Black In Business

I admire Madame C.J. Walker. Not only was she a woman but a black woman. She already had two strikes against her, and another for being born in the time where there was way too much hatred. Hatred not just because you were a woman but because of the colour of your skin.

I cannot even imagine growing up in those times. Madame Walker struggled against the odds to produce a product and to sell that product. Even when her own friends turned against her and went elsewhere to work, taking with them her secrets for her hair products and claiming she took them from them. But she managed on her own and did not let that get her down. Oh, yea she was broken hearted and depressed, but it did not stop her from moving forward.

She took to the stores and the streets to make her product known and fought against all the people who were against her. She was a believer and a fighter.

Why do I find her so interesting? Because I can relate to her in many ways. Not just by being a woman oh no! but by being a bi-racial woman. Its not easy to hear people tell you to go away because you to white to be around them or to be told you are too black to be around. So, I struggled to try to find who I was and walked to my own beat.

Went to nursing school a degree, but I did not stop there I went back to college and got yet two more degrees. I was told I didn’t have enough experience to work as an accountant. So how do you get experience if you can’t get hired? But it didn’t stop me. I opened by own business. I started my own income tax company the only one in my little town.

I had many clients worked sometimes to two a.m. just to come back and do it all over again the next day. Business was booming until someone decided that they too can do what I do. and as all things happen people went to the new guy on the block. My business was the only business that employed black women.

This was the only black income tax place around. Yes, life was good, and it wasn’t about the money it was to see the faces of the people when they got their money. It made one feel accomplished. Two years after another business like mine opened and people went over there.

Five years into the business things took a drastic change. I had a shady business partner who was going behind my back and running up debt and treating the clients badly. This was a man, I started wondering way people were slacking off the business. Woman would call me and asked if someone else could pick up their check. When I asked why I was horrified of what I heard. I could not believe it. He was telling women that if they wanted their check, they would need to take their clothes off for him! Really now who in the world does that? That is just sick. I also noticed money disappearing from the account and credit cards bills coming in, in the name of the business.

New clothes, new car, rims etc. so, he had to go. But he did not go quietly no sir he did everything is his power to destroy the business. Fortunately, he was unsuccessful. My is still going strong for 20 + years now. I have faithful clients and have seen many dependents grow from babies to working adults and some even parents.

Yes, I like madame walker struggled to be a bi-racial businesswoman, but I made it, just like madame walker. So, what is my point? Never give up on your dream or your beliefs stay true to yourself and you can accomplish your dreams and goals. Fight hard for what you believe in………