The Race To Close The Wealth Gap
The odds are not in your favor.
The only way to make it is if you volunteer as tribute. The battle will be grueling, gut wrenching, but somewhere along the journey, gratifying.
The research shows that half of black Americans born poor stay poor. Upward mobility from the bottom of the income distribution is much less likely for black than white Americans: 51% of the black Americans born into the lowest fifth of the earnings distribution remain there at age 40.¹
The rates of downward mobility are almost just as saddening.
Black Americans who make it to the middle class are more likely to see their kids fall down the economic ladder as adults. On top of that, black wealth barely exists. In 2019, the median wealth (without defined-benefit pensions) of Black households in the United States was $24,100, compared with $189,100 for white households.
For you or someone you know, this is an accurate depiction of the starting line, far behind the take off blocks, walking barefoot in the parking lot.
To compound the stark reality of this economic situation, if you live in America, the odds of becoming a millionaire are between 6.4% to 22.3% according to data from the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
We should all be millionaires, but the reality is, many of us will never join the two comma club.
Not because we lack desire, not because we lack effort, but because the playing field is not even and many of us have not learned how to succeed in this system. We have to learn how to run on rocky terrain.
We have to develop stamina to jump over more hurdles, at higher heights, than other competitors.
We have to learn how to master the inner game, restoring our internal beliefs back to factory settings, the way God initially designed us to operate. We were made in His image. We are trust fund babies of the kingdom. Blue Ivy Carter and North West won’t question their position or second guess their inheritance. We need to move with that same level of knowing.
He has plans for us to prosper. He hears our prayers. He gave us the ability to produce wealth. This is our birth right. Remember to act like it.
In addition to the self work, the flesh work required, we have to navigate the realities of the system, not just the ideals we wish existed.
We are living in a day in age where growth is radically accelerated due to the fast advancement of technology. I’m forever grateful to Steve Jobs (creator of the iPhone), Mark Zuckerburg (Founder of Facebook) and Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger (Co-Founders of Instagram). The companies these men built is a huge reason why my success has been on an exponential incline. The ability to share your perspective, to reach your target audience and to earn paid customers is easier than ever before.
Now is the time we are charting new career paths that didn’t even exist 20 years ago, leveraging our past experience and packaging our expertise into high value, high ticket coaching programs.
Our generation has gone from over consumption of education, earning multiple degrees from prestigious institutions, receiving niche certifications or graduating valedictorian from the School of Hard Knocks to owning our expertise by becoming coaches, teaching what we have done so others can succeed as we have.
Having the courage to start your own business, to see yourself and to allow others to see you as an authority within a niche area of expertise, to actively invite people to purchase your offer can be tough.
When something is important enough, when that inner calling is louder than the doubts of your ego, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.
Let’s keep it 100 — you’ve been beating the odds your entire life. Don’t stop now.
Look, it may not be easy but it can be simple. Increasing your changes of joining the two comma club boils down to a few key decisions that drive thousands of other choices you will have to make:
- Make the decision that you want this. It all starts with a conscious choice. Once you’ve decided, fully commit to learning what’s required.
- Commit to a path that will get you there. There’s no one way but you have to pick a way.
- Leverage your existing experience to become a profitable online coach. As an industry expert with niche training, you have achieved results that others are trying to accomplish. If you’ve been a mentor or a trusted source people come to for specific help, this is for you.
- Go all in for 3 years before even considering quitting or giving up. It takes time to gain traction and build momentum. Remain in the race long enough to catch your stride.
- Keep reading and I’ll give you the play by play on how I did it and how you can too. If you are looking for a “rah rah, you can do it if you just believe” kinda person, I ain’t the one. I’m a straight shooter and I promise to keep it 100 with ya, as uncomfortable as it might get.
I heard Pharell once say that people think the easiest part of the harvest is the harvest. It’s not. The easiest part of the harvest is the seed, when you ask the universe for something. It’s so easy to ask. The hardest part is when that harvest comes in. That’s when the real work begins.
As it says in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”² There are harvests everyone. I truly believe we all have a harvest within reach. But who is really willing to do the work?
My articles are written specifically for those few laborers. For the few who don’t just plant the seed but are committed to tending the crops.
Harvest work is hard. There’s no sugar coating that.
Losing weight is hard. Being overweight is hard.
Building a business is hard. Being broke is hard.
Growth is hard. Staying stuck where you are right now is hard.
Pick your hard.
There are multiple ways to get to the top of the financial food chain but you have to decide which route you are going to take and choose if you even want to play the game.
This $*&! is a game. Don’t let anyone convince you that it isn’t.
I say it’s a game because it can be “won”, you just want to make sure you don’t lose yourself along the way. Becoming a millionaire can be done ethically, while remaining in integrity. Your morality doesn’t have to be scarified in order to become profitable. You don’t have to be a pretentious prick only out for yourself to succeed. Being a self absorbed asshole will actually hurt you in today’s market. #PraiseBe
There are levels to advance and there are challenges you have to solve in order to progress forward. The riddles you have to crack require that you approach the problem with a different perspective that you may not be accustomed too. You must elevate your mentality, evolve your mindset and unlearn past patterns of behavior that minimize your potential.
Errbody wants to be a millionaire. But are you willing to do what’s required to get there? Are you willing to evolve into who you need to become to maintain your identity once you have arrived? If you keep reading, that’ll let me know what your answer is.
See you in the next article.
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[1] Tabulations by Joanna Venator of social genome model data based on NLSY79 and 97 data. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2015/01/15/five-bleak-facts-on-black-opportunity/
[2] The Bible: New International Version. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010%3A2&version=NIV
