Here’s the Advice I Got From a Multi-Millionaire

By Christin Farmer Kane

I have been in search of a millionaire mentor for at least 3 years now. I had outgrown the nonprofit industry and relished the thought of being a successful entrepreneur. I knew it would be 10 times harder than being an employee but freedom — both physical and financial, are of the utmost importance to me.

To that end, I reached out to a guy I knew to be wealthy — he was a generous donor to the organization I had founded. My desire to become rich, and an influential philanthropist made the thought of him becoming my mentor attractive.

He responded almost immediately, said yes to my mentoring request, and agreed to meet with me. I was quite inspired by his story. I left the meeting knowing what I wanted to do, and how I needed to get it done.

Here’s what I learned:

Be super persistent.

Not kind of persistent, but super persistent. No matter what the circumstances are currently, live and talk like you are already who you say you want to become. Even when you think the door has been closed, it is up to you to beat on it until you knock it down. The world truly is your oyster. Your access to it solely depends on you. There is nothing in between you and what you want, except you. Refuse to give up.

Talk to people face to face.

This was a big one for me. I try to avoid people at all costs, and prefer a text/email, although I don’t like those channels either. In all, I’m a hermit. I prefer to be left alone, but that will absolutely not suffice in business. When you want something done and it involves a partnership or a business in general, you need to talk face to face. Call a meeting. Even if it’s just 15 minutes. Nothing can replace human interaction. We are literally designed to connect with one another.

Make mistakes, but don’t be careless.

Vito Corleone once said, “Women and children can be careless, but not men.” Point taken, but that was in a time before now. Today, none of us can afford to be careless. It is, however, ok to make mistakes, and in fact, according to him, you most certainly will. In his words, “some days are going to be great, like really good, business is great; then other days, you’ll feel like balling up in a corner to cry — and no one will give a shit.”

Take on risks — smart risks, big risks, but take them.

Fear must be irrelevant. It only exists so you don’t do something stupid, like trying to stop a gunfight. It’s not there to stop you from pursuing what you desire to have in life. When you allow fear to overtake you, you will become resentful of your life’s circumstances; tortured by the thought of “what if.”

Never let people know where you are.

You may not have a dollar to your name, but never let people know that. Walk in the assumption that you have what you want already, and people will believe you’re there. You’ll start to believe you’re there and that belief will turn into reality quickly. Go with the flow, and make decisions that say, “I have what I desire.” You will begin to show your future reality in the way you walk and talk.

Go where the market is.

It’s great to help people, but the real way to help people is by demonstration and having the money to help in the way you’d like to. In the words of the late Bob Proctor, a poor person has never given anyone a job. If you want to be rich, you have to go where the money is, where there is a market. Whatever people are buying is the business you need to get into, but have a niche. Do something that sets you apart and can feed consumers’ needs or solve their problems.

The world owes you nothing.

If you believe it does, you will always be looking for someone to come and save you, robbing you of the valuable life lessons that make you the powerful being you are. Belief in yourself is your greatest asset. Devoid of any social labels — race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc., who are you? Asking yourself that question should lead you back to, “I’m a unique and divine, powerful ass human being,” period. Armed with that knowledge, now you can go out and do anything you wish to do.

Wives are the real MVPs.

Wives can speak to a husband in a way no woman can, not even his mother. She has the power to mirror back to her man exactly what he needs to hear for him to see himself for who and what he truly is. If he doesn’t like it, he has the power to change. How he believes she sees him is oftentimes more important than how he sees himself. He doesn’t want to let either one of them down. A part of a man’s drive is his ability to provide for himself and the people he loves — his wife and children. That’s understandable.

Ears Wide Open.

A lot of these points may sound familiar but let me point out the correlation to metaphysics — Universal Laws such as the law of attraction, the law of assumption, the law of demonstration, the law of gender, etc. There are so many. If you talk to wealthy people or listen to them, on say, Lewis Howes’ podcast, you’ll hear them all saying the same thing in different ways, which is very helpful. People need to hear things in ways in which they can relate and therefore understand.

This meeting affirmed much of what I knew about how to show up in this world, being a walking embodiment of confidence and certainty, no matter your past or bad experiences that hurt. All that matters is what you believe your new reality will look like. Focus on that, and that you will become.

Forbes Richest Blacks 2020

The Disparity of Younger Voters

By Kayla Blake

One of the things that I noticed was that there were a lot of older voters and very few young people. There is a severe lack of political voices among those who are younger.

In November, 2021, Cleveland had a mayoral election. On election day, I worked at the polls at Daniel E Morgan Elementary School. Most of the voters I saw were around 50 or 60 despite the median age of someone living in Cleveland being about 36. In pretty much every other part of the US, there is a clear disparity between young and old voters.

According to the Census Bureau, only 51% of the people between the ages of 18 and 24 voted in the 2020 election. This was about an 11% increase from the 2016 election, which had about 39% youth voter turnout according to Tufts University.

This means that young adults fall far behind in terms of voter turnout.

While working on election day, I had a lot of time to think about this. I wondered why out of all the voters I saw that day, very few were young. At first I did not understand because personally, I am a political person and understand the importance of voting and the power it holds. However, I realized many people aren’t as political as I am and don’t hold strong opinions when it comes to world events (which is understandable).

I decided to do some more research on why people within my general age group don’t turn up at the polls as much as their older counterparts.

First, this isn’t just an American problem. This same thing happens in other democratic countries. In fact, it happens in most of them. One of the reasons why younger people don’t get out and vote is because young people, who are just starting their adulthoods, have no financial cushion, unlike other generations and might not be able to take off work or build their schedule around voting.

Trinity College Professor of International Politics Mark N. Franklin said in a New York Times article that this is especially true in America because it is not mandatory for a business to give workers time off to vote. There are many people here with families and/or bad financial situations to the point where they literally can’t afford to take a day off of work. Missing a day of work could mean they’re missing a meal or missing rent or tuition money. Older generations are more established and therefore are able to take some time off, especially elderly people who usually work little to none.

Another reason why I believe there is a disparity with young voters is that a lot of people are discouraged and don’t believe their vote would count. This is a concept I learned last year and it’s called voter apathy. Some people just don’t think their voting would make any difference in this country. So, they don’t bother spending any time on it. This can come from miseducation or discouragement when it comes to political action.

I believe that most of this can be overcome. One thing we can do is educate people more on the importance of voting and how it can have a lot of impact on society. For example, I am currently reading a book about former Georgia State Rep. Stacey Abrams and her political work. She helped the Democrats win the 2020 presidential election by mobilizing voters and breaking records of voter turnout almost single-handedly. I believe if people hear more stories like this, more than likely they would feel a greater urge to vote.

Another thing I believe we can do is to create more systemic changes to make it easier to vote. Voting is hard for some people because they can not take time off, or other random barriers. One of the most notorious barriers is how in urban settings, there are long voting lines where people have to wait for hours. This makes it discouraging and makes some people turn away (rightfully so). Some studies even show that some voter lines in POC communities are more concentrated than in white ones. In addition to this, it is illegal for anyone to give them bottled water! If we make it easier to vote people might not have a problem with showing up to the polls.

In conclusion, there is a lack of voter participation among young people. I’ve even seen it with my own two eyes. Everyone deserves the right to vote and engage in the civic process. We must make it easier for people to do this and educate people more on the importance of a single vote and how it can hold power. I hope that in the future, there is a surge in participation among my current age group and that everyone has the chance to have a voice in the political process.