Crystal R Bain is an Insurance Finance Broker and CFO of C&B Legacy Group. She shares her perspective on becoming an entrepreneur and gives advice to any person in pursuit of their dreams.
Ruby McAuliffe: What is your perspective on entrepreneurship?
Crystal R Bain: Entrepreneurship is all that I know. Since I was a little girl, I’ve grown up in an entrepreneurial household. At the age of seven or eight all the way up until high school, I knew I wanted to be some form of entrepreneur. And, I feel like entrepreneurship is the way of life. I believe being an entrepreneur is the way to get the most out of your life–the most out of whatever life it is that you wish to live. It means freedom. It means no limits. It means the opportunity to have the capacity to do whatever it is that you want to do on your own terms.
Ruby McAuliffe: Where did this passion ignite from?
Crystal R Bain: More of the entrepreneurial spirit comes from my mom’s side of the family. I’m a fourth-generation entrepreneur, starting with my great-grandmother on my mom’s side. Back in the Sixties as a woman of color, she owned her own restaurant in Chicago. That’s inspiring in itself, to think about the way the times were in the Sixties for people of color and segregation. I think, “What was she taught to put herself in a position to even be able to do that?” She was the first entrepreneur in our family that I know of. My grandfather was the entrepreneur extraordinaire. He instilled in my mom that you will never become wealthy working for anyone else. He sold anything and everything you can think of on the corners of South Central Los Angeles. He would have stands, pickup trucks, a tent, and people who worked for him. And then my mom is a salon owner. She was a hairdresser at the age of 18 and was self-employed at the age of 23. After having my brother, she opened up her own salon with a friend of hers in Riverside. She cut hair for about 12 years. Eventually, she found her way into the business that we run together today. My mother and father did a lot of foundational work during my childhood and gave me the opportunity to stand on their shoulders and build it up to what it is today. Now, I’m a 21-year-old black female making a six-figure income and can retire at an early age.
Ruby McAuliffe: What is some advice you would give aspiring entrepreneurs?
Crystal R Bain: To have extremely tough skin. You have to have a “never back down” kind of mentality because business and entrepreneurship is a beast, and it can expose everything that you already have going on in your life and intensify it. Another piece of advice is to make sure your reasoning for getting into entrepreneurship is bigger than money. You have to have that bulldog in you, and that “nothing will stop you” [attitude]. Then, you need to have an understanding of falling in love with the process and the adversity and the nos and the trials and everything that you come across—it’s all a part of the process—and then you can see how bad you really want it. So, you just have to have a “never back down” mentality. An attitude of “nothing can stop me.”
Ruby McAuliffe: What are your thoughts on the state of our nation when it pertains to the importance of equality?
Crystal R Bain: When it comes to people of color, a majority of our people are starting behind. I believe they are at a disadvantage when it comes to some of our counterparts due to our history and years of oppression. But I’m also a firm believer that if you want it, you can go and get it. I am a testament to that, and that is due to my upbringing and my environment. It also may be possible that I wouldn’t be in the situation that I am in today if it wasn’t due to that. But you cannot be a victim of your environment. It’s up to you to change it. It may not be easy, and sure, everybody doesn’t know about entrepreneurship, but there’s opportunity out there. So, I do believe there is inequality, and I do believe that there are people who are less fortunate due to the years of systematic racism and oppression, but that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way forever. It doesn’t mean we have to remain victims of our environments and victims of what’s happened. There is equal opportunity out there. But you have to seek it in order to get it. And once you have that burning desire, I believe God will align things in your path for you to be able to get it and come out.
Crystal R Bain: Insurance Franchise Broker; CFO of C&B Legacy Group
Check out more about Crystal R Bain here:
Instagram: @Crystal.bain
Twitter: @crissybain4
Company Name: Primerica
Company Website: www.primerica.com
Company Instagram: @primerica
Read more about how small business owners are making a difference this year here and here
