The Servant..

The call or desire to become an entrepreneur is much deeper than wanting to be ones own boss, control your own destiny, make your own schedule etc.. Entrepreneurship in its most basic form is really servanthood at its best.

See contrary to popular belief, being an entrepreneur and running your own business is anything but glamorous to those that do it. Of course we hear and read about the success stories of the Reginald Lewis, Oprah and Bill Gates etc but the true stories of entrepreneurship are of those you seldom hear or read about.

Small businesses drive the US economy. While the media and others celebrate and congratulate the top of the food chain, it's the other millions of small businesses that really drive the economy, create jobs and opportunities and give back to the communities they serve. This is the servanthood that often gets overlooked. 

When most if not all small business owners signed up to start their own business, while making money, controlling ones own destiny or whatever may have been the impetus, after a while there is a shift that often goes unrecognized. That shift is one where regardless of how much success or failure the owner may experience, being in business for oneself allows that person to take on the higher calling of servanthood. You see it all of the time across racial and gender lines of business owners that take their resources, money and otherwise, to create actionable social change that is important to them. Take Oprah for example. Started out as a reporter, to having the worlds most recognizable talk show and now owning her own network where she controls the programming.  So now what you get is a slice of Oprahs life and whats important to her from her Super Soul Sunday's to the books and thought leaders she interviews and endorses. As an entrepreneur she created a platform to deliver what she wants and ultimately what some consumers want.  

It's no different from the mom and pop operations that provide all types of goods and services in their immediate community. They sometimes employ the so called unemployable, provide jobs for their family and friends and are proud to be a business in their community. They contribute to causes that affect them and others and make a difference in their own way. They serve.

Society has given servanthood this image of only feeding the poor on holidays, volunteering at their kids school or church or whatever. While all of that is admirable and very noble the gift of serving doesn't stop there. It extends to the millions of people that have found the courage to risk it all by following their passion in life, found a way to monetize it and thereby make a difference in the lives of others. It's not always the life that they chose but the life that chose them.  Why? Because entrepreneurs are just different. That's the reason why we are who we are. We are passion filled calculated risk takers,  goal achievers, multi task masters and best of all servants of our community. 

So I encourage you to support all small business owners in any way that you can. Support that persons restaurant or bar, consulting service or other business in any way you can. Trust that you are getting way more than what you spend with us through the good deeds and services that we provide to the community as a whole. 

We appreciate the love and we are doing what we can in our own little way to change the world. My best friend and I always would say that we were going to change the world and in our younger years we never really knew how we would accomplish such a task. But being an entrepreneur since the age of 15, I now recognize and understand I'm doing just that by employing others, providing opportunities and just by being a ready and available servant. 

  

Get moving..

Ever feel stagnant? Like you're tired of the same old routine and you start searching for activities and maybe people to break the monotony? Growth and progress is part of the cycle of life whether you like or not.  If you're not growing and making progress in whatever you dedicate your time to, what are you doing? Who are you serving being stagnant?

If you look at the world around you everything is moving and so should you. Even objects that the human eye perceives to be solid are actually moving particles. So why not move? Move in the direction of your God given purpose. Find ways to serve others and make a difference in their life and thereby the world as a whole. Start small but just start. 

Reinventing yourself is a positive thing. I've done it too many times to name but those that know me know I've had multiple lives so to speak; all with different achievements and rewards for myself personally, professionally as well as those around me.

A lot of people are familiar with one of my most recent success stories in the bar business, but those that really know me know that I started on that journey in 1994. It was that year when I dropped out of Howard undergrad and moved to Atlanta, after having too much of a good time at the now infamous Freaknik '94. I literally went to Freaknik and didn't leave. Making that call home to my parents to inform them I was going to take a "break" from school was probably one of the hardest things I ever had to do back then. However, my dads best friend at the time was opening a nightclub and my dad said go talk with him he can at least give you a job. That job eventually culminated with me becoming a manager of the bar and learning the business firsthand inside out. Fast forward 17-18 years and DBar was born.  That knowledge and experience from Atlanta had paid off as I wasn't totally new to the business.  

The lesson is you never know how various experiences you've had and have been exposed to will play a part in your future. To show you how God works, when we got DBar up and running, guess who I hired as a consultant to come in and work for me? You guessed it! My dads same friend that had given me an opportunity almost 20 years ago. Crazy! 

So I've become so accustomed to change where it's almost like an internal clock goes off alerting me it's time to change. Every 1-3 years I'm looking for the next challenge or adventure to add to my life; professionally and personally. When I was in the bar business I never saw myself being a college professor,  but now I am and it's been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. But now I know that the experience I'm gaining speaking to groups of people a couple of nights a week, the lives I'm touching and people I'm encouraging to start their own business or whatever they choose upon graduation will play a part in my next metamorphosis. May take a year, may take almost 20 like my bar experience but I do know that's it's all part of a bigger purpose that God has for my life. 

The change for me has already begun yet again, just can't share what it is just yet but trust me it has. I'm moving. I encourage you to get moving too. Fight your fear with faith and just move.