Do You Have A Business Dream? Are You Open to Living it?

Yesterday we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It’s a very special day for me. It’s a day of reflection. Just like Dr. King, my ancestors where brought to this country not of their free will; however, they had hopes and dreams for themselves and their families. A number of those dreams included businesses. Do you have a business dream? I believe when you have a written business dream or plan, you’ll step into your future. Ask yourself, why aren’t you living out your dream? What would living the entrepreneurial lifestyle mean to you? Would it give you financial, spiritual or emotional FREEDOMS? Well, I would first start off by stating, sometimes you can’t have them all at once, but if you are clear about what you want; you will step into your business dream.

Madame CJ Walker, Reginald Lewis, Bob Johnson, Booker T. Washington, Russell Simmons, Oprah Winfrey and Berry Gordy started out with business dreams. So did the people of Greenwood, a section of Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921 known as Black Wall Street.

The Tulsa race riot, also known as the 1921 race riot, the night that Tulsa died, the Tulsa Race War, or the Greenwood riot, was a massacre during a large-scale civil disorder confined mainly to the racially segregated Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 31, 1921. During the 16 hours of rioting, over 800 people were admitted to local hospitals with injuries, an estimated 10,000 were left homeless, 35 city blocks composed of 1,256 residences were destroyed by fire, and $1.8 million (about $21.7 million in 2009 dollars) in property damage was caused.

Officially, thirty-nine people were reported killed in the riot, of whom ten were white. The actual number of black citizens killed by local white militiamen and others as a result of the riot was estimated in the Red Cross report at around 300, making the Tulsa race riot the worst in US history. Other estimates range as high as 3,000, based on the number of grave diggers and other circumstances, although the archaeological and forensic work needed to confirm the number of dead has not been performed.