The next time you feel that you are being discriminated against or held back by the system or someone else, draw inspiration from Madame C. J. Walker who built an empire to amass a fortune in fifteen years.

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Her own words: “I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground”.

She developed a scalp condition that caused her to lose some of her hair so she made her own product to correct her problem, a scalp conditioning and healing formula, that she began selling. She promoted her products by an exhaustive sales drive throughout the South and Southeast selling door-to-door and giving demonstrations.

She opened a college to train “hair culturists” in Pittsburgh in 1908.  At one point she headed a thriving national corporation that employed well over 3,000 people. The Walker System – a broad offering of cosmetics, licensed agents, schools that all offered opportunities for personal growth and employment for thousands of Black women.