Black in America - Good or Bad

I know I am venturing out on a very touchy subject. Given the media hype surrounding the series Black in America on CNN and as a Black male in America, I just had to put "my side" out there.

After watching the series, I began taking a look at my background growing up in the inner city of Cleveland, Ohio. As much as I wanted to "identify" with having it "hard" as a Black man in America, I couldn't. Whenever you watch something put out by the media, you have to look at it to see if it is balanced. By balanced I mean does it show the good and the bad. Growing up I saw both the good and the bad; and I commend CNN for showing the good and the bad.

So what does that mean for the purposes of this blog post?

As a career coach and educator, it is important for me to encourage, challenge and motivate individuals that success is attainable for ANYONE - even Black people. I truly believe anyone can achieve goals they have set for themselves. Looking back on my own experiences, I am where I am because of what I determined in my own mind what I wanted to accomplish. Did I get here without struggle? No. Did I get here soley on my own merit and good looks? Certainly not. Did I experience racism and/or prejudice. Of course.

However, I did not use those obstacles to keep me from getting here nor did I allow the "values" of the streets to influence my decisions. No, I didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth yet I chose not to get caught up in the drugs, gangs and other influences of the inner city. I know, you're probably saying, "but everybody was (is) as fortunate as you." Guess what, you are exactly right.

Not everyone has the same experience. So, being Black in America is not generally good nor is it inherently bad. It is more complex than just being Black. At varying times in our (Black people or African-American - you decide) lives, we will come to points where we will have decisions to make; there is a point where we can decide whether or not to allow someone to determine our future. What am I saying?

It's all about choice. Sure, life doesn't give you anything. A quote from Frederick Douglass sheds light on this: "We may not get everything we work hard for but we will work hard for everything we get." Choice. What is it?

Create good Habits Or It'll Cost Everything!

Growing up in the 'hood, I had a choice of whether or not to use/try drugs; I had a choice of whether to become a teen father or not; I had a choice of whether or not to commit a crime.

Will choice mean you won't experience all of the negatives in our society? No. Choice doesn't shield you from the ills of society but good choices can make those ills less damaging. As I have said many times, as a man thinketh, so is he. We can choose to think society doesn't want me to succeed. Once you believe what you think, your actions will soon follow.

I could go on with this discussion but I would like to begin a dialogue with you, my readers, and get some feedback about what I have stated here. I understand not all will agree with me - and that's ok - but I welcome your intellectual feedback.

So I ask, is being Black in America good or bad?

Not Just a Career; But a CALLING!

Are you feeling unsatisfied in your current occupation?
Do you feel you would be more satisfied doing something else?
Are you beating yourself daily doing what you don't like just to get a paycheck?

These questions, among others, go through millions of people's minds every day, yet they do nothing about it.

I recently saw a political campaign sign that immediately caught my attention. It did not mention what the candidate can do for its constituents, nor did it mention anything about the opponent.

What did it say?

The person was running for County Coroner of all things. The sign, of course, had the candidate's name and the office for which they were running and just below it said,

NOT JUST A CAREER; BUT A CALLING

Imagine that - a calling.

Once you begin to function in your calling - or at least identify it - you can begin to address those leading questions at the top of this post.

Your calling comes from God and no, it does not mean you have to be a preacher or pastor. It is written, the harvest is plenty but the laborers are few. The fields to be harvested are the workplaces and the marketplaces of which you should be operating in your vocation - or calling.

So if the questions above resonate with you, then you are not yet operating in your calling. Only when you can say, "that's not me" can you say "I'm not just in a career; but a calling." What exactly is a calling? Stay tuned.

Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?

Below is an article I recently read and thought it would be good to share with you. I am a believer that we can accomplish anything we set our minds to - within reason. However, I do believe the following article can be of help to you in pursuit of your dreams. You may not envision becoming a billionaire but the principles exressed here can take you further than where you are now. Remember, "as a man thinketh, so is he." Enjoy.

Wealth and Wealthy People

By Michael Masterson

There is no shortage of billionaires today. In 1985, there were fewer than 20 of them. Today, there are more than one thousand.

Wealth is gradually moving away from the United States. In 2003, eight Americans made the top 10 in Forbes' annual list of billionaires. This year, only two (Warren Buffett and Bill Gates) made the list. And less than half of the entire list is made up of Americans.

Still, 443 American billionaires is nothing to sneeze at. Nor is their collective net worth of around $1.6 trillion. At least for the moment, the U.S. still has the world's largest and most profitable economy. But India and China are catching up. Their economies are growing fast. And they are not wasting trillions of dollars on foreign wars.

With the dollar falling and our economy on the brink of a depression, it's highly likely that Americans will continue to get poorer in the next few years. It's also quite possible that the U.S. will be passed by China or India and become a second-tier economy. Even if that doesn't happen, Americans will have to take quick and drastic action to protect themselves and preserve the wealth they have.

One of the best ways you can create and maintain wealth is by following the lead of people who've already done it.

About 33 percent of the very rich got their money through inheritance. The Waltons, for instance. The rest - two out of three - created their wealth through business. About half of those mega-entrepreneurs started with family money, and the other half started from scratch. These are the people - like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page - who earned the wealth they have. These are the people I'd listen to if I wanted advice on how to succeed today.
I don't know any of these billionaire entrepreneurs (BEs) personally, but I've done a lot of reading about them. I figured you might want to know what makes them tick and how they got where they are. Here is what I've discovered:

Formal education matters - but not always.

The great majority of BEs - about 90 percent - have a college degree. But it's not necessary for success. Among the world's super-rich today, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Fred DeLuca, David Geffen, and Andrei Melnichenko didn't graduate from college. And David Murdock (Dole Foods), S. Truett Cathy (Chick-fil-A), and Richard Desmond (British publishing magnate) never finished high school.

BEs work harder and longer than the people who work for them.

Most say they work 50 to 55 hours a week. Some, like centibillionaire Canadian communication mogul Ted Rogers, work 12 hours a day. And some, like Bill Gates (when he worked at Microsoft) and eBay founder Jeff Skoll, took no vacations for years while their businesses were growing.

BEs are constantly looking for profit opportunities.

When they hear about an economic or business development, they think, "How could I profit from that?"

BEs don't dwell on mistakes.

They view problems as learning opportunities. "I don't remember any mistakes," the late pharmaceutical billionaire James Sorenson told Forbes, "only the opportunity to overcome problems."

BEs think neither completely positively or negatively, but strategically.

Instead of thinking, "That's impossible" or "I can do anything," they think, "Is that possible?" and "If it is, how could I do it?"

BEs don't believe in luck.

In a recent Forbes poll of the 400 richest people in the world, none said they had become wealthy entirely by luck. Some said they considered luck to be a minor factor. Most, like Oprah Winfrey, consider luck an outsider's way of describing someone who works hard and seizes opportunity. "Luck," Winfrey says, "is preparation meeting a moment of opportunity."

BEs are not driven primarily by money.

"Studies show that the desire for financial success is no stronger among entrepreneurs than among those not starting a company," says entrepreneur expert Kelly Shaver. Wharton School management professor Raphael Amit agrees: "No one is saying they don't like their wealth; but what matters more is the innovation, the intense commitment they have to an idea and the difference it can make. Money is a byproduct."

If you want to survive and prosper in the first decade of 21st century, emulate the habits of the world's richest people. Educate yourself about money. Make conservative investments. And seize opportunities to start and/or invest in entrepreneurial businesses.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

For those of you whose mother is with you in the physical, cherish them everyday for the rest of their lives. You may take for granted who you have because she is here now. It has been 7 years since my mom passed away suddenly however, her memory lives inside of me everyday. I remember the laughter, the "Southern cooking" (she was from Alabama), the times she took care of me when I was sick, the times she whipped my butt and the many phone conversations we had when I moved away from home.

Even though she was my mom, she was also my bestest friend in the world. I miss her to this day though I am most appreciative of the things she instilled in me that has made me who I am today. She instilled things such as:

• If you don't know, ASK.
• If you quit, you will never know if you can do it (I contemplated quitting the track team in junior high school)
• If you want to grow old, keep living. And most importantly,
• Things don't always stay the same.

Moms have a way of making you feel better just when you need to feel better. They also will tell you the truth about yourself. Cherish and love yours for the rest of her life and treasure the memories after she's gone. I know I will. So to all the mothers - living and non-living:

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Education versus Learning

"Learning is when you discover what you don't know; education is the process of getting there."

I made that one up all by myself. Aren't you proud of me? On the serious side, learning is a key factor in you reaching where you would like to be. However, what most of us Americans have overly stressed is the education part. Here is an excerpt from a report I recently read:

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"Our nation's workforce is in jeopardy. Too many Americans have a constricted vision of what it means to be successful in school, in careers and in adult life. Educators, policy-makers and the public are TOO [emphasis mine] willing to define "success" as a four-year college degree and tend to concentrate most of our economic and social resources on that single goal." - from Lost in Transition: Building a Better Path from School to College and Career, Southern Regional Education Board, 2008. Click here for full report.

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What resonated with me was the comment of defining success as a four-year college degree. How many of us (yes I include myself) has done this? We automatically assume that everyone must go to college immediately after high school. We stress, "you need to get a good education to get a good job nowadays." Well, hold the phone. Just because one has a "good" education does not mean that anything has been learned.

When learning occurs along side education, now we got something to work with. Back to my opening quotation, learning is when you discover what you don't know. I wonder how many of you reading this post went through the process of education to discover that you did not learn anything - well, anything that prepared you for the "real world." Unfortunately that's an education that far too many individuals receive.

We've all heard about the low graduation rates, high drop-out rates and our (U.S.) declining position globally as far as education is concerned. Something needs to be done and done quickly or we will continue towards becoming a Second World education system. That's left for another discussion.

As an educator (or more appropriate, learning specialist), it is my duty and responsibility to insure that students that I work with are learning what they need to prepare for post-education whether that is from high school or college. For those of you who are true learning specialists - not in the titular sense - it is your responsibility as well. That means focusing on the whole needs of the student and not just those that will get them into college or to graduate from high school. Those are important but don't get me wrong. However, Steve may be a 4.0 student but he has no social skills to interact with potential co-workers; Janet is a favorite among her teachers but her problem solving skills are lacking.

What am I getting at here? For those of us who are in the profession of "learning" our students, make sure that we are equipping them when we have them in font of us. When they move on to the next learning experience, the seeds have been planted for them to continue learning.

Sound too simple I know. But I ask, how well have the complex answers worked? Let me leave you with another quotation, "its not what is poured into the student but that which is planted that matters."

Consider THE SOURCE!

I have to share this with you but I am greatly aware that not all will hear what I am saying. However, if you truly want to learn something, continue reading.

All around us in the news there is war, murder, inflation, recession, etc. and many Americans are wondering what are we going to do? Who's going to get us out of this mess? Barack. Hillary. Or McCain.

If you really want the truth (because it'll make you free), none of the above can get us out of this mess. Sure the promises are made to do this and to do that; to cut this and not cut that. But on the real - there is only one solution.

JESUS!!!!!

He said, "Be still and know that I AM God," (Psalm 46:10). In short HE is telling us to chill out, I got this. Regardless of what is happening around us - in America or around the world - He is still in control of all things. Even more than this, HE is the SOURCE of ALL things - yes, even oil. Sure there are those who are capitalizing on the supply of oil, and other resources today but God is the SOURCE of them. For those who believe and love the Lord - guess what? He shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ.

Don't take this lightly. I could go deeper with this but for the sake of this post, I want all of you you reading this to FREE YOUR MIND from all of the negative news around us and to know that the God who created ALL things has not abandoned His creation, even though His creation has abandoned him. Also know that ALL things were created by His spoken Word and if He did it then He can do it again.

In other words, HE IS THE SOURCE of all things which leads me to believe (as a Christian if you must know) that I don't have to worry about high gas prices, a decreasing dollar or fear of losing my job. All that I need - and all of us that believe - is to stay connected to the SOURCE and my (your) needs will be supplied. Its really simple:

If you unplug your television from the outlet (its source of power) it won't work. If we unplug ourselves from our SOURCE of power, we won't work either. By work I mean doing what we are purposed for here on earth. Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.

KNOW YOUR PURPOSE BY KNOWING YOUR SOURCE!

So the next time you hear about or see bad news - consider THE SOURCE to get you through it.

How Many Book Covers Have You Judged?

You've heard of the saying, "don't judge a book by its cover" haven't you? Today I had an eye opening experience with this. No, I did not judge anyone however, I was the object of the judging. It was sort of a humbling experience and I don't want the individual to feel bad in any way about revealing their first impression of me.

If nothing else, this should be a lesson for those judging as well as those being judged. In the words of Ricky Ricardo, "let me 'splain."

The individual who had "prejudged" me, at that point, had only observed me and had not gotten to know me yet. Nonetheless, this person "did not like" me from our conversation; they thought I was "up there" - you know, conceited. Of course we can laugh about it now. But what if you hold that person to your prejudged impression and never get to know them? Because of your personal bias, that person may hold the key to your goal or goals. If you were to survey (or recall) times when you have prejudged someone, how many of those times were you completely wrong? Look around us today. We see it all the time.

There is another side to this equation. For this individual to make that assumption about me I had to have been giving off some kid of "vibe" that caused them to think this way. This is why it is ever so important for us to be aware of how we "are" in the presence of other people. Even though you may never speak or interact with someone - you are "speaking to them." Do you know what you're saying every day without actually speaking?

If you are the deliverer of prejudged thoughts or actions, ask yourself where are those thoughts coming from. Are they based on fact or fiction? Do you know the person and not just know of them? If you are the recipient of prejudged thoughts or actions, ask yourself what "vibe" am I giving off to cause this. In either case, the key to avoiding a potentially bad situation is to not assume what you see or think without validating it. In other words, get to know the person first.

Prejudiced thoughts and/or actions can be a major blow to you reaching your goals if they are not held in check. Most relationship issues (student-teacher, parent-child, husband-wife, etc.) can, more often than not, be attributed to one party making an assumption about the other. So, how many book covers have you judged lately?

By the way I'm not conceited - just confident!

Leaving A Legacy

You may be wondering why I'm writing about leaving a legacy. We just celebrated the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination; we know his legacy. We know the legacy of Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Malcolm X and JFK. I can name others however, my point is that each of these individuals have long passed away and their legacy lives with us today.

Today I attended the funeral of one of our church mothers (a senior woman of the congregation), Mama Lue who was 102 years old. Should we all be so fortunate to live that long. To have lived that long one would expect that your legacy will continue generations after you have "gone up yonder." In this case, I'm sure "Mama Lue" will leave a legacy with those she has touched in her 102 years.

My question to you is, "what will be your legacy?"

Often we get caught up in the problems of the world - high gas prices, crime, diseases, etc. - that we lose sight of being a solution for others. At one point during their lives, the above names made a difference in other people's lives. Yes, I'm sure they had their own personal problems but they all went beyond that. You may be looking at how you're going to get through next month or next week even. Don't get me wrong but you probably said the same thing last month or last week - and you're still here!

Leaving a legacy brings to mind the book "7 Habits for Highly Effective People." One of the principles discussed is 'Beginning With The End.' The basic premise is to look at your life from the end - your funeral. As today, with all funerals, the eulogy of "Mama Lue" told of how she lived her life for God; how she was there when others needed help; how she spoke life and not death and many other admirable comments.

Did she live her life so that she could have a wonderful eulogy? Did she even know how her life would turn out at the end? All that I know (and you should too) is that she had to "live" in such a way that she will leave a legacy for the rest of us.

Since you are reading this post, you can still effect the outcome of your legacy. How?

BEGIN WITH THE END.

Just as we all can write a will that tells what we'll leave to whom, so can we write our own eulogy - NOW - that will tell what legacy we will leave. Think about it. If you know how you would like to be eulogized, then you have control over its content. Every day you should be creating the outline for your eulogy. You should be living your life according to how you want to be remembered.

Do you want to be remembered as a person who always complained and worried about your current situation? Do you want to be remembered as a person who blamed the world for you not accomplishing your purpose in life? Or do you want to be remembered as a person who was a joy to be around or a person who put others before self or even a person who poured into other's lives to make it just a little bit better?

Guess what? The choice is yours. You still have a chance to leave a positive mark in this world many years after you are gone. It is my desire that when individuals walk away from my presence that their life is a little bit better. This is one way I am laying the foundation to "the end."

So again I ask you, "what will be your legacy?"

RIP Mama Lue.

A Personal Evaluation

Hello to all!

If you have been wondering where I've been, I've been doing some soul searching. You get to a point in your life when you begin to assess and evaluate where you have been and where you are headed. Rapidly approaching my 4oth birthday, I have made a vow that my "latter days shall be greater" than my former days.

You may be at that point in your life or have already surpassed it. Nonetheless, each and every one of us should do this - more frequently than I have. We should all be trying to reach higher levels personally, financially, spirtually and professionally. In doing so, there may be some overlap in these areas. If not, you are living a disjointed life.

Areas that I have been focusing on, in particular, are my spiritual and professional lives. These two will impact the other areas of my life tremendously. Let me define what I mean by these two areas:

Spritiually - my desire is to draw as close to God as HE will allow. HE desires an intimate relationship with HIM for us. One of my prayers is for wisdom and understanding of HIS plans for my life. Jeremiah 29:11 tells me that HE knows the plans for me, therefore I am listening as HE reveals them.

Professionally - my desire in this area is to become the most requested coach and motivational speaker in the world. Sounds a bit ambitious? It should because of my desire above. One of my favorite scriptures is, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." With this in mind this desire is definitely possible - and then some.

Are these the only areas I have evaluated? No. But these are the two I chose to share with you. You should identify those areas important in your life and see where they are taking you. You may be on the right track but if you do not move (i.e. take action) you'll get run over.

Before I close, here are a few things I have accomplished in recent months:

1. Secured a business license to practice coaching.

2. Self-published my first book (F.O.C.U.S. On Your Future: 5 Simple Principles to Reach Your Goals).

3. Coming in May - a FREE newsletter, ChalkTalk with The People's Coach

Other projects are in the works, including blogging with you all on a regular basis.

Til we meet again, BE CONTENT BUT DON'T SETTLE.