OnlyMoveForward.com: About

Akiim DeShay is the

creator, owner, and operator

of OnlyMoveForward.com

According to the MBTI assessment, Akiim has one of the rarest personality types in the United States sharing common traits with Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ulysses S. Grant, Peter the Great, Ted Turner, and Steve Jobs.

These are very analytical and strong individualists who seek new angles or novel ways of looking at things. Hallmark features include independence of thought, creativity, and a desire for efficiency.

Interesting facts about Akiim:

Born in New England and raised in Rochester, New York

After attending four high schools (Catholic, City, Black Suburban, White suburban) and four colleges (3 HBCUs) he began a mission to have a true understanding of Black America in order to be a part of the solution.

Akiim has lived in Rochester NY four times, Atlanta GA three times, and Dallas TX twice.

At age 20 he used a combination of paper, scissors, tape, and a copy machine without management’s approval to create a new manual because his employer ATC (now Aegis CLM) was in trouble with the client. The manual was implemented department wide and he was promoted soon after.

By age 23 he was managing more than 700 employees after saving another client that the executive office had previously given up on.

In college he started an organization called BLAC (Brothers Leading And Changing) which was a failure. The work load of a full time job and full time school was too much for the 23yr old so he quit school to pursue what he felt was a successful and promising career. Unfortunately, his mission suffered.

In 1999 Akiim changed his career to Information Technology even without any schooling or training in that profession. He worked with computers for more than two years before buying one of his own. In early 2003 he was promoted to Senior Technical Analyst.

In November 2003 he became very ill and was diagnosed with Leukemia. The doctor in the ER (Dr Megan Conoley) prayed for him and his wife out-loud in the ER. She is now his family doctor. Three days later he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and savoir.

Unfortunately the chemotherapy failed. The prognosis turned grim (10-15%) but his only sibling Rashaan DeShay was a perfect match for a bone marrow transplant.

His second child and only son was born a week before his transplant which took place on Good Friday, April 2004. A week later he launched his first website BlacksinDallas.com from the hospital while still in recovery.

Recovery has been long and very difficult. Since then physical pain and suffering has been part of his daily life. Akiim later helped start a campaign in Dallas to recruit African Americans to join the National Marrow Donor Programs registry to help save other Black lives. For this he created the website BlackBoneMarrow.com which has since become a national reference for the issue regarding the lack of donors in the Black Community,

In 2007 he launched his largest web site, BlackDemographics.com An attempt to create a blueprint of Black America. A single resource for information about African Americans, and how we work, live, learn, vote, and pray.

Unfortunately on Super Bowl Sunday 2009 he became very ill again (strep, flu, pneumonia and acute epiglottitis) and went to the Emergency room in a Dallas hospital where he stopped breathing. After flat-lining twice and two separate emergency surgeries the doctors told his wife he should have died but will have severe brain damage due to loss of oxygen to the brain (5-10min).

Miraculously he woke up the next morning with no brain damage and was released two weeks later to live a normal life. The doctors all say it was a miracle. But he knows God is the only reason for his survival.

After his survival he has been contacted by and has worked with several organizations.

Akiim has:

appeared in a few media outlets for the cause including MSNBC, the Dallas Morning News, NPR, USA Today, and the Houston Chronicle. and for demographics: 89.3 Chicago's Voices of the Village hosted by the NAACP Lake County, KingPolitics.com podcast, aaboomers.com “What’s Going On” blogtalkradio show