BAH ! Black MBA's Part Three

The Masters of Business Administration by Cecil Hickman, Publisher and Editor.

The Second Annual Mideast Regional Conference of the National Black MBA Association had an impressive speakers roster including an executive from Pitney Bowes and several top notch motivational speakers. However I gravitated toward the vending exhibit room... the place where the entrepreneurs layout their wares.

I had an engrossing conversation with a business owner only four months out of the box that led into a discussion about the need to save a generation of young african americans. We agreed that the new economy was raining havoc. The young woman had connections with a local university and who saw that a disproportionate share of the dropouts were african-american males. She wants to do something to turn that around.

She had a very impressive business card that made an immediate impact and I went out that very day and upgraded my own.

I also talked to a legal services insurance group. I know from experience that this economic downturn had forced a dramatic downsizing that hit the black community particularly hard. Sometimes where the ax fell exposed the prejudices of the employer. I only wish my family had known that for $26 dollars a month we could have had access to topnotch legal advice that might have warded off the firing squad or at least made the severance package more palatable. I remember asking what percentage of African-Amercans made up this company's workforce and was surprised to learn it was nearly half. I guess it is one of those best kept secrets.

I didn't know what to expect from the regional conference of the National Black MBA's. Something dull and dry I suppose. Maybe something akin to a group of accountants or economists. You know ... technical stuff.

I came away with tools that will transform how I handle this blog publishing business of mine ... and that frankly was a shocker ! The slugs for this gathering has to be Quality and Relevance. For example, it took place at the classy Intercontinental Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. Wait till I tell you about the quality of Speakers in my next post. There were also major issues discussed that I will bring up in subsequent postings. Stay tuned.

(Click on the cell phone Video below then check back in for Part Three later for the Speakers and what I learned from them).

BTW: I resolved to buy a high-end High Definition Video Camera this week and revamp my whole marketing approach... based on lessons learned from this group).

BAH ! National Black MBA Regional Conference. Cleveland

It is tough having much confidence as an unemployed elderly black male who's profession is in turmoil. All my friends and family who are journalists are struggling. Can such an event have much of an impact on me.

Attending Personal Branding session. S. Renee Smith, motivational speaker and author,, of Image Consultant. Missed half of it. Talks about Likeability. I wrote down I am calm, quiet and empathetic. She is very interactive.

All this taking place at the Intercontinental Hotel. VERY professional. Especially imressive after the excellent but predominatly white small business conference that took place yesterday.

More posts to come.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

BAH! Red Flag or Career Part Two

I received a second accented call the following week.  This time a voice that sounded very much like the first gave me the same routine.  This time however he seemed to have his act together.  I learned he had gotten my name and number from CareerBuilder but since I had long ago dropped using that service I couldn't tell if he was following up or whether he had ripped off the contact.  I certainly did not remember putting in an application to be a insurance salesman.


This time he revealed that the company wanted me to come in for a job interview Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the suburb of Middleburg Heights.  Red Flags on Red Alert I still agreed .... amybe I thought it would make an interesting blog entry at the very least.  Besides maybe the needed a media guy or something.  


So I set up a calendar alert and forgot all about it.  Yes, I knew it sounded like a come-on ... similar to buying a timeshare or winning a cruise offered by a resort.  I could always change my mind?  Or could I.  You wanna know what happened when Wednesday rolled around?

BAH! Red Flag or Career Part One

There are red flags all over the place yet here I am sitting with a bunch of desparate job seekers at Bankers Life and Casualty.

Two weeks ago I received one of those out-of-the-blue phone calls. It was a male voice with an indian-sounding accent phone banking about something I couldn't quite understand.

The caller began peppering me with questions about my job circumstances. I peppered right back with basic questions like "Why do you want to know? " and "How did you get my name and number".

His answers were short an uninformative ... my hanging up the phone was just as short and uninformative.

Guess what happened the following week?
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

BAH ! Obama Nobel Peace Prize

(click new post at top of blog to respond)

The Opinion People are Piling on.  Can't see what the  Prez has done to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize!  They are blinded by the unanimous vote.  Certainly few can move past the obvious intent of the Nobel Prize Committee.

This unique selection lays clear the European notion that the leader of the Free World -- the United States -- is back with a diplomatic vision more relevant then ever before.   It is cynical to think of this as merely an anti-George W. Bush vote.   How long could they maintain any credibility as the most respected prize in the world?

Perhaps if the Facts People ever return to journalism, we might actually learn why the Nobel Prize committee did what they did ... rather than seek the guesswork --loud though they may be-- of the Opinion People.




(More comment to come)

BAH ! Haile-Selassie -- Ardi and the Greatest Fossil Hunter on Earth

Yohannes Haile-Selassie.  The most fascinating man in the world!  Always buried in the lead while buried in the mud. The Greatest Fossil Hunter Alive. Give him a title -- if only the Indiana Jones of paleonathropoligists.

Remember that name ... no one else will.    Yohannes Haile-Selassie
is Ethiopian ... reason enough to ignore.  Not his namesake ... the late Emperor of Ethiopia.  Not an afterthought to a team of remarkable scientific minds.

Just simply the Greatest Fossil Hunter Alive !

Consider this ... as a STUDENT he discovered the 2.5 million year old skull of a unknown hominid species.  later as a fossil hunter in his native country ... found the fingers of Ardi.  And now, as PhD, explains the fossils of the earliest human ancestor of all ... Ardipitecus ramidus.   So sayeth the Plain Dealer who buried his bio ... although he is curator of physical anthropology at Cleveland's Natural History Museum.  So no sayeth Time Magazine ... who mentioned his name not at all.

But let's play fair ... in previous articles the Plain Dealer gave this remarkable researcher his due.  Wrote several stories ...making Haile-Selassie the focus of the rewriting of human history. But I can't find his name in the national press.  I get touchy I guess that when the grand announcement is made to the world last week ... the name of the fossil--Ardi--is the lead while the Greatest Fossil Hunter in the world ... is lost in the story.

BAH ! Ex President on Race

JIMMY CARTER IS RIGHT

A Commentary by Lloyd C. Daniel

Why is there so much anger and fear in the public debate over the White House’s moderate plan for health care reform?  Have you had a chance to stop and think why there are so few people of color or young people of any nationality actively protesting?  The main reason is because we won the last presidential election! It’s not all about race and that’s not what Carter said. And it’s not just about political disagreement. This political passion play is also about paranoia and other forms of madness.  That’s why some of the demonstrators are scary to the point of embarrassment for many Republicans. I don’t think that racism, alone, would lead a rational person to conclude that this is the end of the world and that the President is the anti-Christ. But let’s face it, many people find it hard to accept that they were smashed at the polls back in November and a new America is on the rise, an America within which white skin privilege just isn’t quite what it used to be.  So at the adrenaline charged demonstrations, they’re unintentionally showing all of America their true feelings, their “true colors”. They make a mockery of what they claim to stand for, and as conservative Congressman Joe Wilson auditions for a cameo, walk on role, as the guy who stands, this time, not in “the school house door”,

but the hospital door, once again, “the whole world’s watching” to see what this country is really about.

Rep. Lloyd C. Daniel is a writer, educator, advocate and a former member, of the Missouri House of Representatives.  His website address is  HYPERLINK "http://www.lloyddaniel.info" www.lloyddaniel.info