Having A Head For Business — Afro-Trinidadian businesses in the black, a book written by seasoned New York-based Trinidadian journalist Trevor M. Millett will be launched at the Emancipation Support Committee-TT’s Emancipation Village on Saturday 29th July at the VIP Room at 1:45pm, as part of ESC-TT’s programme of activities to mark Emancipation Day.
Published by Amazon Digital Services LLC-Kdp, (the e-book publishing platform of the online global shopping giant Amazon.com), Having A Head For Business features the Montano business family, of which Soca King, Machel Montano is a prominent member. Other highly successful Afro-Trinbagonian entrepreneurs featured as case studies are the late Isaac T. McLeod (quantity surveying and real estate), Keith King (specialist financial services and investments), Aldwyn Wayne (online payment transactions and neo-banking) as well as Cheryl Bowles (Cher-Mere hair and skin care herbal products) and Heather Jones (fashionista).
Millett’s book, 249 pages in length, challenges and debunks misleading myths and stereotypes about African/black people lacking the ability to set up and manage successful business enterprises. It has a Foreword written by Dr James Millette, retired Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at Oberlin College in Ohio and a well-known political figure in Trinidad and Tobago, and it is dedicated to the late political scientist, pollster and keen researcher on black enterprise, Prof. Selwyn Ryan.
Although it focuses primarily on Trinidad and Tobago, the book is actually global in perspective. Specific to Trinidad and Tobago, Millett exposes obstructionist tactics—legislative and social—which have been implemented over the years to exclude Afro-Trinbagonians from the business arena and to justify the claim that they cannot do business. He does that as he brings to light the generally overlooked, undocumented business history of black people in the twin-island State.
To a large extent, the book fills a serious knowledge gap that, in the past, allowed many myths and stereotypes about black people’s inability to do business to multiply and flourish unchallenged. With the spotlight placed on a number of impressive black entrepreneurs and their successful businesses, the book thoroughly undermines the mistaken belief and insistent claim that black people lack the resourceful capacity and drive to do business.
Copies of the book will be on sale at the ESCTT Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Symposium but can also be obtained from Amazon, using the link: https://amzn.to/46wWPX6.