How does a child raised by a single parent African American Mother go on to graduate in the Top 10 percent of his college class, walkon and play college basketball, become President of his IBM sales training class, close sales of a one half million, 1 million, and 25 million dollars in Paris, Brussels, and Hong Kong and self publish a Best Seller book you ask. Fueled by his Mom’s mantra that he could do anything if he put his mind to it, Eric Otis Simmons went on to accomplish all of the above and more.


In Not Far From The Tree, Simmons’ Memoir, he shares his life story through a series of smaller stories that range from shocking to calamitous to sorrowful to triumphing. Eric takes you through how he stumbled across a court document revealing his Dad’s surname was Bailey and that he’s not genetically, a Simmons. He jokes about the time his Grandmother caught him and his cousin peeing out of a window, and how they both lived after her spanking. Simmons also opens up about the tragic loss of his daughter and the frightening night his Mother was assaulted at gunpoint and his ensuing anger. You'll walk down the hall with him through the secret tunnel underneath Alabama’s State Capitol, where he meets Governor George Corley Wallace for the first time. All he could think about was the Governor's infamous Segregation now, Segregation forever words. Eric's insight into his remarkable career in Sales and Sales Management with Fortune 500 titans IBM, GE, MCI, and others, reveals his strive for excellence centered around opening doors for other minorities. Throughout his Memoir, Simmons masterfully ties together his Mother’s teachings and shares how he utilized them to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to achieve academic, athletic, and business success in Corporate America.