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.

madame walker inventor

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.

Meredith Gourdine Engineer Inventor

Meredith Gourdine, Ph.D in Engineering attended Cornell University, was born in Newark, NJ and grew up in Brooklyn and Harlem, NY.  He pioneered the research that led to electrogasdynamics that disperses fog and smoke. He is also responsible for developing the technique that removes smoke from buildings – incineraid. His techniques for gas dispersion led to the techniques developed to remove fog from airport runways.

Based on his ideas in electrogasdynamics (EGD) Meredith Gourdine was able to build a multi-million dollar corporation that employed over 150 people.  He developed a generator using the principles of EGD to successfully convert natural gas to electricity.  Other applications of EGD include refrigeration, desalination of sea water and reducing the pollutants in smoke.

At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Meredith Gourdine won the silver medal for long jump. He died in Houston, TX on November 20, 1998 while still serving as the president of Energy Innovation, Inc.  He held over 40-patents for various inventions.

Professor James E. West

James “Jim” West co-inventor of the electret microphone knows what it is to be challenged and how to overcome those challenges.  He grew up in the south before the Civil Rights Movement but was nevertheless able to go to college and study physics.  His father wanted him to become a doctor but he knew that he would only be happy studying physics and “tinkering”.

As a young boy of just 8-years old, he inadvertently conducted his first scientific experiment.  He conducted 120 volts of electricity through his body when he attempted to plug the cord of a radio he had repaired into an electrical outlet.  Instead of being shocked into fear of electricity, he became more fascinated with it and was determined to learn all he could about it.

Jim West is dyslexic so he memorized his textbooks in an effort to disguise his reading disability from everyone.  People with learning disadvantages often see the world through different glasses and this difference can make them very successful inventors.  The moral of Jim’s story is to embrace your differences and face your challenges head on finding ways to overcome them and make them work in your favor. Today, James E. West is a research professor at John Hopkins University.

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