Paul King III

Paul King brings his formal educational and professional experience to this membership organization, promoting fairness, equal opportunity, and economic development of certified minority contractors in private and public construction projects. Bringing insight and strategic vision to this trade organization, Paul King puts his skills to use for the benefit of more than 100 active paying members of Black Contractors United, who gain technical support, professional assistance, and advocacy for carrying out their own business activities in construction projects throughout the Chicago metropolitan region.

The obstacles in this business are being able to get work and being able to get paid for it. I did not know that if you go out and complete a scope of work, how difficult it was and how many different pitfalls and traps there are to keep you from getting paid. I think it’s a systematic pattern to jam the weakest contractor on the team.

If they’re African American, I definitely say they have got to go to school some kind of way. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go to a liberal arts program. Because they’re always going to assume you now less because of who you are. You need to have something to give you credibility.

I worked as a financial planner. Series 7-3-63 trader. I’ve done that, and that was an accomplishment for me.

I worked for UBM, Incorporated, for about 10 years. That’s actually a company owned by my father, same name and I was able to make some inroads into different marketplaces for them.

The biggest source of pride I get from the work that I’ve done in this business is being able to save these companies from going under and to share with them what I know, and help them get out of a jam. There’s a lot of stuff I knew that I just took for granted that a lot of people didn’t know. I didn’t really learn it in a classroom even though I’ve taken classes for management, and so forth. It’s something you learn "OJ" – on the job training, and it stuck with me.

My father. I kind of modeled myself in terms of how I do this, from what I’ve observed working around him.

Just take it easy and try to find out as much as you can. You’re not up against a clock. You’re not in competition with anybody. It’s your life and you’re going to find something that you like doing. You’re probably going to make the most money at that than you would doing anything else. That’s what I think.