Lessons in poverty: You are different
The worst mistake a poor man who has some measure of success can make is to believe he’s the same as the people around him. Just because you share the same space, the same office or same building doesn’t make you the same. You will always have grown up poor and experienced things that others have nightmares about. You are different.
They say blacks sometimes have a chip on their shoulders, like the world is agaisnt them. I don’t think that is wrong. But its not a black thing, its a poor thing. Its a perspective thats needed to succeed when you start with 0. You must fight to climb and the moment you stop trying is the moment you die. The moment everyone around you seems the same as you is the moment you die.
Success means being different all the time, taking a different route. Dealing with different people. It means believing that you have earned the right to be successful. It means believing that you are better than everyone else because you overcame great challenges in your past, more importantly it means proving you are better every single day you wake up. You are different, you have a chip on your shoulder and something to prove. That aint bad.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:09 am
Its been almost 2 years since i found your site and book, and i must say everytime i find things going astray i can also revert back to both and get that little bit of insight.
Thanks!!!
July 19th, 2007 at 3:36 am
Avoiding antipathy is one point.
As well as the point that we are so close to “Whites” yet so far away.
Funny thing is there is not much grey between “Blacks” & “Whites”
July 19th, 2007 at 10:36 am
I wonder if the poverty mindset chip on the shoulder can become an albatross around the neck at a certain point?
July 19th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Chris_B, Its like being a foreigner living in Japan. You can make believe that after 20 years you are just as Japanese as everyone else in the country, but that would be delusional. The fact remains that as a gaijin in Japan you will have always been born outside of Japan of non-Japanese parents and that will always make you different. You can easily let that dominate your life assume everyone in Japan is agaisnt you because you are a foreigner, or you can take advantage of the opportunities that can only be seen and identified by foreigners who think differently because they grew up outside of Japan.
See what I’m getting at?
July 20th, 2007 at 3:37 am
ejovi i agree, that situation works in most foreign countries.
having lived for a while in the UK, being a south african its allows one to break the norm and benefit whereas the “locals” are to afraid to break the boundaries
July 20th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
My point is that its a choice. Of course I’m different, but its up to me to put up or shut up and get by in society along with everyone else, even if the next guy may have a leg up by accident of birth.
July 21st, 2007 at 6:31 am
I see your point. I’m coming from the belief that not all men are created equal, but they can be made equal.
But many people believe that everyone is equal and will be treated equally. I believe, in this case that poor people start at a disadvantage and must work to equal the playing field. And that doesn’t happen without extra effort and a consciousness of your situation.