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[ Silence ] >> Dean Lawrence Carter, faculty and staff of Morehouse College, men of Morehouse. As we continue the week-long activities revolving

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around the theme of rescuing the black male, it is most fitting that we hear from a man whose innovation, talent, and strong dedication to the entrepreneurial spirit has become his hallmark as well as a beacon of light for others to emulate. Allow me to tell you a little about his personal and professional background.

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After graduating cum laude as a biology chemistry major from Central State University, Joshua I. Smith served for four years as assistant director for operations in the college information systems office at the University of Akron. He subsequently held the positions of managing positions of manager of the database division of Plenum Publishing Corporation in New York,

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executive director of the American Society for Information Science, and vice president of Herner and Company in Washington, D.C. Mr. Smith has served as founder, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer of the Maxima Corporation since 1978.

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Founded as a computer systems company in Washington, D.C., Maxima grew under Mr. Smith's leadership to swiftly become the ninth largest black-owned corporation in the country, with sales in the $60 million range and over 1,000 employees in 46 locations across the country. Last year, in recognition of Mr. Smith's sharp business acumen and his commitment to helping

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other black businessmen achieve success through entrepreneurial endeavors, President George Bush appointed Mr. Smith chairman of the new US Commission of Minority Business Development. This important new bipartisan commission has been established to review and assess the effectiveness of federal programs intended to encourage and develop an ultimate success

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of minority business enterprises. Throughout his career, Mr. Smith has been the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees for leadership in his field and for his civic

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commitment. We are indeed honored to have this unique opportunity to hear him speak to us today. Please join me in welcoming

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Mr. Joshua I. Smith. [applause] Thank you, Dr. Keith. Good morning.

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It's a pleasure to be here in an area that's a little warmer than Washington. It was about 16 degrees this morning when I left. So I'm glad to be in Atlanta.

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When I arrived in Atlanta some time ago, I remember my experience with the cab driver, and the first thing I remember is that it was an American black cab driver. We don't see a lot of those these days. And even in Washington, where we have so many, 70% of the city is African American, we see

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very few Americans who are in business in those areas. So it has become important to me to do what I can, as well as continue to grow a business, in promoting minority business in this country. But it's difficult.

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There are a lot of barriers. And it reminds me of a minority business person who died and went to hell. And it was six months before he realized that he wasn't in his own office. It's a pleasure to be here today on celebration of African American history, recognition of

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the many contributions that African-Americans have made. And I guess we are all constantly amazed at the contributions African-Americans have made toward the growth and development of this country.

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And many of our white counterparts are absolutely astonished when we see what we do regularly. So therefore I can appreciate where people are

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when it comes to minority business in this country. Because 100 years ago, we had as many minority businesses as we have today. A hundred years ago, we were aggressive in business.

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We were sensitive to the accumulation of assets. As consumers, we understood that it was important to put money back into our future, and we saved. A hundred years ago, we had family support systems,

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we had neighborhood support systems, we had communities, and we emphasized education for our children so that they would improve over the existing circumstance. But today, 1990, we see a situation

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where we have first generation business people as the majority of the minority businesses. Why is that so? What did we do 100 years ago that we're not doing now?

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What did we understand that we don't understand now? And what did we apply that we're not applying now? How discouraging it is to board the plane and read the papers. And the first article from the New York Post headlines,

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one in four males are criminals. New York Post headlines, February 27th, 1990. Washington Post, one in four young black men is in jail or court supervised.

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Washington Post, February 27, 1990. USA Today, young black generation in legal web. What did we do 100 years ago that we don't seem to do today? What did we understand that we don't seem to apply today?

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Well, I can't write the book, but I can tell you some things that were very true. We understood that when we were freed, we either got a job or we created a job, or we died.

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We understood that there was no system out there that would take care of us if we did not take care of ourselves. We understood we either survived and grew or we died. And as a result we applied the basic principles of economics

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that we don't do today because we recognized it was up to us to do it for ourselves. And as a result, we progressed. We survived and we progressed.

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And we see statistic after statistic of what's happening to black people. We ask ourselves, why after 30 years did the number of black businesses

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practically diminish in half after integration. What occurred to us that caused this erosion, not only economically but in spirit, when we know the contributions we make to this society?

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And it becomes something that we have to worry about. And that something is, with all the progress of the civil rights movements and all of the positive steps that were taken since civil rights, that there

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There is a fundamental fact that we have not paid attention to, and the civil rights was good for all of us and good for this country and for this world. But that fundamental fact is economic rights are sure civil rights. It is true for us, it is true for all people that unless we can progress economically,

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we cannot move ahead socially. And what that really means is, ladies and gentlemen, excuse me, I'm at a men's institution, and ladies. I'll get the priorities straight. What that really means is we have to reprioritize that which drives us. We have to understand the true meaning of economics and the role

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that the entrepreneur and the businessman plays in our future. We have to adopt what others have adopted successfully and more importantly what we have adopted successfully before today. Today we represent a population 12% of the total.

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We earn annually 250 billion dollars a year equal to the gross national product of Canada. We consume well above

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20% of the goods and services we consume, we buy, we buy everything. We buy more fried chicken than anybody more grape soda Someone told me that we consume 35% of all meat coats

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And everyone understands We exercise little discretion in consumption We have Less than 200 companies that have more than a hundred employees

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We have a little over a hundred companies with revenues of a million dollars or more We produce three-tenths of one percent of All business revenues three-tenths of one percent So as we look at what's happening we have to place a sense of understanding and a sense of priority

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On what we have to do if we didn't earn 250 billion dollars a year I Would say we have a problem But we earn it and we consume it

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We have roughly 1/10 of the assets of the majority community. 1/10. It's less than 1/10. We have placed a priority that does not include economics.

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I'm reminded of a story of a young man looking at all you healthy Young men and when I was in school knowing what That we had two priorities in life. One of them was the books. We won't talk about the other Will we?

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But there's a young man with that other priority who happened to see a young lady that he had an interest in and He decided that he would invest some time into this young lady and he had a sense of humor. You know when you don't have money you better have

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a sense of humor. We understand that don't we? Yes we do. You can't buy him something make him laugh. So the brother with his sense of humor was spending very valuable time and most of the time was on campus but he decided that he was going to try to move this on a bit if you know what I mean. But he didn't realize that the sister noticed a very important

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pattern of the brother when it came to the time when they would eat at a restaurant and the check would lie there on the table. A biological phenomenon came over the brother and his arms would atrophy into his shoulder and he just couldn't quite reach and pick up the check.

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But because he was humorous the young lady continued. The brother thought now it was time for him to make my move and he was at her place. Music was soft, lights were low, the atmosphere was timely. And he scooted over to begin that

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important process and she stood up and she said, "Chill. Romance without finance is a nuisance and has no chance. Many of you relate to that story. Well ladies and gentlemen, it's a true story, it's a truism. You cannot have

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romance in society without finance. You cannot achieve the goals you have in a capitalistic world. We used to say capitalistic society and within a year The Soviet Union has gone capitalistic. The Eastern Bloc has gone capitalistic.

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It's not a capitalistic country of industrialized nations or a world of industrialized nations. It's a capitalistic world. And you cannot in a capitalistic world achieve social, educational, or any other goal without a balance of economics without finance.

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And we have, because of many reasons, not factored in that very important ingredient into the formula, into the equation. There are many reasons for that, and this is a constructive talk. I am not being negative.

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I'm telling you the way it is. And one can surmise that in leadership, if we don't come from a particular area, we tend not to emphasize an area because it's a weakness. And I've said to my civil rights friends whom I love and will always be there, but like

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family when you love somebody you tell them the truth. You know you can go all around the neighborhood and get all the endorsements of some of the schemes that you have but when you sit down around family they tell it to you but twixt the eyes because they love you. And I say to my civil rights friends and my minister

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friends, folks, I don't fault you for not having a background in economics, but if you don't factor it into what we're doing, we don't have a future. It's a reality that we have to face, and I'm so disappointed from time to time when I see our leaders who have aged but no lieutenants who have been cultivated. And

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I say to you we have to face some facts because we love our people. And the realities of economics are such that we don't have time to be political about it. There's a new leadership that's going to emerge among African Americans who are going to deal with this in reality.

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I'm always amazed at the people that say to me, "I really admire you for taking a risk." I say, "What do you mean?" "Well, you put everything up for grabs and you just went for it." That's, I mean, I could never do that.

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I said, "Why not?" "Well, you know, I got this good job, I got this lifestyle, you know, I got some things going for me, and I just don't want to chance it."

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I said, "You're telling me the truth?" They said, "Yes." Well, let me tell you what I told my friend as it relates to risk I Remember a very close colleague who was promoted to head a major corporation

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division of a corporation And because he was president of the American Society of information science. I happen to be the executive director at the time He was touted as being the new leadership of this organization 18 months later he got fired

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Fired him because he was president big news embarrassing and Then less than six months later he got hired Making more money in a bigger company with more responsibility and so I called him I said wait a minute

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You know explains this to me Because I don't, I didn't say that to him, he wasn't one of us, but I'm saying that to you. I said, "Please, what happened?

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Why didn't your market value decrease rather than increase?" He said, "Very simple. To the new organization, because I had gone through a certain experience, even though It was negative to me.

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I became enriched by that experience. So my market value increased because this company over here wanted someone who had been through this process. I said, I got it now.

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Now I understand. And what I understand and what I'm telling you is there is no such thing as failure except in your mind. that what may be failure to other people can enhance your market value, but only if you

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do it. Only if you do it. The greatest risk in the world, gentlemen and ladies, is to have someone else control your destiny.

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That is a risk. I didn't take risk. I didn't take risk. I measured risk.

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I factored risk into the process. I evaluated risk. I'm not a risk taker. I'm a risk avoider.

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I understand what it means. But to not know it's there is taking a risk. And I knew that when I started Maxima, the worst that could happen to me is I could get a better job.

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Whether that was true or not, that was my attitude. The greatest risk is not to be able to educate our own children, which we do not do as people. Yet we earn $250 billion a year annually, annually, and we don't educate our own children. That is a risk.

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Spending all your money to look good for people that don't mean a damn thing to you is a risk. We look good. I spend time in airports all the time and I can tell you the leather that we have in our closets is amazing. You go on a plane, just watch the crowd. And I sit there in pain, understanding

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what that distorted value does to our future. You know, income minus debt equals poverty. High income minus high debt equals high poverty. Remember classic story when I was in Dayton Ohio and I checked my book somebody's laughing because they heard it, just laugh anyway.

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Dr. Carter heard this before. But it represents a problem and an opportunity. I was tired. I checked my bag.

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It was late at night. And I happened to walk over in the baggage area to get my bag. and I saw a sight I will never ever forget. I saw one of the most beautiful African American women

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I have ever seen in my life. And as I walked over closer to get my bag, you understand. (audience laughing) I wasn't the only one looking, so it was all right.

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I noticed something about her that is just unforgivable, unforgettable. She had on a two-piece light purple leather outfit. Hmm. That fit her very well.

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She had on light purple shoes, light purple bag, beautiful silk burgundy blouse. And as I looked over there I saw something that really captured the incident. She had a little baby in a stroller. The baby had on a two-piece leather outfit.

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And I looked up, there was a brother standing by them. The brother had on overhauls and looked tired. And I said, "What have you accomplished? You look so good, but what does it mean?

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What does it transfer to? What does that experience bring in terms of return on investment? What does it mean to people who don't know you, will not know you after the event, and cannot benefit you to go to such extremes to look good for people.

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I don't have the answer to that, but I can tell you it is not the answer. I can tell you what means most is what we can do to help ourselves. You know, I was on ABC a few months ago, Black and White America, and I made a quotation that has been repeated in the New York Times,

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the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Money Magazine, NBC, Today Show. Let me tell you what I said. I said, if you're wearing it, it's not working for you.

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If you're flashing it, you really don't have it. If it's on your back, it is not in the bank. And if it's on your ass, it is not called an asset. [applause]

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We have a challenge, gentlemen. We have a challenge to change this around. I'm impressed with the number of you that are in business. I'm impressed with the number of you that have a sensitivity to business.

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Because there's a fundamental fact that we have to understand about business. Business programs and social programs do not mix. Do not mix. If we have successes in business

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We have more resources to contribute to the social problems If we do not have successes in business Our problems will continue To enlarge

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Because it is the success from business That inures to the community I know I grew up in a neighborhood that if I was bad or stepped out of stride, somebody in that neighborhood, if they didn't spank me, would tell my mama. My mama would

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spank me because the neighbor spanked me. And Lord have mercy, please don't let daddy spank me. But But there was a support system that we had that kept us on that path where we understood what it was all about. And yet we read one in four black youth are criminals.

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We must understand that there is a balance to the neighborhood that economics plays a very critical role. It's not everything. but without it you don't have much of a foundation.

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The largest business in the world is the Catholic Church. It's about business. Morehouse is a business in education. It is not just an educational institution.

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It's about business. I think it was Calvin Coolidge that said, I think it was Calvin Coolidge, the business of America is business. Business programs have to be there. Business people have to be there. Entrepreneurs have to be there.

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Even in your very young lifetime, we saw the Vietnamese come to this country in boats clinging come to this country in boats clinging in a totally foreign land and inserted in areas which totally rejected them 20 years ago. barely to fend for anything so they banded together by family. They shared a

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cup of rice. 11, 12, 20 people in a room. But they had a strategy about business where when one person got something he or she brought it back and it was shared. When one person got a job, they brought the resources back. Then they opened up other jobs. Today they own the stores. Today you don't hear people mentioning

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the word boat people. Today the history of Vietnamese is that of the valedictorians in the class, the entrepreneurs in the neighborhoods, and And now they're going after the communities and that is not negative to them It is saying that economics

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Was a game plan they understood and executed and it works it works It worked for us a hundred years ago We understood the true meaning of economics And we banded together

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Frederick Douglass says it best, "The history of civilization shows that no people can well rise to a high degree of mental or moral excellence without wealth. A people uniformly poor and compelled to struggle for barely a physical existence will be depended and despised by their neighbors and will eventually despise themselves.

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It's all about wealth, folks. There is no substitute for it. You can't march for it. You can't boycott for it.

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And that's not to say you don't demonstrate. It does not bring you wealth. when you march you get as much sympathy from everybody but you don't get the wealth which is the basis for avoiding it to begin with. Someone told me there

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are six ways to achieve wealth. You can find it under a rock, you can steal it, You can win it in a lottery or a horse race. You can inherit it. You can earn it as an entrepreneur or you can do it the old-fashioned way. You can marry it. Somebody like that. Have a little finance with your romance though bro. We are a

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great people. Without our contributions this country would not be where it is. We We see so many role models except the role model of the entrepreneur, the business person. And at one time we understood without the balance of the business person and entrepreneur in the neighborhood, we didn't have money to buy the t-shirts for the basketball team

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or the baseball team, the uniforms. We didn't have money to do those special things that we needed in the community. We always went to the business people. We got ideas on how to make business work.

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We pray a lot. We're God-fearing people. But I want to tell you something, particularly for this week, that I want you to always remember. you remember nothing else that I told you this morning. God loves rich people

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too. God loves those who take the seeds and sow them and not only grow the fields but show others how to grow. Those are the people that God loves. God does not love you because you're poor. Being poor makes you poor and praying makes you aware that you're poor.

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Reverend Ike says it best. He said the best thing you can do for poor people is never to become one of them and that's a truism. God loves those who provide a to return on his investment. It's all about wealth folks you can't do it without it. We have been around now for 25 years since Martin Luther King. We

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have marched three major times for peace, jobs, and freedom. While we're marching for others to do something for us, everybody else is marching to the bank. It's all about wealth folks. I have a theory about racism. You know when somebody borrows money from you and forgets that that act took place and you

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see them or they see you in the hallway the relationship has changed until that money is repaid but when you see the person again you either don't want to see him or you're saying what do they want next and I submit to you when people are perceived to want things from other people there is a whole different

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relationship that forms. I submit to you that what we have to do to change this around is to bring something to the table and not want something from others. It's all about wealth. How do we create healthy neighborhoods? How do we create jobs, not just how we get jobs. How do we get to turn that dollar over in the

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neighborhood time and time again because every time we turn that dollar over we help somebody else. The dollar turns over nine times in the Jewish community, five to seven times in other communities. The dollar turns over before midnight in the black community. It does not turn over. We're now at a point where I submit to

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you that we are at an economic river. We've come out of the wilderness through our civil rights contributions and advancement which were meritorious but But now we're at a river and it's an economic river. We got to cross that river to get to the other side.

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And you know, we got to swim. I told somebody, you know something, if I'm drowning and you can't swim, leave me the hell alone. You can't help me.

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me a chance to grab a rock, a log, anything, but leave me alone. Well I submit to you folks, we are drowning and many of us can't swim. We got to understand the realities of what this is all about. Because I love you, because I love us, we cannot hide behind that cloth and that cloak

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of freedom for other people and do something for me and a government program here and a government program there. We've got to do it. And it boils down to very basic principles that if you don't understand them, find somebody

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that does and let's move on. Because we cannot stagnate any longer. The train is not going to wait for us. This is a whole new day of competitiveness.

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And it's not only a matter of what should happen because we are African Americans and American citizens. It's now a matter of how America deals on the international competitive arena. That if we're not competitive, there are going to be people to replace us.

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And there will be no sympathy for us. And there will be two African-American communities cut in half. [ Silence ]

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