Peter Burns Shares How His Immigrant Journey from Jamaica Shaped His Career

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Growing up in a humble home in Kingston, Jamaica, Peter Burns recalls washing car windshields at a gas station to make money to buy a bicycle sans a seat or brakes. He had never seen a fully assembled bike before emigrating with his family from Jamaica to America at 12 due to political unrest in his home country. The family moved to New York, where Burns got a job working in the district attorney’s office in high school. A 20-year career in the U.S. Army carried him across the globe and into various roles, including representing the U.S. State Department on NATO affairs. From there, Burns spent two decades as an exec with Nokia.

Today, he’s the CEO and president of Peter Burns Enterprise, a leadership coaching firm. Here, Burns shares how his experiences molded his desire to shape future generations of leaders.

“The lesson of putting that bike together told me I can build anything. You must be willing to work, learn, and fail. I don’t allow fear to stop me from failing. We had an old term in the Army that says, ‘If you think you’re going to fail, hurry up and get it over with.’ My military career and the foundational things that we learned growing up allowed me to take advantage of the environment that I’m in and look for ways to either succeed or grow from it. That’s the reason why I’m trying to mentor people as much as I can: to touch that next generation from an educational perspective and to get them to look beyond their circumstances and look for opportunities where they are.

“We had food on the table. My father made sure our family was taken care of. If I were hungry, I would find a fruit tree and get a piece of fruit to eat. I might not have been full, but I wasn’t starving. I could walk to the ocean, and my brothers, family, and cousins could go fishing. We didn’t use fishing poles. We would just throw out a net, grab what we could, and come back. I never allow the circumstances that I’m in to prevent me from accomplishing what can be done. I’ve made mistakes. But I made enough mistakes to learn so that I can continue to move forward.

“We were first-generation immigrants from Jamaica. We just had a work ethic in our home where our parents said, ‘Go do what you’re supposed to take care of and do what you’re supposed to do.’”

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