Legacy & Why It Should Be Important to Every Black Entrepreneur

The proper definition of the word legacy is property or money left to someone, and it can also mean something even more than money that comes from the past to impact someone’s present and future such as knowledge or wisdom. All of these things are built into a legacy, and here are three main reasons why it’s important for every Black entrepreneur to leave a lasting legacy for generations.

Knowledge, Power and Wisdom

If there is one thing that the future must learn from the older generations is knowledge. Upon knowledge rests power and how to utilize all that knowledge and power together brings wisdom. The youth aren’t born with a head full of knowledge, therefore, throughout life, Black entrepreneurs can give back to their communities the knowledge they have learned through building successful businesses so that the foundation can grow bigger and even better.

Rooted, Solid Ground

In the past, so much was stripped from Black people in the Americas, not once, not twice, but repeatedly and continuously, leaving generations of Black children with no foundations. This meant that Black children had to start over and learn as they go. Then the cycle repeated itself in many areas of America where Black people were stripped again and the rebuilding and learning had to begin again. To find a place that was rooted and grounded already for centuries was hard for Black people, so this is why leaving a lasting legacy is important. There will always be a place where they can go back to and be at home, even if orphans, there is a village of thriving business owners and family ready, willing and able to put them to work. An example of this would be the Underground Railroad, a networking village who took care of one another and set them up to work.

Survival in Strength and Love

Black entrepreneurs know how to survive, and that survival comes out of love for oneself, God and community, and in that love comes strength to overcome any and everything. As long as that legacy is passed, togetherness will bring that sureness of survival, even when times get hard and businesses seem they don’t stand a chance. Leaving a legacy of faith, such as Black Americans did for hundreds of years, kept them going when the odds were against them. They knew God would bring them up as long as they kept pushing forward. It worked!

Whenever racism tore and burned their homes and businesses down, it was the strength of love that brought them back together to rebuild with the knowledge that it was how their forefathers did it before them. It is the legacy of never giving up.

All Black entrepreneurs, budding and otherwise, are to leave a great legacy because without them being left, the danger is that someone else will definitely write the narrative, and that narrative will be wrong, erasing the power of Black people and the Black entrepreneur.