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- The Ambition of Diana Ross (part two)
Welcome to The Strategy Files—a newsletter about history's most ambitious people in fashion, beauty, and culture. I study the icons, you apply their strategies; you win.
This month’s deep dive comes from the book Diana Ross: Secrets of A Sparrow.
14 Lessons From This Month's Deep Dive can be found in part one.
In 1958, Diana was a typical 14 year old girl; when she wasn’t in school she was dancing or swimming, or headed to her friend Sharon’s house for sleepovers.
But these were not your typical sleepovers.
I mean, yes; they stayed up later than they should have. But they weren’t braiding each other‘s hair or painting each other‘s nails. The girls used the sleepovers to watch Sharon’s uncle Smokey, and his band The Miracles, practice all night.
(If you don’t know who that is, I need you to close this email, open the door, go outside, and RUN to your local record store.)
Screenshot: YouTube. Smokey Robinson & The Miracles live - You really got a hold on me.
Imagine how much she was learning watching them. What does a team that works well together look like? How do you manage conflict within a group? How do you lead a team? How do you effectively blend business with creativity? The list goes on.
Eventually, their practice paid off, because in 1958, on Smokey’s 18th birthday, all of Detroit heard his first record on the radio: Got A Job – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
The moment Diana heard it on the radio, something inside of her changed. On page 91 she says:
“I knew that if he could do it, I could do it, too. It made me feel like nothing was impossible.”
That was a massive goal for a black girl growing up in America in the 1950s. I mean, think about it. Jim Crow was ravaging The South. Black folks were migrating to New York, LA, Detroit, and Chicago in record numbers, only to find that they were second-class citizens everywhere they went.
It almost feels like a smarter would have been to pull a Josephine Baker and move to Paris to pursue her dreams.
But Diana’s family didn’t move to Paris; they moved to The Brewster Projects. This feels like fate because this is where Diana meets Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson, the girls that would eventually make up The Supremes. And yes; there were a couple other girls who came in and out of the group. But they didn’t make it all the way to the end.
The future Supremes had one goal: get a record on the radio. On page 93, Diana says:
“We loved to sing more than anything, and we used to get together and rehearse as often as we could, with no idea how to get to the next step. When you want something bad enough, somehow it happens.”
Not knowing the next step should not stop you. If anything, it should make you want to do what they did: lock-in. Improve. Keep the momentum going. Move forward until you figure out what the next step is.
It's so easy to stall progress because you don’t know the next step you should take. You might have that problem, or your friend who says she’s gonna start that business but never actually does might have that problem. But this group of teenage girls did not have that problem.
And I love that for them.
Florence’s sister was dating a guy who managed a boy group called The Primes. The Primes were looking for a girl group to practice with. So Diana and the girls jumped on the opportunity; they named themselves The Primettes and got to work. They learned how to work with management, how to practice with other groups, and how to collaborate with other groups.
This also helped build their network. Because The Primes go on to become The Temptations.
So The Primettes continue singing and rehearsing for years. It really feels like they’ve fallen in love with the work. In the book Diana says “Singing became my life. I lived, ate, drank, and breathed it. It was all that I cared about. I had a dream, and I was completely determined to make it real. Nothing could deter me or discourage me for very long.”
Their love for the work paid off, because they eventually started performing at neighborhood parties. And when they start performing at bigger events, their name, The Primettes, gets a shout out on the radio.
Finally, they feel ready to audition for a record label. So one day, the girls asked Smokey to set them up with an audition at Motown Records. Smokey says yes, and they end up auditioning for Berry Gordy.
Unfortunately, the girls didn’t get the satisfying conclusion they were looking for; Barry didn't give them a record deal. He felt they were too young, and needed to finish high school before getting a record deal.
But they wanted a record deal. And they wanted it from him. So they kept going.
Here’s what Berry said about the situation on page 146 of his autobiography:
“Despite their disappointment, almost every day after school they showed up at Hitsville. The girls were making friends with producers, trying to get gig singing backgrounds for other artists, their determination paid off in January 1961 they were signed to Motown.”
For me, this paints a crystal clear picture of what someone destined for success looks like. Because when they go after a goal, and face an obstacle, what do they do? They turn the obstacle into opportunity.
Diana’s ambition feels so effortless. She’s not hustling, grinding, losing sleep, ruining her personal life, putting her education on the backburner.
But she gets everything she wants. Because she’s always around people who are just like her. She was always around people who are wildly ambitious.
Til next,
LaToya
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