‘Career Spotlight’

Omar Tyree talks College Sports, Writing, and Entrepreneurship

Like many African-American males, Omar Tyree had aspirations of playing for the National Football League(NFL) upon graduating from high school, but after having an eye opening semester his freshman year of college, Tyree realized that his strength lay in communicating through written word. With 19 books to his credit, an upcoming film project based on his novel Leslie, and his first stage play in the works, Omar Tyree is a successful author because he planned, prepared, diversified his brand, and stood in the midst of defeat. We spoke to Mr. Tyree about his early aspirations and how he became the talent he is today.

Upon graduating high school, what were your aspirations? I wanted to play football . . . so I went to the University of Pittsburgh because Pittsburgh was a big football school in Pennsylvania. I got into Pittsburgh and I had the right grades so I was gonna walk on to the football team but once I got out there to Pittsburgh I was really disillusioned with the whole politics of academics and sports. I was still a smart person so I understood how many athletes were wasting their opportunity at an education trying to go pro in sports. If you have 100 guys on the football team, if five guys make it to the pros each year, you’ve done great. And so once I began to understand the realities of that I began to back away from sports, but that was my first goal.

Going to Pittsburgh, weren’t you initially majoring in pharmacy or math? Yes, my mom was a pharmacist. So since I was familiar with pharmacy and had grown up around it my entire life, I declared pharmacy.

What was “the aha” moment when you knew you wanted to change your major and you wanted to become a writer and journalist? My freshman year of college, ironically, the NFL went on some type of players strike. The NFL had to fill out rosters for their football team, so a lot of college guys left school early to fill out rosters for professional football teams. I was in Pittsburgh where we had a couple guys who left the football team and our coach was highly outspoken against [it]. What is the irony of that! . . . Every guy that plays football wants to go pro anyway, that’s their dream, and now their coach is lambasting them because they want to go for their dream. Once that happened I was really turned against sports because I understood how universities could use a lot of guys for their sports ability, [and they] really don’t get a good education. I got so radical with my tongue, as far as expressing my ideas about what’s going on, so I started writing for the school newspaper and people would listen. So it was a radical moment for me where I said I have a lot to say about what’s going on and that led to me being a writer and a communicator. So the “aha moment” came for me immediately freshman year in the fall. I was like wow, is this what college is about, as far as being an academic versus an athlete.

Did you do any internships or work a part time job to get a better understanding of what a journalist/author did? Yes. I tell students all the time do internships as soon as you get on campus, freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year. You have a lot of students who are messing around and not doing internships. That’s where you really learn your skill. A lot of times the education is just general information to get you ready, but when you do an internship, they actually teach you the skill you’re gonna need on that job and now they know you already. So I did an internship in my junior year and by my senior year I was ready to come right out of school and start working at the newspaper, which I did. I came right out and had a job already. Do internships and as often as possible. That is the biggest attribute of going to college, being able to do an internship where you can have the experience of whatever it is you want to major in.

How did your job as a print journalist prepare you for your future career as an author? When I worked for the black press we had to do everything. I was part of the editing process, the distribution, the reporting, and photo taking. I was covering a lot of stories and I had an opportunity to deal with a lot of different parts of the publishing industry. So when I started putting out my own books, I had already dealt with the media, people already knew me, I had already dealt with distribution, printing presses, and major situations, I had already had so many skills because I was working with the black press that needed me to work in so many different capacities. So sometimes when you do an internship, when a small company really needs you, you end up learning more skills than you would working for a large company. When I came out of the newspaper job I had a lot of skills that I would end up utilizing with my own publishing house, that’s what gave me the confidence to start my own publishing company.

How did your career as an author get started? In 1992, I incorporated my business in the state of Maryland. It took me about 5 or 6 months to hustle up investment money from friends and family members to pay for my first print run. My first book was called Colored on White Campus. The book came out on October 6, 1992, I was 23 years old. As soon as the book came out I had 1,000 copies that I was gonna sell for $10 each. I started selling those books immediately to all the people who knew me, all the newspapers, family and friends, then I started doing events, where you would buy a table for about $300, I had to become a very aggressive salesperson. So all the people who are shy and passive about sales, if you want to get into business, even if it’s not your own business, you have to learn how to use your mouth, use your confidence. Learn to talk to people if you want to move up the ladder in any business. They can’t read your mind and if you don’t tell them what you’re planning to do or how much you want to be paid for it, they will assume the lowest amount and the lowest input. You have to be busy in business and the younger you are when you have all that energy you should never sleep as Diddy says on his show, “Who Wants to Work for Diddy.” You should use all that youth and energy to your advantage and stay active at whatever you’re doing and I did all that to start my business.

How long was it before you were recognized and got a deal with a large publishing house? It took 3 years, but again that can’t be your goal. If you’re able to make your own money the bigger guys want to be in business with you. They want to make sure that they have some value with you. So when you get into any type of business make sure that it’s valuable, it’s profitable, and you have to do that by not thinking about the next level. You have to think about how can I get the most out of what I’m doing right here and now so that someone can look at it and say wow, you’ve come a long way, how were you able to do a lot with so little and that’s why I was able to be picked up three years later because I already had a track record of success.

Did you anticipate your success or make a business plan, or did you just write the books and hope for the best? Yes, I had plans. Of course, I wanted to be successful, that doesn’t always happen so I was fortunate that it did. But yeah you never plan to be unsuccessful, you never plan not to make money, so everyone is gonna start off with a plan, but you have to execute, you gotta stay busy, stay active, and you have to work it. So it took me years to work it and every year I was able to make a little bit of an increment with money and keep going. So you gotta be busy and you have to be active and you can’t get discouraged. You may have some downfalls in the beginning, but you have to keep at it. So anyone who thinks their gonna get rich quick, STOP THE MADNESS! It doesn’t happen like that. You have to be prepared to grind it out and continue to grind it out and make good budget cuts where you can make money without spending so much money.

So you’ve written 18 fiction books and 1 business book. You’ve had to change with the times. You have a film project coming up, and a stage play coming up, tell me about having your hands in several different areas? It’s called diversity. And if you want to continue being successful you will learn how to diversify your product, your marketing, your name, and your value. Once the books weren’t selling as they used to because you have all these new writers coming out and you have all these new writers jumping in the way of the money I used to make, I had to get into something else where I could still stand out and make money. That’s where the stage plays come in to play, that’s where the films come into play. I started a magazine, I had a clothing line, I tried to get into everything, music. I try to do as many things as possible to make sure that my value maintains something and I can still make money even though the book sales aren’t what they used to be. So Business 101 is that you have to learn to diversify your stocks and product brands so you can keep making money no matter what the economy is doing and your main product is no longer selling as it used to.

So tell me a little bit about the movie that you’re making. I know it’s based on your book Leslie and will be focused here in New Orleans. Leslie is a book idea that I wrote a decade ago and I had movies in mind when I wrote the book. The film is about a poverty-stricken young urban girl who lives in New Orleans. She’s under lots of pressure and is stressed out to the point where she becomes violent with all the people who have become her stressors. It’s been three years now trying to work the pre- production stage of getting people interested and getting the money people to back us so that we can get this film done. We’re trying to finish this film by early spring to be in perfect position to put it out in October.

Tell me about the stage play that you’re working on? The stage play is called “Broke and Sexy.” Many people are going through hard economic times, but they’re still trying to act as if they have money and look sexy. They still want to date and be involved in the social scene and setting and try to figure out how they can stretch their dollar and look good doing it. So I wanted to write a play about that because it’s something that’s very realistic and something that people can relate to right now if their on the dating scene.

Omar Tyree, a New York Times best-selling author, a 2001 NAACP Image Award recipient for Outstanding Literature in Fiction, and a 2006 Phillis Wheatley Literary Award winner for Body of Work in Urban Fiction, has been cited in 2009 by the City Council of Philadelphia for his work in Urban Literacy, and has published 19 books with 2 million copies sold worldwide. With a degree in Print Journalism from Howard University in 1991, Tyree has been recognized as one of the most renowned contemporary writers in the African-American community. He is also an informed and passionate speaker on various community-related and intellectual topics. Now entering the world of business seminars, urban children’s books, feature films and songwriting, Tyree is a tireless creator and visionary of few limitations. For more information on his work and titles, please view his web site @ (www.OmarTyree.com).