MADEINC
MADEXXX
THE M A KI N G O F T H E
NEXT GENERATION OF
BLACK GIRL
ENTREPRENEURS
MADE BY
HALLEEMAH NASH
L
ong before I ever launched a business and
took the mantle of executive leadership, I
was an ambitious first-generation college
student having traveled from Compton, Cali-
fornia all the way east and out of my element to
Howard University with a world of side hustles
to subsidize my education. I tutored, braided
hair, I sold taco dinners, and even cleaned dorm-
rooms like many women of color who start
businesses out of necessity. I nurtured that entre-
preneurial spirit and those skills proved valuable
in navigating the purpose path in business. I’m
honored to have made a career out of building
strategies to support and develop black and
brown brilliance from marginalized communi-
ties in service to the younger Halleemah who
did a ton of things the hard way.
Spring is the season where I am spending a
lot of my time in coaching conversations with
graduating high school seniors and college
students who are interviewing for summer
internships and even developing businesses in
their communities and on college campuses.
They are deciding on majors, beginning budding
careers, and dreaming creatively. Their futures
are being formed in a more courageous culture
and Generation Z and early millennials are
pushing the wider workforce climate to embrace
them as they are and invest in what they have
the potential to be. They have embraced their
profound ability to shift the narrative, to push
companies to be more inclusive and fight until it
becomes a reality. It got me thinking a lot about
how different the idea of being self-made will be
for this generation, particularly for the young
girls of color.
The reason why so many of us have
had to be self-made is because we were
ambitious but under resourced.
Before becoming known as America’s first
Black female self-made millionaire, Madame
C.J. Walker worked in a barbershop for only
$1.50 a day. Oprah Winfrey, whose net worth
#mademaven
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