Even though I don’t like the product placement for the car..

But I worry. I worry that we are focusing on a symptom and not the cause of the problem. I worry that this is another initiative that is not focusing on the root of the problem of violence in Chicago. The root of the problem is the family unit and the difficulties that ‘unit’ is facing. Until the family unit is repaired GetInChicago will not be as impactful as it can be. The plan (click the link to read) states that the PSAC will focus on ‘Prevention and Intervention Programs, Community Capacity Building and an Innovation Fund’. I might still need to read more of the fine print but in it’s current iteration I see nothing above that focuses on the family unit.

The family unit in the black community in Chicago is broken. For many reasons

- Either because the parent(s) cannot or choose not to work,

- the parent(s) is incarcerated or incapacitated or

- the single parent who is working several jobs has next to no time to bring up his/her child/children

- the unfortunate situation of some parents who are, frankly, ill-equipped to be parents because they are kids themselves.

Without love and support (emotional and financial) coming from parents these children look to other more ‘supportive’ groups to provide them love or hope (you’d be surprised at what starts to look like ‘hope’ when you face a hopeless future). When ‘hope’ comes from the outside in the form of after school programs or hand downs etc that are not provided by the parents the child starts to expect less from their family.It’s difficult for a child to come home to a place where he/she expects love, after a hopeful day, to realize that nothing has changed. This further dents the value of the unit. It should then come as no surprise that some parents will resent a system that is ‘taking their place‘ in their child’s life…

A friend who works with children in these communities told me a story of a five year old child she asked what he wanted to be when he grows up. At the age of five we all have big huge dreams. This five year old boy did not have an answer. Why? Because both his parents had not worked a day in his life (his parents were ex-cons) and this child did not understand the concept of work. After school playgrounds will not change that reality for that child. Jobs for his parents, so they can inspire him, will..

That is not a rare story in these communities of the south and west side of Chicago.

GetInChicago feels like a top down approach to a problem that needs a bottoms up grassroots solution. In cases were there is a parent that can work it might be a single parent home (because the father is an ex-con or the family receives support from the government only when they can prove it is a single parent home) where the parent has next to no time for the children. The image below is from the datacenter.org (I will replace with a more reliable source when I find one) and it shows that blacks in Chicago have the most number of single parent homes. Even with the best intentions it is difficult to take care of a child as a parent who works full time (in one or two jobs). It’s tough enough for two parent families..

In the extreme cases of children who become perpetrators of the violent crimes in many cases the child has been forced or chosen to look outside the family for love/support from people who end up taking advantage of that desire to satisfy their own violent and selfish ends. Again, providing a home that inspires, supports and loves the child will reduce the incidents of this. Equipping and enabling the parents of these kids to get jobs that pay them a livable wage will do more for these kids than a playground or after school opportunities. It will cost less to educate/apprentice the parents of these kids than it will to take over the job of parenting these kids..

I know it’s easy to be an armchair quarterback. I’ll donate my time and money to this cause. I will also try to play a part in getting the ‘family’ included in the plan. So that these kids can start to get the love and support they sorely need from the people they spend most of their days with, their families..and see less value in violence to a community made up of many small family units that love and support one another. It takes a village..but a village is made up of families.

Fatoumata Diawara

Anyways we got to the show late after a longer than expected dinner but had a good time nonetheless. I won’t comment on Fatoumata’s decision to be ‘African’ by mixing clothes, styles. jewelry and accoutrements from all over Africa. Something I think only the Africans and those versed in African cultures in the audience would have spotted..

Anyways, I would have to switch mental modes between reviewing a hispanic rock album (Juanes) to a rap album (Ying Yang Twins) to an R&B album (KCi and Jojo). It was crazy for the senses and it was impossible to get into a real genre because the CDs didn’t come in any particular frequency or regularity or order: sometimes I sometimes got four in the same week or one every week for a month. What this did (subtly) was improve my ability to expect and enjoy surprises. I was less jarred but no less excited by things. I’m not ascribing that ability to just this experience but it played a part. I expected to be surprised by things. I still preferred a certain type of music but it had more to do with the beats per minute than the artist/genre. “Discovery’ really meant that I found something unexpected.

I still prefer a certain type of ‘thing’ – a certain type of sneakers, a certain type of book – but it was not specifically according to brand. Unfortunately the internet now only serves me a certain type of thing. If I search for Onitsuka tiger shoes for myself and a brushed gold watch for my dad I now get followed all over the internet by onitsuka tigers and brushed gold watch ads. I would never buy a brushed gold watch to wear and I’m feeling less comfortable walking in onitsuka tiger shoes but I now see those things everywhere. I started to feel that the ‘internet’ was now serving me more and more of what ‘It’ considers that I like to hear/buy/read just over a year ago when a search for a topic served up different results to me and the person who was sitting right next to me got a totally different set of results. I now listen to most of my music on Spotify and only Google (or Chrome bar) search and I can safely say that both tools know ‘me’ and so the results of my searches are totally dictated by this knowledge. This video from TED confirmed it

I do yearn for those days when I could search for things and get random but quality results or look for music and not be ‘recommended’ what my previous searches suggest that I might want. But sometimes this ‘knowledge of me’ that the internet/my web tools have of me serve up pleasant surprises like Bilal’s ‘A Love Surreal’ which I am now listenining to.

But that surprise and pleasure does not happen as often as it used to when the internet did not ‘know me’…

Our chat was around the entrepreneurial mindset and what entrepreneurs do after they’ve had some success/failure. I make sure these chats are not ‘pity party’ or ‘celebrate because you are awesome’ type conversations; these do either party no good for the simple reason that it focuses on the past but not the lessons learned from the past. As we chatted I realized a few things that I cannot yet say are theories but reoccur as threads of character in the people that I’m inspired by on this ‘startup’ journey.

1. These entrepreneurs are inspiring because even after they’ve failed or succeeded in their business they do not talk about the ‘what’. They still focus on the ‘why’ of the business they built or tried to build.

2. The successful ones measure their success not by the money they’ve made but on the impact their product or service has/had. The money made is just a good perk.

3. The ones who ‘failed’ are saddened not by how little money they made but by how their product or service was not as impactful as they hoped it would be.

4. The whole ‘entrepreneurship’ thing for them was not/is still not about the ‘celebrity’ (I’m thinking through a much longer post on the Hollywoodization of this whole entrepreneurial journey and the unintended damage it is doing)

5. The desire to jump onto the next thing is very strong because they found other problems they could solve even while they were working on their last business. Even when life circumstances (family, drained savings etc.) suggest that these entrepreneurs move on to more stable existences, like a corporate job, the desire to fix another problem/solve another need is very strong.

Though my theory is not yet fully proven I can say one thing with certainty; this entrepreneurial journey is one that is made bearable in the tough times and more enjoyable in the good times when the starter/entrepreneur is intellectually honest about the ‘why’ of her/his business. Know the answer to the why question because your own mind (and everything and everyone else) will make you wonder about this over and over again during this journey…

It would be a bit immodest and self involved to hear a friend say ‘I think you are the smartest person I know‘ and then you walk up to some other friend and say ‘friend A just said I am the smartest person they know’. Just a tad bit immodest I’ll suggest.

So why do we do it online by retweeting the praise we receive from folk who’ve read our posts, shared some praise about you or given you some props for something you did. Is it no longer immodesty or self-involvement because it was done online?

Hmm..I have so much to learn about this digital world we live in..

And now I’ve given it a lot more thought..

The only thing I’ve come up with is that (in the words of some famous man/woman that I cannot remember now) ‘To write is to think’…