Lavall Chichester Is the Black Belt Tech CEO Who Beats the Competition With Books

CEO Lavall Chichester reveals the secret to becoming a self-taught serial entrepreneur…

“I compare being a CEO to bare knuckle karate,” Lavall Chichester.

An impressive comparison. Especially, if you can talk-the-talk and walk-the-walk.

Even after that badass kick. If you look beyond the whirlwind-roundhouse-face-kick-body-drop, this CEO passionately yearns for knowledge, admires literature and seeks strength in the acquisition of new skills. 

How does being a 2nd degree black belt differentiate you as an entrepreneur?

“I grew up in Karate school, so I learned how to learn,” Chichester advocated. Karate planted a seed and Chichester beautifully bloomed an addiction to learning. “[In karate,] You pick a skill and work on it. Master that, pick a new skill and so on until you start compiling all different kicks, punches, then how to kick and punch together.” Life replicates the basics of karate for this talented entrepreneur.

Every year Chichester develops a skill that compounds in value over time. Each carefully selected skill keeps him current and allows him to add more value to himself and clients. As an entrepreneur in consultancy, his entire focus is helping brands get customers and then increasing that value over time. Chichester’s startup, Growth Skills, differentiates itself by training people with hands-on learning and ‘How To Learn’ courses to help them get jobs in tech and acquire real skills. 

“It doesn’t matter where a skill is acquired as long as one has it. If I was a lawyer, of course, I have to go to school, a doctor, a dentist, I’d go to school – the internet is different, SEO is different,” Chichester advocates for entrepreneurs who bootstrapped their career from the likes of the internet, like him. However, this serial-entrepreneur did go to college, just not for what you think.

How did you get into tech from a creative writing degree?

“My goal was and still is to be a novelist,” the 2nd Degree Black Belt, CMO, and Founder of Growth Skills responded. To complement written words and enhance his fiction, Chichester learned how to create and edit video, show visuals and utilize sounds. So no. The competition is not physically beaten with books — but the love for them.

Final Cut Pro, Apple’s editing software (basically Apple’s For Dummies Manual), catapulted Chichester’s self-taught entrepreneurial career by launching a video production company and landing in the graces of Coca-Cola. He further predicted all videos would eventually lead to a life on the internet. This curious and motivated entrepreneur was one of the first to learn how to build websites. Unfortunately, as many young entrepreneurial trials go – no one visited the sites. 

However, this didn’t stop Chichester, only gracing him with more knowledge; self-taught internet knowledge, that is. Chichester pays respect to his passion for reading and the internet for his hard earned success. To be like this badass self-taught founder, it’s really quite simple – read everything and apply what you read. 

Emanating from karate’s engraved principals, Chichester took learning as his own personal responsibility. He even led his life based on a poetic Mark Twain quote, “I have never let schooling interfere with my education.” Experiencing theory based learning throughout college only further solidified an alternative self-taught, hands-on, skilled path trail blazed by a doer. 

“School is a place and time – learning is forever, education is forever,” Lavall Chichester. 

Karate is a complicated dance or a graceful game of strategy in the eyes of Chichester. A whimsical way of saying – life or death. As a CEO, you make life or death decisions for your company every day. His life’s accomplishments come from this foundation in planned precision and sustainable succession. As technology rapidly evolves, Chichester is already developing skills that are essential to the future. 

A Second Degree Black Belt CEO is how Chichester is branded. Yet, a self-taught serial-entrepreneur with a lust for learning is the more impressive reality.