Let Success Be Your Activism: A Chat With Arlan Hamilton

If you’re not familiar with Arlan Hamilton, it’s time you get acquainted. The first quote you see on her site is a beautiful representation of her spirit, drive, and personality. It reads, “how much of a fist in the air would it be to just be obnoxiously wealthy as a gay black woman? And to be able to help other people do the same?”

Arlan built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a fund that is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. She also released a book this May titled It’s About Damn Time.

We sat down with Arlan recently to get her take on how we can let success be our activism. Here is what she said:

Catalyzing other success is her activism. Not to quote DJ Khaled but to quote DJ Khaled, “they don’t want us to win!”

So, we have to.

We have to shake that up — that’s the whole point. Arlan doesn’t believe we would have the type of police brutality that we have, if there were more economic equivalence and equality. The corruption that allows for that simply wouldn’t be there. So by moving money into our hands, we can be a part of the solution.

Part of that activism is making that a conscious part of your drive to make money. Arlan said, “I don’t think about how much money I can accumulate for myself. Now that I know how to pull money in, now that I’m able to attract funds, now that I know that I am on the path that I have capital to wield either personally or through my companies… let’s see how that catalyzes and how that changes the power structure.”

Arlan realized just how little they wanted us to win when her little fund was pissing off, worrying, distracting billionaires to the point that they were coming to try to find ways to silence her. Why are they so scared? If it’s okay for her to be out here, why is her voice being put behind?

They don’t want us to win.

You don’t have to run for president, save a tiny village, to be an activist or to be a hero. By taking ownership and accountability, by putting the work into making sure that you are doing the thing, working on the thing, bringing in employees and customers, or adding to another person’s company… you become an active participant in activism.

Your existence is activism.

Your survival is activism.

Arlan is grateful and proud of every single protestor in the street and those who work tirelessly behind the scenes to push policy. We are all working together in some way. We all have a piece of this. Some roles will be more high profile, some won’t. Look for the catalyzers. Look for the people who aren’t over here hoarding.

Part of making activism happen, is making sure you’re ready to do the work.

Self care isn’t all bubble baths and Instagrammable moments. Being emboldened and having self care goes hand in hand. Showing up to these virtual fireside chats makes you a part of this. You, reading this, right now, are a part of this. In order for you to continue doing what you are doing, being there for other people, being caretakers, you have to take care of yourself because otherwise, you’re going to run out of fuel.

You have to hold boundaries, fill your cup, and invest in yourself so that you are ready to show up as your best self to your higher goals. As Arlan likes to say, “be yourself so that people looking for you can find you.” Because people need their truth reflected back at them.

So, how do we actually apply these things to where we are now?

There are options.

If you don’t feel you can rock the boat in your current role while feeling healthy and safe, then you continue doing what you need to do and you have your outlets elsewhere. You have your private moments, you vent, you read.

If you feel like you are on the fence about where you are now, stay there and keep an eye on them. Keep your health insurance, keep your paycheck, and keep an eye on people. When you get to the point where you know they are not going to change, or that they are changing isn’t going to do enough, then you go. You do more, do different, do better by yourself. But until then, you can work on that side hustle and collect those coins at the same time. It’s a strategy. It’s shifting the mindset that you are an asset, you can turn every job, even the ones you hate, into an education opportunity.

Money attracts money. You may not have money yet, but you probably have a wealth of information and knowledge you’ve been working on. So when the ball eventually gets rolling, you will have the information or the lived experience that investors don’t have. Which is exactly why they’ll be attracted to you. Make yourself worth more than what’s in someone else’s bank account. Arlan got this from piecing together things online! Just talking to people and asking questions starts opening these doors.

“I don’t want to be the exception to the rule, I want the rules to accept me.”

In order for that to happen, there are demands we must put forth to those in power to change the rules.

When it comes to the money lane, the demands are: “You need to start listening to us, you need to do it fast, and iterate on what we are telling you. Put resources behind that within your organizations or we are going to build other organizations. I don’t want to burn down your organization… But, if you don’t make changes, I’m going to pay for the bricks and the stones to build a new house. Why are we knocking on this door to keep going unanswered? Let them be your first investor. That corporate job you have now is the side hustle. The demand is listen and believe us. Or else, we’re going to take all of our wealth, talent, assets, information, and lived experience and build without you.”

Watch the full interview here on our YouTube channel.

This post was adapted from our Fireside Chat with Arlan Hamilton, Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, international speaker, and author of It’s About Damn Time, and moderated by Jenna Hanchard, truth-seeker, Emmy and Edward R. Murrow-award winning journalist, dynamic community storyteller, and innovative content creator.