Good Hair, a movie by Chris Rock is definitely worth the investment. Take the time to watch it.
Tonight, as I reviewed the new price discounts for the MOA Team Supply wholesale business that Mount Olympus Awards is launching, I watched a movie called Good Hair by Chris Rock. I always enjoy his projects because 1.) he’s intelligent, 2.) he has the tact to make social commentary palpable to most people through his delivery, and 3.) I usually learn something completely unexpected whenever I watch or read something he’s done. On top of that, his interview style is easy, which is a real talent. He’d make a kick-ass professor in a communications department at a university somewhere when he retires.
The Three Things That I Took Away from the Good Hair Movie by Chris Rock
1. I had no idea that “black hair” was even an issue. I mean, what the hell is a hot comb? And why would anyone put chemicals on their head that can dissolve a Coca-Cola can? The men don’t seem to be that interested in it, so this seems like one of those things that women perpetrate on women through societal expectations.
And spending $1,000+ on hair extensions when you can’t pay your rent?! How stupid do you have to be? There cannot be people in the world that do this. For the sake of humanity, it’s hard for me to believe. Al Sharpton hit it on the head: Subsidizing someone’s 401(k), or education, or kids … those are admirable, but for a hair piece? It’s not even the initial cost of the hair piece, it’s the fact you have to go in once a week for a wash and every two weeks for an update due to the hair growth. Not only are your hemorrhaging cash for the upkeep, you are placing no value on your time, which is where the real money is.
Talent Should Matter, Not Good Hair or Conformity
Talent is what matters. Any executive that would refuse to hire someone because they had "natural" hair or had a unique sense of style isn't going to be in business long, at least not in this century. Talent and ideas are what matter. With globalization, the old boys' club network cannot survive.
2. The high school girls that were about to graduate … they all said that the girl that had natural hair wouldn’t have a chance at a law firm or an environment where executives would consider her a mess (or something along those lines). Uh … no. You know the only thing I care about in a lawyer or accountant or computer programmer? Skills.
If a potential employee is well spoken, not evil (I don’t care how good they are, if you cause dissension in the workplace, I don’t want you), and have the skills I need and they work hard, I’ll hire them if they want to come to the office in black leather and pink shoe string like Johnny Weir at the Olympics during his short program.
In fact, maybe it’s because of the … uniqueness, shall we say … of my undergraduate education (a music scholarship meant I spent just as much time in the music, theater, and choral departments during college as I did in the business world), but I love that diversity. In fact, I miss it. A lot.
The Only Problem I Had With the Movie
3. People still don’t understand economics or finance, even very smart people. This was the only one, tiny small point of contention I had with the movie. It’s the idea that with so many black business owners selling out to large corporations, “white” and “Asian” men were making money off the black population. That doesn’t show a very firm grasp of business. Here’s why …
Imagine that I were a black man that created a hair product for African Americans. I get profits to $2,000,000 per year and Revlon offers to buy my company at 10x pre-tax earnings, or $20,000,000.
If I take shares of stock for the acquisition, even though Revlon owns the company now, I own a much smaller part of the overall Revlon corporation. That means that every product they sell is making its way into the black community through my ownership of shares in the business. In other words, I exchanged 100% of the stock in my small start-up for a much smaller percentage of the shares of Revlon. Now, the profits come from beauty creams, bath gels, perfumes, and more.
If a black business owner sells his hair products company to a larger cosmetics business, he very likely received shares of stock in the acquiree. That means that the same percentage of money is in the black community as before the deal, it just happens to be in the form of shares of the bigger company rather than 100% of the stock of the smaller company. The money, and the small business owner who created the company that got bought, don't disappear into the ether.
No one (at least on screen) ever asked or explained whether the people who sold their companies received shares of stock instead of cash, which is quite possible, if not likely, given that large multi-national beauty firms were the buyers.
If they had received all cash, it’s probable that most of the money is going to be invested in index funds or mutual funds or even individual stocks. That means that now, instead of receiving 100% of the profits from a the hair products business, I would be receiving a much smaller percentage of the profits of a mega-corporation such as Wal-Mart Stores, Target, Exxon-Mobile, General Electric, or Johnson & Johnson. Either way, that money and wealth creation is still in the black community, it’s just coming from oil and baby powder instead of hair products. The money doesn’t disappear; it’s ownership just gets transferred from one form to another (in this case, shares of a small private start up to either shares of the acquirer or cash, which is likely invested).
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You are making the assumption that once the business owner sells the business he remains in the black community. I have not seen the movie, but I would be interested to see what percentage of the business owners move out of the community. It would not surprise me if that percentage was very high. As much as people say they want to give back to their community, when given the opportunity to move somewhere nicer, most would probably move. I am guessing this is the real problem. Any money that is generated in the black community tend to leave.
A lot of the owners already lived in huge houses in the suburbs but I think (at least how I took it from the documentary), when they were talking about “community” they weren’t talking about a physical location, but rather black people prospering from black owned businesses that sold to black customers. They seemed to be using it in the same way an executive says, “the business community” or “the Jewish community”.
I know what you mean, though, and you bring up a great point: People often separate words and deeds. Did you see the story about Bob’s Red Mill Flour, where the business owner sold to the employees through an ESOP plan (I’m a big fan of these)? Even though he got less for his stock than he would have from Wall Street – far less, some of stories indicate – he is effectively creating a system where employees who work longer and more efficiently get rewarded with greater ownership in the business.
A really good ESOP can result in long-time employees earning more each year in dividends than they do from wages. It is, in my opinion, one of the best implementations of capitalism possible. The employees have no one to blame if the business fails, and if it succeeds, they make a ton of cash, and the owner who originally founded it still gets to cash out with millions. Maybe I’ll write a blog about it …
I’d be very interested in learning more about the ESOP plan. I’ve never heard of it before but I love the concept of employee ownership of a company. What better method to ensure peak performance in every way?
Then I’ll add it to a list and someday, when the mood strikes me, I may write about how ESOPs work! They are wonderful programs that I think could help solve a lot of the conflict in American society right now. I’ll need to pull a file … somewhere, I have information about America’s most successful ESOPs …