Janice Bryant Howroyd

It's been around for a while.

And that's how I look at my journey of entrepreneurship.

Well, I really became inspired that I would do something with my life that would be a light about who we are as a people.

At that time, who we are was referring to us as Black people in the South.

Today, it refers to us as entrepreneurial people who want to do good.

I'm sitting right now.

in Conclave in Mexico with entrepreneurs who are looking at how we build democracy forward in an ethical and inclusive way.

And so my journey, though, to entrepreneurship started before I was born.

And I didn't realize it, Mick, until much later in talking with my mom.

I didn't value back that when my grandma, Dora...

and my grandpa Dan were running a barbecue house over on Panola Street in Tarboro, North Carolina, and they served white people at their dining room table, and they delivered plates to Black people based on what the Black people's income was, not based on what the food cost, because they knew they'd get around to making it up somehow.

I saw them practicing their version

of ethical entrepreneurship.

I saw them practicing their version of building forward for their family and taking care of their community in ways that certainly became a part of my emotional mindset.

My academic mindset didn't capture it all until I was later sitting in a class at North Carolina A&T State University.

Aggie pride.

The instructor gave some data that referenced what poverty line was.

And just as you're doing, I tilted my head back and I thought, oh, my.

According to this data, we are poor.

Yet in my community, I actually thought we were rich.