An Interview with Kwame Jackson: Keynote Speaker at the upcoming Alfred L. Edwards 31st Annual BBSA Conference

Kwame will be a keynote speaker at the Black Business Students Association's upcoming Alfred L. Edwards 31st Annual BBSA Conference at the Four Points Sheraton Ann Arbor on February 16 – 18, 2007.

Kwame, a final candidate from the reality TV show “The Apprentice”, received an MBA from Harvard University and is the chairman of Legacy Holdings LLC.

Who has been the most influential person in your life?

My mother Marilyn has been the most influential person by far. She passed away due to cancer when I was 15 and she was 41.

However, she provided the can-do spirit of confidence and self-esteem that I have now. My grandfather was illiterate and my grandmother completed the 9th grade, but my mother found a way to go to college on scholarship at Howard University where she pledged Delta Sigma Theta and became the first person in our family to attend and graduate from college.

She later went on to start her own CPA firm and to provide a "Cosby-like" upbringing for me full of blessings. She was the ideal professional and personal role model, someone who created a “no excuse” culture of rising above your circumstance.

What would you have done differently if you had to redo your experience on “The Apprentice”?

Obviously most would say not hire Omarosa! Ha!

But I don't live a woulda, shoulda, coulda life. I conducted myself with professionalism, dignity, and class which have all taken me thus far as an entrepreneur, business owner, professional speaker, media personality, and to the doorstep of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. For all of that, I'm very proud of the way I conducted myself on the Apprentice and would not change a thing.

I have no regrets, I'm living life on my own terms, defining my own success, all while owning my own time! I can't complain, I have been blessed.

In your opinion, what are the top three traits of a successful entrepreneur?

1. Tenacity!
2. Vision
3. Passion
4. When all else fails, remember point 1

At Harvard, you were involved in several dot-com start ups; you've worked on Wall Street and also for P&G. Which of those experiences has been most meaningful in terms of shaping your approach to business?

I think they have all helped to shape the business person that I have become in different ways
1. HBS provided a stellar pedigree, problem-solving framework, and network to access almost any business opportunity seen or unforeseen.

2. The dot-com ventures provided me with a glimpse into the high stakes world of entrepreneurship and vision manifestation. They also connected me with what it means to be passionate about an idea in business. Lastly, they taught me the tough lessons on business failures and the difference between being a preferred equity versus common share holder in the event of a successful buyout. Always be on the right side of the fence on that one!

3. P&G was my first foray into the Fortune 500 world of Corporate America. I literally went from working fries at McDonald's in high school to interning at Procter for 4 summers via the Inroads minority internship program (http://www.inroads.org/).

I did a lot of growing up and learning in my 4 summers and 2 full-time years at Procter and I'm proud to say that it was one of the most nurturing business environments I've ever experienced. They really know how to train managers, leaders, and world-class marketers...for that, I'm eternally grateful and will always know that they placed me on solid footing for my eventual application at HBS and future marketing/brand endeavors. I have so many great supporters and friends from my time at Procter & Gamble, I can not say enough about my overwhelmingly positive experience!

You have been quoted as saying street smarts are better than book smarts. How do you define street smarts? How have street smarts contributed to your success?

I've lived in Brooklyn and Harlem now, so I know a little bit about street smarts first hand. Street smarts are learned instincts from your environment. How to interact with people, assess situations, stay on your hustle, grind, make a dollar out of 15 cents!, etc.

Book smarts are learned in the hallowed halls of UNC, HBS, and the Ross School. They are great at opening doors, building relationships, establishing a pedigree...but in the end, this is a HUSTLER'S world (legal of course, the illegal is a whole other subject matter)! You either have that innate drive to succeed and hustle or you don't, school can't teach you that! But school will open doors for you and provide the needed credibility that so many minority professionals must have just to be given a chance or treated fairly.

I think the combination of both street smarts and book smarts is critical, but I give the edge to street smarts if you have to pick one over the other and/or what will make the average person more successful.

Street smarts have helped me with my #1 skill: Social/Human intelligence. How to interact with people, charisma, communication, influence, etc. are all key factors for a successful visionary or entrepreneur.

Most importantly street smarts reinforce this notion of hustle, ambition, desire! That separates middle management from the CEO and activist entrepreneurs from passive dreamers.

Your website describes Legacy Holdings LLC as a company involved in 'real estate development, fashion, television, and film production'. How have those interests come about? Also, what are the biggest challenge facing minority-owned businesses?

Legacy Holdings LLC like all entrepreneurial ventures and start-up firms is a fluid work in progress, so don't read too much into our interest areas. We have worked on projects in all of those areas but have narrowed our focus through tough lessons. We have continued to reinvent ourselves in order to find our niche and we are currently focused on private investment in real estate, development, and my personal media ventures under the Kwame Inc. banner.

I think like any entrepreneur, I had so many things coming at me, that we all had to drink from the fire hose for a while... and after gorging yourself on fools gold sometimes you get a tummy ache and wake up!

I think access to capital continues to be the #1 issue for minority owned business in particular. We face all the common challenges of other entrepreneurial firms and established ventures but continue to suffer from the inability to access friends and family for initial funding as well as formal capital markets like home equity lines of credit, bank lending, venture capital, and investment banks for later growth rounds.

I always refer to the first challenge as the historic lack of "rich uncles or aunts" in our community. I have so many colleagues of different ethnic backgrounds that are able to access $250,000+ from a friend or family member pre-business plan based on an idea, passion, and a family relationship.

Minority owned businesses are still struggling with establishing these types of relationships, net worths, sense of family fiscal responsibility and shared risk taking that allows entrepreneurs and business owners to be successful.

Even among the talented tenth of monied [well- payed] elite athletes, entertainers, and business owners in our community there is not always that emphasis on reaching back, each one teach one, nor celebrating the journey of entrepreneurship vs. the destination once someone has become successful.

Or more simply, just the mentality that says, let me invest in this young talented sister or brother behind me!

Unfortunately, we are often afraid to be duped and/or help our own for various reasons be they legitimate or illegitimate. We have to break this cycle!

For more information about Kwame Jackson, please visit his website: http://www.kwamejackson.com.