Black In Business

People in Chicago laughed at Coach Dennis Green when after a last second field goal lifted the Bears over Green’s Cardinals last season. Coach Green was portrayed as a out of control lunatic, unlike our coach, quiet and demure Lovie Smith. Both of these coaches are black and the quiet and demure one still coaches while the lunatic is doing commercials. The amazing thing we now know Coach Green was right when he said about the beloved Bears in an enraged state, “The Bears are what we thought they were, if you want to crown them crown them, we let them off the hook!” The feel of euphoria, we all felt over the Bears last is gone. The reality is, counting the Super Bowl; Da Bears have only won 2 of their last 7 games.
I have never been a big fan of Lovie, but we now need a head coach like Dennis Green, one with a temper and are not too timid to kick some ass. Another option is to bring home Mike Singleterry as head coach. I hope I am wrong but, unless the Bears run the table, there will be no playoffs run this year for the Bears
I was at the game yesterday when we lost to Minnesota. There were 2 young players on the field that turned the game out Devin Hester caught a punt kicked away over his left shoulder and returned it 89 yards for a TD, they coach you not to touch a punt inside the 10, but catch it on the 11 running backwards and juke and duck your way to a seam and explode to the end zone is ok. This is the second game I have witnessed this year and the second Hester Punt return for a TD. The last time he covered 79 yards in 9 seconds while avoiding tackles and carrying a football and wearing pads. There are some fast people that would have a hard time going faster in shorts and t, and no tacklers. Devin is amazing.
On the other side, the young man from the University of Okalahoma Adrian Peterson showed us what we thought Cedric Benson could be. I would have to question if Solider field has ever seen a better offensive showing. Peterson ran like OJ Simpson only harder to tackle; he is that great and at this point of his career maybe only Eric Dickerson can be mentioned in the same breath. Why did we kick to him to end the game? Why did Minnesota continue to challenge Hester? Maybe because the kickoff is mostly routine in returns are often to the 20. The difference these 2 stars are way beyond routine. Free advice for coaches, kick away from both.
So to Quote Dennis Green, “The Bears are Who we Though They Were! There is too much talent on this team to be only that, Lovie chew. some ass!

This nerd thing is taking a life of it own. It is possible nerd is hot. I heard about it in a documentary on black boys when at the end the PHD interviewed said we need more nerds in the hood. There is a movie revenge of the nerds, 2 of the most hip bloggers amongst black bloggers, Fredric and Bronze Trinity have implied through their comments they are nerds. To top this out, I received a fascinating email from the executive producer of Desedo Films. Michael Hastings-Black sent me a link to an article on nerds written by his business partner, Raafi Rivero. I never would have thought of film producers as a nerd. Now that I think about it, I guess Spike Lee and John Singleton are nerdy. I met Spike at the Metropolitan Club in London during fashion week one year and he was a lot of fun.
Michael and Raafi have a business dream and are focused on building their brand. These guys were introduced by mutual friends in a Brooklyn bar, what a way to open a movie; a bar in Brooklyn, not far from the water. This happened in the summer of 02. Michael went to Europe to work on a farm. I said, “stop right there, You did what, where,?” This was interesting stuff to me, I mean I have worked on a farm, in a hay field, it was great conditioning for football, but the Europe thing seemed pretty hip to me. Anyways, that is when Michael told me, I am a white dude. Raffi stayed in Brooklyn working on the editorial team for the trend setting Spike Lee’s movie 25th hour. Raafi was getting his Masters at Howard University, and he and Michael hooked up and produced his thesis film for a Masters in Fine Arts. Congratulations Raffi.
Many of us hip guys, get our paper, aka, degree and get a job. These nerds started Desedo Films in the winter of 05.These guys are on the way to great things! In January of this year they added 2 directors. Have been signed by a couple of agents and are putting out good stuff. This month they have moved on up from a home office in Brooklyn to an office in Manhattan. Close to the home of the beloved New York Knicks.
This is what blackinbusiness is all about, ordinary guys doing extraordinary things. They are living humbly now, something many hip people could never do, but with the long hour, focus and desire they feel the ski is the limit. I am very happy for these guys because they love what they do, loving it make it fun and not work. Keep an eye on Desedo Films.
I am enjoying writing about nerds, if you are one or know some give me a shout out, I would love to tell your story.

You know the guys, the hip ones. In my day they wore leather coats, smoked cigarettes, and misbehaved in school. As we got older they were the first to drink, experience sex, try this thing called marijuana. They hung out late and were cool so cool. We all looked up to the cool ones.
Recently I was watching a show on early morning weekend TV dealing with black boys. It showed a program on exposing young black men to the arts and technology. It was of interest because it appeared these kids took a genuine interest in being fine young men as oppose to gang bangers. I do not remember a lot of the details of the show, (hey man, it was early Saturday morning) but I do remember a statement the program director made, a black woman with a PHD; “we need more nerds in the hood! We have enough cool guys, enough gangsters, what we need are nerds. The nerds have the opportunity to be a Bill Gates. They bring their books home at night and want to stay out of trouble and learn.” They are not so cool anymore.
Nerd is in! I came across an article regarding, “Inspiring path from dropout to principal,” in the Tribune on Tuesday. Robin Walker-Johnson was hip and cool, so much so, when she turned 16, her public school days were done. She was told to report to the office and hand in her books; she was done as a student. She had to attend alternative schools. She was defiant and had only passed one class prior to the alternative school. She got pregnant and dropped out completely for one year.
She accepted the responsibility of being a parent and through the encouragement from loving teachers she applied her self. She now has a master degree and will be a role model and principle in her home neighborhood .She will lead a new Renaissance program school in an effort to replace low performing schools. What a trip; from cool to mom to nerd to master degree and success.
This relates to blackinbusiness because Ms. Walker-Johnson is in the business of education and will help motivate nerds to become blackinbusiness success stories in the future. I will profile another nerd who is now in the movie making business in an upcoming post. Keeping Hope Alive.

Have you ever used a coach. Many of us who played sports have used coaches and benefited from it. I used a coach in the business world as a VP. The only way the firm would pay for a coach was for me to use their coach, a white guy, whom I was not comfortable with and it was a flop. He could not speak to black issues and was of no value to me.
I found the Spearman Group
Lawrence Spearman has kicked butt as a entrepreneur and is using his proven techniques to target grass roots blacks. I like the term, the root is under the soil and if nurtured properly it can grow into beautiful green grass having reached it’s full potential. If you own a business and are grass roots a support system like the Spearman group may help you make a profit early and often. Mr. Spearman makes a point to define grass roots blacks. It is the 62% of African American people who are unemployed, underemployed, income challenged and make less than 50,000 dollars a year. He differentiates from establishment blacks who are college educated and with college educated whites run black organizations.
I consider myself grassroots and shunned by the establishment although I have a college degree. I have learned more from the streets than the classroom. It appears Mr. Spearman is street savvy but also combines his business acumen with great technology tools.
I am excited to have come across this business resource and introduce you to it. Let me know your thoughts.

How do you plan your business day? Do you get up in the morning and let it fly. Time is an friend but if used unwisely it becomes an enemy. Effective Time management has been a growth area for me over my career.
As a young salesman, I was responsible for sales of capital equipment in a 6 state area. I covered the area by car and some opportunities were a 10 hour drive from my Baltimore home. I would sell 30 units of 50,000 dollar blood testing equipment mainly to hospitals and medical centers.
This was an activity based selling strategy, meaning the more; calls, demonstrations, and proposals I did, the more business I would close. I quickly found there were only so many hours in a day and each sale was worth as much as 3000 dollars, a lot of jack in those days.
The most exciting activities for me were closing calls, where you asked for the business, demonstrations, where you ran the product by installing in the hospital lab and tested their sample. This was show time and I would come out of my bag with a compelling presentation, and presenting the proposal which often times would become a closing call.
It would be easy to cancel your plans for the rest of the week, drive all night to another part of the territory for a chance at one of these activities. It was a very bad habit. I learned to work my territory by always planning at least 1 week in advance. Meaning on Thursday I had plans for the next Thursday firm. I cut my territory into quadrants and would work my assigned appointments by quadrant. If I was in
Elkins, West Virginia for a demo on a Tuesday, I would schedule appointments the rest of the week in West Virginia and part of Virginia. I would travel on Monday and have key event appointments twice a day. These were appointments that I had to be sure to make in order to move the call along. I filled in my time by cold calling or working the phone.
When my customers saw my time was important to me it and I became more important to them.
How do you plan your time, can you do better? Here is a link that may help you or help you help others plan better.