Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce and is intended to provide information for small and minority businesses, especially African-American-owned businesses,

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Foundation of good work -- loving what you do
BY BILL DIGGS
This weekly column is supplied by the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce and is intended to provide information for small and minority businesses, especially African-American-owned businesses, and a forum for discussing related issues.
This past week has been another grueling one for me. When I say this to my close friends, they laugh because they know how much I truly love my job.
There are some things about being president/CEO of the Miami-Dade Chamber that I could change to make my job a better one. But, before I go into examples, I want to put a disclaimer on what I am about to say. That disclaimer is akin to a saying that I got from an old man who used to walk into my grandmother's neighborhood every day when I was a kid growing up in a project in Augusta, Ga., called Sunset Homes.
His name was Walkin' Willie. Walkin' was always dressed very sharp. He worked at a place called King Mill and every weekend -- mostly Friday and Saturday nights -- he used to walk to a night club called Pappy's and dance all night with women that were young enough to be his grandkids.
King Mill was a long-standing textile mill in the heart of Augusta. This mill was unionized, so as your seniority went up so did your pay. Because Willie had been there for so long, he was doing OK financially. He lived for the weekend because this was when he could take off those old work clothes and put on his ''glad rags,'' as the O'Jays called them, and he would transform into the person that he yearned to truly be.
Time was precious to Walkin' and he never wasted it. As he got older, he did not come around us kids at the club like he used to. But, from time to time, he would show up and do his level best to dance all night. He was a joy to watch, as you could look at his face and see that he was remembering a time when he could really let loose.
Sometimes I wonder where are all of the older people who are not afraid to hang out with the younger crowd. Forget about partying. How about just hanging out to provide wisdom and a different perspective?
I used to think of this wonderful gentleman as a role model. He was somewhat of an enigma. He was a person who commanded respect because he came to have a good time but in doing so he also provided an example for others. Walkin' was one of the best-dressed men in Augusta. Because of that, we tried to dress sharp as well, just to keep up. He always spoke kindly and gently to ladies, so we did the same thing, just to keep up. He used to buy all of his clothes from a store called Supreme Fashions that was run by two African-American men. We went there too, just to keep up.
Walkin' was a Renaissance man in so many ways. He had no idea that we were watching him so closely but truth of the matter, is he would not have changed if he ever found out. He was married to the cause of black business. The club we all frequented was black-owned .
There were times when Walkin' would invite some of the men from the mill to come and hang out with him. You could always tell who they were because they stood out. They wore big-brimmed hats and tight Stacy Adams shoes and all of them looked like they had just gotten their hair done (processed!) before they came to the club. But Walkin' was quite the host. He sat them in his special section, never left them and bought drinks for his crew all night .
They were tough days, not fair days. They were difficult days but not insurmountable days. Those were the days when words like ''mentor'' were never used because it was expected that good black men would stand up and make a difference. It was expected that black people would frequent black establishments. It was expected that when someone said that they would be somewhere, nothing would change that because respect was worn like a badge of courage and no one dare to be without it.
I can tell you what Walkin' would always say when strolling through my grandmother's neighborhood. He would say, ``Life is good. I am finally dressed up with someplace to go!''
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