Last week, on the eve of Morehouse College’s homecoming weekend, I was invited to come to the school to speak on a panel about entrepreneurship. It was one of the most inspiring experiences that I’ve had in a long time!
The room was packed, the panelists had great tales to account and participants asked thoughtful, questions. But, more than that, the sponsors of the event blew me away.
A group of five recent Morehouse graduates decided that they wanted to support one another in achieving their entrepreneurial goals.To do that they have formed a firm called InHouse Group (www.inhouse-group.com).
While working full time gigs and attending graduate school, these brothers have also committed to invest capital into InHouse and to use those funds to invest in early stage ventures and to offer their expertise to emerging businesses for a fee. Beyond that, they also made it a point to put together a well considered presentation on entrepreneurship and to bring it back to encourage Morehouse and Spelman students to begin now working towards their own entrepreneurial goals.
To drive the point home, they shared an example of an investment that they made in a company started by one of their partners. This brother had been laid off from a company where he had done quite well, found it challenging to find a similar corporate professional opportunity and decided to start his own firm. While having success in finding clients, cash flow was tight and personal savings depleted. Up steps InHouse to provide strategic/business planning support along with a loan to prop up the fledgling business.
Fast forward three years and the business has been sold to a larger competitor, InHouse recouped their investment and made a tidy return, and the CEO of the startup now has an equity interest in his acquirer. THAT is an impressive win-win! And this example should be instructive for all of us.
hile there is no question that the Greek fraternities have each demonstrated a century’s long tradition of service, most of what the untrained eye sees was on display at homecoming – the gold boots of the Q’s, the pimped canes of the Kappa’s and the tight grips
of the Alpha’s. Similarly, the hard work if InHouse goes on behind the scenes. Yet the joy, the celebration, the results, of their fraternity is what is on public display. The men of InHouse have demonstrated a commitment to their intellects, to service, to success, to giving back, to making a difference and to each other that matches or exceeds that of any Greek fraternity that I am familiar with.
Whether or not you pledged a fraternity in college, this is the type of group that you should be eager to connect with or to create. Find some brothers or sisters who are like minded, share with them that dream that you have, commit to supporting one another and get focused on executing. (#DBTE)
I know that it could get complicated and frustrating (I’ve been there), but it’s a laudable ideal and it could yield impressive results.
I hope that the young men of InHouse keep it up! We could all use their inspiration, benefit from their example and learn from their brand of fraternity.