Dvance p raise for minding Their Own Business

Literacy Rituals
Each of the women identified the role of writing and reading, not 
strictly in terms of using the alphabet system, in the work that they do 
for their clients and their own self-expression. While the public rela-
tions professional, Maria, and the book publisher, Nadine, are involved 
in writing as authors, Gina uses writing to advertise her business and 
to write contracts. On the other hand, Fona reads books and writes 
reviews for publishers.
Miss Gee spoke about the way that messages get written on cards 
that go out with her floral arrangements. She explained, with a smile, 
that “some people just say to put anything. And I say, but you are send-
ing it to your husband or your wife.” She is amused about the fact that 
it is the men who say things like “write something sweet.” Then she 
lamented that “they never tell you what to put!” In response to that 
kind of direction from her client, her decision is usually to “butter up 
this thing and wr[i]te them a sweet something to his wife so they won’t 
have a clue that it isn’t her husband saying that.” In response to the 
question about her decision-making process, she responded with “Well, 
depending if I know the person, I know what her husband might say 
to her. So, I think that mine is a close thing. She’d never know!” With 
sympathy cards she knows that “the card is marked Deepest Sympathy 
but if it is a close friend, you want to put … little more personal note. So 
you have to think of something to put.” In the past she has been known 
to write “Love and Prayers and that is it. Everything. Even for other 
things. If somebody has a problem and you want to cheer them up, I 
find that one works.”
The role of formal education plays an important part in the orien-
tation that Gina has adapted for doing business. Miss Gina believes 
that the “primary and secondary education that I had were, in kind 

---

128
minding
their
own
business
exemplary.” She came to appreciate the type of schooling that she had 
in Trinidad in her journey as a newly arrived immigrant and stated that 
“one of the things that I did on a daily basis was thank God for my edu-
cation to which I only had a secondary education.” Even though she 
knew that “the job that I was working at the people had first, second 
and third degrees” it was apparent to her that she “was better prepared 
for life in the world than they were.” She felt that she “had something 
more to offer [people] than they did.” When she felt that she was being 
“arrogant about that thought” she slowly came to “realize that I wasn’t, 
it was just a fact.” Her training as a young child and teenager made it 
possible for her “to have what it took to survive the world of business, 
the world of business working for somebody else, the world of busi-
ness doing my own business.”
Gina went on to disclose her thoughts that “the principles that my 
family held, it’s the principles that people around me had, my peers 
even.” This became more apparent as she did her duty as an employer. 
It is a stark reality that forced her to “look at the work ethic of people 
who have passed through my establishment because those without a 
work ethic don’t last very long.” When she reflected on her history in 
education it became clear that what she was looking for in her employ-
ees “was not something that I was taught in school, that’s something 
that was a part of life, I saw it demonstrated all the way around my life. 
So I think culturally I was prepared for things that people get prepared 
for academically, as well.” It is clear to Gina that the term “literacy” is 
not about academic achievement, but about what “your total experi-
ence [in life] was”, and she is convinced that the rounded orientation to 
living “is what has taken me through.”
Miss Nadine made her working life understandable by explaining 
her daily literacy round:
Well, right now I have a project that I have been working on, and that is prob-
ably the best way to explain what my day is like … this lady has done some 
devotional work. She has written well over three hundred pages of [discuss-
ing] the bible and her own work and her own experiences. So, I put aside 
about several hours a day to work on her project … what I would do is first of 
all do a complete read through, don’t touch it. Just read from cover to cover.

---

business
is
as
business
does
129
That way I get a feel for the client, I get a feel for the way she is thinking and 
how she wants to bring over her work. That explains why I can only do one 
or two projects a year. That takes time. Especially a large work. Three hundred 
pages is a lot especially [with a] two sided [manuscript]. Then I had time to 
sit with the client and ask her what she envisions. I’m always on the phone 
with her, keeping in touch with her at least like two or three times a week. To 
see how she is doing, how are you, and let her know how I’m doing with her 
work. Because I have her baby. Your work is their child and they have given 
you ownership or co-ownership of their child and as a child they want to be 
sure that you’re treating their child well, with respect.
Coming Events
Each of the five women had ideas about the future and what they 
wanted to accomplish in the window of time that they would be com-
mitted to building up their business. In the following quotes that were 
selected from the interviews conducted over three years with each par-
ticipant, we have a view of each business leader’s perspective on their