Without question, being a black male entrepreneur is incredibly challenging. It’s a consistent uphill battle not just against racism but also against our own people at times. You have got to have the ambition of a beast and twice the level of motivation and uncompromising vision. I would love to sit down and have lunch with one of the icons, who worked their way through the maze, just to hear their story.
My namesake Kevin Ross (Judge Kevin Ross) speaks very highly of the creator, distributor and OWNER of his show, Byron Allen, and had the greatest story to tell on how he got his show. He went up to Allen’s office to pitch him about doing a radio show on Blog Talk Radio and, more importantly, of course, Allen asked him if he wanted to do a TV show (lol). Kevin WAS selling the hell out of Blog Talk Radio at the time and he talked himself into a lifetime opportunity.
I greatly admire people like Byron, Robert Johson, former owner of BET, Berry Gordy (founder of Motown), Earl G. Graves (founder of Black Enterprise), Tyler Perry and John H. Johnson (founder of EBONY magazine). I can’t even IMAGINE what they just have all gone through to get where they ended up but I can guarantee you they had to put in 10 times the effort. Here Allen talks about turning lemons into lemon-aide by using diversity and the lack of inclusion during his early days to dream bigger. He states in the video “I don’t want to play in the Negro leagues, I’m chasing trillions” to which the audience applauds.
