THE QUIET

The only way you can learn is to listen. Everyone has two ears and one mouth. So this a.m., I quietly mouthed the article, published on the Huffington Post’s internet version of the paper twice before I decided what I had learned. The article, “Rags to Riches: Self-Made CEOs Who Started With Nothing,” listed 10 people who are now “rich” but had to struggle to get it. There are absolutely no men of color on the list; not even honorable mention. Two sisters made the cut; but, Oprah, who I give mad props to, is really overdone.

What I learned from this article is that sometimes if you want something done, you have to do it yourself. Have to. I want my son and nephews to be inspired. So I wrote the following about six men—brothers, who have “arrived,” and had some sort of adversity as well. I just cannot believe that the author (who is not listed) never heard of at least one of the following men: Jay-Z (Shawn Carter), Tyler Perry, or Russell Simmons. Granted, they actually may not have ever heard of Chris Gardner, Les Brown or the late Reginald Lewis. May not, but when you write, you research; took me a total of about 75 minutes—and I’m not a writer by trade.

Why I Picked These Gentlemen:
They are not simply rich, they are wealthy. There is a difference. Chris Rock defines the difference as (paraphrased), “wealth is the people who own the basketball team, not play on it.” They all own companies and/or they are CEOs. And in the case of Reginald Lewis, his company is still around today despite his death in 1990 to brain cancer.

Why They Truly Make The List:
Jay-Z from Marcy Projects to owning several companies, selling millions of records and hobnobbing with the President.
Tyler Perry from being poor in New Orleans, to homeless in Atlanta, to the chitterling circuit with his plays, to having his own movie studios.
Russell Simmons from dropping out of Community College, to selling records to owning Def Jam Records, to producing Def Comedy and Def Poetry Jam to owning Phat Farm (not exactly rags to riches but hailing from Queens, NY automatically makes his story sort of “riches from rags.”)
Les Brown from being abandoned by his mother at 6 weeks, to be declared retarded to being left back twice to becoming a motivational speaker and author who talks about wealth and overcoming obstacles.
Chris Gardner from being in the medical field to deciding that was not in fact for him to being homeless to taking a non-paying internship where he had to work twice as hard as everyone else to earning the job on the other side of that internship to going to become a CEO to having a movie made about his life and Will Smith playing his part.
Reginald Lewis from working to pulling together enough dough to secure McCall patterns which was bankrupt to turning it around to leaving this earth AND, most importantly, leaving behind a legacy his family could continue.

People of color did not write the book on struggle and overcoming adversity—however we do take up a great many chapters and should be deemed experts if the circumstances are in order.