From Ida B. Wells to Traveling the World, Elijah Shaw

Don’t you love inspirational stories that talk of success? I had the pleasure of speaking with Elijah Shaw, Security Guard to the stars. Elijah went from being a bouncer at the Riviera nightclub in Chicago to running his own international training school which people come to from all over the world. Elijah talked to us about his rise from the bottom to the top.

Elijah Shaw teaching students – Picture Credit Dwayne Franklin

Elijah Shaw, grew up in the notorious Chicago inner city housing project, Ida B. Wells. Elijah said he grew up in the late 70’s and that his family was poor, however since everyone else around him was also poor, he didn’t realize they were poor. Despite growing up in a bad area where he saw people getting strung out on crack, cocaine and saw his community decline before his eyes, he went on to start a very successful Security Consulting Firm, called Icon Global. Elijah credits his grandparents with making sure he never strayed too far off the right path.

Never guessing where his future would lead him, Elijah started at the bottom and worked his way up. He was trying to pay for his college education, film school at Columbia College. His first gig as security guard in a nightclub was on bathroom detail, where he had to watch the bathrooms to make sure the guys didn’t go into the women’s restroom. The Riviera nightclub was owned by one of the Chicago Bulls and had a number of celebrities that came in to the club.

I asked Mr. Shaw to share with us how he decided to get into his current field.

“I went from working at the nightclub to eventually running the security there to traveling with some of the players. The guy that I was personally assigned to went to play in Europe and I didn’t get that invitation so there I was without a client. That’s when I made the decision to learn as much as I could about this field so that I could always have opportunities.”

Elijah Shaw had a hunger for growth and he saw the potential his security gig had. He started working in every aspect of his industry in different companies, learning the job in and out, then in 1998, left the firm that he was with and started his own company. Elijah Shaw has worked with celebrities and Fortune 500 companies and has also trained people from all over the world. He’s been around the world five times and has been on every continent except Antarctica. With his travel, Elijah realized that he didn’t always get a chance to explore the cities and countries he’s been to. He decided to start visiting a day early or stay an extra day and he started taking photos on his trips. Always thinking of ways to give back to the community, Elijah started a website called lifeupthere.com where he offers prints of the photos. All of the proceeds go towards purchasing cameras for inner city youth to equip them with a means to a creative outlet. You can check out his photos and help him give back by purchasing a print.

elijah shaw private jet — Elijah Shaw private jet – Picture Credit Dwayne Franklin

Elijah has always looked to give back to his community. Initially he started a program called the ISC safety net where they volunteered security services to women who have been victims of domestic violence pro bono. Unfortunately the response was overwhelming because domestic abuse is so prevalent in the minority community. He then sat on a board of directors of a shelter called women’s advocate. “That gave me a behind the scenes glimpse of understanding these womens stories and struggles. That was very important to me.” Now Elijah focuses his giving back with his site www.lifeupthere.com

”I do global travels and decided to take pictures and do something with them. When people buy the pictures, I take the proceeds and use it to buy cameras for inner city youth and help to inspire them. I get to see cool places as a byproduct of my job. That’s where the idea to give back was born.”

What do you tell others who come from your area to inspire them to show them it’s more than your current circumstances?

I would try to use those same words, that it is more than your current circumstances but a little mantra I say around people that know me is, “The world is a big place”. This means you don’t have to be defined by where you are in that moment there, think outside the box, look beyond the corner, there are other opportunities but you have to create them. Fear holds you back. Take that risk, take that challenge, with that risk could come reward.

With so many people in front of the cameras posting pics on various social media websites, what are you hoping to see the inner city youth that you’re donating cameras to accomplish by being behind the lense?

The area I’m most known for career wise is working with celebrities. Even though I work with executives and politicians etc. When I’m working with celebrities and I meet the kids they always wanna be the rapper and the singer in front of the camera but there are so many opportunities behind the camera. What I’m hoping to do is show that here are these opportunities. I wanna show them you can take a picture, shoot a video that doesn’t involve you being in it and it can still be appreciated and see the art in it. You can see the labor of love or the beauty of what you captured. Hopefully I get across that message to the kids that might get into the program that you don’t have to be in front of the camera to be successful.

You’ve been in security a long time and worked with prominent stars, what advice are you giving young African American men to be strong entrepreneurs.

I try to be a walking example. With TV and social media you have an opportunity to have a lot of images thrown before you. If all the images are negative and a poor reflection of how we want to be yet that’s the majority then kids think that is cool. I try to carry myself differently and live the way I want someone else to live. And when I talk to the youth I try to figure out what they want to do and how they can be inspired. A lot of times they are yearning for something but not sure what that is. They wanna get out of their social condition or environment and release the valve on pressure they have in life but they can’t define what it is, so they look for an option and look for what is cool. If you can make something wholesome cool, then people will gravitate towards that as well. I try to show them other options/avenues and say hey you can still be a cool kid, wear the clothes you want, and be popular with the girls, but don’t have to be rapping about selling drugs or being a ladies man or a pimp. I’m able to say hey, take a look at me, you may not think I’m cool, but I do cool stuff and you can do that to because we come from the same type of environment and background.

Give us three words to describe your security firm and why?

Contemporary – a lot of my peers that own security agencies have this kind of, um how can I say this the right way, they are all old as shit, is that the right way to say it (laughing out loud) and what I mean is they’ve been in the business for thousands of years, doing things the same since the 50’s and that’s great because of their legacy piece but they are missing the contemporary piece, and in security you have to stay up to date with the things that are going on. For example the topic of social media comes up and people don’t always know what that is.

At the same time, I have to say that my firm is experienced. This is all I’ve ever done is on the job training. Even though some people may be in the military or police force, I’ve been doing this type of business and getting real world experience since I’ve been in college. While they were doing another type of career, I’ve been doing this same thing my whole life. I think that offers value to my client.

Outside the Box – When people think about security, they think about knuckle draggers that wanna get into fights but what we do is we problem solve. We do logistics. My job is to get the client from point A to point B as safe as possible. To do that you have to think outside the box, how can I do this with little intrusion as possible into their lives. You have to be creative. Celebrities wanna go to the mall, they wanna go to Starbucks but they can’t because of their popularity. But if you can put things into place to allow them to do that you can keep them safe and help them enjoy their lives, I can’t tell you what I do to make that happen because I can’t give it away but thinking outside the box is one of those things.

Elijah Shaw during show time1-2 — Elijah Shaw during show time – Picture Credit Dwayne Franklin

You’ve talked about traveling a lot, what’s an important thing you’ve learned while being away from home and traveling?

I’ve learned that you become a global citizen. When you grow up poor and all you know is the neighborhood then you define yourself by that neighborhood. We see people define themselves by a city. When you travel, you become a global citizen and realize there are people that live just like me in France, Egypt, in Greece, and it helps break down barriers that we self-impose. I don’t know that the crips would be fighting the bloods if they thought of themselves as people versus a color. You can expand on that geographically. The travel that I’ve done has helped broaden my global perspective.