Jayton Harps

Introduction and the National Society of Black Engineers

Taryell Simmons: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of Rise Urban Nation. To my left I have my brother from another mother, Jayton Harps. We're going to be using some acronyms today, so Jayton, tell the people what NSBE stands for.

Jayton Harps: Thank you, Taryell. It stands for the National Society of Black Engineers, and it's been around for over forty years. It's about to be fifty.

Taryell Simmons: I couldn't think of a better interview to kick us off on this MLK holiday. And congrats to the new president. We met through our friend Ryan, my RISE brother from RISE San Diego cohort three. I started this podcast during the pandemic because I couldn't get out and speak to youth, and I'd always hear young people's limiting beliefs about who they could be. In my diversity, equity and inclusion work I realized adults have them too. We see a Black engineer and think, wait, there's a Black person doing that? I share journeys like yours so it becomes the new norm. You don't have to play ball or be a rapper. You could be an engineer.

Jayton Harps: That's right. Absolutely.

From Gamer to Engineer

Taryell Simmons: How did you get into engineering?

Jayton Harps: For the longest time I didn't know what an engineer was, to be quite frank. I was a huge gamer, back to the Nintendo days. I wanted to be a video game designer, and my even bigger dream was to be the CEO of PlayStation. Education was always part of my life; my dad had a master's degree and my mom did some college. In Game Informer, the journalists all said they were computer science majors, and around 2006 or 2007 I read that computer science was one of the top three majors that would be in demand for the next decade. I picked the right major. I got accepted at Howard, but they wanted me to retake my SATs, and San Diego State accepted me with no issues. I went on campus and fell in love with it.

Jayton Harps: My second year I knew I needed to get involved. At the welcome week for Black student organizations I met Brian Ware, the president of NSBE. I said, what's NSBE? He said Black engineers, and I had never heard of an engineer up to that point. Then he told me there was free food, and he sold me on the food. There were maybe ten or twelve of us, and I was a big introvert, but I stuck with it. What really transformed me was the national convention in Las Vegas in March 2009. I had never seen gifted young Black folks getting it on that magnitude, and I said, I'm never leaving this organization.

Taryell Simmons: Where did your pull toward entrepreneurship come from?

Jayton Harps: That came after college. I want to shout out Grady Gordon from the NSBE professionals, who told me not only have a job but create a job. One of my biggest motivations was my grandmother, Florida Lewis, rest her soul. Around 2015 I was going through tough times at my job and realized anything could happen and I needed to be ready. That's how I met Ryan, who told me to read books, and I started reading about capital, scaling, marketing and sales. If you're only depending on the job, you can't really survive out here.

First Jobs and the Value of Service

Taryell Simmons: Not everybody gets the ideal first job. What was your very first job, and what did you learn?

Jayton Harps: My senior year of high school. My parents divorced when I was super young, and I wanted to experience prom and grad night but also help my mom as a single mother. So I got a job at Stater Bros., a grocery store a block from our apartment in Corona, in the Inland Empire. I'm not even from San Diego. I was a courtesy clerk, bagging groceries, pushing carts and mopping, for about three months before I left for San Diego State.

Jayton Harps: It reinforced that it's okay to serve, to take action to help somebody. Today is Martin Luther King Day, and it's not a day off; it's a day on. I grew up in Unity Missionary Baptist Church in LA. That church taught me to speak to the back of the room, and I was an usher, like my dad and my mom. That's why I'm such a giving person. That grocery job didn't make me any less than who I am. We may not always feel valued, but people will always need our help, no matter where we are.

Taryell Simmons: You add value wherever you go because you're a person of value and character. Walk me through how you got into your career.

Jayton Harps: I consider myself a business engineer. Maybe this is the first time I'm coining that. When I was president of the NSBE chapter at San Diego State, I had below a 2.5 GPA and was working two jobs. At the national convention in Indianapolis, my mentor, Miss Shirley D., told me about Northrop Grumman, and I thought flying drones would be really cool. I interviewed at the convention, killed the phone interview and the in-person interview with five managers, and in August they offered me a software engineering position. It was the only offer I had, and I still work there.

Jayton Harps: My mentors there taught me the process and how to maneuver when something doesn't work, how to be a problem solver. I didn't know it was making me an entrepreneur, because entrepreneurs are problem solvers. I also saw that you can be the expert without running everything; you depend on people. I listened to podcasts like How I Built This from NPR, where every successful entrepreneur had something in their way but found a way to make it work. Now I'm a business family man, because I'm married, and I want to pursue my goals and still have a family. There's a quote: when the elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers. I don't want my grass to suffer.

Taryell Simmons: Engineers have a leg up as entrepreneurs, because process and systems are part of your DNA.

Life Lessons: Choices, Time and Character

Taryell Simmons: What's one good lesson life has taught you?

Jayton Harps: No matter what's happening, things will get better. My parents' divorce was a terrible time, but it crafted me. It's about our perception of the situation, and I always choose to make myself better. I studied married couples, like my grandparents, who were married over 40 years, and the ones who separated, and the theme was always time. That's why I'm strict with time. You can't replicate it. Martin Luther King said time can be used constructively or destructively. In college, when I wasn't getting the grades I expected, I asked what success really looks like. Is it the grades, or the person who put in the work to figure it out? I'd rather be that person, because that builds character. I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and asked what I want people to remember about me. And I don't like excuses. One of my Beta Gamma Nu fraternity brothers would say an excuse is just another way to say you didn't get it done.

Taryell Simmons: A guest once told me his wife said, you're in this situation because you chose to be. You can choose a new approach to get a new outcome.

Jayton Harps: We all have choices. It's cause and effect: our choice is the cause, and the effect is what comes from it.

Advice: Take Action and Start Small

Taryell Simmons: What advice would you give someone who wants to start a career in your industry?

Jayton Harps: Take action. It doesn't have to be the big home run; sometimes you start with first base. And don't be afraid to make a mistake. I thought mistakes were the worst thing you could do, and engineering taught me you're supposed to make them. If everything is good, something is wrong. Test it out, make different versions and improve. Once you do it, you have something to show. And make it simple: write down three things you want to accomplish today, one in each area of your life. In your love life, text your spouse I love you. In your personal life, take a 20-minute walk. In your business, talk to your boss about a situation at work. Once you write it down, it becomes real.

Taryell Simmons: Do you believe writing things down helps you manifest them?

Jayton Harps: I do. What we truly believe can become. Where we get caught up is the time frame. My sister, Daja, who I call Nene, dreamed of working for Disney since she was about five, and in her mid-30s she has worked for Disney. It may happen thirty years from now, but we have to believe it and speak it into existence.

Taryell Simmons: Your story is a gift for somebody else. And be patient with the process. My auntie used to say, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

Jayton Harps: It's all in God's plan. But it's still good to have a plan, because at least you see the finish line.

Three Keys to Success as a Business Engineer

Taryell Simmons: What are the three things you've done to be successful in your business engineering career?

Jayton Harps: First, my emotional intelligence. We can't control what's outside of us, but we can control our emotions. I used to be a hothead, straight Dragon Ball Z, about to go Super Saiyan. The book How to Stop Hurting the People Who Love You transformed me. How we feel about a situation is how we act, and once I could control my emotions, I could persuade people to accomplish things. Second, time management. The 7 Habits talks about structuring the twenty-four hours in a day, and I've been reading No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs, which I learned about from Ian Dunlap on Earn Your Leisure. Third, being resourceful. There's no such thing as a solo entrepreneur. I'm good at marketing, but not the best at designing flyers, and my wife, Elizabeth, is great at grabbing people's attention. Lean on people who see the vision. It's okay not to be the hero.

Taryell Simmons: Nobody succeeds alone, as Justice Sotomayor says. And I never would have guessed you had a Dragon Ball Z temper.

Jayton Harps: Here's another secret. At San Diego State I used to party like crazy, and that's probably one reason I didn't do so well. But throwing parties taught me how to throw events. You market it, bring people there, do a recap, and they ask when the next one is. I took something destructive and made it constructive.

The Future for Black Engineers and What's Next

Taryell Simmons: What does the future hold for Black engineers?

Jayton Harps: It can get pretty scary, which is why I prepare. Artificial intelligence and automation keep advancing, and I can't stress cybersecurity enough, because information is where the money is. Back in the day, Black people weren't allowed to read and write, because information gives you an advantage. The information is out there now, whether it's NFTs or the metaverse, but we have to act on it and engage in these conversations. If we don't, we'll continue to be left behind.

Taryell Simmons: What projects are you working on, and where can people find you?

Jayton Harps: I co-founded Zero to Necessary with my mom, who coined the term in 2018. During the pandemic we taught kids ages five to seventeen to build their first robot, and we're planning a robotics program this summer and a basketball hackathon with my wife's nonprofit, Black Tech Link. On February ninth I'm hosting an event on sports franchising in the metaverse. With NSBE, where I'm president and chair of the San Diego professionals chapter, our STEM Gala is February twenty-sixth at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley, paying homage to Black Wall Street, because engineers helped build that city. And the NSBE national convention is in Anaheim, March 23rd through the 27th. Go to nsbe.org for information. Find us at zerotonecessary.com, and I'm the only Jayton Harps on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Taryell Simmons: Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, wisdom and story with us. Any last words?

Jayton Harps: Stay healthy and well, y'all. Everything's going to work out. Whatever you're going through, think of it as an opportunity to excel and to rise.

Taryell Simmons: Martin had a dream, Jayton had a dream. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Rise Urban Nation, and we'll see you next time.