What I Learned From The Black Guerilla Family In Oakland California

Don’t ever say you can’t learn anything from a fool or prisoner. The Black Guerilla Family was started in 1966 by Mr. George Jackson to protect black prisoners. While some prisoners have committed heinous crimes of an unspeakable nature, you can learn serious business tips from them.

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Don’t ever say you can’t learn anything from a fool or prisoner. The Black Guerilla Family was started in 1966 by Mr. George Jackson to protect black prisoners. While some prisoners have committed heinous crimes of an unspeakable nature, you can learn serious business tips from them.

Mr. Jackson first created a logo and a symbol of his team and organization. He created a clear mission statement: “eradicate racism, struggle to maintain dignity in prison, and overthrow the United States government”. Yes, the last part is crazy and delusional but do not miss the business value in what he did.

He organized his mission and then began to organize his team and mobilize his forces. He wrote down his clear mission statement so that it would be easier to share amongst his team and recruits. He was passionate even at a time of great pressure, anger, frustration, mental jail, and physical lock down. He was desperate and depressed. Through his desperation, he fought through it to organize himself and have a clear direction and clear strategy. Even in prison he wrote a business plan, worked the plan, tweaked the plan, and recruited a loyal following without any money at all.

The Black Guerilla Family is one of the strongest prison gangs in America. If you are in prison and you are an African American male, you would want to be a part of the team or suffer the consequences. This is the same in this economy and recession. You must do one of two things: either develop a strong team witih a clear mission statement and recruit loyal members, or become a part of a strong team with a clear mission statement and strong members.

Your gang will help you navigate through turbulent waters and tumultuous times. It will help you through difficulty and pain when you don’t know where to turn. This is what the BGF stands and stood for. You cannot sit on an island not knowing what to do. Just as in prison, you will get shanked, killed, and will not last long at all without being on a strong team and being an asset to that team. Disclaimer: I am not advocating that you jump into a prison gang and start gangbanging. I speak to prisoners to help reform them and teach that they must do similar to what they did inside the prison walls but legitimately.

Find a strong team member or mentor just like a gang leader. The gang leader should have a mission and a plan to mobilize and get moving. Listen and learn and grow but most importantly, do not be isolated and not speaking to your La Familia. Just as a true gang does, they listen to the persons problems. You always have a trusted soldier on your team and true successful gangs are extremely loyal. They do not flip and turn on their gang. If they do, a death oath is imminent. Business is not that serious but find a mentor and find a new team to learn and grow from. This is paramount to your success and your personal success.

Success Lessons From The Black Guerilla Family

Bring Out Your Dead for 2009

Bring out your dead is about moving way past a job and building the new you which is about building your own company and your customers.

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This was a phrase in Monty Python’s movie “In Search Of The Holy Grail” and it was funny as ever. But, 2010 is truly about change and the dead is the jobs in the U.S.A. Bring out your dead is about moving way past a job and building the new you which is about building your own company and your customers.

This is NOT a New Year’s Resolution. This is a 3 year economic plan designed to power you and start generating business and not waste another week applying for jobs hoping to land something in America. It’s not going to happen that quickly. But what can happen, is you building your own business over the next 3 years to a burgeoning empire even if that empire generates $3,500 per month in solid income. God speed to you!

How I Harnessed Leadership Directly From New York Yankees Joe Girardi

Growing up in Peoria, Illinois, I played quarterback in high school behind New York Yankee skipper Joe Girardi and learned some of life’s greatest business lessons as a kid. I don’t know if it was fate or not but even our names were similar: Joe Girardi and Gerard Spinks. Both of us went to high [...]

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Spinks Better Stronger Faster

Growing up in Peoria, Illinois, I played quarterback in high school behind New York Yankee skipper Joe Girardi and learned some of life’s greatest business lessons as a kid. I don’t know if it was fate or not but even our names were similar: Joe Girardi and Gerard Spinks.

Both of us went to high school in Peoria, Illinois at The Academy of Our Lady/Spalding Institute, a private catholic high school in downtown Peoria. I grew up in a single mother household, Joe Girardi grew up across the Illinois River in East Peoria, Illinois. I had heard a lot about Joe Girardi in baseball because he excelled in little league and was considered one of the best catchers in the little league circuit in the Peoria area.

I met Joe Girardi my freshman year of high school when being a quarterback was nothing but a dream and a wish. I had already watched him play his freshman football year and watched him play baseball at Bradley Park which I would walk to with my big brother, Jeronimo Spinx. What struck me about this kid was that he was very smart and extremely nice. He was strong as an ox, open minded, and willing to help me learn everything about sports. I met him during summer conditioning down at the high school where our coaches ran us and got us into top football condition to prepare for the upcoming football season.

Playing quarterback was awkward at my high school where 98% of the student body was white. My family and I were some of a handful of black kids that went to the school and even the coaches were really against having a black quarterback. Joe Girardi was different. He was hard working. He was meticulous in his approach. His parents instilled both academics as the focal point and sports as the secondary mission in his life. He put God first and exemplified that in his young life. The summer leading into my sophomore year, Joe asked me what my goals were. I said that I wanted to become a starter on the sophomore team and play varsity football as a sophomore and one day beat him out as a starter.

As a black kid, seeing a leader work extremely hard, play hard, and strive for the top colleges thoroughly changed my life and let me into the secret of business. Joe Girardi taught me to throw the football 500 times per day with no excuses. The secret was in the work. Work hard and confidence would naturally come. Refine your craft every single day without fail. When discouragement comes and people talk about you, keep your head down and keep working hard. Most importantly, he never focused on money. He focused on being the best he could be.

Joe Girardi taught me balance and excellence even at a young age before anyone knew what he would become. He taught me leadership is in what you do not what you say. He taught me business excellence lies in doing something everyday until you become an expert at it and block everyone else out. He taught me that business success lies in your ability to play ball literally and metaphorically.

This article is a repost of my original work at the Atlanta Examiner. All writings copywritten by Gerard Spinks Publishing.

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All posts are original content by Gerard Spinks Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, GA USA 678-993-7743