5 Lessons from 5 Years of Creating Economic Opportunity — Lesson Two: Be Sure Of Your Reason Why

Creating, developing and running All Star Code has been a roller-coaster over the last five years.

One of the hardest things to do as an entrepreneur is to manage your own emotions. This next lesson keeps me grounded:

LESSON TWO: BE SURE OF YOUR REASON WHY

Today, I have 15+ people working for me. But for the first year it was only me.

A solid six months was spent in design and prototyping. The next six months was planning. A whole year of designing & planning now feels like a real luxury.

When I started sharing about All Star Code, I was met with lots of questions:

“What do you want to get out of this?”

“Have you considered doing this with so-and-so organization already doing coding?”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Being sure of my reason why, and not being swayed by the questions I received, was essential to converting the vision I had of All Star Code into a reality.

The organization needed to exist independently to prove a number of lies wrong about boys and young men of color, and what they could achieve. That was my number one motivator to commit to All Star Code full time.

There was lots of polite skepticism at the short turnaround of launching the first Summer Intensive program in 2013. As an entrepreneur, polite skepticism should always be met with boundless optimism.

I kept insisting it was possible until an advisor took her own initiative and wrote me an unsolicited two-page memo with analysis recommending a postponement until a year later. (Lesson Two and a half: always have people like this in your corner). I listened.

(And yes, reader, I tried to hire her. She turned me down.)

People have often asked me if I ever considered quitting in those early days. The simple answer was and still is no. The mission was too important. Successful entrepreneurs must keep going, no matter what!

Now, we have graduated 433 students from our All Star Code Summer Intensive. And about 85% continue to study computer science in college. Excitingly, a handful of our oldest Scholars will be graduating from college in 2019.

It is difficult and un-glamorous to start something.

Every decision can feel momentous, because you are the sole decision maker. Being sure of what success looks like ends up being your guiding star, because you are the one building it.

That’s why knowing what you want the organization to be, requires knowing what YOU want to get out of it.

So think long and hard: what is your reason why?

Are you passionate about developing a new generation of boys and young men of color with an entrepreneurial mindset?

All Star Code is growing, and we’d love to have you apply. Click here to see our open positions.