He's just 23 years old, but already Barrington Irving Jr. has broken two world records as the first African-American and the youngest person ever to fly solo around the world. Barrington talks with Gayle about his journey and his goal to engage inner-city kids to pursue a career in aviation.

When he was 16 years old, working at his family's bookstore in inner-city Miami, Barrington says a United Airlines captain named Gary Robinson approached him and asked him if he had ever considered becoming a pilot. Gary became a mentor to him, and by age 19, Barrington says he obtained his first pilot's license and began talking to young people in his inner-city community about aviation. "It doesn't matter where you are coming from, what you have, what you don't have," he says. "My slogan is 'Dream, live, fly'—and that is what I wanted to prove."

Barrington says he came up with the idea to fly solo around the world as an aerospace student at Florida Memorial University with just 600 flight hours under his belt. For two and a half years Barrington says he tried to find sponsors to help him make his dream come true, but that the plan was not well received by plane manufacturers. "My idea was, if no one was going to rent me a plane, lease me a plane or just give me a plane, what if I pieced it together?" he says. With donated parts from several different companies, Barrington says he had a plane built from scratch, and with the help of a flight planning company, he embarked on a record-breaking solo flight around the world.

Barrington says that some legs of his around-the-world journey lasted nine hours and the experience was as grueling as it was exhilarating—in fact, he lost 15 pounds during the journey. "For the most part, I got a chance to sightsee, even if it was just for two or three hours, but this flight really took a toll on my body," he says. "The challenges and just how much it broke me down mentally and physically has really prepared me for the next steps," he says.

His next steps include graduating from college and continuing to be a role model to kids through his nonprofit Experience Aviation Learning Center in Miami. "It was never about me," he says. "We achieved our first goal of inspiring youth—now it is taking it from the level of inspiring to equipping them and building and making that connection with resources in the community so they can pursue their dreams in aviation."