BY AMY MACMILLAN
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW KIST
Forbes
mentors
malik’s
sweet
spot
Mentor: Malik Armstead
Age: 29
Occupation: Owner and executive
chef, Five Spot, Brooklyn, New York
Accomplishment: Taking the
leap to start his own successful
restaurant
“Running a
business is like
having a baby
that can’t be
neglected. It
takes a lot of
love and care.”
ever since malilc armstead sold snacks
to hungry classmates in high school, he wanted to open his own business. Armstead
continued to develop his entrepreneurial drive with help from the National
Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a nonprofit group that teaches
inner-city youths to run businesses. After graduating from Morehouse College with a
degree in finance in 1993, Armstead worked as a Wall Street analyst for a couple of
years, but his dream of working for himself remained strong. So in 1996, he took the
leap and spent $30,000 of his own money to open a soul food restaurant, Five Spot, in
Brooklyn. It was an immediate success; Armstead made his original investment back in
less than six months, and recently expanded the restaurant to include a bar. We talked
to Armstead about how finding focus, taking risks, and making sacrifices put him on
the road to success.
FIND FOCUS Three years out of college, Armstead found that he was fed up with
Wall Street politics, so he quit his job at Morgan Stanley to start his own business. “I
was 24 years old with two years of work experience,” he recalls. “On paper, [what I was
doing] didn’t make any sense. But I believed in myself and knew that it could work.”
Armstead also knew enough to follow two basic business tenets as he chose a direc
tion for his venture—evaluate your resources, and do something you know. “I had to
look at the human resources I had within myself as well as what close friends and
family could add to the venture. I come from a family of cooks, so I was really confi
dent going into the business.” The first day Five Spot opened, there was a line out the
door to get a table. “We’ve been successful mainly through word of mouth,” he says.
TAKE RISKS Like many entrepreneurs, Armstead risked everything when he used
his own money to start his business. He allowed himself six months to launch the
restaurant, mainly because that’s how long his unemployment insurance would hold
out. “I understood how risky the idea was,” he says. “But I also knew I could get a job
somewhere else if it didn’t work out. Still, I really didn’t talk to family members about
it. It was such a risky thing, and I didn’t want to be discouraged.” He was buoyed by
the idea of making it all happen himself. “It was myself, my brother, and my fiancee.
We mopped floors, delivered food, waited on customers. Then we just added more
employees as we went along. I believe in taking baby steps in a business.”
MAKE SACRIFICES Armstead makes sacrifices every day to keep his restau
rant up and running. Five Spot is open seven days a week, and as the owner and
executive chef, Armstead logs 12 to 15 hours a day, every day. “It requires an
extreme amount ot sacrifice and devo
tion,” he says. He misses out on time
spent with friends and family members,
as well as time for himself. “Running a
business is like having a baby that can’t
be neglected. It takes a lot of love and
care. There were definitely times when I
Go to www.experience.com/armstead to
read “Rockefellers In the ’Hood,” an article
from Forbes magazine about the National
Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
wished 1 was doing sometnmg else, tsut wnen ail is said and done, ne says, it s
worth it. When he feels squeezed by business pressures, Armstead looks back at all
he has achieved. “I come from humble beginnings, and that helps put things in per
spective. I’ve come so far.” ©