Male Mogul Initiative impacts The Lives Of Young Men

Walter Mendenhall is the founder of Male Mogul Initiative. PHOTO PROVIDED BY MALE MOGUL INITIATIVE.
Walter Mendenhall is the founder of Male Mogul Initiative. PHOTO PROVIDED BY MALE MOGUL INITIATIVE.

 Male Mogul Initiative impacts The Lives Of Young Men

By Tia Carol Jones

Walter Mendenhall IV founded the Male Mogul Initiative in 2016 after he had a conversation with a young man at a career day. Mendenhall founded Male Mogul Initiative because he believed that while young men in Chicago have the gifts, talents and skills to be successful, legal entrepreneurs, they didn’t have the opportunities or exposure to do so.

The Male Mogul Initiative started with five young men at a local church. Since 2017, has served more than 3,000 young people. This year Mendenhall estimates that around 100 to 150 young people will be served. The age range of young people is 13-24.

Mendenhall played in the NFL for a couple of years. When he ended his football career, he started teaching high school. When he wasn’t having the impact he wanted in the classroom, he moved into the non-profit sector. In 2020, he went into social enterprise, impact investing, private equity and venture capital.

The Male Mogul Initiative includes a five-phase program which starts with the organization going into the schools and teaching leadership and character development. The leadership and character development focuses on three foundational questions of manhood: Who are you? Why do you matter? What’s your purpose? From there, there is an assessment to help the young men understand their gifts, skills and talents. The young men figure out a problem they want to solve and figure out how they can monetize the solution.

“That’s our unique approach, applied entrepreneurship using the gifts, skills and talents to solve a problem and how they can monetize from solving that problem,” Mendenhall said.

Mendenhall proudly spoke about some of the program’s success stories. One is a 22-year-old who started participating with the Male Mogul Initiative when he was 16-years old. He used to sell drugs, but he turned his life around and he works for Male Mogul Initiative. He goes into the schools and teaches entrepreneurship to the elementary and high school students. He also bought his first piece of real estate this year, which will benefit the father of two. Another 22-year-old man came to the program after leaving Cook County Jail and deciding to turn his life around. He has his own apartment, has gainful employment and obtained his e-commerce certificate. A few weeks ago, he closed on his own property.

The Male Mogul Initiative is planning to open CO-LLAB in 2024. Male Mogul Initiative is a social enterprise and has a non-profit and for-profit arm. With the for-profit arm, it has a private equity fund that invests in underutilized assets in communities, revitalizing and repurposing them to create a profit. The organization partnered with Ada S. McKinley to do a venture to lease a warehouse in Englewood called Film, Arts and Enterprise. It will be where the organization will sell at its storefront. It also will have space for content creation.

“What we help these people and young people to do is find out how to monetize their creativity,” Mendenhall said, adding that there also will be workshops to help the participants.

Mendenhall said the community can support the work of the Male Mogul Initiative by volunteering for workshops. He wants the young people to be exposed to electrical work, woodworking and other skilled trades. They can also support the storefront that will open in March on 63rd and Maryland.

For more information about Walter Mendenhall, visit www.waltermendenhall.com.

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