You think buildings will be around forever,
but no matter how strong,
you can't build them to withstand economic times,
or people doing the majority of their shopping online.
This is one of the first malls in the country.
So you think something like this
would just kind of be around forever,
but it's being torn down to make way for something else.
When I was security at Target,
one of my posts was to stand at that door,
and the door is still there,
but there's no building here.
This spot was the Loss Prevention office.
We were in the corner of the store,
right next to the entrance,
and there's grass growing where I'm standing.
I know Target placed people from this store
into other locations, but that may not have been the same
for some of the smaller stores that were here.
Thousands of people were employed at this location
and I can't help but think like, where are they now?
They have to be able to adapt.
And how many other people did this kickstart a journey for?
It speaks to the change in the world.
you could order things online,
but not as efficiently as you can these days.
And when digital transformations happen,
'cause people don't shop the same way they used to.
It's just like everything else in life, things change.
After 12 years in retail,
finally, I was out of that.
I got myself a new job where I can enjoy the holidays,
I could enjoy my weekends,
and I was able to purchase my first home.
This was exactly where I want to be.
All I remember is hearing, "layoff."
But this is the first time in 12 years
that I don't have a job, but I still have bills.
I still have a mortgage, car note and insurance.
So now I'm dipping into savings,
I'm dipping into 401ks, it's hard.
After six months, I'm finally working again.
Everything is going to be great again.
It's the 88th day of employment
and my boss sends me message, she said,
"Hey, can you come to my office real quick?"
I was like, "Sure, no problem."
So I'm smiling, I'm happy, it's the end of the day,
I'm about to go home to my house.
And I walk into her office,
I see a lady I've never seen before in my life,
and two folders on the desk.
My expression instantly changed.
I already knew what was coming.
I stood by my car in the parking lot
for a good 15, 20 minutes,
because I was just so upset that I couldn't drive.
Tears just started flowing.
I could hear the devastation in his voice
and kept saying, "I got laid off, again."
And I'm hurting, that's my child.
and they don't recognize what a good man he is.
I really loved my first house.
I loved all the memories that came with it.
It really meant a lot to me.
But because I was out of work for so long,
Yes, it was a bad moment,
but I knew that wasn't going to be the last time
I was listening to the inspiration
I got from my grandfather,
and that was always in the back of my mind, driving me.
My grandfather listened to the late Coleman Young speak.
Coleman Young was a former mayor of Detroit.
And he talked about how, especially in a city like Detroit,
it was important for Black people to own property.
My grandfather took that to heart,
and he went and bought his first house.
He was about creating generational wealth,
creating something that outlived him.
So yes, this is my granddad's house behind me,
but that was also my granddad's house across the street.
And right next to that is another one
And these houses are still in my family.
Understanding the history of our ancestors
and what they went through,
makes us appreciate where we are, and what we have now.
It makes us understand whose shoulders we stand on.
Aaron's grandfather is a guiding light for him.
[Aaron} After my grandfather passed,
someone described him as being a giant of a man,
and it definitely struck home.
He was born in a small town in Florida
that was still segregated when I was born.
He was the son of a blind peanut peddler.
No one in his family had graduated high school,
but despite all that, he was a dreamer.
One thing that he would do as a child
was go to the downtown area,
and people would be wearing suits and ties.
that one day he was going to be a suit and tie guy.
To become a suit and tie man,
meant that you commanded respect, you were somebody.
When he retired, he was a state and federal judge,
so he was able to achieve that.
Because of my granddad's hard work,
he was able to leave a legacy for his children,
and his children's children.
It really makes me wonder what my legacy can be.
My granddad used to say that,
"If you can make it in Detroit, you can make it anywhere."
Detroit is one of the comeback cities.
All of these buildings were just boarded up,
but now you see all of this as being revitalized.
of what everybody thought was going to be a dead city.
And if Detroit can make it out of the dark places
Then why can't someone that grew up here?
That resilience is part of who I am.
That's my high school, Cass Tech.
Well almost, that's my high school.
I went to the old Cass Tech, the original Cass Tech,
the one that everyone nicknamed the pickle factory.
I climb those seven stories every day for four years.
People tend to want to hold onto the past,
and hold on to old ways of doing things.
But I say you should embrace the changes.
Embrace what can happen when new things come up.
When I was a high school kid,
I had taken visits to plants
where you saw robots moving parts,
and welding and all that.
And that's what I thought tech really was,
planning out diagrams of how to build circuits
I had no idea that there was this whole other side of tech
that built systems for companies to do their business on.
My cousin, Nedia, worked for a company called Salesforce,
that I had never heard of in my life.
She told me what it was all about,
what the earning potential was,
and honestly it sounded way too good to be true.
After I had done some more research,
I said, "Okay, this is what I'm going to do."
I kept charging towards learning on Trailhead,
going to these community group meetings,
and probably the single greatest thing I did,
I was going to chronicle my journey
through learning Salesforce.
And I told my entire life story,
my entire career progression,
all the good and the bad,
and it was actually pretty therapeutic.
I never felt like I belonged to something
until became a part of the Salesforce community.
12 years working in retail, never felt anything like that.
but I knew this is where I needed to be.
(inspirational horn music)
We have literally been solid since day one.
(voice drowned out by Aaron)
That was the iconic first picture,
legitimately looked like an outfit.
If people see that picture
they would've thought we were friends for years before that.
The community is the heartbeat of Salesforce.
This community is so accepting of everybody
'cause we understand different perspectives help us grow.
Because if you are amongst like-minded people,
Shaquile was saying the other day,
if you look at the people in your circle
and they don't inspire you, you're in a cage.
We push each other, we challenge each other.
It constantly pushes me to be a better person.
'Cause you grow through challenge, right?
There were plenty of times where I felt like
I wasn't going to make it.
After I got my certification, and I still didn't have a job,
I was coming up on a year of having no income and I'm like,
I need to start bringing money in.
I filled out an application to be a bus driver.
They called me right back and scheduled an interview.
I remember reading over the standards
for this particular company,
And one of their big things was, you can't have facial hair.
Now, my hair started falling out when I was 21.
So this beard is literally all I have left.
I'm standing in my bathroom
with some clippers in my hand,
looking at myself in the mirror like,
you are literally about to make yourself somebody you're not
to get a job that you really don't even want.
And I canceled the interview.
I got the offer for my first Salesforce position.
I did not know where I was going to end up.
I did not know if any of this was going to work out,
but I had faith in myself and I stuck it through
and I became successful because of it.
(inspirational piano music)
If you can see these boxes behind me?
That is the definition of things coming full circle for me.
Because of the things I was able to accomplish,
I was able to purchase a new home in Atlanta.
After everything that I've been through,
not knowing if this was right,
not knowing if this was going to work,
having to sell my first house.
The fact that I'm even giving this interview
sitting in my living room, is crazy.
Best feeling in the boat, man.
Seeing you get your certifications,
seeing you go through, fight through,
being able to pass your tests, that's huge.
I talk to my friends that I've been friends
with since high school, they see where I am now.
And then it's like, yeah,
I wish I could do something like that,
And I tell them I still have a bachelor's
in criminal justice, but I work in tech.
If I can do this, you can do it too.
We both went through unemployment.
We both went through just trying to figure
out what was going to be next.
I'm going to get you in the Salesforce community
I know that that's something that you want to see from me,
and I want to see for myself.
This is exactly what Trailhead was designed for,
to break into a career in tech,
without having to go back to school,
without having to get a technical degree.
I literally got to where I am by learning for free online.
And that's what Trailhead is all about.
Generational wealth is about finances,
but more importantly, it's the wealth of knowledge.
It makes us feel a sense of responsibility
to help the next generation navigate in this world.
My legacy that I can leave,
is a story of inspiration, a story of hope,
a story that says just because you've been doing one thing
It doesn't mean that you can never do anything else.
Whenever I thought about IT,
I never saw people that look like me,
but I want generations of kids that are coming up now
to realize that there is space for us in this world.
There is a need for us here.
I'm grateful for all the people
that have been beside me that entire time,
I have a picture of my grandfather on the wall.
It's because of the trails that he blazed in his time,
that I was able to blaze trails of my own.
that my grandfather's looking down on me right now
with just the biggest smile on his face.
I know that I've made him proud.
(upbeat inspirational music)
