Black excellence can’t truly flourish within systems that were never built for us. The upside is, these disparities create a monumental opportunity for us to achieve financial success by other means. As AI reshapes the world and challenges old systems of access, the new generation has the power to drive economic empowerment and collective ownership by taking matters into their own hands. Young Black visionaries shouldn’t wait for permission to shape the future — they should be seizing it.
Suggested Reading
And nobody understands this better than former Boulé chairman and author of “Seize The Future! The Boulé As A Force For Change,” Loren R. Douglass.
Douglass has built a 35-year career spanning Wall Street, Fortune 500 corporations, and global advisory roles. Harnessing expertise from Goldman Sachs, General Electric, and Merrill Lynch and more, the business expert feels strongly that now is the time for structural transformation in our community, and a renewed focus on the next era of Black leadership.
Looking ahead, he asserts that investing in education, economic infrastructure, and social systems are essential to ensuring that today’s visionaries thrive in the future.
Rethinking the Road to Success
“Staying in school doesn’t help very much if there are no jobs for them, if there are no services for them, if there are no neighborhoods for them,” Douglass told The Root. “It’s really a multi-faceted thing that we all are responsible for, which is why I wrote ‘The Power Doctrine‘… so that we can make a way for my daughter and perhaps her children — not only to solve the problem for today, but centuries from now.”
When it comes to education, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois debated the best strategy for Black progress during post-Reconstruction America. Washington advocated vocational skills and gradual advancement, while Du Bois championed higher education and immediate equality, per PBS. Douglass maintains that both leaders were correct, urging us to think more broadly about the solution. For some, this might look like skipping college altogether — a controversial perspective in 2025.
Black Excellence Powered by AI
“There are some men and women whose time is probably better spent on the academic track… but there are some that should probably be on the applied track,” Loren told The Root, arguing that a “cookie-cutter” path isn’t always the answer. And with the explosion of AI, the transformation leader asserts that the barriers to build cutting edge businesses have “never been lower.”
“With our creativity and our resilience, we have the opportunity to revolutionize businesses in a way that we never have before,” Loren explained. “We’re imitated everywhere… imagine you take that creativity and power, and integrate that with technology,” he suggested. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” he added, noting a skill Black folks have undoubtedly perfected over the course of generations.
Seizing the Future
Through his books “Seize the Future” and “The Power Doctrine,” Douglass outlines a roadmap for lasting change rooted in Black unity, innovation, and ownership. Both works challenge traditional ideas of progress, urging a shift from “cookie cutter” success to real structural power.
For Douglass, the future of Black America isn’t something to wait on — it’s something to build together, right now.
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