One of the most annoying things to me during the economic downfall period full of mass layoffs was brothas and sistas always talking that “entrepreneur” stuff as aspirational while they were working. Then when corporate let all the brothas and sistas go at first, they scrambling to become entrepreneurs then start selling multi-level-marketing stuff calling me and everybody they know. Laid off women I wanted to get with asking if we can meet up; I get over there excited and she starts selling me some multi-level marketing stuff trying to get a commission. 

See, our folks are slipping hard, always on some aspirational stuff until that hammer of realness hits the floor like Thor. Then they have no plans, no real savings (savings is a false sense of security; it won’t last) and all they got to show for is on the job dressing to impress and gossiping about co-workers. Then they talk about they want to be a travel agent or real estate agent like everybody else. I noticed the brothas don’t talk about being stockbrokers and getting their series 7 license nowadays, they rather start-up some hustle talking about flipping homes and trading crypto hustles; guess the brothas don’t want to hit those books, huh?  

In 2021 we are looking at corporate shedding off their human resources for artificial intelligence resources, switching from leasing office businesses to leasing data hosting centers. Folks see Apple and Microsoft keep announcing building new data centers and they all happy not realizing they about to be losing some jobs to automation and artificial intelligence. Corporates are moving to the cloud and virtual desktops and I’m looking at a bunch of folks in information technology that won’t be setting up computers or IP phones any time soon. Let me just say, yall stuck up corporate sisters – you weren’t really doing anything at the job special either; just there dressing pretty to act like you got better options than all the good brothas on the job quietly making $100k+ on your conceit.  

But in 2021, we see massive opportunities but there are some caveats. There is going to be a massive economic boom but it won’t be lightweights – the middle class will be hollowed out. It’s going to be folks who are at the near bottom or situation in that area, like the hood and it’s going to be those good brothas and sistas on the job quietly making $100k+ on that attitude of yours. They going to know what the opportunities and where the new stuff is. So, you better learn how to be entrepreneurial right now while you still got a job and get yourself ready for either a layoff or leave when you ready. 

While you at your job, I want you to think of things you have access to and what you can set up right now. Maybe you can help create a shopping list application that let professional shoppers manage their stores, scan in products, set up their web site, and set their fees to be a professional grocery shopper and deliverer – you can use a web site and database and don’t have to build an app for these things. Maybe you can look at setting up a podcast studio now that Apple and Spotify are now doing paid podcasts and you run your own production company to run paid shows and sign talent to your contracts. Or you can broker spots in urban communities to build EV charging stations with large EV charging station firms with Biden's upcoming infrastructure bill – you better get your mind thinking right with all this new money, new opportunities coming up in 2021. 

You can do homework and write how-to books on how to create digital ad campaigns, how to create a Louie Vuitton / Gucci / Hermes resale shop importing from Rakuten sellers in Japan – a whole bunch of new game with a new paradigm right now you can be writing up like Dream and Hustle and be selling that on Amazon because the craze is about to be on. I will be going out in Atlanta be at the spots and our folks be out there just looking good and trying to floss hard but none of them have any solid next-gen Black Excellence platform-building hustles; just lame like Tristan Walker trying to appear special to everybody but themselves.  

You better do these things right now while you working a job. First, I want you to look at Asian business news – Channel News Asia web site with on-demand video is awesome – Money Mind is the best show on the planet for this level of the game. There is more YouTube and NHK has their own mobile app to watch on weekends – they cover the Fourth Industrial Revolution and mobile-first paradigm very well while American news focus on corporate-based agenda and biased narrative reporting. You learn all the hot trends going on in Asia and bring that back to your notebook – we been doing this all along, using styles from Asia and bring it to the Black community like old school Kung Fu movies and Japanese 808 drum machines.  

Next, I want you to find a scalable solution that you can start at any hood. I prefer you focus on the Sun Belt states that are warm and mild all year round from Texas to Florida and up in North Carolina and Georgia but you can focus on the Southeast first. Look at things like solar power charging, setting up recruiting and consulting services and training schools, podcasts, and live streaming studios you can rent out – plenty of Chinese business videos on YouTube where you can freeze the frame and see all the things you can get on Amazon right now. Stop wasting your time watching something on YouTube talking about finding a high net-worth man; you are exactly that middle-class that’s going to be hollowed out this decade being distracted like that. 

Last, I want you to set up a new spending account – it can be one of those mobile-only cards or debit card or preferably a secured credit card and you use it to subscribe to low-platform code like Office 365 or Amazon Web Services, or Adobe Creative and get the per-month billing so you can have platforms to build your business model from. You may need the monthly service that gives you legal document downloads for contracts or Adobe PDF digital contracts for example. See what platforms you need to subscribe to that is essential to your business idea while you working – pay off in advance if you can. That way you know what you need like SMS monthly service to send out alerts on behalf of small food businesses to say a table is ready or a meal is ready to be picked up. 

What I don’t want you to do is sit around on your job in 2021 thinking things are good – no it’s not. Count your blessing and your days because the truth is corporations don’t need humans like that anymore – look at India COVID-19 situation; they even got outsourced Indians quitting their jobs to tend to their family or stay away from everyone trying to be safe. It is inevitable they have to move to data center hosting servers away from office space holding humans and rely on automation. You have little chance of lasting – it’s going to be a black man finding out he the last human worker at the trucking company in a decade or so, watch and see. None of you working jobs right now are safe like that and everybody going to have a date when it’s time to go. 

But you better prepare right now for what’s coming up in 2021 – because if you miss out on this big economic expansion, that’s you and your entire generational downline you going to mess up.