Lets Stop Dreaming and Lets Start Making it Happen

As the Martin Luther King holiday approaches us this Monday please take the time out to reflect on the effect that Dr. King’s contributions to society has made on your life. It doesn’t matter what color your skin color is, his legacy is one that spans all races and ethnicities.

PBS’ Nightly Business Report and and Black Enterprise Magazine are teaming up for for a special MLK Day program called American Dreamers. The program will feature three young African American entrepreneurs pursuing the American dream.

• Percy Marchand is a New Orleans businessman whose printing business was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. Despite his obvious obstacles, the program chronicles Marchand’s determination to get back and do better than ever.

• Robin Wilson is a female residential project manager. Her firm saves clients thousands of dollars by catching double mark-ups and contractor errors.

• Angela Black-Macon opened B-Natural, a full-service day spa in 2001. Her business was an immediate success, but when the store flooded, she had to start over from scratch. Not only did she bounce back, now she’s looking to expand.

See this is what the spirit of Dr. King is all about SUCCESS! Perhaps as an entrepreneur myself I get overly hyped about this but its important for us to celebrate our successes…successes that may not have been possible without his contributions. We need to stop celebrating handouts and welfare programs and show that we as black people are not always underprivileged or retarded by society. That mentality has pre-existed in our society for far too long. If we continue to think we are disadvantaged we’ll never line up at the starting gate. So for all of you who have EVER had a dream, watch this program and lets get it done. American Dreamers airs Jan. 21, 2008 on PBS.