A few months ago, I watched a video by Chinkee Tan on Youtube. The title was "5 Things To Avoid Becoming Poor" and it was a life-changer. The reason why it is important is that Youtube is the second most used search engine in the world, right behind Google. It is a cultural phenomenon, and it's surprising that a lot of journalists don't talk about Youtube. Originally, Youtube was all about the pirated music. The only reason to watch was to go back to my childood and re-live my days of listening to B96 on the school bus.
From Lil' Cease to Puff Daddy, I got around. It wasn't until a few years later that I found the true power of Youtube. Ultimately, what everyone wants is success. So, why not search for it on Youtube? It took me a while to get through the pirated music, the pirated video games and the pirated comedy shows, but eventually I got to the real meat of the website. Real people talking about real success for real people.
In the video by Chinkee Tan, he went over the 5 points without wasting any time. His first point was that in order to avoid being poor, you have to stop believing that success happens overnight. This really hit me hard, because just earlier that year I had started crowdfunding for the first time. I can still remember my emotional state. I wanted to get rich within the month. What I actually got was an emotional beating that will last for as long as the internet does, at least. Over 200,000 people came together to laugh at me. To all of them I was the lowest of the low, a stereotypical black man who probably couldn't count from zero to one.
The first point hit me so hard because I understood that I deserved it. Success doesn't happen overnight. It takes years, or in my case, multiple generations. I may never succeed in this life, but if I keep myself in line, maybe one of my descendants will see the success that I have precluded myself from.
The second point was that in order avoid becoming poor, you have to stop believing that "somebody else" has to make you successful. This one hit me square in the face. How many times had I been sitting around, waiting for somebody else to walk up to me an hand me success? How many times had I literally sat in my house, wondering, "When are they going to come over here and make me rich?" It was completely insane how I was thinking. I'm just starting to learn now that success is not something that can be transferred from somebody else.
I can't stress enough that all of the background work that is required to be done by you. Nobody else can do it. Growing up, I was just handed everything. I never learned how to work. I was handicapped by that, but now I'm trying to learn. I want to learn how to do things. Last year was my first year reading over forty books. Looking over my past days, I know that I'm headed in the right direction.
