Assignment 13A
The entrepreneur that I read about was Berry Gordy. I read this for one of many reasons; one, I
love Motown (I’m a bit of a renaissance man).
Motown Christmas is one of my favorite albums, and listening to Michael
Jackson sing about Mommy Kissing Santa Clause warms my hear. I love Michael Jackson. And two, Berry Gordy led the charge in
probably the most influential record businesses of all time and in a barrier
filled industry as a black man during a weird period in our history, so I
wanted to read more about that too.
What surprised me most and what I admire most kind of
intertwine together. Berry Gordy was
going to sell Motown Records to MCA for “more money than [he] could spend in a
life time,” but at the last second balked and didn’t sign the deal. This takes a lot of moxy.
What I least admired was Berry Gordy’s refusal to stay with
the times, but I also kind of admire it.
Tradition is always good, but when you need to adapt you need to adapt
man.
Berry Gordy had so much adversity it’s not even funny. He not only built this company (this way of
life!) out of nothing, but also felt the pressures of people getting mad at him
for selling what was his to sell. Not only
this, but like I mentioned he was a African American businessman at a time
where the world was more of a “white world” than today. Berry Gordy was persistent and kept grinding,
much like Joe Louis. Gordy wanted
something so he kept striving for greatness.
This is seen from the “Hitsville” sign that hung over the door where Motown
started.
It’s not that I was confused by it, but the boxing and music
section kind of threw me through a loop.
Gordy does a good job as using it as a comparison, but I don’t
know. Got kind of funky I guess (no pun
intended?).
Oh man. The two questions
I would ask Berry Gordy is a tough question, I don’t like it being limited to
two. One would have to be, “what is it
like working with so many talented people?” because I feel like if I were Berry
Gordy I would just get star struck and not be able to boss them around like he
was able to. The second question would
have to be what it was like being a black man doing what he was doing in the
70s and how that has helped in his life in all aspects just because that would
be something of interest to me.
Berry Gordy pretty much lays it out in the book, but I’m
pretty sure that his opinion of hard work was that you have to. If you want to succeed, it’s not going to be
easy. To use his boxing analogies, Joe
Louis didn’t just end up a hero boxer by being lazy. He worked at his craft, failed and loss a few
times, got back and got going again.
That’s what made him great, was his determination just like Berry Gordy. Of course I share this sentiment.
Jeremiah, Berry Gordy sounds like an incredible entrepreneur to study! I personally wasn't aware of who he was before reading this post, but now I'm completely blown away by how Gordy was able to prosper in a time period where the system was doing everything in its power to thwart his efforts. I've also noticed a common theme among the entrepreneurs people studied, and its that they all attribute the values of hard work and perseverance as they're driving forces for success.
ReplyDeleteHey Jeremiah! I wrote about berry Gordy too. I am an old soul so I love the old jams. Personally, the old jams displays more musical talent and expression than modern day R & B Soul. Berry Gordy is charming, tenacious and wise. Berry Gordy's life journey was filled with pits and peaks. Even though he was financially forced to forego his business, it is an accomplishment to have reached such level of success.
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