You cannot begin to fix the problem of social and economic injustice until you fix the problem of self-worth. It’s hard to erase centuries of slavery, true. But what’s harder to erase is centuries of self-hate (on both sides). A great kingdom can only crumble from within. If we truly loved ourselves we would trust each other and instead of killing each other we would stand with one another.
Master your self-worth. We need to fix what we believe and belief comes by repetition of evidence experienced by our 5 senses. The problem is, for my melanated folks, our senses keep telling us that we are worthless, that there is little wealth to go around and that our voice, our cause, our lives don’t matter. But you have to believe in the unseen because the reality is that there is more than enough wealth for you and for millions of others to also be successful beyond their wildest dreams. Believe that you will impact and inspire those millions to go for what is theirs because you are valuable, you are inspiring and you are incredibly and wonderfully made to serve a specific and special purpose. Believe hard, believe fast, believe contagiously.
Master your emotions. React logically and rationally. Emotions are deeply tied to the animalistic part of your brain, but you are not a savage you can control how you use your emotions. There’s no need to respond to every offense, it’s best to win the war, not the battle because once you are taken out of your character, you are now open for even further criticism and prosecution only this time it’s justified what happens to you.
Master your finances. Of your monthly income, spend no more than 25% on your housing, 5% on auto loans, 10% on entertainment, 15% on food and save 6 months of expenses without losing money THEN invest the rest where you can get at least an 8% annual return to outpace inflation like real-estate, dividend-paying stocks and start a business. These investments have to eventually retire you from working. Never use more than 10-20% of credit card balances and always pay loans that report to the credit bureaus early to keep a healthy credit score. The lack of financial literacy leads poor money management skills which leads to the lack of purchasing power and low credit scores. This then leads to low homeownership rates, low business capital acquisition and higher rates of interest charged on those that do get funding which rebirths the cycle of poor money management, lack of purchasing power etc. Financial literacy isn’t just knowing definitions it’s practicing the strategy and laws of wealthy.
Master your business. Become a student of the industry, learn from the greats – their wins and losses. Offer value and innovation to the marketplace or improve an existing system, product or service so it greater benefits the end user. Attend tradeshows, workshops and industry events so you can stay relevant. And most importantly, begin building your business credit so you can secure the funding you need to stay in the game and to scale your business to new heights!
Once you can master these you will have set yourself up to leave a remarkable legacy. Everyone wants to live forever in some form or fashion and pass down something for generations to come. Something that no one can take from you, your work ethic, your discipline, your fortitude, your good name.
Most think you need to be wealthy to be remembered, and this is true. But… wealth comes with different tolls. Some pay with their knowledge, some with their wisdom and leadership, some by owning real-estate (naming streets and buildings), some with starting a family business that turns into an empire, and some… some pay with the highest price of all and the saddest part about that is they never get to witness the fruit of their sacrifice, their life.
Mr. Floyd,
You didn’t know that you would be making such a sacrifice within 10 minutes of being detained. You didn’t know your last inaudible words would go viral across millions of screens. You didn’t know that 100s of thousands of people from all backgrounds would risk contracting life-threatening disease to march in solidarity through the streets of every major city all around the world on your behalf. You didn’t know that Fortune 500 companies would close their doors for a whole day losing millions in revenue and still donating millions to stand up for your injustice. Your family faught to challenge your cause of death and removed the Trumped up cause. You didn’t know your little girl would go viral for sayin, “My daddy changed the world!”
Through all the riots, looting and viral challenges mocking you, the good in humanity is chillingly showing and I truly believe that for the first time America, is crying with us. America is tired with us. She has finally had enough and things may actually start progressing from here, Lord-willing. But first…
We must become masters and finally stand on the same side that the laws are here to protect – the owners. We need to become homeowners and close the wealth gap, pay property taxes in our community to help enrich it and build equity where we live so we can build family wealth. We need to become business owners so we can decide who we hire and who we put in high places, how we treat ourselves as customers and clients. So we can have choices and survive boycotting businesses that commit social injustices. So we can have political power and donate millions to campaigns and charities that serve our cause. So we can put an end to gang violence by virtue of running legitimate operations protected by the law not by the threat of violence.
We can, we will and we must or will go extinct.
This is why I do what I do. The fight is mental, the fight is spiritual, but it is also financial strategy.
Praying for better days and prosperity.
#RIHGeorgeFloyd #BLM #finacialfreedom #educateandgrow