For many, this isn’t guess work. Reaching back and lifting others up is one of the gifts that entrepreneurs from all walks of life bring to the table that they own. There is a full course meal at the table for up and coming business owners to feast upon as they become full from all the delicacies to which they can add to their own tables one day.
The perfect example of building others through your freedom, and in this case, financial freedom is the Underground Railroad. Most people immediately think of slavery and just slavery when it comes to the Underground Railroad, however, there were many Black abolitionists who owned businesses and used their businesses to their advantage when it came to assisting those fleeing enslavement and better lives after slavery was abolished.
There were people such as Lewis Hayden, a Black entrepreneur who used his business as a place for abolitionist meetings and to help those who had escaped slavery such as one Black man named Shadrack. He was a pioneer in his time, even leading the way for a statue of Crispus Attucks.
Read the full story of Lewis Hayden here.
There was also a Black woman named Christina “Madame Carteaux” Bannister who through her wealth and prestige as a Black beauty entrepreneur, she lended herself as the president of the Black Colored Ladies Sanitary Commission, helping gain money for the families of Black soldiers who had to leave their families with no income to fight in the war.
Read the full story of Christina “Madame Carteaux” Bannister here.
These are only two stories out of many Black men and women who decided to not only become business owners but understood that their success meant the success of their people, and they would be responsible for their part in that success.
Here are ways to elevate others while a business owner:
- Teach/Mentor
- Provide Alternatives – Business owners may have access to items that others don’t or know people who can assist. Provide this information to help others as alternative methods to success.
- Hire
- Use Your Power Position as a Position for Justice – fight for equal pay and criminal justice reform. These things indirectly assist people who are on the climb in life.
- Take the Guess Work out of Success and Write a Blueprint
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