By Anonymous
The GSB was the only graduate school that I applied to. I made the bold decision to say “Stanford or bust” because I knew how much value the GSB placed on developing students into the best version of themselves. I came here to evolve and grow and learn about myself. Yes, financial modeling and strategic thinking are valuable, but who we are in our core as leaders is the most important thing, and that’s what I wanted to develop. This course and the entire Leadership for Society series has made me continually proud of that decision. The course has given my fellow classmates a window into my life and created space for conversations that do not naturally come about at most business schools.
As a Black man and a Black entrepreneur, I have faced outright, obvious, blatant forms of discrimination and countless microaggressions — from getting kicked out of the Penn Club in New York City while waiting to meet with the CEO of an investment bank, to being told that I don’t look like a startup founder while traveling and wearing a hoodie. My friends joke about how much Stanford gear I wear on planes, but they don’t understand that I wear it as armor — a shield that won’t necessarily save me from police officers’ bullets but may protect me from a few ignorant comments while on my way to a trade show.
But the things that have caused me the most pain and anguish throughout my career are the decisions and outcomes that cannot be explicitly tied to the color of my skin: the lost pitch contests where my company had twice as much traction and a superior product, the investors who expressed strong interest via email and then ghosted me after smiling through the meeting…. These are things that certainly happen to all entrepreneurs, but as they add up and you see yourself losing opportunities to objectively inferior competitors whose companies happened to be run by white founders, the insidious question begins to take root: “Is it just because I’m Black?” This question, and the toll it takes on the psyche, is something that I would like for my white peers to internalize. When we talk about “white privilege,” it is not just the fact that a white entrepreneur may get the opportunity ahead of me — it’s also the privilege to not have the question of race constantly swirling around in your mind, taking up vital synapses and mental cycles.
My main takeaway from this course has been that I can share my stories, I can share my voice, I can be an advocate for change, and that the world needs more Black entrepreneurs like me to not just be successful and break the mold in that way, but to also be intentional and explicit in how we go about doing it. Indeed, in order to change lives, change organizations, and change the world, we need to be.