How to Succeed in Business Without Being White

One of today's most influential and well-known executives, Earl G. Graves, reveals his story and advice on how to succeed in the white-dominated corporate world. Graves offers advice on everything from careers and networking to how new entrepreneurs can make their businesses grow. Although this book is geared directly towards African Americans, it is a great read for anyone interested in learning the basics of business.

African Americans hold positions in every echelon of the business world-from CEO to middle manager, senior vice president to entrepreneur. There are 621,000 businesses owned by African Americans in this country today. In the last decade, the number of black-owned businesses has jumped by 46%, outpacing the growth of all new business by 20%. Sales, the crucial measurement of success, have grown 63% in that same time and the top 100 black businesses now generate annual sales of more than $12 billion. Yet, the existence of African-American entrepreneurs, of an influential African-American business class, and of the middle-class African-American consumers who support these and other businesses has been invisible to most Americans.

In How to Succeed in Business Without Being White: Straight Talk on Making it in America (HarperBusiness; May 7, 1997), Earl G. Graves, founder and publisher of Black Enterprise Magazine, brings this invisible community out of the shadows and prescribes a formula for business success that applies to corporate leaders of any race. He introduces successful entrepreneurs, businesspeople, and leaders in the African-American community, describes his own journey to the top and dispels some of the myths about racism in the business world. Graves doesn't deny that racism exists and often impedes the process of building a career or a business, but he prefers to consider the advantages: "Being black means you take nothing for granted and leave no stone unturned."

Focusing on business, not race, Graves gives readers the tools they need to compete. From his initial imperatives-don't go into job interviews, meetings, or any business situation with a chip on your shoulder: don't assume all whites are racists: don't feel you have to prove that all African Americans are wonderful people-he guides them through the specific steps of establishing a successful corporate career or starting a company on their own. Throughout the book, he shares his own experiences and those of others to make his points.

Early in his career, as he tried to convince large corporations to advertise in Black Enterprise, Graves formulated the principle that has guided him ever since:

"You can never ask a white person to buy your product or service without giving him or her a solid economic reason for doing it. Forget that it's the right thing to do. In this day and age, doing the right thing doesn't mean a thing in the white business community. It has to make economic sense."

Graves is equally direct in describing the strategies he has used in growing his business. He shows how creating a network with other African Americans is the key, not to "getting inside the castle" guarded by the white "old boy network," but to having a presence and an economic impact that cannot be ignored. Community involvement, Graves maintains, is also important for start-up entrepreneurs or for those moving up the corporate ladder; it provides an ideal opportunity to display one's talents as well as to establish relationships with important business and political leaders and extend the all-important personal network.

What happens when you achieve your goals? Graves demonstrates that the most successful blacks in the business world are those who remember who they are and where they come from. As an example, he offers this brief but telling glimpse of one achiever: Bob Holland, who turned Ben & Jerry's around as the first African- American CEO of a publicly held company is fond of quoting Br'er Rabbit: 'No matter where you is or what you is, be what you is, 'cause if you is what you ain't, you isn't.'

If the African-American community is to gain essential economic power and freedom, business people must leverage their resources and their influence to help others survive and succeed-from alerting other African Americans to job opportunities, to monitoring corporate contributions, to being a relentless advocate for fair treatment in hiring and in lending, to exerting purchasing power in the marketplace. The book gives specific information and inspiring advice on preparing oneself for success, surviving in a white-dominated corporate structure, parlaying a franchise into a high-income earner, writing a top-notch business plan for a new enterprise, securing financial backing for start-up costs or expansion, and much more.

How to Succeed in Business Without Being White levels the playing field and proves that African Americans can make money in the business world and realize their dreams. As Graves points out, "Basketball was once a white man's game, too."

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