11/23/1985
IWDM Study Library
IWDM Business Meeting Pt1

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Bismillah Ar Rahma Nir Raheem. Alhamduillahi Rabbil Al Amin, Ar Rahma Nir Raheem Maliki Yaum Ideen. Iyaka Nubudu Wa Iyaka Nasta'in. Ihdina Siratal Mustaqim. Siratal Ladheena An Amta Alayhim. Gharil Maughboobi Alayhim Wa Lad Daleen. Ameen.
We pray Almighty G-d Allah accept our prayers, and we ask Him to put us in the right spirit and the right frame of mind. When we come to this type of session, we need to reopen our mind and put aside whatever thought you might have and let us hear our Imam. Things that he's getting ready to tell us I'm quite certain is going to make us to be a much stronger, much better, more profitable and more helpful community. We have a large job in front of us and business is most needed, but the proper understanding and the right procedure in dealing with each other is needed more than business itself. We have with us, our leader, Imam WD Mohammed. I'm not going to say nothing. I want to hear what he has to say. He's a man that's on time in more than one aspect. A lot of times when you have leaders, you look at them in one line. They're either military, financial or whatever. But Allah has blessed us or one has the whole gauntlet, everything. Right now he's going to deal in business. So we going to let the Imam get down to business as I present Imam Warith Udin Mohammed.
Asalaam Alaikum. That is Peace be unto you, giving praise to the One Lord that we call Allah. Praying His peace and Blessings upon the Prophet, his descendants, his companions, and the righteous all Ameen. We pray G-d's blessings upon this meeting here. Let me first express my appreciation for the opportunity to address the business people of the community. My address will be mainly directed to or addressing those striving or struggling people in business of our community, that is of the African American community. And I'll be coming from information that I have acquired and also from experience, from experience that I have gained from. Much of what I'll be saying would be in nature, philosophical or theoretical. But the purpose is to come from a kind of vague or uncertain, unplanned behavior or way of dealing with our problems to a more practical way of dealing with our problems and taking advantage of our advantages. I was at a meeting in Philadelphia with Kenneth Gamble. Ken Gamble is the record industry man and also a community man who has acquired wealth, has been pretty successful as a businessman. But still he feels that there's a lot that could be achieved even in his own business, or career, if circumstances or situation was different. And we were having a discussion, a little brief discussion, and Mr. Gamble, he said, "If we just could control more of our own resources."
And really that seems to be the greatest need, for us to control more of our resources. Now, I believe the problem in controlling our resources is that we control perhaps our resources less than any other ethnic group in this country. Even the American Indians I think have better control of their resources than we do, although their situation is not as good as ours. The main problem I see for controlling our resources is the lack of attention to our spiritual resources. Our spiritual resources. This is philosophical as I told you in the beginning, that it would be of that nature. But spiritual resources, spiritual resources are the first resources to manage. One who cannot manage his spiritual resources, will not be able to manage other resources
In order to manage any of our resources well, we need to see clearly what our situation is, what our situation is in the environment or in the circumstances that we find ourselves. And many are discouraged simply because we are, I would say, poor people and unestablished people in an established white society. We feel discouraged. I've had many tell me, "Well Brother Imam, we can't make it by ourselves. They won't let us." And I say who is they? "Well, you know." I said, you mean the white man? So that's another problem for us. And so we have to perceive, get better perception of our own situation.
Many of our disadvantages can be changed to advantages. We may think of our identity as a disadvantage. It can also be an advantage. We think of ourselves as black people that is as a disadvantage. It can also be an advantage. We can make it an advantage. Something that most of us are not conscious of is the keen emotionality of black people or African-American people. I use black for the sake of those who find that term easier for them. The peculiar emotionality of the African-American people is responsible for a lot of our disadvantages. A lack of poor performance, lack of initiative, lack of follow through. The emotionality is a problem. But again, the emotionality of our people, our emotionality can also be a plus for us. We can turn it into an advantage.
We think of ourselves too as a minority. Our numbers, we say we are few people. How can we as poor people, how can we prosper or progress against the great odds? But there are writers who have looked at the situation of the African-American people in terms of numbers, and they have come to a conclusion. Thomas Sowell, S-O-W-E-L-L, I believe his name is. He has done two very good works on the situation for the African American people, economic situation, social situation. And Mr. Sowell is of the opinion too that we are not really in fact a minority in this country simply because we represent 11% or more in this country. And most other groups do not represent that large percentage. It's only the British descendants that represent a little more he says. That's 15%. We rate very high in numbers as people in this country. But as Malcolm X once said, and I have quoted it many times and I'm sure many other black leaders who are aware of what he said, have also given that quote or similar, said something very similar or said it in different words. He pointed to Canada and he said, "Here we are a people in America with consumer buying power greater than the national, national product of Canada. Canadas national product does not produce or represent as much wealth as we represent in our consumer power consumer dollars."
That's something to really think about. So as a minority, we shouldn't feel disadvantaged and that's something we have to overcome. That's why I said my addressing nature is philosophical and theoretical. Because that's where the problem is. We tend to form conclusions, opinions, viewpoints, without any analytical study, we tend to form these ideas, these opinions, viewpoints based on our moral or sentimental perception, moral or sentimental perception. Most of the efforts of African-American people to progress as a people or race in this country has come from emotionality, moral irritation, moral aggravation, sentimental content. It has come from there. Most blacks, if you say, well, why do you feel this way? Say, because it's wrong for us to be treated as we are treated. We go to treatment and we say it's wrong. When we're talking about the right and wrong of things, you're talking in moral language. As business people, you can't afford to let your mind and your mentality conform to the mind and mentality of your race. If you do, you'll never be successful. As business people, you have to rise above the water level of the mind and mentality of your race, to think in practical ways so that you won't come under the gravity of blind emotions.
Another disadvantage that I believe could also be an advantage. We say "We don't have capital, we don't have money." Many people come to these shores without capital, without money, and within a relatively short time, they're commanding the business on our block, in our vicinity. So that's proof that success in America does not require capital in advance. No. If you are determined enough, if you're disciplined enough, if you live by a business plan, you can be successful without capital. And again, we are not a people without capital. We are poor as a race, but we have many individuals in our race now, because of better opportunities in this country that we have realized over the last 20 years. We have many individuals in this country with money to invest in a profitable thing.
We just have to convince somebody that what we have is profitable, that it is a good investment. So don't give up on your belief that you have something, that you have something worthwhile that you can produce, that you can be successful. Don't give up on that. But work on it until you are convinced that what you have can be sold to other people, that your idea can be as attractive to others as it is to you. Work hard on it, never give up. I have found myself scrapping my ideas and going back to the scrap pile and picking up the pieces and putting it together all over again. And I have found that many times I have put together from the waste buckets, I have put together something that has supported me and helped me and brought riches in a sense to my life. So, the same thing goes for the business effort. Don't be so quick to give up and don't be so set upon keeping the idea or the concept or the plan that you have.
Don't be afraid to use an eraser. Don't be afraid to scrap your plan, but after scrapping it, sometimes sleeping on things changes the picture. And maybe you have to sleep sometimes for months, sometimes for years. And one day it dawns on you that something was valuable that you threw in the waste bucket. And you go back and get it back up and pick it up and it's just a piece of what you were originally attached to, or settled upon. It's just a piece of it, but that piece is what you needed, not the whole thing. Another problem we have is principle. We let the immediate message of business in America set principles for us. The immediate message of business in America is not the real message of business in America. The immediate message is there's a whole lot of money to be made.
There's a whole lot of wealth. There's a whole lot of money to be made. That's the immediate message. And you have to go out there and get it and not be afraid to do wrong. That's the immediate message because the people that they're bringing to us on the media who are successful in business are just persons and personalities. They don't present the whole life story. Very seldom do we get the whole life story of a successful business man. Very seldom. We just get the knowledge and the information of all of his money and all of his assets. We get that information. And we look at him and we would measure him within that short time, maybe 30 seconds he was on primetime television. So, we going to measure him and we going to decide what made him successful. We are going to measure him within those few seconds and we going to say, "Well, hell, he ain't got nothing on the ball that I ain't got on the ball. If he did it, I can do it." And since you don't know his history, you don't know the things that were working for him to make his success possible, you come to the conclusion because of the immediate message in the air of American business, you come to the conclusion that you have to sacrifice principle to get ahead.
But that's not the case. More successful people in business, they are successful because they refuse to sacrifice principle. And that's why they're successful. They refuse to sacrifice principles. They may have a strategy and all the time you may not be able to see the dominance of their principle in their life. Because they're also men of strategy, men of methodology, men of strategy. So, you may, because of the strategy or methodology, you may fail to see the dominance of a principle. You who are my age and older, perhaps even younger. You recall the days in this country when the business world said honesty, the best policy, honesty is the best policy. And those days in that time represents the economic strength of the American society. Now we experiencing a lot of economic problems, economic weakness in the system, huh? Those days when that was the message, honesty is the best policy, the American economy was stronger, much stronger. Now approaching or addressing another problem. I have been to this point addressing problems in our assessment of our own situation. But now let us address another problem. Another problem, not just for minorities or striving people, but there's a problem for all people in business. And that is a changing business world.
A change that has given and it's still given government and government institutions too much influence and control over business. You say, Hey, he sounds like a Republican. He sounds like Reagan.
Well, you should sound like somebody. When you don't sound like anybody something's wrong. Yes, big government hurts small businessman more than it hurts the big businessman. If anybody needs to support the call for a curbing of government growth, big government, it should be the small business people. All of the government regulations put extra burden on the striving, poor businessman, unnecessary regulations. Regulations that we could do without. I don't have the time in this talk. I knew I wouldn't have the time, so I didn't do that kind of research to bring factual information to back this up.
Also, another problem for the small people with big government is that big government tends to use small people in order to get advantages from the big people. So, the big government will become the guardian of the small people. And we will mistake that support that they're giving us for a moral support. The government is giving us moral support. The government is protecting the little man. Believe me, there's no moral support. When the government brings in small people and minority groups and begin to give them advantages or give them assistance and require or demand more assistance for them, and involvement of government in their advancement, government is not moved from any moral supplement.
Government is looking at the whole picture and the future conditions that it would have to face. Like most business people, government is business. Government is also business. Most business people, they're looking at their bills. They're looking at their expenses that they have to meet. They're looking at the demand that's going to be on, the financial demands that's going to be on them in the future. Tomorrow, next month, next year. The government is doing the same thing. So, if the government sees that it needs more money, it needs more taxes, it needs more money from the corporate world, so it'll take the small people in and shelter them and then use the small people to exact measures that will affect the big people to increase its money. How do we increase the money for them? How can the people who are not productive increase the government resources You can.
So, it needs the little people in order to get at the pockets of the big people. And we go for it because we say this is help. But many times, the help that you get from government is the help that will seek fix you where you cannot help yourself. In other words, what I'm saying is that I agree with those who are saying big government means a threat to freedom, A threat to freedom, a threat to free enterprise. Nobody needs free enterprise more than the small man. He's the one who needs free enterprise the most, the small man. The big corporate world, the billions of dollars that they make, they don't need free enterprise. What they need free enterprise for? This concept was envisioned and brought into effect to protect the little people, free enterprise. So that everybody will be free to engage in business. Monopoly threatens free enterprise. If you have great giant corporations, you have in fact a monopoly. Though law hasn't been violated, there is a monopoly. The size of that corporation constitutes a monopoly. That's why many people of the Communist world, they charge America with hegemony. Not because that America believes in monopolizing in practice at home and among its people, but for allowing business and individuals to grow so big it can grow so much wealth. Creates the condition. If you want to be successful as indigenous people, you should work for a free enterprise. You should protect free enterprise. You should protect freedom and free enterprise with all your might and soul.
We cannot afford as business people to sacrifice principle. Business people must operate, work and operate by principle. Your principle should be moral. But even more than that, your principle should be rational. Your principle should be rational. We have to come from a pure moral kind of principle to a rational principle, a rational principle. Now coming away from government situation now, which we've just briefly mentioned or touched upon, the government, the problem for small people and with a big government, government that's inflated, inflated, inflated. It's never no end to it. We're now looking at another situation. And this situation is again, a situation of advantages and disadvantages. We experienced blockage, opposition, from persons and institutions. We have terminology. Institutional segregation, institutional discrimination, et cetera, et cetera. So, when it's removed on the law, the books of law, it's still existing because of past traditions, past habits, past way of operating, old ways of operating. And not only that in the persons, we have the old orientation, the old orientation, and it seems to linger and linger and linger. Whatever prejudices were existing 50 years ago, 20 years ago, they seem to still be lingering.
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