(Akiit.com) Too often I hear Black entrepreneurs saying stupid things. These are the same things that prohibit them from doing exactly what they want to be doing - making money. Here are the top 4 things that you definitely don’t need to be saying:

1) “I Don’t Fly on Airplanes.”
What! You don’t fly? What if you have to meet with a client face-to-face? What about business conferences? Not flying on airplanes can be a great obstacle to your business success.

If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to get over your fear of flying. Do the research! It really is the safest way to travel. If you get airsick, then you need to invest in some Dramamine® - a popular over-the-counter medicine for motion sickness.

2) “Banks Don’t Give Loans To Black Businesses.”
Wrong! Banks give loans to Black companies all the time. Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo all have special programs designed to help African American entrepreneurs. Even the SBA has several loan programs for Blacks.

The reason why you can’t get a loan is because your credit is jacked up! You need to fix your personal credit, and then re-approach your bank about a business line of credit. I guarantee you that you will get a different response.

Here’s a great example:
http://www.wellsfargo.com/biz/intentions/AfricanAm_bus_svcs

3) “I’ll Be Rich In A Week”
Just because you have a good idea doesn’t mean that you’re going to instantly attain wealth. Pick any successful entrepreneur and they will tell you that it takes at least a year to make money off a good idea. In most cases though, it takes several years.

Getting excited and overly-anxious about becoming rich overnight makes you look and sound very immature. In addition, it will only discourage you when your unrealistic dreams are not realized.

4) “I Don’t Do Business With White People”
That’s the dumbest thing a businessperson could ever say, but some people say this because they want to keep their money within the Black community.
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(Akiit.com) The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is giving $3 million to help build the long-delayed memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall.

With fundraising and help from lenders and banks, the memorial has enough money to begin construction this spring, its previous target, said Harry Johnson, president of the King memorial foundation overseeing the project.

“We want to push ourselves, and we want to stay on track,” Johnson said. “We’re very pleased that we’re pretty close.”

The gift brings the memorial’s fundraising to $90 million of the $100 million needed to complete the memorial.

Building the 4-acre memorial plaza will take 18 to 20 months. A ceremonial groundbreaking was held in November 2006 with the goal of a 2008 opening. Delays with the design and building permits pushed back the completion date, and Johnson also said fundraising was sluggish at times because of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the South Asia tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

Starting construction in April or May would keep the schedule on target, but federal agencies that must approve final designs say the schedule still may be overly ambitious.

“As soon as we get the proper clearances … we’re ready to start building,” Johnson said Wednesday. “We are very ambitious with what we’re planning and our timeline.”

The memorial will sit along the edge of the Tidal Basin, between the Jefferson Memorial and Lincoln Memorial, where the civil rights pioneer delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. It will feature a large stone sculpture by a Chinese artist of King emerging from a block of granite and stone walls engraved with quotes from King.

The Kellogg Foundation, started by the breakfast cereal pioneer in 1930, has recently focused its resources on vulnerable children who face poverty and discrimination. Officials said that while it does not typically fund construction projects, the King memorial stood out.
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(Akiit.com) *One of the most frustrating things to deal with as a Black man is listening to Black women talk about what a “real man” is supposed to be or do.

Typically, when those discussions come up, they begin with “If you were a REAL man…” and are in reference to things that the women want from the men, based purely on desire, not on anything real. And, those discussions are never based on anything that comes from men or discussions with men.

In fact, a group of us jokingly search for the “Book of Real Man” that these women must have read.

That having been said, there are in fact some things that progressive Black men discuss amongst themselves about what Black men need to do.

Let’s deal with some of them now.

Brothers, I know how hard it is to find a real lady who actually appreciates it when you hold the door open for her, but do it anyway. If she doesn’t appreciate it, then she’s not a lady and she’s not for you. Just man up and keep it moving, but let’s still be gentlemen.

Don’t ever complain about Golddiggers if you have been fertile digging ground. When you see the signs (and we ALL know the signs), keep moving. Just man up and tell her that you are not the bank and no matter how cute she is, you won’t be doling out the loot for her company or for sex. That’s what prostitutes are for, but real men don’t get down like that.
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(Akiit.com) They had small means and big hopes of owning a house. But African-Americans snared in the US mortgage crisis have seen the American dream turn into a nightmare many call “financial apartheid.”

The storm triggered by risky “subprime” loans has left many in ruins, forced out of their modest homes and furious at falling victim to financial dealings that have taken a particular toll on minority families.

“People of color are more than three times more likely to have subprime loans,” concluded the organization United for a Fair Economy in a recent report which estimated that minorities have seen between 163 billion and 278 billion dollars of their equity go up in smoke since 2000.

With its weakened economy and a large black population more used to renting, Cleveland has become a poster child of the subprime crisis in a country where some 2.1 million borrowers are behind on their mortgage payments.

City officials estimate that foreclosures have swallowed some 70,000 homes and turned entire neighborhoods into ghost towns.

The city has responded by suing lenders, accusing them of targeting black borrowers and steering them to the loans granted with few formalities and at hefty interest rates to people with poor credit histories.

In this city where nearly 27 percent of the population lives under the poverty line — about 20,000 dollars a year for a family of four — many have a friend, a cousin, a brother, a co-worker or a neighbor who lost a home because they could no longer make their monthly payments once their adjustable rates jumped.

“Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore (are) cities where lots of people of color live and what do they have in common? They are hit by the foreclosures meltdown. Is it a coincidence?” said Jesse Tinsley, who lives in the low-income Mount Pleasant neighborhood.

“When the wave of foreclosures blighted our neighborhood, members of our community rang the alarm. Nobody did anything. Now that white suburbs are hit, the city hall discovered foreclosures,” he said.
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(Akiit.com) Much to celebrate, much work to be done…

The Black male crisis was the topic last week at the 18th annual PUSH-Excel scholarship breakfast honoring the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I had the distinct pleasure of sharing the stage that morning with two great Black male icons: the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and Bill Cosby.

Cosby, in his trademark casual dress – a mohair sweater, matching corduroys and a pair of Timberland boots – delivered a monologue that was funny at times, but also sharp and unabashedly critical of Black parents and Black youth. Specifically, Cosby’s com-ments focused on a 15-year-old Black boy he met at a youth empowerment workshop. The young man was sleepy and disengaged from the rest of the group.

That’s because he had been up until 4 a.m. partying and having sex with a girl only 13 years old. Cosby said that when he asked the young man why he stayed up so late when he knew he had to be at the workshop in the morning, the boy replied, “Doing what I gotta do.” The young man has no idea what he “should” be doing to know what he’s “gotta” do. That’s why it is so important for adults to create pathways for our young people.

But Cosby also drove home the point that our youth must also take responsibility for their own actions. “You hear people say, ‘There are no Black leaders,’” Cosby said to the audience. “That’s because there are no followers.” Cosby’s no-holds-barred critique of low-income Blacks has earned him much criticism in the Black community.

But his toughlove approach, I believe, raises even more important questions about what Black institutions can do to help solve the Black male crisis. So, when I got the chance, I asked Mr. Cosby, in front of the audience of about 1,800 people, what he thought Black institutions like the Chicago Urban League should be doing to turn around young men like that 15-year-old boy. “Black institutions, you’ve got to get to the parents,” said Cosby. “Fathers are not around to give the message.
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