been told that he would not amount to much. He was a victim of the racism that was so prevalent in the U.S. at the time. The experience of being denied the opportunity to attend high school in Arkansas because of his color would not be an isolated incident. Time after time, Johnson was discouraged from thinking he could one day be great and was blocked every time he tried.

In addition to being denied bank loans because he was black, Johnson found it impossible to even purchase an office for his new company once he had obtained the money. He had the dream and he finally had the capital, but when Johnson went to purchase a building in Chicago’s downtown area to be his company’s headquarters, he couldn’t make the deal. Johnson would eventually go on to become a master salesman, but here, with money in hand he was refused the purchase because he was black.

But, like at so many other times in his life, Johnson refused to give up. He wasn’t going to let a racist property manager stand in the way of his success. “It's better to get smart than to get mad,” said Johnson. “I try not to get so insulted that I will not take advantage of an opportunity to persuade people to change their minds.” With that, Johnson decided to hire a white lawyer who facilitated his property purchase.

It was Johnson’s mother who instilled in him at a young age the reasoning that living well and achieving great things is the best revenge against those who don’t have faith in you. Every day of his adult life, Johnson made a regular daily phone call to his mother because she was his source of inspiration and strength. In Haiti, Johnson was even forced to climb up a telephone pole to make his daily calls. “She believed in me and taught me to believe in myself,” he recalled. “She taught me to dream, to dare and to never give up.” Johnson’s career is marked by this refusal to give up even in the face of adversity and discrimination.

“Long shots do come in and hard work, dedication and perseverance will overcome almost any prejudice and open almost any door,” said Johnson. In fact, Johnson used the negative energy that was directed towards him to fuel his efforts and allowed the biases of others to invigorate his desire to succeed. They said it couldn’t be done so he set out to prove them all wrong.