At its core, this book is a very encouraging and helpful book for entrepreneurs, particularly Black entrepreneurs. It’s also quite a lot of memoir about Hallmon’s journey from teacher to running a huge nonprofit that supports Black businesses in her community and around the country. I found a lot of helpful advice that I plan to use in running a free community arts center that our family runs and also a lot of good advice for myself personally. It’s a great resource.

I read a digital ARC of this book via netgalley.

This is a very thoughtful and important text for the 21st century. Having built a modern civilization, we have forgotten how we got here and how to maintain it. This book, while authoritatively striking down the self-made myth of the modern American ethos, also solidifies the steps needed to establish communities of support (especially in marginalized communities). I would highly recommend No One is Self-Made to all audiences.