His opening volley to the students of Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge Academy was "We are achievers", and by the time world renowned motivational speaker Dennis Kimbro finished his speech, few had reason not to believe in the power of their dreams.

Dr. Kimbro, author of such books as the best-selling "Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice" and the highly acclaimed "What Makes the Great Great: Strategies for Extraordinary Achievement", which followed several years, Dr. Kimbro was brought to Bermuda by the Epsilon Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity in celebration of their Fourth Annual Black & Gold Ball.

At the Ruth Seaton James Auditorium, Dr. Kimbro challenged the audience to believe in their dreams.

He simply did not exalt the adage that 'what the mind conceives and believes, it is capable of achieving', but he also illustrated it with examples of true stories from hundreds of interviews he has conducted from a who's who list of successful African-Americans.

Bringing his energising and uplifting presentation to Bermuda, Dr. Kimbro proved why he is one of the most sought after speakers in America today.

He recounted stories of how Earl Woods shared the secret of his son Tiger Woods' success. How from the age of eight Tiger dedicated himself to golf, and every day hit 1,000 practice shots.

The night that he won his first Masters, Woods watched replays of the tournament until 3 a.m. when he called his trainer to come over to hold a practice session because he noticed an error in his stroke.

Dr. Kimbro also spoke of how success is simply triumph over a serious of failures, such as when Michael Jordan committed to shooting three hundred jump shots a day after he was kicked off his junior varsity basketball team.

The noted speaker also told the story of how a former janitor returned to school but struggled academically and financially for seven years to earn a degree in education and at the end of her first year of teaching was named "Teacher of the Year" for the state of Virginia.

Dr. Kimbro's success had its own interesting story. In "What Makes the Great Great: Strategies for Extraordinary Achievement", he shares how he came to write "Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice", which is based on the principles of wealth that Napoleon Hill formulated in his phenomenal best-seller, "Think and Grow Rich".

When Hill died, he left behind a manuscript aimed at the specific problems of Black Americans. He had written about 100 pages prior to his death two decades earlier and in 1986, W. Clement Stone approached him on behalf of the Napoleon Hill Foundation and asked him to complete the book.

"Stone proposed that I take Hill's ideas, reinforce them with what I knew of the African American experience, and then update and complete the manuscript. I couldn't believe my ears," Dr. Kimbro wrote in "What Makes the Great Great".

"Stone put the question to me squarely: He asked if I would accept the challenge. I told him I would do so if either he or the foundation bearing Hill's name would underwrite the project since I was deeply in debt and saw no way of easing my financial burden.

"Prior to this fateful meeting, I had dreamed of doing something else. I had begun to write a book that would document the towering accomplishments of a host of black entrepreneurs who had dramatically moulded their destinies while advancing the economic well-being of those around them. Many of the people I interviewed overcame tremendous odds to become highly respected members of the business community.

"Meanwhile, my financially comfortable job with a Fortune 500 company had become a daily nightmare. My sales had been impressive and our region continued to lead the firm, as it did for a number of years, but my mind was preoccupied with other challenges."

Dr. Kimbro revealed how, at age 36, married and with three daughters, a salary that approached $60,000, enviable perks and benefits and a healthy mortgage to go with all that, he walked away from his job.

"Some people said I was cocky and impatient," he wrote. "Actually I was frightened. Afraid that I would one day wind up like the majority of people who never ventured into the unknown, who stumbled through their allotted years with hopes and dreams eventually fading from memory, whose lives never made a difference.

"My letter of resignation was, as Henry Parks, one of black America's most profiled entrepreneurs, would later tell me, my 'declaration of independence'."

Nowadays, a management consulting firm featuring seminars and presentations bears his name, the P. Kimbro Group. Each year in his fast-moving, informative and entertaining seminars on leadership, entrepreneurship, sales and personal development, he addresses nearly 100,000 men and women in corporate and public talks.

Dr. Kimbro speaks regularly for corporations and organisations, including Xerox, the Chrysler Motor Company, the Central Intelligence Agency, Price Waterhouse, Stanford Business School, Hewlett-Packard, Dunn and Bradstreet and Apple Computer.

He has been featured in the pages of Success! Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today in addition to being interviewed on the Today Show, Larry King Live and CNN. Dr. Kimbro is also a professor in the School of Business at Clark Atlanta University.

In 1996 Dr. Kimbro served as one of the eight national judges for the prestigious Ernst & Young USA Today Entrepreneur of the Year held in Palm Springs, California.

He is rapidly becoming one of the leading business/personal development speakers in the US. His writings have influenced readers from the streets of Melbourne, Australia to Johannesburg, South Africa to Seoul, South Korea.

One of Dr. Kimbro's highest honours occurred when he was requested to keynote Grambling State University's coach Eddie Robinson's farewell tribute. He is also the author of "Daily Motivations for African American Success" while his fourth book, "What Keeps Me Standing: A Black Grandmother's Guide to Peace, Hope and Inspiration", is due to be released this spring.

The CedarBridge Academy was especially pleased to receive Dr. Kimbro as part of their family because he was responsible for completing the pioneering work of Napoleon Hill who created the foundation for the Quantum Learning Program that teaches life and academic skills to students, a learning system that CedarBridge Academy introduced to students and teachers last year.

At his speech here, Dr. Kimbro reeled off statistics that included the fact that straight 'A' students study two hours a night, five days per week, but the highest achievers drive themselves to put in an extra effort to make sure they not only become the best, but the best that they can be.

Dr. Kimbro gave students simple but proven advice. "Birds of a feather flock together, so if you wish to be a straight 'A' student, hang with straight 'A' students. If you want to become a bank robber, hang with bank robbers," he told the audience.

At the Black & Gold Ball, The XL Foundation received the Chapter's award for "Corporate Citizen of the Year," and the Bank of Bermuda Foundation received the "Community Service Award".

Trott & Duncan Barristers & Attorneys at Law provided special assistance for the sponsorship of the speaking engagements to the Berkeley Institute and the CedarBridge Academy.