Generation Y: Young, Black, and Gifted

I’ve always known that I would someday work for myself. Like my father, I would also become my own boss. I first dipped my toes in the entrepreneurial waters back in junior high, selling Debbie cakes, juice boxes, and candy out of a plastic Wal-Mart bag in my backpack. Next, I started braiding hair and retwisting dreadlocks out of my mom’s garage.

At age 14, I lied on my application and said that I was 16 so that I could get a job down at Finish Line. And I did. Every time my manager asked for my work permit, I would sell another insole or shoe cleaner. I was winning every competition they had, and needless to say, eventually my manager got over it. Even then, I was still hustling on the side.

In college, I wrote other’s papers for a fee. One day, during finals (or midterms), I racked in about a thousand dollars. That’s what I consider my first real hit of entrepreneurship. Making a thousand dollars in one day for something that I can easily and gladly do in about a good six hours? I needed, in a deep-down-in-the-marrow-of-my-soul kind of way, to feel more of that and less of that same, old, tired-ass broke feeling.

From Finish Line on, though hustling, I always kept a job. I also always hated my job. I just wasn’t good at it. Well, let me take that back. I was good at the work when I felt like being good at it. I just wasn’t all that good of an employee. Prime example: it always bothered me to think about how much money I was bringing in for them versus how much they were giving me in return.

Take me at the height of my Finish Line career for instance. At the end of every shift, we would see how much we totaled in sales. I was averaging around $400 something dollars per day. However, I was only making eight dollars an hour. So, if I worked eight hours that day, I was making $400 for them for $64 (before tax) in return. Same scenario from retail to medical to legal.

Then I noticed that it wasn’t just me. It was a good bit of my generation. In fact, the majority of those that I keep in contact with from high school are either full-time or part-time entrepreneurs. I celebrate this statistic. I’m proud of all of us, including myself. I want nothing more than to see us go forth with our passions and thrive.

I know that in order to do so then it’s important that we look out for another. When I say “we,” I’m referring, specifically, to the the 80s babies. The ones that:

• Can’t leave the house without the cell phone. 
• Know all about social media and don’t need you to remind us to take precaution of what we put out there.
• Are advertising on social media, and thus, building global relationships.
• Would like to not have a section of our closet reserved for “work clothes”; we would prefer to wear what matches our mood.
• Blog like it ain’t nobody’s business.
• Jam all genres.
• Don’t sit back and collect vacation days; we use that shit!
• Prioritize self-expression.

We’re known as Generation Y. I don’t think that this generation could have been labeled any better because former generations sure as hell have a lot of “why” questions aimed at us. They ask “why” and we ask “why not?” But that’s another convo for another day. 

Today, I’m saying look at us! No, really look. The future is nothing to be concerned about. The good far outweighs the bad. We got ‘dis! To be Young, Black, and Gifted (as Nina Simone pointed out) is something that we know all about. 

Perhaps we should be called Generation E for entitled::exemplary::executives::entrepreneurs. 

On Instagram? Follow #GenYBG to meet some of Generation Y’s young, black, and gifted Black Women Entrepreneurs.