Lets Continue the Dream

On this Martin Luther King’s day let us not forget that it is up to all of us to keep the dream alive. As I read the text and watch the video the memories come flooding back. No, I was not there on that August day almost forty-five years ago, I was getting ready to start my senior year in high school that summer day. But thankfully we lived in an age where you could watch the news on television, and there is where I saw this monumental event. It is difficult for us all these many years later to understand the impact that this man had on the nation’s psyche. All I can say is that it crystallized those feelings he expressed in so many of us at that time.

The memories are now fading, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has become almost a saint. But lets not forget that he was not a one-dimensional hero, but a man, all to human, and yet so capable of being the best that a person can be.
And as I watch the video (that you can catch on YouTube) I am reminded that he was only thirty-three years old on that day! It is interesting to hear the words he used; words such as Negro; so old fashioned; so quaint. It seems like such a long time ago. And yet, his words and ideas are absolutely up-to-date because every day we become a more diverse society, often brought together, but also torn apart by this new technology that is the Internet. So we need to become more aware and more understanding of one another because the world is very small now. Not just the person from Montana and the one from Alabama, but the person from Mexico and the one from Albania will be brought together like never before. Let us learn from each other so that we can become richer.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a hero because, among his many qualities, he pushed on even when he was afraid or discouraged. So what does this have to do with business? Well, as business owners we are in a position to decide who is hired and who is fired. We say who will get an opportunity to advance, and who doesn’t. Let us not cheat others and ourselves by judging on the color of the skin, or religion, or gender. And let us remember his example when we feel afraid and discouraged.

Text from the “I Have a Dream” Speech
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
August 28, 1963
Washington, D.C.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

On Your Marks, Get Set….For the Holiday Race

It’s the season of the traditional Holiday Race, particularly for women business owners. Trying to keep one step ahead of, or at least even with, family responsibilities and running a business. Not that men don’t put in their share of holiday preparations combined with work responsibilities. But, at least in my family and social circles, it is the woman, or women, who have the lion’s share of Christmas planning and executing work. Most men don’t much care whether the Christmas tree is up (In my case, up and running, since my tree tried to run but fell on its face!) or whether grandma’s dressing tastes just the way you remember it.

For me Christmas time has become a crazy mélange of keeping up the Christmas traditions, and trying to help each and every panicky client that waited until the end of the year to dissolve a corporation, or some other crucial shore that could have been taken care of in August!

This year it is even crazier, since I am now the proud grandma of twin girls. My daughter and son-in-law have moved in with us while their house is being remodeled to accommodate the twins. It is hard to spend my time chopping onions when I could be sitting in my living room watching them eat Christmas ornaments! (Not the glass kind, and no lead, thank you very much!) And, as I told you a few days ago, for the first time in my life my Christmas tree fell and I had to re-do the whole thing.

But in spite of all the nuttiness, it is a joyous time. Maybe it is a trick that I am playing on myself, but just when I feel that I cannot do one more chore, I look all around and feel such pleasure and exhilaration at being alive and able to take on all the work that this wonderful season brings. So I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, and a magical Noche Buena. As for me, back to chopping onions with one hand while I answer my cell phone with the other.

Of People and Things

Every year I look forward to putting up the Christmas tree. I open up boxes and boxes of ornaments, and I am always surprised to see some that I had forgotten about, a few make me smile, and others make me a little teary eyed. Every year I add to my collection, to me it is like adding to the joy of life. By now you can guess that I am rather sentimental about these ornaments. I always think about Christmas past, and people that I love, including those who are no longer with us.

Last weekend I spent two days decorating the tree. I had bought special ornaments to commemorate my twin granddaughters’ first Christmas. We had the traditional teasing, as my son-in-law chuckles at my extravagant tree. You see, he is a minimalist kind of guy with a mother-in-law who believes that there is no such thing as too many ornaments!

Well, Wednesday evening I came down the stairs and I had the shock of my life. I saw my beautiful tree on the floor! I am amazed that I did not hear the crash; but there it was, broken ornaments all over the carpet, and the carefully placed tinsel now tangled up with the light strings. Just at that moment my daughter and son-in-law walked through the door. They were mortified to think that one of their dogs might have knocked the tree down. We all knew that that was not the case, and that it was much more likely that I did not do a good job of securing the tree to its stand. But they were worried, and I was upset at the loss of my priced ornaments.

After a few minutes I came to my senses. I felt terrible that my sadness over the ornaments had made them feel bad. I tried to reassure them that as much as I like my “stuff”, that is all it is, stuff. The last thing that I want, especially at this time of the year, is to make my family feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in my home. The ornaments are things, beautiful and priced, but still only things. They make me think of people I love, but they do not substitute them. I reminded myself that things, beautiful as they may be, never are as important as people.

This is a key lesson. How often do we catch ourselves valuing objects more than people? Do we see our clients as dollar signs rather than individuals with needs? Do we treat our employees as if we owned their soul, rather than as the valuable colleagues that make our lives better? Fairness and considerate should be our most important principle. As business owners, as well as human beings, we must not forget that things can be replaced; people, not so easily.

And the good news is that I did not lose as many ornaments as I first thought, and that my most beloved ones, including the barrister ornament that I got the year I became a lawyer, survived the ordeal!

Giving Thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. A great thing about this holiday is that it compels us to take a good look at our lives and see the things that we should be thankful for.

Perhaps you were watching television this weekend, as I was, and maybe you saw interviews with celebrities, where they were asked what they were grateful for. Maybe you heard the standard answer, “I am grateful for my family”. Perhaps you were groaning as you heard them, and you wished that they would come up with something a little more creative.

But I find that, in my case, though I wish I could be more creative, indeed it is true; more than anything, I am grateful for my family, and for very selfish reasons. It is my family who has made me who I am. In my early years my parents and siblings taught me how to live a good life. They instilled a sense of fairness. They also taught me that life is infinitely varied and interesting, and it is all there for us to enjoy. As Rosalind Russell said in the movie Auntie Mame, life is a banquet (though alas she followed up with “and most poor suckers are starving to death”)

This view of life is such a gift to me because it has allowed me to try new things just because they are intriguing and might be enjoyable. I learn about something interesting and I want to take a crack at it, and why not? There is no Don’t Dream police that is going to tell me I cannot do it (And if there is such a police, I will ignore it!) If it doesn’t work out, well then, I have learned new things in my attempt, and that is wonderful because it will lead me down other exciting roads.

My parents are now gone, and so is my beloved brother, who passed away this summer, but my two sisters, my dear husband, my daughter, my son, and my son-in-law, and also my granddaughters and siblings-in-law, continue to give me their love and support. The whole lot is always there for me, cheering me on, telling me to go for it. Without them I would not be who I am, and I would not feel so free to try new things.

I know there have been people like that in your life; those who have given you support and freedom to attempt new things. Probably they have been members of your family, though maybe not. Perhaps it was a neighbor, or your first boss. In any case, be thankful for them; and if you have the opportunity, thank them in person. You would not be a business owners, or an aspiring business owners, if someone had not taken the time to teach you about exploring the world, taking risks, being willing to share with others. This is the nature of a business owner, and that is what a business owner does every day. Sometimes it feels like the weight of the world, but mostly it is a great gift to be enjoyed, so lets say thank you.

Have a very happy Thanksgiving Day.

Between Dream and Reality

We are cruising along, living perfectly ordinary lives, and suddenly an idea comes into our mind. At the beginning is seems absolutely crazy. “How can I possibly turn this idea into a profitable business?” We begin to dream about the business, selling your jewelry to Saks, writing the great American novel, or becoming a lawyer. And it is our little secret, that outrageous dream that no one but us has to know about. We take it out and dust it off for our own amusement. We think about it when we are cleaning the kitchen floor. But deep down we know that it will probably never happen. It is too scary; it may even be silly!

And do you know something? We are probably right, it will never happen. Not because it is too difficult, scary, and silly, but because as long as we don’t talk about it out loud, it is easy to avoid turning the dream into reality.

So how do we overcome that block; how do we shush that little voice that tells us it is a crazy idea? More specifically, how do you turn the dream into reality? The first step is to say it to yourself, use your most authoritative voice to tell yourself “I am going to start writing right now”. Be convincing, because you are the person that needs convincing the most. Don’t tell yourself that it is possible; tell yourself that it will happen.

Next, tell those closest to you. Here it will probably not be necessary to be quite so authoritative because they almost certainly believe in you already. Maybe they have been waiting for years to hear you say the magic words. Then, tell the world. Be matter of fact, ‘I am a writer”. No need to be defensive, or to go into a long explanation explain, just say it.

Why the talking exercises? Because once you say it out loud you commit yourself to actually doing it. It becomes real.

That is how I talked myself into becoming a lawyer. When my daughter graduated from college I decided that it was my time to go back to school. I knew that if anything happened to my husband, I had few skills that would get me a job that paid above the minimum wage.

I was taking a class in which we had to write about what I call “what do you want to be when you grow up”. At 48 years of age, it was a bit late to be thinking about this, but an assignment is an assignment, and I was going to give it my best shot. I wrote about becoming a court interpreter because I was fluent in English and Spanish, and I had always been interested in the law. I had grown up in a small town in Mexico, at a time when girls did not think about being lawyers. Girls were going to grow up to be mommies, not attorneys. And most certainly I wanted to be a mommy, but deep down I had also wished that things had been different for women of my age.

A few days latter the professor called me in for a chat. Her name is Glenda McGee, a great lady; and she told me that no, I was not too old to be a lawyer, and if I really wanted to do it, I could. At first it sounded silly, but the more I thought about it the more intrigued I became. Still, I wasn’t about to make a fool of myself by telling others what the professor had said to me.

Well, it took me a while to begin to say it to myself out loud. The sound of my voice saying “I am going to be a lawyer” was a bit shocking, but also affirming. After I convinced myself, or perhaps I just got used to hearing the words, I decided to tell my husband about what the professor had said. He looked at me, and with assurance that I did not feel he said, “of course you are not too old to become a lawyer”. And it was still silly, also scary and crazy, but someone who I respected very much had supported me, and I had to believe. After that, I just told everyone in a natural way, “I am going to law school”.

By telling others and myself I made a commitment to taking the necessary steps to reaching the goal. If I had kept it as my deep dark secret, I could always back out. But once I told everyone, I could not go back on my word.

Seven years later, I graduated from law school. That summer I took the California bar exam and passed on the first attempt. In December of 2002 I was sworn in as an attorney at the age of 55. I still have the posters that my daughter and son made for my graduation. One of them says, “Mom shows it is never too late to dream”.

The telling became the first step in turning the dream into reality. So don’t be afraid, tell yourself and then the world “ I will do it”.

Dream Big

Palace of Justice, Paris France

I am that small black figure that you see on the steps of the Palace of Justice in Paris. It was a cold November day in 2004. My daughter shot this photograph during a wonderful trip that we took together to London and Paris. To me the massive size of the building symbolizes the power of the law.