I Have to Work 10x as Hard
Yesterday we went somewhere.
The brothers on this call gave me permission to share their names and their stories. Some chose to stay private, and I honor that too. That's the kind of room this is.
We started with the weight.
The weight of working 10x as hard as your white counterparts to create the same success, the vigilance, the scanning, the proving, the never being off.
That weight is real. We named it. We sat in it. Then something shifted.
Dom brought in a word: Endurance.
He said, "To endure is very active. Suffering makes it feel like it's happening to you. That's passive."
The room got quiet.
Suffering is victim. Enduring is ownership.
We've been framing 10x as something done TO us. But what if it's something we've been BUILDING?
JD told a story about playing semi-pro football.
"They're huge," he said. "But I'm fast. I practiced more than they did because I wanted to be better."
He built his first TV at 10 years old because his father handed him a broken one and said, "Make it work."
He did.
That's not catching up. That's a different kind of muscle.
Then Niiamah came in and set the room on fire.
"I'm no longer resentful about it. I look around and I'm like, oh, y'all don't have the strength. Y'all don't even know how to lift."
He said, "We had to cut our way through every single thicket, every single brush, every single thorn. When there's more wilderness in front of us, we're just like, cool. Looks like just a Tuesday."
"The first 30, 40 years were like, I had to do this much just to get to where you are. But you're capped. And I'm just starting."
As I share this, I feel the tension. I don't want these words to sound like resentment, bitterness, or us versus them.
It's not. This is me being on mission FOR Accomplished Black Men.
This is what truth sounds like when it finally has a room to be spoken. This is what happens when brothers stop performing and start remembering who they are.
We're not here to tear anyone down. We're here to build each other up.
That's the hidden truth we're actually talking about.
Every conversation about working 10x harder stops at "catching up," as if the finish line is being equal.
Your counterparts took the paved road while you had to find the tools, assemble the tools, cut through the wilderness, and move forward.
You've been doing this training your entire life. It built endurance they don't have, focus they never needed, and capacity they can't access.
You didn't just survive, you built superpowers. There's a level beyond accomplished which is where we're heading.
This is The Accomplished Lonely Brotherhood.
We are accomplished Black men who know the loneliness of leading in a white world, standing shoulder to shoulder, building our courage muscles, speaking our truth, remembering who we are, and owning the fire that got us here.
I've got your back. I created this room to help you build your courage. Join us.
Next week:
Call #5: "I've Got to Code-Switch to Get Ahead"
Thursday, February 19, 2026. 10am Phoenix / 12pm NY.
Camera on. Real talk.
https://www.experience.shermainmelton.com/accomplished-lonely-brotherhood
Be More You,
Shermain
