Originate, Motivate, Innovate

CHAPTER 4Your Power Is in Your Purpose

Black people always die first in horror films, and the same is true in the world of investor funding for Black and Brown entrepreneurs. If you've read this far, you've learned strategy around building fail‐safe businesses, how to think beyond the surface of discrimination, how to be strategic in terms of branding as well as lots of other tactics to navigate the intricacies of building a successful business. However, none of these techniques matter if you do not have a purpose you are dedicated to along with a mindset that is suitable to carry you through this often lonely and difficult journey. The combination of staying true to my purpose and the power of my thinking are, at times, the only two things that have prevented me from either giving up or blowing up on, let's be frank, white people.

Lucky for you, I'm the Black character in the room full of white privilege, exclusivity, and power that doesn't die in this horror film. I'll be there surviving and thriving in the original, the sequel, and any other iteration of this proverbial horror film genre. In fact, the whole point of Black Girl Ventures is for people like me to multiply. That is the entire motivation for the constructs laid out in this book. To teach people like you how to make it into exclusive rooms that I have had the privilege of accessing while sustaining your kick‐ass business. While the iconic phrase “We don't die, we multiply” by Robin Harris might be a funny nod ...