Black In Business

Every now and then we are reminded of the hate that exsits in our society. As Black Americans we can rejoice in the examples set by high achieving brothers and sisters like, President Obama and CEO, Ursula Burns.We all feel pride and inspiration that perhaps we should expect more from our selves.

I have children that feel race does not matter and do not share the bitter feelings I have from years of living in a racist society. On occasion I will have white people loving Negros put me in my place when I state my opinion that we still have a long way to go in the way of race relations.

There is debate in the USA regarding the usefulness of affirmative action. Even our beloved President has mention that perhaps class-ism is more of an obstacale than racism.Regardless of our situation in life, If we want to win we must overcome what ever negativity in our lives and play the cards we are dealt.

Having said all that, there are times when we get slapped in the face by reality. A supposed degrading statement is attributed to a right wing Christian leader regarding our beloved First Lady, Mrs Obama. I blog about this to keep us all aware of the odds against our success and some of the hate we must overcome. This is shocking stuff and follow this link for the story, Burt Prelutsky calls our First Lady a Black bitch. Is this true? Is affirmative action still needed? Should we bury our heads in the sand and pretend this type of hate has no effect on our lives? What do we tell young people about our society and equality?

I have joined a social networking site called Sales HQ, the premier site for sales professionals. I was a passive member for the first couple of months. I received notices that certain members wanted to be friends and was invited to join a group. This network is very friendly and I started to interact.

It is a great site with good educational and developmental articles. We have forums and discussions and the level of expertise in sales and selling is impressive. I stuck my toe in the water with a forum comment. “2 salesmen were engaged in a conversation at the national sales meeting. This was before the opening night dinner and the 2 salesmen were at the bar. The average salesman said to the top sales person. “I had a great week, I had 25 new business calls, 4 demos and did 3 proposals!” The top salesman replied, “I did not sell any thing either.”

That post got a few comments and I was starting to get a feel for how this network could be of value. My next post was, “what is your favorite quote?” It has received 679 views and 183 replies thus far. We have uncovered some great quotes and are having fun with this. We have gotten of topic a bit and have debated selling styles and philosophy.

Saying all that to say this, let’s try this exercise here and see the response. It has become obvious to me that salesmen love quotes, but I hope we generate some good activity at this site as well.

Regarding Sales HQ, salesman or not, go visit, you may learn something or find a job.!

To start the quotes, here is one from me; not my favorite but it is mine,

“GREATNESS IS A STATE OF MIND!”

This one is taken from Jesse Jackson SR.

“KEEP HOPE ALIVE!”

Ok your turn, what is your favorite quote? Visit this post at sales HQ, and find some quotes from great sales people.

An article in Sunday’s New York Times caught my interest. The title is; “Blogs Falling In an Empty Forest.” It mentioned the 133 million blogs that are being tracked by Technorati. I have seen the number of blogs explode over the pass 3 years and have to admit I have great expectations for the future of blogs.

It all started for me when one rainy Chicago day at a north side restaurant I met with serial entrepreneur, Chris Baggott, author of several award winning blogs plus a business book, “EMAIL Marketing by the NUMBERS!” Chris asked did I know what a blog was and, I replied of course. . We launched blackinbusiness, shortly there after.

I was addicted to this social and news medium. I spent hours a day reading blogs and posted at least 5 days per week and many weeks every day. It was fun and I heard rumors of big money being made.

Over time I have found it harder to keep up with my favorite blogs and to post as often. I am now posting some months only 5 times and was feeling pretty lazy.

The article I read gave statistics that indicate that only 7.4 million blogs of the 133 million had been updated in the previous 120 days! There are other estimates that indicate only 50 to 100 thousand blogs account for most of the page reviews.

Many users have moved on to social networks sites like Face Book and MySpace and other bloggers have stopped all together.

How about you, how is your blog life, what is the future of blogging? Is twitter the new blog?

I still think blogs will be more and more a large part of doing business. Is your company blogging? I look forward to your comments.

I have heard that White America has more appreciation for Black citizens since the historic election of President Barack Obama. I saw an article where a hotel worker in Milwaukee that had worked downtown for thirty years had noticed a shift in the attitude of White People. For the prior 30 years he was the infamous invisible man. Now he claims not only do White people speak to him, some even call him sir. I hope you visit the links I recommend for a compelling look at an aspect of race relations in our great nation.

I did a little research that supports his findings. I urged you to visit this link on race relations in the US, since the election of Obama.

I have to admit there may be some truth to this survey. How does it help us in business. Are employers more willing to hire Black applicants? Can President Obama address Black issues without backlash? Can Black Americans get mortgages approves at the same rate as whites with the same credit scores? Brothers, when you are driving in your ride, and a cop pulls up behind, are you able to not worry about getting pulled over?

Yesterday, we had a Susan Smith moment when some crazy White woman claimed 2 Black men had threw her and her daughter in to the trunk of a car and was holding them hostage. Susan Smith blamed Black men when she drove her car into water and killed her children. There was a man in Boston, Charles Stuart, who shot his wife and killed her and claimed it was a black man that did so.

The crazy White woman yesterday in Pa., must have missed the survey when she claimed 2 black men were the villains behind her disappearance. Yes we have made progress but lets not get carried away. Being Black in America is still a huge disadvantage. That being the case, we should use the disadvantage as a motivating factor and better prepare ourselves through education and hard work for success. Let me hear from you regarding any aspect of this post!

I remember having lunch with the late, John Johnson, the founder and editor of Ebony magazine. it was a large ballroom filled with several hundred people and Mr. Johnson was the featured speaker. He was charming and did a great speech. what stood out was, start your own business. you would never be a CEO if you were black or a woman. This was the case then and for many years after. Mr. Johnson would be pleased today.

Ursula Burns named CEO of Xerox.

I was very pleased to read in the business section of The New York Times under the headline; “At Xerox, a transition for the Record Books, “about the rise of Ursula Burns to CEO! I have a history at Xerox and the move of Ms Burns to the top of this 17.6 billion dollar company is significant.

When I was hired in 1976 by Xerox many people were surprised that a glamour company like Xerox would have black sales reps.It was during this time Xerox was in the beginning of their diversity initiative. The old guard sales men were very offended by having a few blacks in the office. It was not all of the sales people that were haters toward us Black reps but still the hate was evident.

In those days I never could have imagined a Black heading Xerox. In fairness Xerox has gone on to have a good reputation as a workplace for Black professionals.

We have a Black president of the USA and now a Black woman CEO of a huge corporation. It is clear that education and hard work can pay off. Congratulations to Ms. Burns.