Concious Black Entrepreneur's

The conscious Black entrepreneur is the most significant catalyst of change
to impact the Black community since Rosa Parks sat down to stand up.
The future can be faced with courage and optimism.

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The Complete Startup Guide
for the Black Entrepreneur

by Bill Curtis

Sorne would Booker, T. Washington was a fool. Yet his legacy of hard work,

thrift, and a step-by-step approach to success lives on at Tuskegee Institute.

The National Business League is a living testament to the work of a man too

many have called a fool. Booker T. Washington serves as one example of the

entrepreneurial spirit of Black America.

Such publications as Inc. Magazine and the Washington Post report the most dismal

side of Blacks in business.

To believe these publications is to believe the Black entrepreneur is destined

to remain locked at the bottom of the business ladder. Not so. The Black

entrepreneur is in the greatest position to serve the marketplace, improve his

own life and the life of his community, and ignite the economy of this country.

Tony Brown is on target as he asserts that the color of

freedom is green. He points out that, we have to do something to shore up our

ecomomic institutions, to generate jobs within the community. When

we take care of that, the other stuff - the family problems, crime, our

political needs - will start taking care of itself.

Comparatively, the conditions which prevented northern

European babarians from developing a civilization is

similiar to the situation facing Black entrepreneurs today. The conditions of

crime, social paranoia, negative self-image, and deterioration of community

relations inhibits the economic development of a people. Into this arena the

Black entrepreneur, like his white counterpart of 500 years

ago, attempts to chip a niche in the market, build business, and thereby

improve the political economy of his household, his neighborhood, his city, his

country, and the world.

Economic strength is the springboard of political power,

not vice versa. After conducting studies on both Black and Cuban businesses in

the Greater Miami area, Tim Mescon, a University of Miami business school

professor said, Black leadership sees success not in an entrepreneurial

context. It's like their whole development is missing a chapter, the one on

achieving equality through their own business development.

Ironically, political progress from the human rights

advances of the1950-1968 period inadvertently

derailed the focus of Black leadership from economics to politics, from

business enhancement to career advancement. Political tolerance opened the

doors of society, and without looking back, Black leadership ran blindly into

the street. The grass looked greener on the other side. Consequently, as the

pendulum of political intolerance smashed Black political gains of the human

rights period, Black political leadership was exposed as lacking the economic

muscle to defend its political position from attack.

Other great ethic groups, the diaspora of other

significant civilizations, serve as living examples of how the Black

entrepreneur can succeed in the American economy. It is like the saying,

The harder I work, the luckier I get. In the American economy,

self-determination does not begin in the collective, but in the

individual. Black entrepreneurs can succeed within this political economy,

however, the resolve to succeed must be unshakable.

Booker T. Washington makes the point clear. I have

begun every thing with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much

patience with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one

cannot succeed. I have always had a high regard for the man who could tell me

how to succeed.

Negative thinking breeds a high regard for an inability

to achieve. Inversely, the Black entrepreneur embodies the characteristics of

America's greatest industrialist. He has faith that the business will fly, that

despite the political conditions he can achieve, and that nothing can stop an

idea whose time has come.

It is interesting to note that when education was denied to Black people in general,

faith in the future and hard work were prevalent thoughout Black communities.

Apparently, the more education Blacks are privy to, the greater the social

ills. That's ironic because it is logical to assume that the better equipped

one is to operate in a society, positive changes and improvements should be

evident for that people. The current generation of Black entrepreneurs will

significantly improve the economic plight of America by improving the economy

of the Black community and ultimately beating all the odds.

Jesus Christ said, 'The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; pray ye,

therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.

More people will g6 into

business for themselves as a way to improve the economy of their household in

the coming years. As entrepreneurship rises, Blacks will have to expand the

base of doing business with other Blacks.

Many successful established Black businesses of today

experienced their growth when the political climate was permissive. The

challenge facing Black entrepreneurs today is to achieve in the marketplace

without the socio- psychological encouragement of the political structure. This

is an exciting challenge because its outcome determines whether or not the

Black consumer will continue simply as the footstool of the American economy,

or will that community become an interdependent component of the political

economy of this country.

The conscious Black entrepreneur is the most significant

catalyst of change to impact the Black community since Rosa Parks sat down to

stand up. The future can be faced with courage and optimism.

Success breeds success.

Success gathers attention and emulation. Contrary to

media reports, Blacks are not destined to forever remain locked at the bottom

of the economic ladder. Sure, a dismal condition exists. However, history

demonstrates that the best solutions rise to defeat the worst conditions. The

conscious Black entrepreneur is today's catalyst of change.

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