10:00 PM CDT on Sunday, June 4, 2006

By ANGELIQUE TEGE / WFAA-TV

WFAA

Randal Pinkett

"In the context of business I believe that dreams come true by looking at great entrepreneurs that come before us: Oprah, Reginald Lewis, Earl Graves," and Donald Trump, the man Randal Pinkett, for the next year, will closely regard.

Pinkett, a winner of "The Apprentice" television reality show (fourth season), was a keynote speaker at the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference in Dallas.

"In the Black community, minority community--whatever community you want to call it--there's a lot of income. But there's not a lot of wealth, " Pinkett says.

At the B.E. Conference, Pinkett talked to teenpreneurs about what's important in business.

"Let me say that a little different, maybe in a language you can understand: There's a lot of bling-bling but it doesn't mean a thing-thing," the successful business owner told the audience of young entrepreneurs.

"The most important message I conveyed to the teenpreneurs, I would say, is the importance of getting good grades, working hard, and for this audience in particular, thinking about ownership and wealth, not just income."

Randal Pinkett is a Rhodes Scholar, holds five degrees and a Ph.D. from MIT. He's also president and CEO of a New Jersey-based consulting firm, BCT Partners. The multi-million dollar company handles strategic planning, information technology systems integration and software.

Pinkett continues to grow his business, "We've recently moved into the area of public policy research for policy makers and corporations looking to effect policy issues."

(Question: reporter Angelique Tege) "Now was it your dream to become "The Apprentice" or an entrepreneur?"

"My dream has always been to be an entrepreneur," Pinkett explains. "Running my firm BCT Partners now is literally a dream come true. "The Apprentice" will always be great, because it ultimately help me to run my company to be an even greater force than its been in the business community; than its been in the past due to the exposure notoriety, etc. But my dream has always been to be an entrepreneur."