THE night Tiger Woods won his first Masters title he watched replays of the tournament until 3 a.m., noticed a fault in one of his strokes and immediately called over his coach to hold a practice sesion to rectify it.

That was one of the inspiring stories of success and how it can be achieved, as told to students of two Bermuda schools by world-renowned motivational speaker Dr. Dennis Kimbro.

American Dr. Kimbro was on the island as the guest of the The Epsilon Theta Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at its fourth anuual Black & Gold Ball two weeks ago.

The author of Think & Grow Rich: A Black Choice, Dr. Kimbro is much in demand and has addressed more than 100,000 people in motivational speeches to organisations as diverse as the Central Intelligence Agency, the Chrysler Motor Company and the Stanford Business School.

Dr. Kimbro (pictured) told the assembled guests, including students from CedarBridge Academy and Berkeley Institute: "What the mind conceives and believes, it is capable of achieving." And he followed that with true stories taken from hundreds of interviews with African-Americans who had achieved great things.

He recounted stories of how Earl Woods shared the secret of his son Tiger's success. How from the age of eight Tiger dedicated himself to golf, and every day he hit 1,000 practice shots, as well as the way he was still interested in self-improvement just hours after winning his first Masters title.

He spoke on how success is simply triumph over a serious of failures, such as when Michael Jordan committed to shooting 300 jump shots a day after he was kicked off the junior varsity basketball team.

Dr. Kimbro told the story of a former janitor who returned to school but struggled academically and financially for seven years to earn a degree in education and at the end of her first year teaching was named 'Teacher of the Year' for the state of Virginia.

Dr. Kimbro reeled off statistics that included the fact that straight 'A' students studied two hours a night, five days per week, but the highest achievers drove themselves to put in an extra effort to make sure they not only become the best, but the best that they could be.

"Birds of a feather flock together, so if you wish to be a straight 'A' student, hang with straight 'A' students, if you want to become a bank robber, hang with bank robbers," Dr. Kimbro said.

Dr. Kimbro has been featured in the pages of Success! magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today, in addition to being interviewed on the Today Show, Larry King Live and CNN. Dr. Kimbro is also a professor in the School of Business at Clark Atlanta University.

At the Black & Gold Ball, The XL Foundation received the Chapter's award for Corporate Citizen of the Year and the Bank of Bermuda Foundation received the Community Service Award.