Hey everybody how you doing I’m dr. Boyce Watkins from the black business school and the black wealth boot camp now I was just going through some notes to get ready for class tomorrow and I had a thought about something that somebody asked me about earlier now one of the books I’d written for
College students and it was my actually my first book was called everything you ever wanted to know about college and it was written basically to prepare college students for how to do well in school how to be at the top of their game how to succeed academically and I wrote this
Book because I you know when I went to college I wasn’t a good student in high school and I thought that college was hard I thought College was for smart people and I really honestly I thought College was for smart white people that’s how brainwashed I was and so I
Got to college and I ended up doing pretty well a lot of it was because my daughter was born the freshman my freshman year of college and I was petrified about what the future was going to hold so I went in there and I basically took the same
Philosophy that I used in sports and applied it to academics and I was able to do really well um in fact when I was an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky I was the number one black student on the entire campus GPA wise and I had a triple major two bachelor’s
Degrees in four years I could have did it in three the last year I just decided to kind of relax a little bit but um you know but the thing was you know I kind of had a certain mindset about goal-setting in fact in the black business school comm actually created a
Class called black keys to greatness that you may want to check out and it pretty much lays out my whole philosophy on setting goals achieving your goals being the best I thought about this these are theories that I’ve come up with since I was 18 years old you know
Just as a young black man trying to get ahead trying to find a way to succeed and one of the things I learned very early is the importance of staying away from people who are going to distract you from where you’re trying to get to
Or people who are going to push you to lower your standards or called you to kind of deviate from the man that you want to be or the woman that you want to be and so so I was asked today about you know Greek letter organizations and why
Didn’t why I chose not to pledge in college and uh and so I I thought I would kind of clarify my thoughts on it because I didn’t want to be insulting in into the great tradition of black Greek letter organizations I think there are some organizations that do amazing work
And and also we know that organizations have a diversity of people within those groups who are doing different things so you can’t really summarize you-know-who too much I mean you could say well aka is usually wear pink I mean that’s kind of what you can say but you really can’t
Say too much beyond that because then you end up throwing people into buckets but you know when somebody asked me you know they said why did you pledge well you know why did you join a fraternity and I start reflecting on that said you know I think about my college career and
My first impression of Greek life based on what I saw on my campus at that time was I saw a lot of friends who really got distracted when it came to a Greek life um I thought I mean again I was a bad student I wasn’t a good student as a
Kid so I was almost like one of those older people that goes back to school and he’s like taking the education seriously cuz he has to pay for but I was like that at 18 years old and so I didn’t have time for I didn’t have time
For for excuse my French I just you know on campus I said I’m here too I’m here to get mine I’m here to succeed I’m here to do well and I’m not gonna succeed if I wasted all my time on nonsense you know but I saw a lot of
Other kids and maybe it was a maturity thing I think for a lot of them their parents were paying their way through school so they didn’t have to work I had to work I was working two jobs at one point one point us actually working three jobs three jobs still making straight A’s
Because I became really efficient and time management I started managing my time like a CEO when I was 18 19 years old I wasn’t perfect now but I did my best and um and what I observed was I remember um you know I remember being invited to join every fraternity on the
Campus every black fraternity every single one the capitals and the queues of the Sigma’s and the alphas I remember having meetings with with one person from each group who sat with me for 30 45 minutes to say hey man you really should join should be a capital here’s
Why and you know and I don’t think it’s cuz I was the coolest guy in the world I think it’s because my GPA was good um and I remember logically just trying to think like okay what is this really gonna do for me okay so maybe if I’m in this group
I can they can help me get a job later on that was back when I was in the mindset that you know you go to school so you can get a good job I’ve killed all that since then I don’t I don’t believe in that I think you should uh
You should whatever you learn you should learn how to start a business just in case because you know the white man really ain’t hiring black people like that a lot of black folks are getting all kind of pushed to the side even educated black people especially black
Men um you know there’s a study that says actually the black men with um with Ivy League degrees get treated like they went to a state school you know so in the fact is that that’s you know that’s because this is a white man’s economy he’s what he’s running everything is his
Stuff so he’s always gonna put you kind of at the back of the bus you know you gotta accept that unless you go and get the the fortitude to go build your own bus and that’s been my mindset I’m like I’m a bill mone but it might be the
Tiniest little raggedy most raggedy bus on the street but it’s gonna be mine and I’m gonna give it to my kids and say take good care of this bus this is the most valuable thing that will ever own right now or that we own it at this
Current time and I’m gonna take more pride in a but a raggedy bus I own than in a shiny bus that I borrow from somebody else that’s just you know me but um anyway I remember uh you know when I when I was sort of told you know
What the expectations were I was told number one I had to give a bunch of money which I didn’t have and I was like why would I work hard I mean it takes me a long time to earn three four five hundred dollars why would I give it all
The way to you just so I can join your group I what so I can be your friend I mean we were already friends I don’t understand that you know so I didn’t get that the stuff about wearing the colors that didn’t mean anything to me I just
You know I guess you know what one thing I did have I don’t know where it came from but I kind of had a decent I didn’t have high self esteem as a kid but I had a sense of self you know I didn’t really need anybody to really give me something
To feel make me feel good about who I was in terms of you know feeling like ooh I don’t know I I guess I guess because I didn’t it wasn’t like I was the coolest person but I didn’t care about not fitting in and I still don’t I
Still know yeah okay you think I’m a nerd fine whatever you know so um I didn’t understand the money um also I did not understand pledging very well I you know I remember just I had a couple friends I got I mean get their asses beat online I’m talk about to the point
Where one guy had to go to the hospital putting cigarettes out on his tongue and I was like why would you let somebody put a cigarette out on your tongue are you serious right now and so I was looking at him like a punk like dude why would you let somebody do
That to you and you know and again I guess it’s just you know wanting to be accepted and so he let them beat him so bad that he ended up going to the hospital and um and again if you ever wonder why Dame Dash and I are friends
That stuff like that is the reason why like we were both look at something like that and say what kind of man are you did you’re gonna let another man do all that to you just so he’ll let you in the club that don’t make no sense so um
Anyway oh so so that was the other thing I didn’t understand this idea of abuse you know if I give me if somebody hits me i’ma hit you back period um and it’s kind of like you know the abuse didn’t make sense and then I would hear stories
About people you know when they’re online getting yo where they wake you up at 2 3 o’clock in the morning and say you know go to Taco Bell and give me give me a taco in the home and I was like no I’m not gonna do that because I
Gotta I gotta sleep I need my sleep so I can keep my GPA up and I’m not gonna let anything ruin my grade point average and the reason I felt that way was because before I got to college I didn’t feel like I had anything I had nothing you
Know in terms of anything I could really you know feel good about anything that made me feel proud as a young man um and so when I finally started making good grades and realizing that I was smart I was like man I’m not letting this go for
Anything this is all I got right now you know you’re not gonna mess that up and so I saw a lot of friends who would get so carried away with the with pledging and step in and just the culture of some of the threats that they
Would ruin their grades or you know you know you see some guy that was in college til he was 28 because he’s hanging with his frat brothers and everybody acts like that was normal I think that was normal or or I saw guys become literally become alcoholics because all of their friends were
Alcoholics you know and in fact I had some real good friends like that who started I started college as good people with good grades and two three years later they’re trying to be this pessimist I’m trying to be cool and they said never to look about on their hand
All the time these guys are alcohol likes to this day and so it’s not dissing those people or anything but I remember when I was about to I did there was one Fred I was real close to pledging and I’m not gonna name the factors I’m not trying to diss nobody
But I remember the reason I didn’t pledge was because he got the day it got to the day before I was about to go online and I just looked around at these black men around me and I said this is not what black manhood is supposed to be
About black manhood is not supposed to be about you know chase you know sleeping with any woman with a vagina um you know drinking until you throw up every night not studying and pursuing your intellectual opportunities um being an irresponsible person just getting into dumb situations wasting time I just
I didn’t know I didn’t really I don’t really know who told me any of that me obviously I had a strong father but even he made mistakes as a person as a young man but but but again he did actually he’s my father actually is a little bit
Like damn – just very audacious very bold and and and I guess maybe I got that from my dad where it was like you know if you see somebody doing something that doesn’t make any sense you don’t follow that crowd no matter how much pressure is put up on you so literally
That night right before I was gonna go online the next day I said nah man I’m not doing this and they got mad at me I mean I had a football player that was ready to beat me up it was really weird I didn’t understand why he was so mad
That I didn’t pledge I guess he felt rejected or maybe he I don’t know what he was thinking but he was really angry like he was gonna beat me up and I remember I said to him I said uh you know and he was big guy I thought he’s
Gonna kill me but um but I couldn’t help it my mouth always starts running before the rest of my brain catches up sometimes and and I just said it might say you’re not you’re not a man I said this is not what what being a black man
Is supposed to be about you know you run out here you drinking like an alcoholic you ain’t studying you know you’re just doing all these things that are you know wasting your life and I said it one day when I become successful and I have some money somebody just like you is gonna
Get mad at me because I’m successful as if I got lucky as if I just somehow woke up with money in my pocket or whatever and he said he said man I’m gonna be where I want your money I’m gonna be in the NFL I’m a dude
You look course like ever you know so many other athletes to go to they play college football thinking they’re gonna be in the NFL even though university kentucky almost never sends anybody to the NFL that does then last more than two days um and uh you know and i just
Remember saying like i wish you the best but i said you know this is not i said you’re not a black man you’re you’re black you know and and i remember when i said that i was preparing to get my ass whooped but I didn’t realize I
Forgot that football players if they get in fights and somebody that they get in trouble so he didn’t even do anything but I still remember that conversation and uh and it made me just it and I think honestly that experience skewed me a little bit on what you know what the
Organizations were all about now as the years went by I started seeing just great work from every you know black greek-letter organization um you know just you know extraordinary uh you know courage and solidarity I have a tremendous amount of respect for every one of them because every group even
When you have the bad apples you’ve got the good apples as well but one thing I will say is somebody you know to summarize my position on black Greek letter organizations it was very simple I said and this is what I told the person today I said um I said black
Greek letter organizations in on college campuses are fine as long as as long as the students are not allowing anything to undermine the their GPA as long as you’re not spending more time practicing for the step show that you then you’re spending studying for class arm as long
As you’re not engaging in behavior that is going to put you in a bad situation in the long run um you know so if you’re staying in school two extra two or three years because you’re so focused on your fret that you’re not studying or if you you know if you’re failing classes
Because you’re trying to pledge or you’re trying to get ready for the step show or if you end up becoming an alcoholic or catch STDs because you’re just trying to fit in with with a culture that’s not healthy I’m not a fan of that and we’d be lying if we didn’t
You know admit that in some cases you do see some weird cultural outpourings that just are not good and I’m just I’m just I’m just a fan of non stupid behavior period you know I say if you go to college you’re not there therefore you’re not there to pledge
You’re not there to join a frat a sorority you’re there to get an education so if you talk to your child or if you are the child and you’re going to go to college whatever you want to do is fine if you want to pledge it’s fine
Do it go to the step show fine do it I know that’s fine I love to watch watching a good step show but never let anything never let anything get in front of the necessity for you to work as hard as you can to accomplish your objectives
That’s the bottom line if you do that then you’re good do whatever else you want I’m not going to judge but if but if you are failing every class and can’t graduate but yet you are the flyest person on your fraternity line I’m gonna clown you I’m gonna look at you like
What’s wrong what you do this is not this is not the way a man or grown woman conducts their life so that’s it so that’s my position on black Greek letter organizations I think they’re also I interact with all of my probably giving a speech to every single one of them at
Some point and so I certainly certainly don’t have any animosity but it’s like at the same time um you know look we got to focus on what matters the most which is your quest toward excellence whatever that may be and black people are supposed to be at the top of the pile
We’re not supposed to be lagging at the bottom there’s no excuse for that excellence is our middle name that’s what it needs to be in this generation all right I’m dr. Boyce Watkins from the black business school and also once again the book is called everything you
Ever want to know about college if you don’t want to check it out I’ll give it to your child that’s it until we meet again please stay strong be blessed and be educated I am gone peace
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