Season 2, Episode 04: Leadership Lessons from Black History Month with Coach BZ

Welcome to the Leadership and Success Podcast. With your host, Coach Beezy. If you need to develop into a better leader, this podcast is for you. If you want to achieve a greater level of success, this podcast is for you. His mentor, Dr. John C. Maxwell, said it best: everything rises and falls on leadership. We hope to inspire you today and provide you with an insight that has the potential to positively impact the trajectory of your life. Welcome to the Leadership and Success Podcast.

Hello everyone, I'm going to be talking to you for just a few minutes. In the US, it's February and this is Black History Month. So we're going to be talking about some of the leadership lessons from Black History Month. So this is a month to celebrate Black history, which is American history. So let's start from the very beginning, right? Black History Month, I guess, in the US started February 1926, and there's a man who's largely responsible for it, Dr. Carter Woodson. Now, Dr. Woodson said, "If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition. It becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated." Sometimes as a leader, you may be all alone. It's just you. You have an idea, you have a dream, you have a vision, and you want to bring it to pass. And many times, people around you may not be very supportive, right? You are trying to do something new, you are a trailblazer, an entrepreneur, and the people who grew up with you or people who surround you don't understand what's going on inside of you. They don't have an idea of the vision and the dreams that is really pushing you forward. And I know it wasn't very easy for Dr. Woodson when he started, but whatever he did, starting February 1926, today, 2022, right, many, many, many years later, we are still going through it and we still celebrate Black History Month. So as a leader, sometimes you just have to take the long way, right? So Black History Month started as Negro History Week. It was only one week, not an entire month. And they chose the month of February to get it started because of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. They couldn't be more opposed, right? But these two people pretty much single-handedly ended slavery in the United States. They came from completely different traditions, different backgrounds. They didn't have anything in common. At all. Actually, at the beginning, Lincoln was not an abolitionist at all, right? He felt like, and he knew that slavery was horrible, and he wanted to definitely stop the advancement of slavery in the United States, but he felt like it was constitutional at the time, which in many ways he was correct. But he didn't want to abolish slavery everywhere in the U.S. He just didn't want slavery in the new state. As the U.S. expanded west, he didn't want to have those additional states, those new states, to practice slavery. But it's Frederick Douglass who was able to eventually change his mind, and after the Civil War, he is the one who wrote the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery. So sometimes as a leader, you may actually have to collaborate with people that don't look like you, don't have the same background, have completely different education experience, and who have a completely different point of view. So you do have to have an open mind and be open to change, right? Be open to learn from somebody else. That is a very important leadership lesson. You don't know everything, and maybe a lot of what you think you know now, you might be wrong about that, right? So I think that sense of humility— yes, I know a lot, but I don't know everything, and I'm willing to learn from anyone and everyone. Okay, so that is extremely important as a leader. And it was Morgan Freeman who said, "I don't want Black History Month. Black history is American history." And that is so true. And many times as a leader, we also have to kind of look at the big picture, right? It's not just, okay, these are my tribe, these are my people, these are the people I represent. Well, but what about the entire organization. Sometimes you have to look at things at a very high level. Don't see yourself even as an African American, but see yourself as an American first and foremost. Don't see yourself as a Democrat or Republican, but as an American first and foremost. And then out of that, you can then identify with whatever group or section you may think of. I feel like a leader has to really have the welfare of the entire community, the entire organization, the entire country in mind, not just the young people that look like him or her. Okay, so every Black History Month actually has a theme every year, right? This year it was about Black health and wellness. Well, something about health and wellness as a leader that's critically important is As long as you are healthy, health and wellness may not mean much to you, right? You may eat anything you want, exercise or not exercise or whatever, but once your health fails you, there is nothing more important than health and wellness. I remember there was a time I was having all kinds of health issues and I couldn't get out of bed, and health became the most important thing in life, period, because without it you can't enjoy life, without it you can't work, Right? Without it, you can't have any other meaningful contribution to society. So I think a lesson for leaders today is you really have to prioritize health, right? Health is one of those things that is not urgent, but it is important, very, very important. Take the time to exercise, take the time to eat healthy, take the time to do all of the things you know to do in order to have energy. So you can accomplish your dream and bring to pass your vision. So health and wellness, extremely, extremely important. Now, there were other themes. For example, last year in 2021, the theme was the Black family representation, identity, and diversity. And as a leader, I feel like the family is really kind of like the foundation that you need as a leader in order to do well. I've seen so many leaders in the past that pretty much neglect their family, their loved ones, their kids, because they are working, working, working. They have this dream and they are driven and they are extremely successful, but when they come back home, they end up having to find another spouse and having a broken family. Very, very successful on the outside, having done great things, built great companies, but as a human being, as a husband, as a wife, as a father or a mother, really not so successful. So I think it's something you definitely need to prioritize. And as a leader in general, I think you also need to build a diverse team right from the get-go. Have that in mind as you are building your leadership team, making sure that your team represents your community and your country as well, right? If, for example, everybody on your board of directors or everybody who's a member of the senior leadership team of your company is all male and white, I think there might be a problem, right? Because America is much more than just male white people. There are females, right? There are people of color as well. So you need to have a team that would represent whatever community you live in. And I think in our diversity in this country, that's where our strength comes from. So, the year prior to that, in 2020, the theme for Black History Month was African Americans and the Vote. I feel like as a leader, it is also important to be engaged, right? Being aware of what's going on in your country and wherever you live, your region. Your city and being involved politically. I think at least being aware of what is going on, getting the right information, and then making a decision, being part of the democratic process. One of my mentors always told me, if you did not vote, you don't have a right to complain. Things are not perfect, and I think we can make things better, but I think it starts with civil engagement, knowing who's running, what is their platform, what do they stand for, and kind of, you know, voting for the best candidates that would represent the things that you care about yourself and encouraging people around you to also get engaged and participate, register to vote and make a difference. And not just at the presidential election, but I believe local election as well, voting for your mayor, for your state representative. That is very, very important as well. So the theme prior to that, 2019, it was Black migration. One thing related to leadership I would say about migration is many times when you have a vision, I think it might be tied to a specific location. Sometimes, sometimes you have to leave wherever you are physically and move to another location in order to be able to bring your dream to pass, right? For example, this happened to me personally a couple of times. When I was growing up, I used to live in Africa and I had to physically leave Africa to come to the US in order for my dreams to become true, in order for me to become the person I was meant to be. I had to really have the courage and the faith to leave everything I knew, my parents, my loved one, my siblings, and go to a country where I didn't know anybody. I didn't even speak the language at the time. And kind of built my life there as an adult. Sometimes I believe your dreams can only be realized if you actually migrate, if you physically, naturally change location. This happened to me again in 2011 when I took my family and everything I knew. I've lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama at that time for about 15 years. I'm very, very comfortable, but sometimes I In order for you to go to the next level, you really have to get out of your comfort zone. And back then in 2011, it meant for me to take my family, everything we own, and leave Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and move to Monterey, California, all across the nation. We traveled by car almost 3,000 miles. And this is something that was absolutely needed in order for me to get to the next level of my purpose. And again, in a much smaller way, it happened again in 2014 when we moved I moved from the Monterey Bay area to Silicon Valley, right? That's when I moved to San Jose, California. But anyway, migration as a leader sometimes is very important. Whatever you are doing, whatever business you are leading, sometimes you're gonna need to move from wherever you are to another physical location, to another part of the country where conditions are set in such a way that is going to be more conducive to you being able to accomplish your dream and realize your vision. Maybe the people that you are looking for are not where you are, now physically and you have to move to a specific location to make it happen. The last thing I'm going to mention a little bit and kind of tie to leadership principle is in 2018, right, it was Black History Month, African American in terms of war. It was really about celebrating the presence of African Americans from the Revolutionary War, the Independence War, to the Civil War to present. African Americans have always been a part of the US Armed Forces. But as a leader, I feel like there is a time for everything, right? Sometimes it is time for peace, but sometimes it is time for war. As a leader, you kind of need to be able to read the seasons, be able to have a sense of what is required of you, right? The interesting thing about leadership is you don't always react to people the same way. Not everybody needs the same type of feedback from you. It has to be very, very specific on the situation and the people around you. So being able to discern the time and season, I think, is extremely important, whether you are running a business, leading an organization, or even just raising your family. There are different times and seasons, and sometimes you need to go back to school and get new skills, and you kind of need to know. From a personal perspective, I remember I was about 17 years old where I really felt like— that was in 1996, right? So we were at a time where the internet was now pretty much taking over the entire world. And I just felt like this technology was just going to be more and more critical regardless of your employment. And I kind of had this sense in me that technology, business, and leadership are kind of 3 skills that everybody needs to have. Everybody needs to develop those skills in order to be able to thrive in the 21st century. I just felt like there was a time a change in the season. Things were changing, the world around me was changing, and I needed to go, I needed to adapt to that in order to kind of ride that wave. That's kind of how I got myself into the technology industry. But now, who is to say what is going to happen tomorrow, 5 years from now, or 15, 20 years from now? So I think as a leader, you kind of have to be intuition, it's almost like an intuition, but knowing what is about to happen and preparing yourself and your organization in order to be successful when things change because things will not always be the way they are now. All right, that's all I have to say about war in general. So in 1870, I believe this was the first census, we had— there was about 4.8 million African Americans in the U.S. and the last year of the last census it was about 41.1 million, so about 12-13% of the U.S. population. So the African American population really grew a lot in this country, almost by 10-fold, right, from 1870 to 2020. And I think as a leader you have to be mindful that sometimes things start very, very small, right? It's almost like a little seed. For example, in the Bible, Jesus talked about the faith as a mustard seed. A mustard seed, if I put it in my hand, you wouldn't even be able to see it. It is so tiny, it is so small, but that little seed could grow into a mighty, mighty, mighty tree, right? So everything worth having almost always starts small, right? I think somebody called it the the law of small beginnings. So don't be discouraged when you are leading, you are a trailblazer, you're doing something nobody else has done before, or you are starting a business, or whatever it is you have decided you are going to do, if it's worth it, because many times you start very, very, very small, right? Because any big organization today started small too, right? In Silicon Valley, where I live, almost every unicorn, every giant tech companies today, whether it's Google, Apple, Microsoft, and all of All of those great companies, HPs, they almost always started in somebody's garage. It's like 1 or 2 or 3 people, a couple of people who start a company that doesn't look like anything, but in time it grows into something very, very significant, right? Even becoming the most valuable company in the world, like Apple and Microsoft have been recently. So things may start very, very small, but don't be discouraged. You have to be consistent. You have to keep showing up. And eventually whatever you are dreaming about, whatever you are building, is going to grow. All right, the first African American that actually was accepted into NASA astronaut training program was Mae Carol Jemison, right? She was the first one, the first female to actually be in space in 1992. And when you are late, when you have a dream, right, don't let anybody talk you out of it. Nobody else may see things the way you do, and you may even really meet a lot of obstacles on your journey, but you just have to have that faith and that confidence that some way, somehow, you are going to find a way. There's been some really incredible people. Like, for the longest, I thought that Sidney Poitier was the very first African American to earn an Oscar. That's not actually true. It was Hattie McDaniel. I believe it was Gone with the Wind. She earned— the first African American to win an Oscar in 1940. Now this is another thing about history, right? When you do something that is so wonderful and you achieve a goal, not everybody is going to be on your side, right? Some people are going to criticize you. That's just part of life. And sometimes people may not even give you credit when credit is due. And as a leader, I think you just have to shake that off and still be focused on your goal. So here's Sidney Poitier, who won an Oscar in 1964, second African American and first African American actor to win an Oscar. I believe it was for Lilies of the Field. And then in 2001, when Denzel Washington the second African American actor to win an Oscar, got his Oscar. Sidney Poitier got an honorary Oscar. So to date, I believe he's the only one African American person with two Oscars. And sometimes you just have to keep going even when things get very, very difficult. The first African American basketball team was the Renaissance from Harlem. And sometimes you have to allow your talent to make room for you, right? People may not like you because of the color of your skin, because of your accent, or for whatever reason, but don't allow them to ignore you, right? So let your work ethics and your skills, your competence, your excellence make way for you so that you cannot be denied your position in history. So work hard and keep, keep working hard and don't let anybody dissuade you. Another thing I learned about Black History Month was the potato chips was actually discovered by an African American, George Crumb, back in 1853. Do you believe that? So And one of his major traits was excellence, doing the very, very, very best you can regardless of circumstances. It's actually one of the best speeches I love from MLK. He had this speech about finding your blueprint where he talks about no matter what you do, do it in an excellent fashion. And I really believe regardless of who you are, the color of your skin, where you come from, your education, your background, and all, all of that. If you are willing to work hard and really put your best foot forward, do whatever you are doing in the most excellent fashion, eventually success will catch up with you. The very first African-American millionaire was Robert Abbott. He got his million through publishing. That was back in 1905. Prior to me finding out about Robert Abbott, I always thought that Madame C.J. Walker was the first African American millionaire. She's actually the first African American woman millionaire. That was in 1919. Robert Abbott was in 1905. And then in 1987, we had our first African American billionaire, Mr. Big Deal, Reginald Lewis. Really an incredible, incredible story. He is also the very first human being to go to Harvard without actually applying to go. He was accepted at Harvard's Law School without applying, sending in an application. He did corporate law and he was a great business mogul. But one thing about him, though, he was a great success and the first African American millionaire, but he also had a lot of failures. You have to read this biography. It's really incredible what the human spirit can do. I have this coin here, if you can see that. On one side here, if you can see, it says success, and on the other side it says failure. So one leadership lesson here is many times for you to succeed, you have to fail. And sometimes the more you fail, the more you increase your chances of success. So if you fail, you are normal. And if you are starting a brand new venture, you're doing something that's never been done before, or you've never done before, you will not have the expertise, right? That you are learning, so you're gonna make a lot of mistakes. That is okay. But what happens with most people is they try something new and they kind of suck at it, and then they just give up, right? You don't want to give up as a leader. You want to continue practicing and practicing and practicing. They say it takes on average, what, 5,000 hours? No, 10,000 hours. That's about 5 years to become an expert in any field. And anybody who's an expert today, anybody who's extremely successful, Well, when they first started, they were not an expert at all, and they probably failed a lot too before they found their, their groove and were able to achieve a great level of success. So I really love this coin. I look at it a lot. You know, one side says success, the other side says failure, because failure is a part of success. By failing a lot, you actually learn how to succeed if you are persistent and you do not give up. I think that is a great leadership lesson. Now this one here is a little bit emotional for me. These are the Golden 13, the very first African American officers in the US Navy. Today, by the grace of God, I am a commander in the US Navy. That's a senior officer rank, and I am also a commanding officer of an information warfare unit. And as you can see, I am Black, but if it wasn't for the Golden 13, my story would not even be possible. These people, I've read their story, they went through a lot of challenges and hardship, but they wanted to serve their country, and they wanted to be willing to be in a position where they could even give their life for their own country, and do so serving with honor, with courage, and with commitment. It is just incredible what they went through. And the Golden 13, so that's Jesse Walter Arbor, Philip Barnes, Samuel Edward Barnes, Dalton Bowe Sr., George Clinton Cooper, Reginald E. Goodwin, James E. Ayer, Charles Byrd Lear, Graham E. Martin, Dennis Denmark Nelson, John W. Reagan, Frank E. Sublette Jr., and William Sylvester White. The Golden 13, very, very first African American naval officer. Actually, it should have been the Golden 16 because there were 3 other enlisted African Americans, Augustus Alves, J.B. Pinkney, and Lewis Mummy Williams, who also went through the officer training and they did pass the encore, so they really should have been awarded the commission, but for whatever reason that didn't happen. More than likely it was just because of racism at the time back in 1944, but these people are my heroes. I probably stand on their shoulders. My story in America today would not be possible without them. And I think as a leader, sometimes you kind of have to look back at history and see the sacrifices of what everybody else has done in order to allow you, to give you the privilege to be where you are today. We did not make it on our own. Whatever success we have, whatever we are able to accomplish, somebody else was a trailblazer. Somebody else went through a lot of suffering and hardship in order to give us the opportunity we have today. So having a thankful heart, a grateful heart, and knowing your history, I think, makes a very big difference as a leader. So there is another African American naval officer I would like to mention, that is Admiral Samuel L. Gravely. Great, great, great, great, great man. Very, very incredible story. He really was the first of so many. The very first African American to be a Navy Admiral, that was in 1971. He was also the first African American to command a warship, right, the USS Theodore Chandler DD-717. Also the very first one to command a major warship, the USS Jouett DLG-29. But he was also the very first one to achieve the flag rank, like I mentioned earlier, but also to be a vice admiral and also to command a numbered fleet. He commanded the Third Fleet. Very, very incredible guy. I recommend you purchase the book Trailblazer: The U.S. Navy's First Black Admiral. It's really amazing to read through his life, just his mindset and all he had to go through and endure. And because of him, right, we have now many, several African American admirals in the Navy. Another thing that's of note for Black History Month is the modern blood bank. Most people may not know, but it was Dr. Charles Drew, a pioneer African American medical researcher, who actually was the father of blood banking that has saved so many, many lives since. And there is also Garrett Morgan, really a genius. He was an inventor. He invented the gas mask, and in the Navy, in the military, we definitely depend on that a lot. Traffic lights and sewing machine as well. I guess what I'm saying is, even if the society you're living in— and for almost all of these people, it was really a systemic racist country at the time. They were not desired, they were not wanted, and nobody wanted to do anything have anything to do with them simply because of the color of their skin. But even in that environment, in that culture, they were still able to thrive, right? If you have a dream, if you are a leader, you have a purpose, you have a vision, nothing and no one can stop you. The only person really who can stop you is the man, the woman in the mirror. The person in the mirror is the only one. When you really want to do something, you are going to find a way. And I think that's a very important principle in leadership. You may have a lot of obstacles, but you really have to learn to go through them, go around them, or jump over them, right? Find a way. There's got to be a way, and you are, you are going to be able to find it as a leader. For those who like to play golf, George Franklin Grant was actually the one who invented the golf tee. Pretty impressive. And then for open-heart surgery, that was Dr. Daniel Hale. Williams. He performed the very first successful open-heart surgery, and so many people today have had their lives changed because of really trailblazers like him. But really, the message here, it is really incredible what the human spirit can do. But I think another leadership lesson that's important is life is too short, right? I remember the last couple of years, Chadwick Boseman died, that's Black Panther. Sidney Poitier just died last month, and General Colin Powell died last year. Great, tremendous leaders, they've had a huge impact in the life they have lived on this earth, and they've been a great inspiration to so many people, including myself. But really, life is very, very, very short, so whatever you purpose to do, I think you need to get on and do it, right? If there is anything I have learned about this global pandemic we've gone through these past couple of years, life is really, really, really precious. And you don't really want to waste your time being in an environment where you are tolerated. You really want to create an environment or join an environment where you are celebrated. Whatever you are born with, and I believe everybody is born with a purpose, You really need to find it and be busy doing it because tomorrow is promised to no one, right? All right, so we can't talk about Black History Month without talking about the speech, right? "I Have a Dream," the speech that Martin Luther King gave that really changed, I believe, the trajectory of the United States. That's how African Americans were able to finally get civil rights in this country. It's not a very long speech. I think I'm going to take just, just a minute to listen to that. It is such, such a great speech. Let me get it. Let's see. All right. I have a dream. Here we go. I have the pleasure to present to you Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro to the slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. 100 years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. 100 years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty. In the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity, this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a southern state, this state, sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its this governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification. One day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that One day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of to spare a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, my country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And if America is If we are to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the crevices from the Georgia slopes of Calvary. Not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom When we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty! God Almighty will free at last.

You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust I'll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? Just 'cause I walk as if I have Just like oil wells pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns with the certainty of tides. Just like hope springing high. Still I rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes. Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my sassiness upset you?

Hahaha!

Don't take it so hard just 'cause I laugh as if I have gold mines digging in my own backyard. You can shoot me with your words. You can cut me with your lies. You can kill me with your hatefulness, but just like life, I rise. Does my sexiness offend you? Oh. Does it come as a surprise that I dance? As if I have diamonds at the meeting of my thighs. Out of the huts of history's shame I rise. Up from a past rooted in pain I rise. A black ocean leaping and wide Welling and swelling and bearing in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into a daybreak miraculously clear, I rise. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the hope and the dream of the slave. And so—

Wow!

There I go.

All right, that was Maya Angelou. She read a poem like only her can, right? Still I rise. I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise, I rise, I rise. So listening to Dr. Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream, Probably one of the best speeches ever. But I feel like as a leader, you need to find a cause, right? Something you are willing to die for. Somebody else said, I think it was Dr. King who said, "A man who hasn't found a cause he's willing to die for isn't fit to live." Something like that. But I think when it comes to leadership, you have to be so engaged, so focused, and really a believer in whatever it is you're trying to accomplish. Believing in your own mission, in your vision, so much so that you become, what's the word, you start to impact everybody around you, right? And you really need to find that purpose for your life, something you are willing to die for, because only then you are fit to live. And the other thing about I Have a Dream is, right is right, wrong is wrong. And if you see something that is wrong, try to do the very best you can to make it right. But I feel like as a leader, every fight is not your fight, right? You have to be very, very selective. Where do you want to spend your power, your emotion, your intelligence, your energy, right? You can't be fighting everybody's fight. You have to be quite selective, but whatever that thing is for you, give yourself to it wholly, and it's gonna be worth it at the end. And with Maya Angelou, I really love the line, right, the very last line in her poem. She says, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise, I rise. Ai Weiwei's. Something there's just nothing that can stop you, even though your ancestors may have gone through something that's absolutely cruel, really hard, hard, hard, hard, where it was almost impossible to just have the courage or the desire to stay alive. But we have gone through it, right? And When things get tough, I think the tough get going. And as a leader, you really have to find that internal strength to keep going, to rise, to rise, to rise. People may talk about you, people may make fun of you, people may do whatever it is they want to do and be turned against you, but that shouldn't affect you. You need to stay focused and keep on rising, rising, and rising. Right, that's really what I get out of it. Now, when it comes to leadership, I think you need to think about legacy, right? If you are a leader and we said earlier life is short, you are dying, everybody's gonna die one day, and then there is really nothing to show that you were here, you haven't impacted the life of anybody else, I think that is a tragedy, right? As a leader, you need to have legs to your legacy, you need to be able to build other leaders, right? Not just have followers but being able to inspire other people and develop them into leaders as well. So I feel like that is very important. And in 1976, the theme was America for All Americans. That was really the first modern Black History Month celebration, February 1976. But yeah, I believe that legacy is important, and as a leader, you need to be as inclusive as you actually can. Now we're gonna finish with where we started, right? Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who in 1926 had a dream. He wanted to celebrate Black History Month, at the time Black History Week, which turned into Black History Month. It wasn't easy for him, but he was very, very persistent. He kept going, and eventually it came to what we celebrate today. Like this year, like every year, there is a proclamation on National Black History Month from the White House. So this year it was signed by current President Joseph R. Biden Jr. It says, now therefore, I, Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 2022 as National Black History Month. It's really amazing how one person has an idea, one person gets something started, and before you know it, there is an entire movement. And the highest level of government, the most powerful country in the world now, ever since, since 1976, we've been celebrating Black History Month every single month, and it's not going to stop. But I think that's really what leadership is all about: having an idea, having a vision, and then building a team building an organization in order to bring that idea to fruition. I believe that's all I had. Oh, last thing is not only Black History Month is celebrated in the US, but it's celebrated in Canada as well, and it's in February too. It's really amazing how you can start something very, very small and then it goes into this global movement. And not just in Canada, but in the United Kingdom as well. In the UK, they celebrate it in October. Then there are some parts of Africa that do celebrate Black History Month as well. Africa being the roots, let's say, the berceau de l'humanité in French, the cradle, the birthplace of humanity, honoring the past and inspiring the future. That's really a work that a leader needs to do, being aware of what's going on and then having a vision of the future and being able to lead your people, your team, your organization to that, uh, promised land. Okay, that's it for now. Until next time, this is Coach BZ from Silicon Valley, and see you on the next podcast.

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