As a businesswoman, I see clearly and shrewdly: only what serves to advance, promote, and support good business, good practices, good policies, profit, longevity, and durable success. My every thought, action, and abstention has a clear purpose.
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As a woman, in America, every business decision I make will be challenged and later discussed.

As a Black woman, born and raised in the United States, and a descendant of U.S. government sanctioned slavery, I continue to strive for civil rights, equity, and parity; in America, individuals who have not strived or fought take for granted and feel entitled to rights and liberties for which my body has been scarred for, and which I am presently denied. All that I have achieved has been on my own (with God’s help): unaided by American groups for women, institutions, affiliations, or the United States at large, which, today still denies to Black American, law-abiding, descendants of American government sanctioned slaves, equal status to peer groups. Thus, I do not hold even the slightest expectation of external aid: it is firmly instilled in me that I must persist and look within if I am to survive.

I am a woman, a business owner, and I am a Black American. I have a rich multi-ethnic heritage. I put duty and responsibility (and, of course, my commitment to God above all else) before sentiment. When, if, and where emotion detracts, delays, or otherwise obstructs clear responsibility or justice, I will always be dutiful and carry out my oath of office.

The women I serve with – hire, recommend, or otherwise support – share this distinct and unique quality: duty, responsibility, commitment, and sensibility, before sentimentality but not humanity. We maintain our uncompromised moral and lawful character at all times. We hold all to this same standard, without exception or excuse.

We bear standards where men and women before us have failed. We report violators even when they share our own blood, race, nationality or ethnicity; we are exemplar pillars of moral and lawful character: we do not engage in impropriety, immorality, or turn a blind eye to injustice, although it may be easier and more palatable to look away.
We give praise where praise is due, and we do not hesitate to publicly denounce even once beloved figures who turn reprobate.

We honor the great women who have gone before us, inspired us, instructed us, cared for us, and loved us. We are faster, stronger, smarter, and more resilient because of the fearless female leaders who were before us. We are forever grateful, and dutiful.
To the women of uncompromised character and integrity, and of unrelenting will, changing the world: we honor your service and pledge to remain steadfast and standard bearing. End of Ceremony.
 
Today, January 20, 2021, with immediate effect, a new Honorable Female Team has been appointed to serve, to faithfully and dutifully execute the duties of office, to make and enforce policies which advance the Company, to advise, to make recommendations and successive appointments, and to lead.
 
The Changing of the Guard is now complete.

Friends:

These women are a force to be reckoned with, as well as a force for good.
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Personal and professional integrity, diligence, skill, professionalism, humanity, empathy, discretion and truth are the characteristics and attributes which I recognize in these women. These women exude confidence, strength, and intelligence – without arrogance, chauvinism, entitlement or callousness. I would change nothing about these women.

Therefore, without hesitation or reservation, I am truly honored to recommend these women for a promotion based on skill, intelligence, education, resilience, achievement, and value added to their respective professions, entities, and colleagues.

My Christmas wish for you is that we would live up to the exemplary standard which these women, and many others, have set – and that we ourselves would become the examples that others look to for guidance and hope.

This day, December 23, 2020, it is my distinct honor to publicly recognize and acknowledge Beatrice, Harpreet, and Shaina.

These women embody the core values, personal and professional ethics, and the characteristics which we should all aspire to live up to. Be inspired by all that is good and just, and always ask if there is something you can do to inspire others to live up to their highest purpose.

With much affection, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Theresa 

Because of discrimination, bias, and racism in the United States, it has taken me longer than necessary to open and grow this business. Because of racism, jobs which would have earlier been created were delayed. Because of racism, opportunities and careers were held hostage as I navigated a U.S. legal system which we are only beginning to acknowledge does not treat all U.S. persons the same.

​Below is the complaint I was forced to write and submit after an encounter with a white male judge in the Southern District of New York. To date, there has been no justice in the case. 

To add insult to injury, a separate female made public a similar complaint against Judge Cott just before this incident. 

Still, no accountability  and no redress. 

I grew up largely in a vacuum, a space desperately wanting for strong, inspired, and wise femininity. At least I was blessed enough to find a partial safe haven in my home. However, home isn’t ever enough for a young girl or young lady with aspirations keen enough to set the world ablaze. It takes a village, and my village was severely lacking. Mostly, the females around me were bodies awaiting a baby. They wanted two or three things in life above all else: a man to be under, a baby in their arms, and a sizeable inheritance (if they hadn’t already gained access to it).

Black females in the United States were statistically more likely to give birth to a baby before she was ready to provide critical care and support while white females’ hopes rested almost entirely (and critically) on a baby coming forth of her vagina before the ripe old age of twenty-five. (Hispanic and Asian women were mostly manipulative, rude, distrusting, and some were just openly racist towards me. Imagine that: women of color mistreating other women of color; this is not as uncommon as you might think.) So, I was almost entirely alone.

This desire to bring a baby into the world has shaped the vast majority of what I have witnessed females around me conform to: she can’t leave her cheating abusive husband, she can’t take a stand because the repercussions may affect more than herself, she can’t finish school, get a job, take a promotion, travel, stand out, say yes, say no, or do any of the things which I had already decided I couldn’t live without – because of baby or her desire to have a baby. With the whole wide world at her disposal, her small world relied intensely on baby. (And if you let her tell it – with bated breath, no less – she couldn’t be complete without baby, and she believed it was ingrained in her DNA to be hostage to baby. )

Nevermind the failed women who fail to comprehend what womanhood and femininity is truly about, and who therefore inevitably fail and disappoint the best of us (they’ve sucked up way too much oxygen from our lives as it is, if you ask me). This piece isn’t for them or even about them. This piece is for us: me, you, and every woman (man and child) who gave us cause to hope and to celebrate. Today we celebrate you.  

I am more than a body awaiting baby. So, almost every conversation that I have had with women from high school and through law school has left me uninspired and able (and indeed eager) to walk away. I will always walk away from mediocrity, failure, apathy, and ambivalence. This lack in my village (of inspiring women) had left me peerless. I was happy but peerless – and this is why I started my business.

I was searching for peers: women so skilled, thoughtful, dedicated, and resilient that she wouldn’t settle for an unhappy life of underachievement, aches, complaints and pain. Never before in my life, prior to starting my own company, did I have the privilege to stand in a room filled with women who not only aspired to be more but who would not settle for less. I started my own company, and suddenly I was surrounded by women who wouldn’t live on their knees bending to the wills and whims of those who we all know to be inferior in most aspects of life (despite paying their way to the top for a temporary boost of self-esteem and short-lived success).

To the women who are a village of support and inspiration to us all: Happy Mother’s Day!

To the women who inspire, fight back, stand up, speak out, ask tough questions, and represent all women so well; to the mothers who remind us that everyday is mother’s day, because we wouldn’t be where we are now without you; the mothers who have sacrificed so much so that a young woman unready to be a mother would have resources in abundance to give to her children – Happy Mother’s Day!

To the mothers who encourage young women of color, when a big bad white world tells us daily that we are meant only to serve and live in chains – Happy Mother’s Day!

To the mothers across the globe who inspired and encouraged me, and gave me a community of support and refuge, when I was so young but still recognized that I was peerless, to you I will always give honor.

With love, admiration, sincerity, and respect 
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Happy Mother’s Day!

Theresa 

​References are Absurd
Abandon the Archaic Practice and Move on with the World

Prospective employers should no longer require references. In technologically advanced and modern societies and businesses, the opinion of others is not a sound or reasonable metric of performance ability or character. In today’s world, the opinions of others are simply opinions – not best evidence to aid the hiring decision.

References do more harm than good in any hiring process. In an advanced society, the best evidence of performance ability is providing the candidate with an independent assessment test based on the specific goals and needs of the individual business. Countless issues can and often do arise when a business places the hiring of a prospective employee in the hands of a third person who is unaccountable for that individual’s future performance. Consider:

• What independent knowledge do you have of the veracity, judgement, and independence of the person providing the reference?
• Is that person liable or accountable for the future actions of the prospective employee?
• Would you crowdsource or accept the majority vote on other decisions impacting your business?

How much weight do you give to a reference? Is it a measure of an individual’s popularity? Are you confident that making hiring decisions based on a popularity poll is the best way? (Not a single professional establishment would advise this.) Or, is it a nuisance requirement that continues because no one at the entity has had the courage to do away with the redundant practice that offers little to no value or protection to the business?

Instead, hiring decisions should be based on independent and bias-free evidence sources, such as background, drug, credit, criminal, and education checks – if and where necessary and applicable. Further, every business is unique. So, every business should have an independent assessment test that accurately screens for the traits and skills most desirable to that business.

If you’re unconvinced that ditching the archaic process is the way to go, consider that lying on resumes, cover letters, and job applications is no longer the exception but a sovereign rule. For better or worse, even good intentioned candidates cross the line manipulating and tweaking their past experience trying to outsmart human resources software. And then there are the brazen multitudes with resources to spare who splurge on recommendations and everything in between to ensure they get the job or make the grade.