(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 cannot name an Asian leader that Asian people complain about. I do not follow the Asian community that closely. But, I mean come on Really!!! You really think Asian people do not complain about their leaders. You think Asian people are perfect. That's really laughable!! Look at all the uprisings a few years back. I not even going to get into it. I see right not you are a person that complains about the black community no matter what any black person may do for the community. What do ultra wealthy white people do for their poor communities? All these poor white people who live in trailers and such? Absolutely nothing!! A lot of Asians are doctors and such because the parents distill high standards into their kids. It has very little to do with Asians sticking together. We as black people have come along way since slavery and the sixties. We can't change overnight but black people are getting there. They are more black Ceo's of Fortune 500 companies now than ever before. Blacks are getting college degrees and becoming entrepreneurs more now than any other time. I think we as black people are doing a good job coming from our background of slavery through the sixties and seventies. No matter how many successful black people give back to their communities, black people will always complain about what somebody is not doing. Maybe, for once focus on all the positives black people do for their communities and we might get farther. I guess it goes back to slavery where dark skin blacks hated light skin blacks and vice versa. We are still hating each other and don't even realize it!!! We stick together just as much as any other race!!!
There is a popular quote of Dr. Boyce Watkins that I love: "we need in the Black community more Phdos than PhDs". I hope that our successful entrepreneurs whether they have many degrees or not will share their knowledge with our people. It is their duty to uplift the community as a whole. Asians share a lot of their knowledge and this is why they are strong. They study together, they share old exams (something that we never do!!!) and so on. They truly support one another. This is why many of them become physicians, etc. They are not more smart than everybody but they understood the power of the group. One of my best friends is Chinese and she gives me valuable information in terms of business. It would have been nice to be informed also by people from my own community.
And finally, just to let you know. I am not speaking simply as an egg head. I own my company as well, and have taught, consulted, and trained over 1,000 entrepreneurs as well as being one of less than 1300 hundred individuals in the world with a CeCD in economic development. In addition I served as a business banker in my former life where I worked closely with business owners from small service shops to large manufactures. Plus I am pro-Black. So I am looking at it exclusively from what it takes to move the needle on collective Black entrepreneurship.
Hoodgirl, I am not discounting your anecdotal experience at all. However there is a significant difference as you well know between loose associations and rigorous quantitative analysis. What I am saying is that the top researching in this field, and the self-reported data of statistically rigorous surveys point out that while you are seeing some of tail ends of the bell curve it is not the norm, nor is it the norm for Asian entrepreneurship. The overall point being that if we are to create policies, programs, culture and systems of entrepreneurship we need to structure it around the evidence based practice of what creates the 'most likely' range of success. Not what is one either tail end of the bell curve.
The bulk of the bell curve shows that the most successful entrepreneurs have degrees and that the higher the degree up through masters is correlated with lower closure rates and higher net profits.
The reality is that the majority of small businesses close their doors within the first five years anyway. So when you conduct a longitudinal analysis of both business retention and profitability data shows that the trends are in the favor of those with the degrees, not the anecdotal, "I dropped out of high school and made it big".
Now that doesn't mean there aren't many entrepreneurs that didn't go to or finish college, it simply means that relatively speaking and all things considered individuals with a college degree at the BA level and MA level will have both a greater statistical chance of lasting longer and accruing more profits.
So from a policy standpoint, as Blacks, we need to focus on higher education (for a variety of reasons, not just entrepreneurship) or look to replicated the knowledge systems, connections, and access points that higher education represents in those with less education.
Finally, we need to point out a few things. Simply because one is 'good at making money' doesn't mean that they are 'good at teaching people how to make money'. Not all great basketball players make great coaches or owners (Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan respectively) It also doesn't mean that person has the capacity to create policy and economic development on a macro level, which is what is needed to fix our condition. These are different skills sets.
Ummm Yeah, I hear what you're saying. My perspective is from a business owner where I have successfully operated a Healthcare Agency, HUD Property Preservation, Tax Practice, and Real Estate Brokerage. Within these diverse businesses, I have exchanged best practices with other entrepreneurs that did not have so much as a high school diploma whose incomes far exceed mine and I have an MBA.
I have been a full time entrepreneur since 30 I am now 47. I have down sized my clientele significantly in the last 10 years because I planned to retire at 40 but caught my second wind at this age so retirement has been postponed. On average the businesses I currently engage in consist of servicing over 1000 clients annually from all walks of life ie. some have MBAs and PhDs from Ivy League Schools to some do not have so much as a grade school diploma.
I can only speak to my own experience, the clients that have MBAs are working in the private sector although some tried their hand at entrepreneurship but it didn't pan out for them, the ones with PhDs are teaching at Ivy League schools, while my entrepreneur clients have only a high school diploma or grade school level education no diploma but have perfected their craft and are making more money than the MBA and PhD clients.
Where I see the problem with most clients is the inability to control their income. While they have mastered their respective professions, they don't own clear and free their assets, ie. Home, Car, Commercial space where the business is conducted, etc. and spend way more than they make so a nest egg is out of the question because their lifestyle doesn't allow them to build wealth.
As for Asians, again this is only my personal experience, these clients own Beauty Salons, Cleaners, and Restaurants. I understand the concept of sweat equity but my clients don't have a lot of children and the children that they do have are not interested in the family business. They are literally hiring other Asians to perform these tasks below minimum wage then turning the business over to them through predatory lending practices. Now what I can say about Asians is that they are tremendous savers that start at an early age so they have the edge because of compounding interest not earnings.
I'm really not a stats person so I can't comment on your data. However, every business I started and assisted my clients in starting, I researched the prerequisites to operate that business ie. what type of educational background was required to engage in the business of interest of which none required a college degree ie. Adult Daycare, Automotive, Catering, Child Daycare, Cleaning, Construction, Computer Programming, Cosmetology, Enrolled Agent, Home Healthcare, Investment Adviser Representative, Lawn Care, Mortgage Broker, Property Preservation, Real Estate Broker, Real Estate Investor, Stock Broker, and Tow Truck Operator. My entrepreneur clients engaging in these businesses do not have a college degree but are netting six figures through their personal sweat equity but there is only a handful who have the discipline to build wealth.
Message to Mike,
Name us one leader that Asian-Americans complain about. They understood the power of the group same thing with Jewish people. We have a buying power of almost $1 trillion dollars and only 2% stay in our community. Name us another group in America who is in this situation. We are the biggest consumers and we hardly invest in our community.
@ Ummm Yea
I agree with Darnell. I think you are born that way. You can hold all the degrees in the world. If you are not born with entreprenuership in your blood, you will never be successful in running your own business. Where do you get your statistics? I have friends with degrees and mostly all of them including my wife tell me all the time they do not use anything that they learned from college in their field. Not only that, I bet a portion of those statistics are skewed. How many people in those statistics are actually investors in businesses and not actual entrprenuers who started a business from scratch? Mostly everyone on this planet talk about starting their own business one time or another, but very few go out and actually do it. Most people who go to business school, come out and work as an employee. The ones who actually come out and start their own business, probably would have done that if they went to college or not sooner or later. Do you own your own business? If you do not, you are just another person with a degree spewing statistics from so-called research. I don't mean that last statement in a mean way. But you are right in one way, most entrepreneur's drive to own their own business is suppressed. It's mostly supressed by hearing "go to college and get a good job when you get out" from birth. I think if a person truly has the entrepreneur's drive and creativity they can push through that supression with or without college.
Darnell, hustlers and business men are not "born that way". That is another myth. With all do respect to your personal success, you are an aberration and not the norm. Over 75% of all millionaires through entrepreneurship have at least one college degree.
That is just data. The reality is we can create a better business class by better training, both in college and outside of college. Some folks do have a better natural aptitude for entrepreneurship, but many more have talent that has been suppressed, and through education can be woken.
Hoodgirl...All of my research is in entrepreneurship and a college degree is definitely not overrated according to data and research. In fact, research shows that the higher level of degree you have (up to masters) the much more likely you are to be successful as a business owner.
In regard to Asian's in particular, asians are beating every other race including whites in every statistical category for economic success from salaries, to per capita business sales. They also have a much higher education level per population than any other group. Part of what you said is true, social solidarity, and business transition within the family and culture. But many Asians work within the family business with the expectation of ownership, therefore the hours that they work are 'sweat equity' and shouldn't be looked at from a salary standpoint alone. In addition, if the per capita wage rate means anything then for the slave labor they are working for their own people, they are still compensated higher than the national average.
My point is that
When I was in undergraduate school I had a business professor tell the class that those who can't usually teach those who can. I think a college degree is overrated. I have worked side by side the so called best and brightest which spoke truth to the meaning of an educated fool. There are so many self taught people that have a wealth of hands on business knowledge that cannot be found in a text book who are more successful than graduates of Ivy League schools.
My Asian business clients only hire other Asians but they virtually work them from sun up to sun down without any off days or fringe benefits. Because of the rigorous work schedule the hourly wage is significantly less than minimum wage and when the owner is ready to exit the business it is sold to another Asian through owner finance with long shark terms.