Third Eye Legacy

In 1997, in the middle of the morning about 2am I woke up with an idea called, "Third Eye Legacy". It was a life-changing idea to create a network of businesses and business relationships or legacy that would uplift the Black community.

This image to the right is the logo that I had designed for the Third Eye Legacy network. It is a combination of the ancient third eye (or all-seeing eye) to symbolize the desperate situation that I saw in our communities and what it meant for the future of our society; and the modern artistic image of "my brother's keeper" with a hand reaching down from the Third Eye to help another brother up. That logo - in essence ... is our mission statement.

The idea was simple but genius. I would start with one business and gradually form business relationships and business partners in several businesses that were vital to the community.

Each of these businesses would be connected to a common mission and vision: "To uplift and rejuvinate the Black community."

I sat on the floor until dawn with a spiral notepad and pencil and wrote out a 25-page document that detailed every detail of how this legacy would be organized, promoted and sustained.

After I showered, I sat down at my new desktop and begin typing out the handwritten instructions from God about Third Eye Legacy. After I returned home from law school that day, I began to create a website that detailed the entire business plan.

I made at least 20 copies of the plan and showed them to several of my law school colleagues, church members in Pontiac, family and friends. The response was almost universal, "That'll never work .... Black people never support each other."

Law school did wonders to destroy all of the self-confidence and strength that Morehouse College had nurtured in me, so I threw away all of my remaining copies of plan and never mentioned it in polite company again.

I left the country not long after that but couldn't let go of the vision.

After graduating from law school, I moved to London, England and started the first company in that plan, "Third Eye Technology". It was a computer programming company and I also did database development. I moved back to the states in 2000 and reformed the company here in Pontiac, MI in 2002.

I have operated under that name for 7 years now and recently formed Third Eye Legacy, LLC, Third Eye Property and the cherry on top of the entire business plan, Timbuktu Cafe!

I thank God for speaking to me while I sleep and delivering epiphany after epiphany. I'm so glad that I had the audacity to listen and do something about it all.