Curious George

I read a stat somewhere that the average white (American) owned small business owner starts off with about $100K in capital while the average black owned small business owner starts off with about $31K. Not playing “identity politics”, whatever that is. I’m simply relaying what I have read to make this point: I think I want to start my own business but I don’t really have the capital to do so. Let me check that, I probably could get the capital but in order to do so I’d have to place myself and family in a position of financial discomfort; I worked too hard to get to this point in my life to risk that money away. I believe I want to start a small business; I do not want to make it the “last ditch effort” where either the business succeeds or my wife and I go hungry! I like to eat. She does too.

Decades ago I had the dream of opening a comic book store. While the first comic book I ever picked up was from a Big B Drug Store in Birmingham, AL the first time I would probably legitimately say I was a comic book fan was going to Curious George’s in (basically) Birmingham. George was a weirdo guy but not in any creepy way, he was funny and eccentric.

(Writer’s note: I started writing this back in October 2018 and stuffed it away into a folder, where it got lost. Resuming it in March 2019)

I remember going to George’s shop and it being so cool to see all those comic books in one place! He had memorabilia and the shop was just perfect and weird and cool and I couldn’t even imagine what my mom thought every time she had to walk into this store LMAO! I also remember around the time when Superman died how the local news went to George to interview him and he gave this very witty comic book guy response of how people who have never even heard of Superman were coming to the shop looking to get rich from a comic book (clearly expressing how absurd of a notion this was). I would love to be a guy like that for wherever I set up shop.

I’m going to be honest, though: I don’t think this dream is going to happen. I feel that maybe this is a dream I should have started right out of college where I had less to lose. I feel that while comic books as a medium is still hanging in there the bottom could drop off on the market at any point. I went to a gaming store in Greenville, SC (The Red Barn) and had really meaningful conversations with the owner and his wife. A locally owned business is NOT a place to get rich quickly. With all I’ve added, a locally owned comic book industry might be a way to get poor very quickly. Which is not only sad, but also a risk that I won’t take in this current environment. Right now being poor is something that is, sadly and ashamedly, frowned upon.

To indulge this melancholy a bit further it seems that the way of the world is to immediately poo poo anything that is new. You see it on social media anytime someone advertises a product: countless comments from people who love the idea of samples but hate the idea of paying people for their blood and sweat. You see it if you enter a MLM type business: you’re told you’re in a pyramid scheme when there isn’t an organization I know of where the top doesn’t get paid much more than bottom rung. No one calls working at McDonald’s a pyramid scheme. If you have a podcast, you can beg friends and family for likes and retweets and 5-star reviews; things you need to expand your social networks so more people can listen, and you’re often ignored.

I’m not quite sure of the fix action to any of this. I know anything worth having is fighting for; pouring energy into. That energy should be positive and filled with love, or at a minimum you have to be aware of what you’re pouring your energy into and why. While it’s certainly true that a Black American has disadvantages in the business world it’s also true that disenfranchising yourself due to those disadvantages doesn’t help you. It’s also true that anyone of any race, any person has a gift. Here’s hoping I find mine and here’s hoping you find yours.