Having proper mentorship with your business is needed and can lead to the growth and success of your business. Armond Davis is the founder of The Paragon Group and he takes pride in believing that “with proper funding and support, minority and women-owned businesses are just as capable and talented of seeing the same levels of success as their white male counterparts.” In our recent interview with Davis, he shares how he helps and offers advice to minority entrepreneurs!
How has mentorship played a part in your professional and personal path?
I have been very fortunate to have had mentors throughout my life who have helped to guide me through both life and business. They range from my father, stepfather, and grandfather who gave me different examples of manhood growing up, to the professor at Florida A&M who gave me my first business suit, to the portfolio manager who taught me the basics of investment management. I try to pay it forward as best I can by mentoring others who are coming up behind me in life and business. I sit on the Board of Directors of the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, an organization that has set the standard for mentoring in the Black community for over 30 years. A huge part of the DNA of The Paragon Group is mentorship, which is why I implemented our mentoring program, which requires any founder that I invest into mentoring other founders in their industry or geographic area. This program will plant the seeds for an Ecosystem of Exchange to grow where founders can benefit from the passing of knowledge and information amongst each other.
What are some ways as a community we can do a better part in supporting minority and women-owned businesses?
Support for minority and women-owned businesses must be intentional. It means driving past the national burger chain to go to the locally-owned one. We have to do a better job of that. We have to seek out businesses that are owned by minorities and women, not just work with whatever business we see the most advertising for. Speaking of advertising, when we do find a good minority or woman-owned business that we like, we have to tell others about it. Statistically speaking, people talk more about a business that they have a negative experience with than they do one that they have a positive one. We have to reverse that.
What are some words of wisdom for those aspiring entrepreneurs?
Find something that you love to do and then focus on getting REALLY good at that thing. As you become great at things you’ll be surprised at the opportunities to monetize the skills that come your way. Wealth is a byproduct of success. If you are truly great at what you do, the money will come. Also, have a broader vision than just making money. Money is the means, not the end. Identify something that can be changed for the better or a problem that needs to be solved, then immerse yourself in it. Enjoy the process, because if you can only enjoy the destination you’ll be miserable the whole journey to reach it, and will probably make the people in your life miserable as well.
What is the reality of pursuing entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship does get glamorized on social media platforms. Entrepreneurship can certainly be glamorous at times. Not much feels better than to be able to cancel your calls for the day and go to the spa or spend the day with your wife and not be worried about missing deadlines or hearing it from your boss. But there is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that come on the journey to that freedom. Entrepreneurship is working until the point of exhaustion and pushing past it. It is working 60 hours for little to no pay because you have a dream. It is asking people for money, being laughed at, then going to the next room and asking those people for money with just as much confidence. It is having a vision that no one else sees and continuing to push forward anyway. Truly great entrepreneurship is not a career, it’s a calling.
Learn more about Armond Davis by visiting The Paragon Group website!
Images By: Jonathan Cooper
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