Standing on Top, ooh, ooh, ooh, oooh, oooh

Standing on the top, top
On the top getting down, down, down, down
Standing on the top (Sing)
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh (Well, well, well, well, well, well)

Standing on the top (Well)

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh (Standing on the top getting down)
Can you understand it what I'm talkin' about
When I say that funk is here to stay [We understand it]
Can you understand it what I'm talkin' about
That funk is here to stay, oh [We understand it]
If you understand it say, "Yeah" {Yeah...yeah...}
"Standing on the Top, The Temptations"

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     To me, the most admirable qualities about an entrepreneur are the passion that they have for their businesses. Not so much for “business”, but for the industry in which they’re creating an original method and mechanism to make money, and to market they’re ideas and passions.

      Berry Gordy Jr. was born in 1929, to a family of 8. His father was a white farmer and his mother a Georgian slave. Often critized for his “get rich quick” schemes, Gordy dropped out of the 11th grade in a Detroit City high school with aspirations of becoming a boxer until his plans were put on hold by the draft in 1950. 

     In 1953 when Gordy returned, still using his entrepreneurial instincts to devise a way to make money Gordy opened his own music store, as his budding interest in music sparked. Unfortunately this small record business was unsuccessful and he ended up working a manual job at a Lincoln-Mercury plant, until he was put in touch with an owner of a local bar and talent club where he met famous singer Jackie Wilson. 

     This began Gordy’s career in the music industry, and in 1957 Gordy helped Jackie Wilson co-write over 6 songs most of which topped the R&B charts nation wide and in the U.K. After the success with Wilson, Gordy redirected his interests in music from songwriting to producing, he went through a series of R&B groups his first being The Miracles in 1957, and only two years later he took 800 dollars and founded an R&B label called Tamia Records which housed artists such as Marv Johnson. Soon after united Artist Records picked up some of his artists for national distribution.

      Only 12 months later Berry Gory created the famous record labeled known around the world as Motown, this included artists such as The Marvalettes, Smokey Robinson, Mary Wells, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Gladys Knight and The Pips, The Commodores, The Velvelletes, Martha & the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5. 

     After the Detroit riots Gordy moved his Motown Office location from Detroit to Los Angeles, California and reorganized his company to include other sources of entertainment such as movies, television, and publishing. Some of the movies in which Gordy and Motown are known for are Lady Sings the Blues staring Diana Ross, Richard Pryor, and Billy Dee Williams, Mahogany, and The Last Dragon. 

     In the 70s and 80s Gordy added to his list of artists Rick James, and Lionel Richie. He eventually sold his interests and the name in June 28, 1988 for 61 million dollars, including his publishing agency and movie department. A man like Berry Gordy has to be admired. He had the tenacity that was unrelinquishing. He would not stand for familiar, being uneducated, being poor and being black did not have any hold or constraint on the multitude of achievements he was able to accomplish.

      He accomplished so much, that the world recognized it ant in 1998 he was inducted into the junior achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame for all his successful music endeavors. With 800 dollars and a passions for music Berry Gordy transcended into a level of professionalism and business savvy that made black music a vast contribution to popular color. He helped cross race and economic barriers in a Jim Crow United States through the universal language of music, and he expanded his company to include other aspects that appealed to the times. To even further fortify what made Berry an ideal businessman he knew when it was time to give his company up, and invest himself in his time when he sold Motown in 1988. 

     The reason why Berry Gordy is my favorite entrepreneur is because he took art and marketed it to people in a positive way. It still makes my parents (who are 69 and 70) to take out an old Motown Record and put it on their ancient turntable. Modern musicians are still using Motown Records for samples and inspiration for new songs. People still remember how clubs, and parties use to be segregated and the not too soon after that they were dancing to the Temptations next to people of difference races and enjoying life together. Music does this. Art does this, art crosses boundaries and Berry Gordy was able to make all that possible. The true entrepreneur in my opinion doesn’t just make money off an idea, but he helps people and makes a cultural and social impact. Berry Gordy’s entrepreneurial contributions will out live him.

Wikipedia contributors, "Berry Gordy," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Berry_Gordy&oldid=267894090 (accessed February 2, 2009).

Temptations, The Lyrics,"Temptations, The Standing On The Top lyrics",http://www.lyricstime.com/temptations-the-standing-on-the-top-lyrics.html.