Passion and the Art of Soaring With Purpose
Author Interview With Utah Native James Jackson III
The theme Do Black Folks Really Live In Utah was highlighted in a feature interview I wrote about Utah Black Chamber founder and curator of the book Black Utah James Jackson III.
Jackson, who has moved on from his role as full-time CEO with the chamber, is now concentrating on his speaking and consulting business J3. He also recently released a new book entitled Living With Purpose: Find Your Passion, Grow Your Influence, Maximize Your Endurance.
In it he takes readers on a tour of his life experiences and how he came to discover a life purpose through his work as a community builder, speaker, connector, and founder of The Utah Black Chamber. Throughout, he offers his view of what the word purpose means to him and why he believes that passion is a vital component to obtaining it.
From his early formative years to present, Jackson explores how he slowly unearthed his own passion along with who influenced him on this journey. He shares how enduring through some difficult times and wrong turns eventually led him to his purpose and how to live it day-by-day.
In talking with Jackson by phone, he shared that he sees the book as a launchpad for his speaking and consulting business, which he now will have time to fully invest in after turning over the leadership reins at the chamber. Reflecting back, he had this to say about his entrepreneurial journey:
“I’ve had the business since 2016 but haven’t really been able to see it take off because the chamber took up a lot of my spare time as it continued to grow. So I felt this was a good time, after three years of Black Utah, having passed on the reins to someone else.”
Jackson says that writing a book had been a dream of his since he was about ten. He adds:
“About twelve years ago I thought that writing a book was something that I wanted to pursue, although at the time I didn’t know what the book was going to be about. Then around five years ago an idea came to me of what the book was going to be about. Yet I wasn’t quite ready to stretch into my comfort zone to map it out. But after leaving my role as Black Utah, it all started to come into full perspective.”
He says that his firm J3 is really about developing leaders…..
“I believe that all leaders when they have a purpose and they lead with it not only attract followers but they attract other leaders.”
In looking back at the development of his business and the strategizing he did, he says that he finally realized that the Utah Black Chamber represented the perfect ecosystem for his leadership journey. Says Jackson:
“I grew up shy and introverted. And honestly, I didn’t know what my leadership abilities were until I stumbled upon what my passion was. At that time it became apparent that there were gifts and abilities of mine that I needed to capitalize on.”
Jackson's aim for his new book is simply to help others by sharing his own journey. It’s for those, he says, who are struggling to find a direction for their life, discover their passion, and push through the inevitable challenges they may face along the way.
“I love helping others find what their passion is and what’s really driving them so that they can discover their own purpose.”
He says that many of us often feel like we’ve reached a peak where we know that there is something more. He continues:
“The book is for people who want to live their life more intentionally, not just survive but thrive. So it could be for that new nonprofit leader or business leader. Or for that employee at a company who’s not happy in their job or is struggling to find their foothold in life. So while this book could be for anyone, it is particularly directed to those who are looking to find their something.”
When I asked him how life journey informs the messaging of the book, he had this to share:
“I am actually second generation from Utah. My paternal grandparents came here on the way to California but ended up staying after discovering that there were some great jobs here for them in the early fifties. At that time you worked for the railroad or the military. And those were some of the best paying jobs for Black folks. So they stopped here and stayed.”
His dad, he says, is a graduate of West High School in downtown Salt Lake City. And his mom’s parents arrived here in the mid 50s from McAllen Texas which is on the border with Mexico.
“They came here because of the LDS church. But they disassociated from the church once they arrived.”
In reflecting on his early experiences of having been raised with a village, he had this to say:
“I think few individuals have had the experience I’ve had where I was raised around the oldest Black baptist church in the State of Utah. I was very fortunate to be surrounded by Black business owners, educators, professionals, legislators, and judges, among others.”
He says that it wasn’t until he was a lot older that he realized how privileged he was as a Black male.
“When I graduated from high school a lot of my friends left for more diverse locales and communities and never came back. And there was a part of me that wanted to follow in that path. But because school was free for me here, I stayed and attended the University of Utah realizing that there were immense opportunities here.”
People are certainly curious, he says, about what it’s like living in Utah as a Black person, a state where the Black population is 1 ½ percent. Weighing in on this, Jackson offered this thought:
“I feel like the focus is often on the quantity, not necessarily the quantity of the community. Many think there is no Black community here but there is.”
He says that with Utah being a state of only 3 million people, communities there tend to be very closely connected. This, he says, is particularly true when it comes to Black folks.
“We all tend to know each other for the most part; we know what’s going on with each other; we work together really well here in terms of partnering up and collaborating; there are a lot of close bonds that allow us to elevate each other.”
Jackson wants to remind us that this is on top of Utah being one of the best economies in the nation.
“One of the things that does come with that is a strong community. And so once you find the right opportunity and are able to identify your community, and know how to engage, connect, and understand where your place could be, you can do very well here.”
In the meantime, Jackson offered this final thought about his book:
“I believe that we all have a story to tell and that we can all inspire others with that story. And so I tell my story in the hopes of opening the doors to my life so that people can finally open the door to theirs fully. With this, my hope is that they will discover the life they have always wanted so that they can live with purpose.”