Success: How to Conceive, Believe, Achieve and Keep It, Part 1

William "Bill" Gates ranks as one of the two or three richest individuals on the planet. Oprah Winfrey will always be known as this nation's first African American women to achieve billion dollar status. That's not the only good news abou the financial and economic growth of African Americans in the United States. According to an article in Wikipedia, the free online enclyclopedia, since 1998 more than 1.7 million African Americans have climbed out of poverty, dropping the overall rate of poverty for this citizens group from 26.5 percent in 1998 to 24.7 percent in 2004. It's probably much higher today in the aftermath of the recent recession. African Americans, all 36.6 million us constitute about 12.3 percent of the American population, and at least 9.15 million live in poverty.

Why?

On the one hand, we appear to be a people doing very well in this amazing land of opportunity. Afterall, our overall gross national product totals about $892 billion in purchasing power and many estimate that this number will climb to about $1.1 trillion in the next two years. On the other hand, employed African Americans tend to earn abou $.65 for every $1 earned by European Americans in this country in 2004 down from about $.82 per $1 in 1975. In other words, even as 1.7 million African Americans were climbing out of poverty, the average earning gap continued to widen.

Again, why?

Many, and in my judgment far too many, say, or at least think that racism looms that the single most critical culprit in answering this question. I disagree. I believe that mental myopia that leads to terminal "dead-headedness" explains all of the negative, counterproductive statistics affecting this great people who have accomplished much against mind-numbing odds.

Mental myopia defines the inability to see in your mind beyond your current circumstances. "Dead-headedness" refers to the ailment of terminal negative thinking revealed most often in a person's constant complaining and mumurring about his or her circumstances.

So why are more than 90 million African Americans poor? First, let's think of poor as an acronym written this way: P.O.O.R. It stands for Persons Overlooking Opportunity Repeatedly. Let me explain!

Today, the son of a friend of mine called me and asked for $45 so he could buy a pair of "Jordans" he could wear to Job Corp. He is scheduled to leave in less than a week, and three days before his mother gets paid on her parttime job. I said no, not because I did not want to help the young man, but because he represents the classic example of a person overlooking opportunity repeatedly.

About a month ago, I enrolled this entire family--his mother, her three adult sons, and her mother--into a national gifting community where thousands of us have empowered ourselves to help each other financially, using the most simple and powerful principle available--giving. We find this most powerful of all economic priniciples stated in Luke 6:38. It says: "Give, and [gifts] will be given to you; good mesure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will they pour into [the pouch formed by] the bosom [of your robe and used as a bag]. For with the measure you use when you confer benefits only others, it will be measured back to you." (The Amplified Version).

Thousands of us have challenged this dynamic principle to prove its workability. In other words, if we, in this gifting community, become cooperative, committed, communicative and contributive givers, will we all receive benefits commensurate to the measure we use in giving?

Absolutely, without equivocation!

In this gifting community, we give two ways. First, we give, aka share, access to the community with others. There's no cost. The relationship does not involve any business relationship. There is no written or even implied promise of "Return On Investment." This is all a matter of private individuals agreeing to associate freely for a productive purpose.

Briefly summarized, the giving/receiving ratio is three to 14. In other words everytime I give a certain amount to three community members, 14 community members give the identical amount to me. So when I come into the community, first, I find two other individuals I want to help empower to take control of their financial futures, and I give them access to this community. Then I help each of them to provide access to two others. Together we help those four to provide access to two others each. Thus, there are now 14 of us on this one team. Then I give $2 each to three members of the community whose names and other contact information is presented to me by the computer system. Once the three individuals that I gave to confirm that they've received my gift, the system presents my name to 14 other community members. These members have promised to each give me a $2 gift, or a total of $28. I keep $7 as the first of numerous harvests this gifting community will provide and I use the $21 to underwrite my progress to the next level. At level two, I give three community members--presented by the computer software--$7 each, and 14 community members each sends me $7. This continues through six levelsand beyond. When a community member reaches level six, the "harvest" totals $5,729. Over a year, harvests could total $24.979.

Remember, we give first to the community, by expanding membership. Then we give each other small amounts of money that multiplies rapidly as it flows throughout the community. That's it! Two strategies of giving.

As I said, I invited and enrolled five of the six members of this family into this amazing community. I paid their initial "pump priming money," $6 for each of them. I explained how to work within the context of committed, cooperative, communicative and contributive givers.

They did absolutely nothing.

They did not call or come by for additional training, which I would have provided, of course. Neither of them did anything, but what they've been doing. When you do what you've always done, you always receive what you've always received. On the other side of the ledger, to have what others don't, you must perform what others won't.

As I've extended more than 100 invitations to this community, with only 20 individuals accepting, and one of them quitting, I've re-learned a vital lesson. For so many individuals, it's easier to murmur and complain about negative circumstances than it is to work diligently to change them. That attitude makes you a person overlooking opportunity repeatedly, or in other words P.O.O.R.!

As I close, consider three of the most frequently asked questions about this amazing empowerment opportunity.

1. Is it legal? Click on the first support link and read a booklet from the IRS and learn the detailed answer to this question.

2. Is this a pyramid scheme? Absolutely not! Pyramid schemes purport to be business opportunities, but offer no viable product or service. The money is a pyramid scheme comes from the money that others pay to get into the scheme. This a gifting community. You do not pay anything to get into the community. In this community, you neither receive nor make an offer for return on equal value.

3. How does it work? You give to others as you claim you desire to do and others give to you.

Happy gifting