It has been said that if you want to keep a secret from a black person, then put it in a book because he will never find it there. As offensive and racially insensitive as that statement is, many of our people feel that there is a lot of truth to it. I’ll let you judge that for yourself, but I will say that when it comes to obtaining knowledge about business and making money, I have found more helpful information in the pages of books than I have from the words of family and friends.
When it comes to having financial freedom and not having to worry about money and bills, many of us who are wage slaves that are stuck in dead end jobs feel a heavy sense of hopelessness. We want to escape the death debt sentence of poverty, but don’t know exactly how. We see many of our family and friends in similar discouraging circumstances and believe that life in the poor house is meant to be.
I’m sure you have heard that knowledge is power. Unfortunately, many of us are destroyed from a lack of knowledge and feel powerless. We don’t even try to improve our condition because we are burdened with poverty mindsets.
The poverty mindset is the problem. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. If you think as a poor man, then you will have the realities of a poor man. If you think as a rich man, then you will have the realities of a rich man. I know it sound fluffy, but trust me, I’m not trying to blow smoke up your butt with empty rhetoric. I’m only saying that wealth, success, and riches start in the mind. Once you get your mind right, you still must put effective action behind your thoughts.
The first step to overcoming the poverty mindset and getting your mind right is to attack it with knowledge. What helped me attack my poverty mindset was simply cracking open some books and soaking up a ton of knowledge. I know that it might not be the sexiest thing to do, but I feel that it is necessary because when it comes to building wealth and financial freedom, many of us don’t even know what we don’t know simply because we have been mistaught or not taught at all about financially empowering ourselves…and no one is going to tell you either. More times than not, no one rich is going to hold your hand and teach you how to get rich (at least not for free), simply because they just don’t have the time.
What I have done is listed some of my favorite books that helped me that I also feel will help shift your mindset and open your eyes to how to escape the poverty mindset. Check out my list below.
Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki
Excuse my French, but this book is a mind f##k. It teaches that everything you’ve been taught about money and wealth is wrong. Its basic philosophy is that rich people and poor people have been taught two different mindsets about money and wealth. The rich have been taught how to be rich and the poor have been taught how to work for the rich.
This book opened my business eyes wide open. It’s not so much a how to do business book, but rather it’s more of a business philosophy book that shows the contrasting mindsets that rich and poor people have. Due to either not being taught at all or just simply being taught from a poor person’s blueprint by our parents and schools, many of the concepts of Rich Dad Poor Dad are foreign to the majority of us, although they are deceptively simple to understand once introduced into our psyche. Simple concepts such as working for money as the poor are taught vs having your money work for you as the rich are taught will totally shift your mindset and you won’t be the same again. Read it here.
The Millionaire Fastlane – M.J. Demarco
M.J. Demarco goes against the grain and challenges the oft spouted advice that says that in order to be successful, entrepreneurs must “follow their passions” and “there is no such thing as getting rich quick.”
His take is that customers can care less about your passion. They are only interested in what you can do for them. Fulfilling customers’ needs and wants is what will make you rich, and that’s what you should focus on. If you happen to be passionate about it, then that makes it all the better.
The Millionaire Fastlane advocates getting rich quick. What it doesn’t advocate is getting rich easy or overnight. MJ illustrates the blueprint that worked for him which is finding and fulfilling customers’ needs, serving them and scaling your business to huge profits. If those profits make you rich within 1 to 5 or even 5 to 10 years, then you have gotten rich quick while you are young enough to enjoy it as opposed to what he terms the slow lane of working a job, contributing to your 401k, and if all goes well and you get regular pay raises, the market stays good, and you don’t lose your job (all factors that you can’t control), then 30 years later you’ll be able to retire a millionaire, and be the richest guy in the nursing home instead. Read it here.
The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires – Dr. Dennis Kimbro
I love this book. It should be required reading for school age black boy and girls. I’m sure that learning about the plentiful examples of successful black millionaires will be highly motivational for them, and will show them that there are way more paths to riches than being athletes and entertainers.
Dr. Kimbro’s book states that you can essentially choose to be rich. Although it may sound like some empty self-help rhetoric, he demonstrates this with data collected from the interviews and survey results of numerous black millionaires. He shows how these wealthy business people chose to work hard, chose to not settle for less, and chose not to live in poverty.
This is the ultimate mindset book. Dr. Kimbro shows and tells what it takes to escape the shackles of poverty and the first step is freeing your mind and making the choice to be wealthy. Read it here.
32 Ways to Be a Champion in Business – Earvin “Magic” Johnson
I have to admit that I almost judged this book by its cover as another fluffy public relations piece meant only to create another revenue stream for a famous celebrity. Boy, aren’t I glad that I was wrong. I couldn’t put this book down. I have always admired Magic Johnson as a man and businessman, and this book only strengthened my admiration.
In this book, Magic laid out a full fledge blueprint on how to conduct business with success. His strategies aren’t just fluffy typical self-help notions either, he gives specific details on what to do and how to do it. He doesn’t just preach the good word, but he illustrates how he implemented these 32 strategies in his own multiple successful businesses.
I also like how he crafted a lot of his message specifically to black entrepreneurs by emphasizing the need to serve our many untapped and underserved black customer markets as a means to empower our communities by not only making more prosperous black entrepreneurs, but by providing jobs, goods and services that our communities are sorely missing and have to do without or go outside of our communities to obtain. Read it here.
How to Succeed in Business Without Being White: Straight Talk on Making It in America – Earl Graves
This is not your typical how to start a business book, but rather it is like words from a mentor intent on showing black entrepreneurs how to successfully conduct business in a country where our business acumen and buying power as a community is often misunderstood, under appreciated and ignored.
Earl Graves, the founder of Black Enterprise magazine, sprinkled this book with massive jewels from his decades of experience in doing business at the highest levels. He covers a myriad of topics such as how to find funding aimed at black businesses, how to grow and maintain your finances, the multiple business opportunities to take advantage of, and a whole lot more.
This book was published in 1997, so some of the information is a very dated, but it’s still worth a read to witness the thought process and viewpoints of a successful black businessman who shows what it takes to succeed in business. Read it here.
Message to the Blackman in America – Elijah Muhammad
I started not to list this title, not because I don’t think that you can benefit from it, but because I feel that most people’s miseducated preconceptions and prejudices about the author will cause them to turn their brains off instead of turning their critical thinking on. Elijah Muhammad was the founder of the Nation of Islam and many are only familiar with what his enemies have taught mistaught them about him. Whether you love or hate him, it can’t be denied that he was indeed a brilliant man. If his ideologies differ from or oppose yours, then hopefully you can choose to agree to disagree in order not to miss the important lessons that can benefit the minds and lives of black people.
First off this is not a business book. Its content is more religious and philosophical, and I admit that the religious aspect didn’t resonate with me. On the flip side, however, he had a tremendous effect on me when he teaches on the importance of why black people MUST become proficient in business and stop being beggars. He preaches that we must and can do for self and kind as a matter of economic survival for ourselves, our families, and our communities. No one, I feel, has communicated the importance and urgency of this much needed message as effectively as Mr. Muhammad does in his book.
I feel that if all black people were exposed to this ‘do for self knowledge’, then we would be better off, and less dependent on someone to save us from poverty, because we would save ourselves. Read it here.
ONE LAST THING
If you have read any of the books on my list, then please provide your comments and let me know what you think. I would also like to know what books you would recommend for destroying the poverty mindset and empowering a wealthy mindset. I’m always on the hunt for a good read.
Remember that acquiring knowledge through reading is only step one to acquiring wealth and success. You must take that knowledge and put it into action, or else you’ll remain poor. You’ll just know a whole lot of stuff, and like the old G.I. Joe cartoons say…knowing is half the battle.
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