Black Entrepreneurship - The Moment I Knew I Had To Become An Entrepreneur

I knew I had to become an entrepreneur when a coworker of mine, on a seemingly uneventful day, mistakenly sent an email to the entire office which was suppose to go to the Human Resources Director. In this email, which we all read, my coworker, a young woman of around 27 years old, was begging Human Resources, pleading really, to have a few days off to go and visit her dying  mother. Her mother was on a ventilator and was not expected to live much longer. This young woman was not making more than $12 dollars per hour. Yet she was a young mother and had responsibilities of her own and was torn between saying her final goodbye's to the woman who had raised her and providing for her young son.

This email tore my heart to pieces. For a situation like this I would have never pleaded with anyone to take time off. I would have notified Human Resources of the situation and would have left. There is no way in the world I would have pleaded with "anyone" to go and see my mom. No matter hell or high water, I would have left.

At that point I knew I had had enough. I had seen enough. I had lost all faith in Corporate America to do the right thing. I was tired of the threats my coworkers and I received daily. Threats of being written up. Threats of termination. It's like management felt the only way to manage black folks was to try and keep us at the edge of our seat.

Frankly, it was at that moment I started to really contemplate why it was that for so long blacks had referred to whites as "Devils". I could no longer work under the direction of people who could behave in such an immoral way as my managers had behaved with all of us. The workforce was primarily black. Yet the managers were primarily white. I hated this as well.

I have always been able to keep a plan for what I would do if I suddenly found myself out of work. I also kept a nice savings. So I wasn't worried too much. And I had no children. Yet this email between my coworker and Human Resources affected me. It angered me.

It was at that point, while reading this email, sitting at my desk, that I knew I would only work for myself from that point on. I figured if I couldn't find a way to make at least $2,000 a month, I deserved to starve. Necessity is the mother of all invention they say, the mother of all creativity. I knew that if I had to make it on my own, I would find a way.

Where there is a will, there is a way.

My journey has just begun....