The Obligatory February Article

Last week, I was interviewed by Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs. In celebration of Black History Month, our discussion behind the scenes centered around Black challenges in entrepreneurship. I knew it would come up, and I rehearsed an answer. Even so, I stumbled and stammered around, and it ended up on the cutting room floor. In truth, my answer was its only challenge, somewhere stuck between my identity and my concern with being yet another statistic.

It would take days of contemplation to sort out a decent response for myself. The problem with answering during the interview was that I couldn't explain the context. There just weren't enough words available. So, allow me to set the stage - the context matters.

A few generations back, a young girl named Harriet was living in South Carolina.? She was 13 years old when she was transported to a slave market in Alabama and sold.? My family still wears the name of her purchaser - Thompson.? That girl would have a child by her master, and since these things aren’t well documented, no one really knows when.? Harriet was my maternal great-great-great-grandmother (give or take a “great”).

In post-antebellum Alabama, one of her relatives set up shop as a blacksmith.? He managed to accumulate quite a bit of property which, presumably, I’ll inherit a tiny slice of one day. From there, things get fuzzy until you get to my great-grandfather, Jack Thompson (1st pic at end). In 1934, he left Marion, Alabama with his wife, Sara (2nd pic at end), and two sons. They moved to Harlan County, KY, which was then a coal mining boomtown.? His son, Norman (3rd pic) - my grandfather - and seemingly all the other men in that town worked for the same coal mining company. They were paid in company dollars and bought food in the company store. Eventually, his daughter met my father and she moved with him to Loudon, Tennessee, where they still live today, and where I was born and raised.

On the father’s side, not too much is known. His grandfather, Dewey (4th picture), worked at the post office before the civil rights movement.? He mopped floors and kept the place clean.? He worked hard and maintained a stellar reputation in the community.? His daughter - my grandmother, Mary (5th picture at end) -? and her siblings were bused to school in Athens, TN.? After she graduated, she went to Morristown College and earned an associate's degree.? As best I can tell, she was the first family member to graduate college.? She moved to Massachusetts to take a job, not entirely dissimilar to the Harlan County migration years earlier.

My parents, Mark and Tracy Blair (last picture at end), followed the same family values and advanced themselves.? I was fortunate enough to have two parents in my life who loved me dearly.? And they took care of me to the best of their ability, which is all any child can ask from their parents.? There was never a day when my father didn’t get up and go to work.? My mom went from housewife to teacher’s aid to Loudon County’s Finance Director.? Hard work is a family value.? Earning and keeping a good reputation is yet another family value.

You see, I come from a long line of people who worked hard, did what they had to do to take care of their family, even in the face of impossible odds and a system that was stacked against them.? They moved, put up with petty and overt racism, and sacrificed their future to take care of today.? They gave me the tools, ability, opportunity, and ethics with their literal blood - and sweat and tears. But entrepreneurship was never a path they traveled.

What is it like to be a black entrepreneur?? Everyone will have a different answer, but I am a sentimental person who treasures the heritage I’ve been given.? To be an entrepreneur - where failure is more likely than success - is to challenge the original values that were handed to me.? Historically, this isn’t something my family did - they worked hard, took care of themselves and their families.? Now, trying to build a company is trying to break a mold from generations of habit.? Is it worth it?? Foresight isn't 20/20, so I guess we will see.

When I was growing up, entrepreneurship wasn’t part of the conversation.? It was, ‘get good grades, go to school, get a skill, get a job, and go to work.’? That was life.? There was no part of me that considered starting my own company. Locally, there weren’t any minority business owners - at least not ones that I knew. And then, all the people who did work on houses or cars - plumbers, roofers, sheetrock guys, contractors, painters, decal guys, etc. That wasn’t for me, so business ownership wasn’t appealing at all.

Many of us don’t have mentors that are close family friends.? We don’t have the “friends and family” capital raise round. There isn’t a person who’s going to help you get it off the ground - you’re just out there, doing stuff you’re not sure about, and relying on relative strangers to fill in the gaps.? That said, there has never been a time when there are so many available resources that can help bridge those gaps.? So we have to take advantage of what’s publicly available and understand there are levels to this game.? You are faced with a choice - you can either sit around and complain and use it as an excuse, or you can play the cards you have been dealt with to the best of your ability.

Not too long ago, I worked a career fair at a middle school.? I set a table up for the company that employed me at the time.? The kids came through, asked questions, and talked and stuff.? There was one 6th grade boy who looked at me with eyes full of admiration.? He asked me about being an engineer, how I got there.? Then he asked me for my autograph.? I was floored - who am I?? It didn’t occur to me until later that I might’ve been the first white-collar black man he’d ever seen who wasn’t on TV.? At that moment, I think he realized what was possible.?

What’s it like to be a black entrepreneur?? Everyone will have a different answer, but for me, I believe it is an ethical obligation to succeed.? I have to succeed.? I owe it to my family who came before me who dealt with way more than I have so I can be here.? I owe it to 6th graders who need mentors to look up to.? I owe it to my family now - to show how my family values support me in my endeavors, not hold me back.? And most of all, I owe it to the people who will come after me so that when they want to get started, they can have a friends-and-family round and a mentor and have a more level playing field.? I believe I can be part of that change; I can be the pivot point. Someone has to be first.

My grandfather - a second-generation coal miner - told me that if I had to dig ditches, I better be sure that I was the best there was.? There is no space in that statement for excuses or whining because someone else has a better shovel.? He probably never anticipated that his advice would impact me the way it did.? But, in the spirit of what he said, my personal challenges aren’t all that unique.? There are white people facing the same thing, which is another reason why this question is so hard to answer.

What's it like to be a black entrepreneur? Everyone will have a different answer, but, for me, it's the reality that economics doesn't discriminate. Talent is equally distributed; opportunity is not.? Most people in this world face an uphill battle, regardless of their racial, ethnic, or national origin.? Black people deal with a set of challenges, white people deal with their own set of challenges, immigrants deal with a different set.? Millions of people are grappling to shift generational habits and make their own contribution to their families’ history in new careers fields, new states, or new countries with new languages.? Whomever you are and wherever you’re from, you have to handle your business and your situation without wasting time looking at everyone else. There will always be someone with a better shovel.? It doesn’t matter if you’re digging a ditch or building a company - get to it. Fortune doesn't always favor the bold; it favors the active.

I have quilts from my Grandma Sara, and one day I’ll inherit a tiny slice of land in Alabama as a legacy of someone’s hard work.? I hope to build something for my own family; something more valuable than anything material - a legacy of entrepreneurship, risk, hard work, and great reward under the same - but evolved? - family values passed down to me. And that is the best answer I can give.

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Jack Thompson, my maternal great-grandfather. He left Alabama and moved to Kentucky. I can remember him showing up at random times in a beat-up red Ford truck.

His wife, Sara Thompson. She passed away before I remember, but she did hold me. She famously told my mother, "I have to see what's gonna call YOU momma."

Their son, Norman Thompson, my maternal grandfather. Second-generation coal miner who lived in Harlan County most of his life. He passed away on July 28, 2016.

Dewey Blair, my paternal great-grandfather. I never knew him; he was from Loudon, TN and worked in the post office.

Mary Blair, Dewey's daughter and my paternal grandmother. As far as I know, she was the first one in my family to go to college.

My parents, Mark (Dewey's grandson) and Tracy (Jack's granddaughter). They're still in Loudon, and that's where I got started.