September 30, 2015
Minority & Small Business Week
Page 13
PHOTO BY M ARK W ASHINGTON /T HE P ORTLAND O BSERVER
Sam Brooks of the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs leads an organization whose mission is to promote entrepreneurship and economic development for
ethnic minorities in Oregon and southwest Washington
Stay Ready to be Ready
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ence to people between the ages
of 14 and 21 with the support and
mentorship of businesses in Or-
egon and southwest Washington.
The aim is to promote and de-
velop young entrepreneurs and
leaders statewide, but Brooks
says it also gives him a chance to
talk to young people and share
the advice he’s learned in his
decades of work running busi-
nesses.
“I have to credit Magic John-
son, who was on a panel with me
in Washington, D.C. years ago
and said something that I tell
young people today. He talked
about sitting on the bench during
a basketball game, and said
when the coach selected him it
was more important than ever to
shine.”
“You got to stay ready to be
ready,” Brooks quoted Johnson
as telling him. “And I’ll never
forget that and I tell folks that.
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day?’ and whoever it was, I walk
up to them and give them $100.
Because I want kids to know
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through the door for an oppor-
tunity they might not get again.
We all got to stay ready to be
ready.”
The organization has changed
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helped found it in 1987, and he
shared that the climb for minori-
ties in the business sector has
not always been easy.
Growing up in the segregat-
ed South, Brooks remembers
the separate drinking fountains
for white and black residents,
and the days as a black student
you would have to enter delis
through their back doors to get
a sandwich.
“Once when I was younger,”
he said, “I walked into a business
and I tried to offer them my busi-
ness card. They turned me away
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mative action hires.’ Even when
I explained that was not who I
was and what I was doing, I left
my card anyway, and years later
the same people needed me. And
guess what? I was the one for the
job, but it would cost them a lot
more than it did back then. Op-
portunity doesn’t always come
where you expect it.”
Brooks added that OAME is
looking forward to building a
technology committee, so that
more minorities can get into
the future of tech in the United
States.
It’s still a hard market to crack
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work with the technology folks
and network across our differ-
ences, whatever they may be,”
said Brooks. “But I’m ready,
and I know every time we start
a committee or a project here, it
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when we focus on the opportuni-
ties we have instead of the ones
we don’t, we can make the best
use of what’s on the table.”
Brooks said OAME was a
small organization at the start
and took some time develop, but
today it is one of the biggest mi-
cro-lenders for business startups
in Oregon.
The group has been listed as
a premier organization of ex-
cellence and has won a Vision
Award for Excellence from the
Small Business Administration.
By providing access to capital,
technical assistance, adminis-
trative services, information and
networking, OAME has become
a beacon of hope even amidst an
unstable economy for people of
color.
Brooks’ business savvy and
expertise also made him a suc-
cess at his own company, Brooks
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daughter, Simone Brooks.
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ues to volunteer with OAME
to help ensure that a new gen-
eration of business owners and
dreamers can progress even fur-
ther than what he could ever ex- years I have on earth,” he said,
“but I still have so much I want
pect in his own lifetime.
“I don’t know how many to do.”