A self-identified professional risk avoider, the visionary
and creator of Yellow Hibiscus Gallery shares his personal
story of traditional corporate advancement and the necessity of
an entrepreneurial spirit in today's cultural and economic climate.
Excuse Me, But I am Sorry to Tell You that the American Dream Is
Dead.
The American Dream is dead! It died from complications due to a severe
economic crisis that was worsened by corporate greed, political ineptitude, and
societal excess. Unfortunately for a
generation that is accustomed to being told that we are the best and brightest
that America has ever produced, we are the biggest losers of a bargain that
cuts us out of the inheritance of the American Dream.
How did we get here? Society made
a deal with us! If we worked hard,
sacrificed, and got an expensive degree, we would be richly rewarded with money,
power and respect; at the very least, we could expect a decent home in the
suburbs, two cars in the garage and a white picket fence. The sky was the limit! Then we graduated into the real world, and
realized that for the first time in recent history, our collective generational
lives would be worse off than the previous generations'.
So, how did we get here
again? Simple. We got shafted! It is much cheaper for society to renege on
its promises to us because we won’t raise hell, but the older generation will. Our government sold our future to maintain the
status quo. Now, for a majority of us,
we are forced to find new paths to the dream, and to redefine success.
It is in the midst of this generational
change and anxiety that I decided to redefine my American Dream. The muses came to me on a trip to Ghana; and
inspired a thought that lead to the idea for the dream. I was at a hotel waiting, as one always does
when traveling, when I saw workers move beautiful artwork into an office behind
the concierge. Intrigued, I followed to
get a closer look at the pieces. I found
myself in the office of the hotel owner, and had a rather lovely conversation
about the art scene in Ghana, and the lack of appreciation for artist. It was then that it hit me! Why not build an
online platform to showcase wonderful Ghanaian artists and connect them to a
developed and mature art market?
YellowHibiscusGallery.com did not
become reality until two years later, during a transitional period in my
life. Disclaimer: I do not have a background in arts or
business, and to be honest, I was reluctant to begin the journey. However, one spring morning in 2013, I woke up
with a strong desire to see this idea come to life. This
desire consumed my available mental bandwidth for months afterwards. I could not brush it off, even though I tried.
As a professional risk avoider, I spent
months researching the art industry, along with every imaginable risk
associated with starting a small business, all in the hopes of convincing
myself that the idea wasn’t viable. When
I failed to do that, I shared the idea with friends, then family. They failed too!
Finally, after giving up on
trying to give up, I took my research and drafted a business plan. Next, I formed an LLC (told you I am a professional
risk avoider). I then reached out to my
network to conduct surveys; found a partner to help me build the platform; and put
together two small focus groups of friends who fell within the demographic of
buyers I intended to target. After that,
I started looking for local artist to talk to, and to understand whether they
would even consider partnering with an unknown and unproven online gallery. In November 2014, we launched the first
iteration of the platform, and have been tweaking it, and our plans ever since.
So, what does Yellow Hibiscus Gallery
have to do with the death and redefining the American Dream?
A lot! Firstly, the inspiration
for my idea appeared at a point in time when I was forced to confront certain
truths about the traditional path to success.
I graduated from college right before Lehman Brothers blew up and took
the economy with it. Then I graduated
from Law School into a historic downtown for the legal market. The linear narrative of the American dream and
success no longer applied. My friends
and I graduated with hundreds and thousands of dollars worth of debt, and yet a
huge percentage of us could not find jobs or careers to sustain us. We were, and are, trapped in a cycle of
internships, unpaid work, and underemployment.
We, as a generation, put off, or delay important milestones such as
getting married, having kids and buying homes, simply because we cannot afford
them. Given these challenges, we had no
choice but to readjust our expectations and dreams. Part of the redefinition for me, was finding
a parallel path to financial independence; one that complimented but was not
dependent on the traditional routes to success.
It was a result of this initial openness and willingness to redefine
success that my little idea could be transformed into a dream. My dream and journey towards financial
independence are both ongoing, but I already feel successful because despite my
attempts at giving up, YellowHibiscusGallery.com is live!
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