Mark Wilson, the founder of Ryla Teleservices and Chime Solutions, has found success in bringing jobs and opportunities to underinvested communities.
A winner of the Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award and Hall of Fame inductee for the Coles College of Business, Wilson provides a blueprint to his success and elevation in business with his new book, “The Remarkable Power of Us.”
Wilson will kick-off the “Power of Us Talks” in Atlanta on Jan. 27 at Turner AME Church at 10 a.m.
During an exclusive interview with ADW, Wilson spoke about his new book and the “Power of Us Talks” series.
What initially inspired this project?
I just felt like it was important for us to tell the story about how in our own individual way, we can contribute to the collective of our community to everybody’s betterment. ‘The Remarkable Power Of Us’ is getting a lot of good traction and feedback. Over the years, I was encouraged by a lot of people to write a book, but never had the inspiration to do it. But I was in church one day and heard a sermon on the story of Lazarus and Bishop John H. Bryant preached that sermon. It spoke to me and it was just inspirational and pushed me to this idea about writing a book.
How does this book provide insight to community growth?
There’s a real consistent theme through a variety of stories that I tell from a few different perspectives. The underlying point of the book is that there are so many disparities between our communities and others, and there’s really no reason for it. And so throughout the book, through different stories, I encourage us to step into our purpose and to try to be all we can be and support the community as a whole in that process.
You’re kicking off the “Power of Us Talks” ‘series in Atlanta. What’s the biggest message that you would like to provide to the community?
Well, it’s important because have to start talking about these things if we’re going to grow collectively. I mean, only 2% of businesses in the African American community reach more than a million dollars in revenue. While one million dollars in revenue sounds like a lot, in the grand scheme of business that isn’t a lot for an entire community. And it is the route to the disparities that we have between ourselves and others. So we got to start scaling our businesses so that we can participate in the economic success that’s available to us out there. And so that’s just one example of what I talk about in the book and what I want to talk about on a larger scale. And so we have this series of talks as well. We hope to take them around the country to various cities and to have the same kind of community events where we talk about strategies for growth.
The “Power of Us Talks” will take place at Turner AME Church on Jan. 27 at 10 a.m.
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