Mark Hines

Professor Sinclair

CTCM 2530

November 5, 2023

Interview Paper

Professor Sinclair gave a mission of asking a person from another generation what builds
the foundation of a good life and I knew exactly who that person would be. This person I have
known my whole life and also see as my life mentor. This person has always been there for me
no matter the cost and price of anything. This person is very important to me and the love I have
for them will always grow stronger and stronger as life goes on.

This very important person that I chose for my interview is my father. His name is
Michael D. Hines Sr. He was born February 26, 1967 in Boston, Massachusetts and currently
lives with the rest of our family in Cary, North Carolina. He has six children and eleven
grandchildren. Michael got his Bachelor of Arts degree at Boston College and got his Master of
Arts degree at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He served about 20 years at
GlaxoSmithKline being a Manager, Leader, and Director in different roles and worked a couple
years at Starbucks Coffee Company as a Director and Vice President of Inclusion & Diversity,
Compliance, and Analytics. While he is not working, he enjoys things like fishing, gardening,
cooking, building new appliances around the house, and spending time with family. Something
that fascinates me about him is how he always strives to be a leader and do better, including as a
father. My father plays a very important role in my life, especially who I am today. When asked
to do this interview, I took the opportunity to interview my father because I felt like he was the
perfect person to do this interview with. I asked him the following questions. What makes a good
life? How does one go about living a good life? How is happiness defined and understood? What
are the problems we humans must address? What were your best and worst experiences? Was
there anything you could have done differently to fix those experiences? What would you add to
your life right now? Do you have any regrets? Are you where you thought you would be? Could
your younger self see where you are now? Do you think you would be where you are at
personally, not job wise? What’s one event you would go back to and why? What advice would
you like to give me? What advice would you give me career wise?
 What Makes A Good Life?

“I think a good life is love, purpose, fulfillment and legacy. What I mean by that is love,
being loved, and loving others. Then purpose, I mean that as knowing your God given purpose,
knowing why you have been created, wired, and sent here to do. Fulfillment is just really doing
the things that fill you up, that give you energy, that give you excitement, that fill your cup.
Legacy is how you want to leave the world a better place. So I think all those four things to me
sum up what is a good life.”

How does one go about living a good life?

“It’s knowing your shape. One of the things that we learned a long time ago many years
back when we first started going to Grace Bible Fellowship, I taught what we called shape. It's
about Rick Warren and the purpose driven life. It's about fulfilling and knowing who you are.
And so how do you go about living a good life? You have to know what your shape is. Your shape
is your spiritual gifts, what’s in your heart to do, what abilities that you have, your personality
and how your personality lines up with that, and your experiences and how you take all of your
experiences and make you who you are. Then, you take all of that and find your sweet spot in
terms of what you're supposed to be doing, who you supposed to be doing it for, and how you're
supposed to be serving others. It’s about serving others and knowing your purpose, then using
that to serve others. One of the quotes that I've used quite often from John Maxwell, especially
when I talk to leaders about being a leader is ‘the extent of your influence depends on the depth
of your concern for others.’ That quote means the same thing that God talks about is putting the
interests of others above ourselves. I think that if you can do that and make sure that you know
your shape and you identify other tools to help you figure out who you are and how you're wired,
I think that will help you to have a good life.”

How is happiness defined and understood?

“It's about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. At the foundation of that is like basic needs
such as breathing, food, water, sleeping, and going to the bathroom. So, some of that is
physiological. Then it is about safety or security, being secure in your employment, having
stability in your job environment, even stability in your family goes along with that. Those are
two of the five areas. The third is love and belonging. Friendship, family, having intimacy, and
intimacy doesn't have to be physical intimacy. Intimacy is in to me I see. That's interpersonal
relationships or your social needs. Then, there’s esteem. Having confidence, respect for yourself,
respect for others, and achievement goes along with that. Then of course, self actualization. You
know problem solving, treating others the way they would want to be treated, thinking about how
you're creative and being spontaneous. All that comes with self actualization. But that's what I
was thinking about for that question. I would define happiness and how I would understand it is
through Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.”

What are the problems we humans must address?

“God tells us to take care of the widows and orphans, that's one. But I think there's also
an opportunity for us to take care of the homeless. Veterans, people who have served this
country, who come back to this country and don't have a job or don't have a place to live. Those
are the things that we need to solve for. We need to solve them here in this country before we can
go help another country. You have to take care of your own house first. The other problem we
have to address is hatred. We got to deal with that, hating people because of their ethnicity and
things like that. We got to address that. Then, we have to address unfairness or equity or equality.
Making sure that the playing field is level. It's not just about giving out the shoes, but it's about
giving out the right pair of shoes, so that you all who are running the race have a fair shot at
running that race. If you wear a size nine, I can't give you a size eight shoe and tell you to run a
race. That's not equality. Equity is like I got to give you what you need in order to give you the
best possible chance to succeed. So, it's gotta be fairness, equity, and equality. Along with that,
we also have to address things like accessibility. I think about disabled brothers and sisters, they
need accessibility. We have to level the playing field for everyone. Those are some of the
problems that I think we need to solve as humans. Part of this is about how do we help the
generations that are coming after us? How do we best position them to help them to be able to
solve for some of this? So, that's what I meant earlier about that first question about what's a
good life and that's leaving a legacy. Part of what we need to be doing as older adults is using
every opportunity that we get to pour into that next generation. Part of this for me is also about
how you mentor, coach, and how you give yourself away to others.”

What were your best and worst experiences?

“The best experience was going to Starbucks and getting promoted to vice president by
the CEO. Hands down, that is a really big deal for me. It was one of the most humbling things
that has ever happened to me in my life and I don't say it because I'm bragging, I'm saying it
because that doesn't happen every day. I was there four and a half months and got promoted to
vice president, and was at the previous company for almost 20 years and couldn't get past a
director. One of the worst, however, was also there. Was not being able to stay to fulfill what I felt
was my destiny and what I was called there to do. I felt like that was thwarted and cut short by
people who were not nice, very competitive, very jealous, very some backstabbing people, things
that happen in Corporate America. I just didn't see any of that stuff coming, but that was the
worst for me too.”
 Was there anything you could have done differently to fix those experiences?

“I think I would have taken longer to trust people, learn to trust people. What I mean by
that is you have to give me a reason not to trust you. Usually when I meet you, I accept you for
who you are and I trust you unless you give me a reason not to. I think that the learning for me
there was to kind of like pull back a little bit and not be so trusting of others until you really get
to know them because some people who say who they are, aren't who they say they are.”

What would you add to your life right now?

“I don't think I would add anything to my life right now. I think what I'm working on is how to
keep the family together. That's important to me. How do I work on individuals in the family,
whether it be the children or whether it be your mom. Whether it be my brother, your uncle.
That's important to me right now, is the relationship piece because I think so much of the
relationship in your personal life often shows up in your professional life. As I've taken some
time to really think about the impact of not being at Starbucks and the implications about what it
means, it's making me really lean in and focus more on my personal relationships and how I can
make them better. I can only do my part, but what it's done has made me even more self aware.
So what else would I add to my life right now? It’s just simply being mindful of how I show up to
others in the family, individually, and collectively.”

Do you have any regrets?

“And do I have any regrets? Well, it's not a regret. I wouldn't consider it a regret versus it's a
learning for me. One of my learnings is that I would have maybe done things differently when it
came to family. I would have been more self aware earlier on when I was younger than I am now.
I would have definitely worked on relationships a little differently, but that’s not a regret.”

Are you where you thought you would be?

“No, because when I started at Starbucks, I thought I would retire there. So, am I where I
thought I would be? No, because to get promoted like that, that doesn't happen. I thought that
would be the beginning of more and I thought that would be the beginning of getting closer to
that higher level in the organization where I aspire to be.”
 Could your younger self see where you are now?

“Yes, I always had a vision about what I wanted to do, but it wasn't until I was in my late
thirties that it became more apparent, kind of like working with people would be my thing. I think
that vision or that level of competitiveness you would call it or wanting to achieve has always
been there, it just didn't really start to take shape until later on in my life.”

Do you think you would be where you are at personally, not job wise?

“Yeah, well because I've always wanted something for myself. Like I remember when
your brothers were small and we were living in an apartment. They were going to go up on the
rent and the rent was like 900 bucks. I'm like we're going to pay that for rent, we might as well
just buy a house. At the time I had the worst credit in the world, but I was persistent. So, I went
and got in a program that helps black families, minority families to own their first home and I
did the work. I did the work in the program, so that we could buy our first house. My point is I've
been the kind of person that you can't tell me no I can't do something because then it's going to
make me want to do it. You know to say, I told you so. But I'm at a point now in my life, I don't
have anything to prove to anybody. I just need to just be myself. Whatever you're wired to do, you
just need to stay focused and go after it because you've got to know that God has you here for a
purpose.”

What’s one event you would go back to and why?

“I think I would have spent more time with my mother before she passed away. There was
a lot of space in there where I didn't connect with her. So, if there was one event that I would go
back to and why? I would go back to having that relationship with my mother, so that she could
have a relationship with her grandchildren, so that the grandkids could get what they needed. So
that her grandkids could get what they needed.”

What advice would you like to give me?

“I'm going to give you the same advice I've given you before. Stay the course. Stay
focused. Take your time. Don't rush things. Finish what you started. You know stuff is gonna
happen, but you know be diligent and just try not to sweat the small stuff. Some things we make
a big deal out of that really aren't a big deal.”
 What advice would you give me career wise?

“See the world, man. Go experience it. If you say, hey after graduation, I want to go stay
in another country, I would encourage you to do it. Go stay overseas for a year somewhere.
Don't stay in some place that’s dangerous. But the reason why you want to do that Mark is
because now that I think about a regret, I wish that I had done that because when you go to other
countries, you experience other cultures, it actually makes you more well rounded. I really
believe it makes you more well rounded. So, my advice to you is to see the world, see different
cities. There's plenty of places in the United States that you haven't been. Go check it out and go
spend some time in those spots, and then spend some time outside the U.S. because whatever
your purpose is, that's going to make you even more well rounded when you've experienced those
other places, other countries, and other cultures. You don't want to see the glass as half empty.
You want to take every opportunity to see everything as half full. That's how I try to look at
everything. Here's another opportunity, good, bad or indifferent.”

Throughout the semester, this course has taught me new concepts and has allowed me to
apply those concepts to the real world that surrounds me everyday. The content of concepts that I
learn come from the book the happiness hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt. Haidt talks about
concepts like reciprocity, adversity, moral diversity, and tacit knowledge, which are also a lot of
the concepts that my father mentioned or related to.

Haidt mentions that, “Reciprocity is a deep instinct; it is the basic currency of social life”
(Haidt, p.47). In the interview, when my father answered the questions about how does one go
about living a good life, how is happiness defined and understood, and what are the problems we
humans need to address, my father talked about serving others and giving back. He also
mentioned meeting everybody’s needs (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) and making sure
everybody is on the same level or playing field. So, things like building ourselves for the future,
equity, and equality are ways we can give back and continue to build our social life at the same
time. An example my father talked about was when his mother passed, he wished he could have
had a better relationship with her and so that her grandchildren could get what they needed. This
is a form of reciprocity because both parties benefit from having that relationship or bond with
each other. When hearing this on a personal level, I thought that this would be extremely
beneficial for my family because my siblings and I do not know my father’s mom like that and if
there are memories, they are shortened because we did not spend enough time with her.

Another thing that my father talked about in the interview was his hardships and
difficulties in the workplace and in his personal life. He mentioned how yet one of his best
experiences was also his worst due to poor behavior in Corporate America and how he did not
have a good credit for when he wanted to buy a house. These things that he mentioned show
adversity because he did not let these negative things define who he is, but instead kept going to
meet his destination. Even though my father dealt with problems at starbucks and had to leave,
he still keeps going now. Even though my father had bad credit, he still got the house he wanted
and went on later in life to buy more houses. This relates to adversity because even though my
father dealt with struggles in life, he learned from them and used those struggles to persevere
through life. I think that is why I do the things that I do now is because of him. He is one of the
prime reasons why I do not give up and continue to strive in life. Something I noticed when
analyzing my father’s adversity is that not only does it tie back in with the relationship he had
with his mother, but it also revolves around the concept of tacit knowledge. Haidt says tacit
knowledge, “is procedural (it's "knowing how" rather than "knowing that"), it is acquired without
direct help from others, and it is related to goals that a person values. Tacit knowledge resides in
the elephant. It's the skills that the elephant acquires, gradually, from life experience” (Haidt, p.
152). When going back and listening to the interview over and over, my father not one time talks
about how all the things he learned from life were from somebody. All of the things he learned
from life came from experiencing life. So, all of the advice he gives me at the end of the
interview comes from tacit knowledge or knowledge from experiencing life.

Something that I took away from this interview was that not only should one take the
time to experience life, but when we do we become morally diverse within ourselves, which
applies to the concept of moral diversity. I learn a lot from my father on a daily basis, but this
interview taught me how to analyze life better in depth and how I should go about it. I loved this
interview and it is something I would do again. This interview continues to show how much I
love my father and how important he is to me because without him, life would be so much
different right now. This interview proved exactly why he was the perfect candidate for it.

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