A few months ago, I had the privilege of seeing Daymond John speak at the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas. Mr. John was the highlighted guest speaker of their monthly Maverick Speaker series. While I listened to Daymond talk, I realized that I did not know very much about him or his “rags to riches” story. I, of course, knew he founded the Hip Hop clothing line, FUBU (For Us By Us) and I had watched him on the NBC show “Shark Tank”. It is one of my favorite shows. However, I knew little, basically nothing, about who he is, his family or how FUBU came to be. As he continued to speak, I was awed by how interesting and inspiring his journey has been. The man literally took forty dollars and turned it into a billion dollar (YES billion with a “B”) business. Love or hate him, you have to respect his drive and passion to turn his dream into a success.
However, I think what impressed me the most about Mr. John was not his “how”, but his “who”. In the beginning Daymond’s mother, Margot John, was his not only his biggest emotional supporter, but his financial backer and strategic partner as well. She instilled a wonderful work ethic in her son plus provided support and a secure environment for her son’s entrepreneurial spirit to grow. When he founded FUBU, she allowed him to turn her home into a clothing factory and even went as far as to use her home as collateral to finance his dream. In addition to all of that, she also gave him these words of advice, and I will be paraphrasing…
“Poverty of the mind is permanent.”
What did she mean? Financial poverty is a physical state, but it can also be a temporary state. With the right idea, drive, opportunities, financial poverty can be overcome. Her own son, Daymond, is the perfect example of this. However, as she states, if your mind becomes infected with a “poverty mentality” the mindset can become permanent, and keep you in a state of poverty despite how good or ingenious your ideas are or what opportunities are presented to you. A poverty mentality will not allow you to see pass you current situation, acknowledge your creativity or believe that your future can be better. You are defeated in your own mind before you even try, or at the first sight of opposition or failure. It becomes a “victim” mentality and you begin to blame everyone else for your particular circumstances. Plus, you look to others to solve your problems, usually without any effort of your own. So it becomes someone else’s fault for your situation AND someone’s responsibility to save you. Can you see the insanity here?
Just be clear, a poverty mentality, has little to do with money, but it has everything to do with the person. True money or the lack there of, may be one of the hurdles, obstacles, walls, you have to overcome or breakthrough, but it does not have to be. There are people with money, who have a poverty mentality. It manifests itself as self-sabotage and the eventual loss of their wealth. Unfortunately, they are rarely able to regain the fortune they once had.
So you find yourself in a situation, that maybe you did not create. We do not get to pick the family we are born too or determine how circumstances will unfold as we go through life. During Daymond’s presentation at UTA he gave a really great nugget that stuck in my mind.
Therea Tennysn Young is the Financial Contributor for Real Life Real Faith Magazine.
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