Always Look 3 Stoplights Ahead: 9 Principles for Establishing Successful Schools

By Antonio Corrales

Always Look 3 Stoplights Ahead: 9 Principles for Establishing Successful Schools portrays the remarkable journey of an immigrant from Hungary who, after facing the death of his parents, along with a terrible economic depression in Europe, migrates to America, seeking a better life. Gustav’s journey is guided by nine research-based educational leadership principles learned from both his mentors and his experiences on the path. This man’s story is marked by love, struggles, learning curves, dreams, leaps of faith, an incredible desire to become an effective educator, and most importantly, the motto to always look three stoplights ahead.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984559012

Antonio Corrales

DR. ANTONIO CORRALES is a university professor and doctoral program director in educational leadership at the University of Houston Clear Lake. He is the first Latino to be in charge of the doctoral program in educational leadership within the University of Houston system. Before arriving to America, he ran for governor in Venezuela at 25 years of age, which forced him to abandon his native country for political reasons. He is a former teacher, campus administrator, and central office administrator with deep expertise in research, planning, and training. He has several years of experience in providing managerial leadership and administrative support to various departments in a variety of school districts as well as both private and public organizations. He has served in executive and administrative positions at public school districts and higher education institutions, as well as managing and advising multimillion-dollar projects for multinational companies. In addition, Dr. Corrales owns a successful consulting company, Sterling Evaluation & Assessment, which focuses on strategic marketing, program evaluation, and school turnaround. Besides publishing articles on at-risk student populations and school turnaround, Dr. Corrales is the author of the books Undoing the Damage: Repairing a Broken School District; Always Look 3 Stoplights Ahead: 9 Principles for Establishing Successful Schools; Frank, A Political Monster: 12 Rules to Succeed in Organizations; and Dear Students...: Weekly Thoughts to Establish a Growth Mindset. During the past years, Dr. Corrales has focused most of his leadership efforts and research on systematic brain development and measurement in terms of student executive functions within PK through 12th grades in public schools. Dr. Corrales has dedicated most of his time to improving the types of individuals public schools are producing in terms of work ethic, grit, capability to adapt effectively to new and challenging situations, emotional intelligence, military readiness, career and college readiness, and academic achievement. Finally, Dr. Corrales has established a variety of social media platforms to communicate with his students and educators around the world. Dr. Corrales earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the Universidad Metropolitana in Venezuela, and his MBA from Reutlingen University of Technology & Business in Germany. Following Dr. Corrales’ move to the U.S., he earned his master's and doctoral degrees in Educational Leadership at the University of Houston Clear Lake.

Book preview

1

Looking Back

It was a beautiful morning in sunny Los Angeles. Gustav woke up early, grabbed a cup of coffee, and, as he sat in his rocking chair overlooking the beach, reflected on his convoluted life. He had always been a sensitive person with an artistic core that assisted him in perceiving a variety of things others could not. It was common for Gustav to think about the struggles other people experienced, especially those of highly successful individuals, and how such unfortunate events allowed each to become a better person. In many cases, unexpected realities can put people in positions to fulfill their dreams.

On many occasions, people tend to see only the final product of those individuals who succeed in pursuing their dreams. But the reality is that behind their level of success there are many pitfalls, flaws, mistakes, and disappointments endured along the way. Many forget that George Washington lost several battles and was held in doubt prior to winning the Revolutionary War against Great Britain. Jesus was betrayed by Judas, denied three times by Peter, and abandoned by many of those who praised him. Moses sacrificed a wealthy life for his beliefs, Mandela spent almost 40 years in jail, and Gandhi endured long hunger strikes. At a certain point in their lives, all those individuals had to reinvent themselves – even resurrect! – and deal with their pain and fears. They had to make a brave decision to follow their dreams and follow their destined path regardless of the circumstances. This was Gustav’s own reality.

After losing his parents, Gustav found he had to re-create himself with an entirely new life – new home, new career, and new friends. Ever since he was a small boy, Gustav wanted to be a full-time writer and have autonomy over his time. For the first time in his life, he could feel his dreams coming true. He was so thankful, too, for those who’d believed in him and supported his dreams. Being conscious of this whole reality made him overwhelmingly happy and thankful. When expressing those sentiments to his wife, Emily, she would tell him, Gustav, things happen for a reason and at the right time. You just needed to gain experience, she said, to mature professionally and personally in order for it to happen. You needed to work hard at different jobs and experience the growing process in your own skin in order to make it happen. Your work ethic brought you to where you are, and now you can share your knowledge with others.

Gustav’s story portrays the remarkable journey of an immigrant from Hungary who, after facing the death of his parents along with a terrible economic depression in Europe, migrates to America looking for a better life. Gustav’s adventure was guided by nine research-based educational leadership principles learned from all the mentors and experiences he encountered along the way. His story is marked by love, struggles, learning curves, dreams, leaps of faith, an incredible desire to become an effective educator, and most importantly it remarks on a certain pathway … one of always looking three stoplights ahead.

2

Leaving Home Behind

The snow was consuming Gustav’s agony. The willingness to continue moving forward was disappearing in front of him like a ghost. There were not going to be any more goodbyes; no more trials and tribulations, no more excuses. This nostalgic feeling was killing any desire for Gustav to conquer anything else. He was leaving his entire life behind … everything familiar to him. Europe was experiencing the greatest economic depression in the modern area. No matter how many degrees one had or the number of one’s abilities, there were simply not enough jobs to go around.

That snowy afternoon was as if the city of Budapest was grasping the environment with goodbyes. Saying goodbye was becoming common among those looking for a better life, searching for the American Dream. Even though Gustav had a big family, he had lost his parents a couple of years ago. Gustav was an only child and fortunate enough to receive a $100,000 life insurance policy compensation from his parents’ death. He had been surviving on that money for the past few months and it was running out fast. The reality was another Hungarian was leaving the country full of memories and sadness. The sound of the train was echoing his thoughts, hypnotizing him and capturing this very moment forever. Gustav was also seeing his life potentially resurrect during that trip. He was trying to concentrate on the hope of finding a new life.

Today Alexandra, his girlfriend and the love of his life, was just another one of those beautiful memories. Thoughts of her covered his loneliness like a coat. As a tear started to fall, Gustav realized goulash would never taste the same. Those moments together would be buried in time, together with false promises about a potential comeback. Lost also would be her tenderness, and their fights, and the reconciliations. Alexandra will probably die one day far away from me, he mused, and our eyes will dance together no more. That is our reality.

Gustav was just another immigrant seeking a better life. He was a well-educated 28-year-old Hungarian with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in business administration. He also had a vast amount of experience working for local corporations and was multilingual. About a year ago, Gustav had been laid off from his job and ever since had done everything in his power to find new opportunities. Tired of being rejected, he finally decided to try his luck in America. Something inside Gustav was telling him that this new journey would be one for life, one from which he wouldn’t look back and on which he would achieve great things. Gustav did not know at that point that his life in America was going to take a dramatic turn into a completely different direction. He was about to enter a journey and become one of the most successful educators in the world. Little did Gustav know that leaving his native country was just a necessary step in fulfilling his destiny.

3

Coming to America

As a tourist, Gustav had visited America several times before and was quite familiar with it. But moving to the land of the free to make a living was a totally different reality. Gustav made a conscious decision to settle down in Los Angeles, California. Many people he knew had advised him that California possessed plenty of jobs and potential opportunities, providing him with the best chance to build a life for himself. Gustav was a highly educated, multilingual, and multicultural individual so in his mind, California, its people, and its culture would embrace somebody like him. Besides all that, California was home to his father’s former coworker, a person whom Gustav called his uncle, and thus he would not be all alone. He would have a support system. Los Angeles was a very large city and Gustav was going to need all the help he could get.

Even with the complications of Gustav’s situation, he was lucky enough to have some money left over from his parents’ life insurance to support himself for the first few months. He also didn’t have any immigration problems getting into America, as individuals with a European Union passport could get into the country without a visa and stay for a total of three months. Gustav, however, was going to need to acquire a working visa to become employed, and that was one of his biggest challenges.

Initially, his uncle provided him with a place to stay and gave him some guidance on how to make it in America. But he was an old man, and retired, and Gustav couldn’t rely on him as much as he needed. After only a week, Gustav moved out, rented an apartment, and started to establish himself on his own. Since Gustav did not possess a social security card or any established credit history, this process was quite costly and required Gustav to pay deposits. Overnight, he could see his bank account steadily getting smaller and smaller.

While still in Europe, Gustav spent several months looking for a job, and soon felt like a professional job hunter. He brought those job-hunting skills to America and started applying to all kinds of jobs. He even hired a company to train him on how to look for jobs in the U.S. This company gave him advice on how to build his resume more effectively, interview skills, and even how to send correspondence to the top executives ensuring that they would be the ones to open the envelops and not their secretaries. An even though Gustav was applying to hundreds of jobs and was granted a couple of interviews, he wasn’t getting any job offers.

When Gustav asked for honest feedback as to why he was not getting hired, he was told he had three things going against him. First of all his academic degrees were not from an American university. Secondly, all of his work experience was in Hungarian corporations. And lastly, he needed a