(ThyBlackMan.com) Maria Lloyd recently wrote an article in which it was claimed that the rapper Jay-Z was rejected by a career counselor at Harvard University as an appropriate business role model. I am not sure of the exact circumstances of the student’s allegation, and I am not sure if other Harvard faculty agreed. All I know is that a young woman said that she admired Jay-Z for what he’s achieved in the business world, and she was shot down faster than an unidentified single engine plane flying over the White House. In other words, she was told to find a more suitable business role model.
When I read the article, it made me sad and a little bit disgusted. I don’t like Jay-Z very much, to be honest. Although he is nothing short of a lyrical genius, I am deeply concerned about any man who earns over $60 million dollars in a year and only gives $6,000 to charity. I had to agree with Harry Belafonte when he said that today’s leading black artists, namely Jay-Z and Beyonce, are ignoring their social responsibility by refusing to fight
But in Rapper Jay-Z’s defense, I must say that any business school professor who doesn’t believe that students can learn from him is DEAD WRONG.
I’ve taught in various business schools over the last 19 years. One of the most interesting things about teaching in a school of business is that you quickly find that most business school professors don’t know how to go out and actually make money. Sure, they’re experts at producing highly-complicated research papers that no one is ever going to read. But when asked to go into the real world to show that they can do the things they’re teaching students to do, most of them fail the test.
Another thing that most business school faculty don’t understand is struggle. They have no idea what it’s like to be a black man, living in a housing project, surrounded by violence, joblessness and inadequate educational systems. Most of the faculty at Harvard University or any other business school would not have been able to start where Rapper Jay-Z began and make it to adulthood as a healthy individual who wasn’t either dead or in jail.
Jay-Z (whose real name is Sean Carter) admits that he started off as a crack dealer. But this makes him no worse than many of the other original gangsters who bullied their way to the top, especially around the turn of the century. It is well-known that the Kennedy family built its original wealth by engaging in as much illegal activity as Sean Carter. This doesn’t include the massive wealth accumulated by white America for oppressing minorities and keeping them out of the economic system.
What makes Rapper Jay-Z special as a businessman is his ability to “flip” his wealth into the massive fortune that he has today. He and his wife Beyonce have done a masterful job of managing their careers, making wise investments and avoiding many of the mistakes being made by other people in the music industry. Rapper Jay-Z is not just a rapper, he’s an actual owner of valuable assets that will take good care of Blue Ivy Carter’s (his daughter) grandchildren. So, while we can certainly critique Jay-Z for not giving a damn about anyone but himself, we must give him credit for his tremendous economic success.
I certainly hope that the faculty at Harvard are not elitist enough to ignore the impact that a man like Rapper Jay-Z has had on the business community. The student was allegedly shunned back in 2005, which seems to be eons ago. But one unmistakable fact is that whether you love him or hate him (I personally feel he has fallen short of his potential), Jay-Z is a force in the business community and he didn’t get that way by being stupid.
Perhaps the black students at Harvard can learn from Rapper Jay-Z’s swag, take it to the next level and mix it with a bit of social responsibility. That’s how we can use the power of money to do something truly great. In fact, Oprah is already doing it.
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@ Paul
I too hire mostly black people, but I also get most of my business from white people like most businesses. You are the backwards thinker and a silly one at that. Im pretty sure you don't turn your white customers down, unless you are totally brainwashed by some black power organization. I personally like white people. They use my business and refer a lot of customers. To tell you the truth, it's the black customers that's always complaining about something. I can understand someone thinking like you in the sixties, seventies or even eighties. You are too scared of white people and dashing across the cotton field like a runaway slave to get away from them. The smart black people are using white people to our advantage. The tables have turned. But, I know there are always slow ones who need more time to catch on! As one of those black power organizations would say: THIS IS THE NEW AND IMPROVED BLACK POWER! No, I take that back, those black power organizations still think like you. Just old dinosaurs slowly going extinct .
lol to Mike Williams! You have a tunnel vision! I am hiring Black people for my business that I am building. You see, you assume that we are not capable to do things on our own or without Whities' You are the one who is thinking backward. Continue to work for them and continue to be exploited!!! Lol!!!
@Darnel Sulaiman
They will never understand. They are too caught up in their college degrees to see the truth. No offense to your degree from Rutgers. The funny part is I have partners and people working for me with college degrees and I don't have a high school diploma. Bank accounts and accomplishments in the real world say everything. Not earning a piece of paper from writing a good term paper.
@ Paul
Okay, you are now talking crazy and you are the exact reason our economy is slowing down. Don't see you are hurting more than white people silly person. You are hurting black businesses too. We all make money and spend it with the next man whether he is black, white, spanish, or asian. You are past your time man. You should've been in the black panthers. The rest of us black people are already uniting, while others like you are still sleep in the sixties.
To Mike,
You can continue to be judgemental but I would not be surprised that you didn't go to the five continents to have a clear idea about what is happening globally to our people. I do and I won't continue to be part of a system who always exploited us. I am not that impressed by individual success. And there are smart ways to not give the money to the mainstream. Of course, I need to eat and so on. But I don't have a car, I don't go to their stores anymore (unless if I really need to) to buy clothes (for instance) when they disrespect me by following me everywhere in the store because they assume (because of my color) that I will be there to steal seeing that it is their mindset about our people. And believe me, since I made these decisions I saved a lot of money. I believe that Blacks should not be in the army, etc. We have much more power but we don't use it. I am getting much more information from Asians in terms of business (that I never and will never get from Whites) and it is out of the question that I will let the mainstream to continue to use my brain and I don't encourage at all my people to follow that path.
Its really simple.. let compare bank figures and capital .. and oh yea.... Gates, Eastman Kodak, Jobs, Senior Kennedy, Ford... anyone can come along and review someones else work and come up with nice term papers.. but what have you produced on your own..
Oh yea for the those who say its not true.. let compare bank accounts, debt, and actual revenue per week not what you claim you will make .. and you get employed and review some else's work .all hustlers .. .. again all hustlers.. were born that way.. interesting enough were was all these theory before 2008.. and after..
Umm Yea.. I enjoy calling people out.. let just compare bank accounts and actual revenue.. you see I don't talk what I don't practice.. my teacher told me, when a person talk about what they don't know they can be called a liar..
@ Paul
I too know the long list of inventions that we created and were stolen from us. How long are going to harp on that? It's time to move forward and I think black are doing a good job moving forward. Your question makes no sense thats why I didnt answer it. You are using the 2% statistics for your argument. That in itself makes no sense. Of course only 2% goes back into our communities. White people own more of everything. How many black owned grocery stores, clothing stores, car makers, large home builders do you know of? Do you want us to go naked, live in cardboard boxes, and ride bicycles to work? Now, we are owning more of these businesses these days. But you have to give it time. As years pass we will continue to grow as a people working together. We have came a long way in a short period of time. We just came together as one to help vote in our first black president along with white folks. Many black people had never voted and had no interest in voting. Black people got off their butts and came out and voted. I have faith in my black people, you need to start giving us more credit. You say you support black people, but you have a funny way of showing it.
It could be very interesting if someone could answer these questions:
Why can’t Blacks Work Together? Or refuse to work together?
Why Can’t Blacks Hold on to a Dollar?
I know that many Asians do not believe in the credit system and the lottery which is really smart!
Mike,
You still didn't answer us how come we are the biggest consumers and only 2% stay in our community. We are the only group in America in this situation because we think the White ice is more cold. How stupid is that? I am highly educated and I realised how brainwashed we are. We value too much individual success. In addition, I am tired to see how we don't care to see others being promoted in corporate America for instance, how the mainstream takes our ideas when we work for them. Do you know that if Philip Emeagwali (who is Black) didn't exist we would not have the wealthy Bill Gates today??? I could go on and on. It also happened to me and too many of our people how they take advantage of our brains. Maybe you don't care but I do because I know my worth. Even when you have a six figure salary, you can still be taken advantage of. For me, it is over to work for the mainstream!!! I am sick and tired to hear our people say we have to work 150% to get noticed. I will work 150% for my own business that I am building, not for anybody else. This is a slave mentality to operate otherwise. Asians and Jewish people make sure that their money stays in their community and they definitely have more institutions than us. The mainstream always exploited us and I will definitely do everything to get out of this wicked system!!!
Ummm Yeah, I respectfully disagree with your premise as it pertains to economic sucess in our community as a whole. Before we can become financially secure the behavior must change about the way we handle money. Because the subject was entrepreneur that's why I commented as such. However, I have clients whose wages as an employee are far less than six figures but their net worth is that of a millionaire simply because they know how to manage their money by living below their means and using cash to invest in appreciable not depreciable assets.
I'll use my marriage as an example. My husband earns six figures and purchased a fully loaded BMW X5 which is a depreciable asset of which he is well aware of but says he purchased the vehicle at 40 because he didn't want to be an old man before owning a BMW which at the time was age 50 to him.
On the other hand, I earn six figures and purchased residential and commercial properties using cash of which the combined purchases costed me far less than what my husband paid for his X5 not to mention brought in monthly passive income to me and subtantially increased my net worth.
This type of behavior throughout my life has allowed me to become financially secure sooner and enabled me to provide financial planning services to my community at below market costs and in many cases free of charge and really had nothing to do with me being an entrepreneur or having an MBA.
Again, I am not a stats person but some how I don't think stats tell the complete story. As I said in my previous post, I have been a business owner for 17 years and have worked with tens of thousands of people during this time period. In my opinion, once one gets a hold of their income by changing the way they handle money the sky is the limit which is easier said than done.
Prior to becoming a business owner, I worked in banking at the federal, state and private levels and also worked for a Brokerage wire house. There is a model called CAMEL "Capital, Asset, Management, Equity, Liquidity" used to determine the solvency of banks. Ask any regulator which component is more viable to the success of a business and you'll get a variety of answers. For me the key component of CAMEL is management which is what we must do a better job of with our money because the funds are there.