(NNPA)—I’ve been talking about the idea of investing in yourself numerous times in many previous articles. I want to reiterate this point again, even at the expense of repetition. It’s not always easy to invest in ourselves. There’s a lot at risk when we put ourselves out there emotionally, spiritually and physically. But these human elements are part of the success equation.

While we like to think we are investing in ourselves every day, the truth of the matter is we don’t. All too often we let the poison of everyday life—the stress, the bills, the bosses, other people’s vision, and the craziness of a 24-7 society—take over and rot our motivation and inspiration to move closer to our goals and dreams. We don’t take time to read and learn new things. We don’t permit ourselves to have a time-out so we can give back to ourselves through rest and relaxation. And we don’t stop to feed ourselves the kind, cheerful words we want to hear from that voice inside. Instead, we let life lull us into a robotic, semi-complacent state where we don’t have access to our dreams and goals.

Standing on the corner of Wylie Avenue and Elmore Street in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, Franco Harris looks across the street at the names of jazz legends etched on the Legacy senior building—Billy Eckstine, Erroll Garner, Earl “Fatha” Hines—and starts nodding his head.

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT—Members of the group that bought the Crawford Grill in February include, from left: Robert Meeder, Greg Spencer, Jules Matthews, Victor Rogue, Dwight Mayo, Franco Harris and William Generett.

“This is a good corner,” the Hall-of-Famer said. “You stand here and your head just starts bopping up and down. This is such a historic site that the preservation and history of it has to live on. So the question is, how do we do that? Well, the first step is to buy this building—so we did.”

The building Harris is referring to is the Crawford Grill, a Hill mecca for jazz that closed in 2003. He is among a group of four private investors and three nonprofits that purchased the property in February. The others include Randall Industries founder Greg Spencer, Transportation Solutions owner Dwight Mayo, former Fisher Scientific CEO Bill Recker; Pittsburgh Gateways, The Keystone Innovation Zone and The Hill House Economic Development Corp.

Enterprise session

APRIL 21—The YWCA Greater Pittsburgh will host their YW Enterprise Spring Business Session from 6-8 p.m. at 305 Wood St., Downtown. April workshops will focus on Business Finance. This week’s topic is “Accounting Principles and Regulations for Business Start Up.” The presenters will be Certified Public Accountants Guilia Dozzi and Crawford Ellenbogen. Every attendee will receive a business kit. Reservations are required and it’s open to all women. For more information, call 412-255-6749.

When hired, his title was slots manager, but that was only because the Rivers Casino hadn’t been approved for table games. That approval is expected shortly from the Gaming Control Board, meaning Corey Plummer is the Rivers’ new vice president of gaming, the highest ranking African-American in the company.

COREY PLUMMER

Plummer served as the vice president of slots at Red Hawk Casino in Shingle Springs, Calif., prior to joining Rivers Casino. He has broad management experience having worked for Aristocrat Technologies, Inc., opened Native American properties and managed gaming and casino marketing domestically and internationally. He also held executive positions with SKYCITY Casinos in Australia and New Zealand. Plummer began his career in the gaming industry with Harrah’s Entertainment.