Kick Down the Door: Maát Reed’s Rise and the War on Excuses

America says wait your turn. Take it. Peter Vazquez sits with Maát Reed, a woman who fought from foster care to the corner office and built On The Move Contracting Services the old way: service, discipline, and results. She turns MWBE certification into contracts, not talking points; uses APEX to cut through red tape; and proves that mentorship beats slogans because slogans do not build payrolls.

A caller throws heat: Do Black entrepreneurs truly network? Can women lead women without the drama? Maát answers with evidence—active directories, real partnerships, high standards, and a leader’s spine. She refuses the victim script and chooses motion over grievance. Where a door will not open, she finds another.

We go inside her Social & Economic Equity cannabis license, far from pop-culture haze: compliance, lending hurdles, medical relief for pain and sleep, and the hard math of running a lawful business. We confront the tired debate over “institutional” barriers with a sharper truth: jerks exist, but they do not get the last word. Tenacity, competence, and community do.

The verdict is blunt. Government can nudge. Freedom builds. Build anyway. Then reach back and lift the next builder.