• About Me
  • Courses
  • Contact
    • Ads
  • Press & Media
  • Free eBook
  • Free Facebook Group
  • Disclosures
    • Privacy
Yes, I Am Cheap
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Politics
    stimulus

    Why You Might Not Get A Stimulus Payment

    Credit card security, equifax data breach

    How to Claim $125+ from the Equifax Data Breach Settlement

    foreclosure homes - When Does It Make Sense to Refinance?

    When Does It Make Sense to Refinance?

    no apple

    Get A New iPhone? Heck No!

    poor definition

    Mom Fired For Working At McDonald’s While Kid Plays In Park…Was She Wrong?

    What’s Keeping You From Finding A Job

    U.S. Students Fall Behind: Seemingly Get Dumber By The Minute

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Food
    • Health
    mask insert

    Wearing A Mask? This Can Help You Breathe Easier

    high deductible health plan

    What Is A High Deductible Health Plan?

    free thanksgiving dinner

    How to Get Your Thanksgiving Meal for Free

    using hand sanitizer, your own

    How to Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

    Yoga pose

    5 Ways to Practice Yoga on a Budget

    Traveling, new cultures, Start a Saving Challenge, Spend Smart on Food

    3 Simple Ways to Save for A Vacation

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Game of Thrones
    • MotoGP 2017
    • eSports
    • Fashion Week
  • Investing
  • Make Money
  • Learn Something
  • News
  • Reduce Debt
  • Rental Property
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Politics
    stimulus

    Why You Might Not Get A Stimulus Payment

    Credit card security, equifax data breach

    How to Claim $125+ from the Equifax Data Breach Settlement

    foreclosure homes - When Does It Make Sense to Refinance?

    When Does It Make Sense to Refinance?

    no apple

    Get A New iPhone? Heck No!

    poor definition

    Mom Fired For Working At McDonald’s While Kid Plays In Park…Was She Wrong?

    What’s Keeping You From Finding A Job

    U.S. Students Fall Behind: Seemingly Get Dumber By The Minute

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Food
    • Health
    mask insert

    Wearing A Mask? This Can Help You Breathe Easier

    high deductible health plan

    What Is A High Deductible Health Plan?

    free thanksgiving dinner

    How to Get Your Thanksgiving Meal for Free

    using hand sanitizer, your own

    How to Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

    Yoga pose

    5 Ways to Practice Yoga on a Budget

    Traveling, new cultures, Start a Saving Challenge, Spend Smart on Food

    3 Simple Ways to Save for A Vacation

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Game of Thrones
    • MotoGP 2017
    • eSports
    • Fashion Week
  • Investing
  • Make Money
  • Learn Something
  • News
  • Reduce Debt
  • Rental Property
No Result
View All Result
Yes, I Am Cheap
No Result
View All Result

A Little Motivation For You

Sandy Smith by Sandy Smith
February 5, 2021
in About Me
0
Net Worth - A Little Motivation For You
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

This post may contain affiliate links which may compensate us based on your interaction. Please read the disclosures for more information.


Welcome back! Have you checked out the free webinar on how to establish credit for your small business?


I had a totally different article scheduled for today, but I had an epiphany this morning in the shower, and this I what came out of it.  I want to talk to you a little bit about motivation, the journey that I am on and the path that you are walking with me (hopefully).

We’ve talked a little bit about motivation before, but I find that as time goes by what motivates me evolves as I do.  I would say the primary factor that motivated me was fear of being poor in my older age.  I wrote a little bit about that in a guest post that Beating Broke was kind enough to publish for me.  I also wrote a little bit about growing up poor that inspired others to come out of the closet, to speak, and share their own stories.

The combination of having grown up poor and being fearful of returning to that place can be an incredibly powerful motivator when used correctly.  I’m not being superficial when I talk about poverty.  It’s more than not being able to have a nice house, or a car, it’s about survival. I want to share a little bit more about that.

When I came to the United States, the crack epidemic was just hitting New York City.  The part of the city where we lived was quickly changing with the influx of drugs, so my family moved en mass to another part of the city.  But when you’re poor, your options are really just one bad neighborhood or another.  The area that we moved to was like the Wild West at the time.

I remember walking to school trying to avoid the drug dealers that always seemed to be homeless, since they were forever hanging out on the street corners.  School and the library were safe havens for me.  There, I didn’t have to worry about the people living in my neighborhood.  At the end of the day I would carefully take a pen and pick the crack vials that got stuck in the ridges of my sneakers out while sitting outside so I wouldn’t have to touch them.  This was before I was a teenager.mountain-climbing

I keenly remember literally having to lay on the floor as gunshots flew from rival dealers in turf wars.  You were never sure that you wouldn’t end up caught in crossfire since bullets don’t discriminate.  After one such night we came out to find a bullet hole in my uncle’s window from a shootout the night before.

But even worse than the crack vials; the prostitute living across the street who was pregnant every ten months; the families that had been on welfare for decades while their kids wore the latest $100 Michael Jordan sneakers; the kids being raised by their grandparents because their own parents were strung out on drugs; the people who looked up to the drug dealers driving the latest, most flashy cars; and the feeling that you didn’t know if you would be alive the next day because someone might mistake you for someone else, or a random bullet might find its way through your window was the general complacency that what they were was all they would ever be.  What their parents were was the best that they could hope to be.  What surrounded us in the neighborhood was the best that we could ever see.  A bus or train ride was the farthest that we could go.

I didn’t believe it.  I never believed it, and I always knew that I was better than my surroundings.  I can’t say for sure what gave me that feeling, but being immersed in books, I envisioned the places that the authors spoke about and the world beyond my neighborhood, and I knew that I belonged there.  Nothing and no one would ever be able to tell me differently, no matter what my surroundings told me.

But some kids didn’t have the benefit of such confidence.  I keenly remember a classmate of mine in the local elementary school standing in the front of the class crying as his mother came to speak to the class about AIDS.  In the late 1980’s AIDS was a death sentence and many people were treated like lepers.  This student’s mom had AIDS, and she had contracted it from her drug using husband.  She came to speak to us about avoiding drugs.  All I cared about at the time was my friend, a helpless seven year old who loved his mom and thought that she was going to die.

I’d like to say that he had many opportunities, but quite honestly, he was somewhat doomed from the beginning.  By the time we were in middle school his mother had passed away and he was being raised by an elderly grandmother.  I don’t know what happened to his father.  With no strong parental figure, he fell in with the drug dealing crowd by middle school, and was considered a bad kid.  But I always remembered that little boy in the front of the class.

In our first year of high school, a friend of my brother, often considered a good kid, shot and killed my classmate after my classmate had repeatedly threatened him.  I often think of how different both their lives would have been had they not lived in that neighborhood.  I think of what my young classmate would have become had be believed that he could rise far above his circumstances.  I wish he had had the confidence to be more, but his spirit had been broken as a little boy, and he never recovered.

I’m telling you this story because I want you to believe, and I mean deeply believe, that you have the power to completely change your life.  You have within you the ability to do more, be better, be strong, go farther and rise above whatever circumstance you currently find yourself in.  If you are drowning in despair, latch on to something the help you get out of it. If you are in debt and you don’t know where to turn, ask for help!  There are a host of people behind, beside and in front of me that can and will to to help you all for free!

If you are out of work, and I know that millions of you are, this might be the time for you to think differently and forge a new path for yourself and your family.  People always talk about thinking outside of the box, but what if there was no box.  I know, it sounds a little like we’re in The Matrix, but I really want you to think in a completely different way than you have ever though before.  It will take some creative thinking to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

I always say that as long as I’m alive, it’s a good day.  We’ve already begun the day on the plus side.  What will you do today to make it even better?

Since the song below was playing in my head in the shower, I though I’d have it play for you too while you read this. I chose the acapella version because I want you to focus on the lyrics. Enjoy your climb up.

Mazel tov.


Related

Previous Post

The True Value of Gold

Next Post

Stepping Out on Faith

Sandy Smith

Sandy Smith

I started this blog years ago as a way of keeping myself accountable to my own debt reduction plans. Now I'm using this site to help others get out of debt, and learn about personal finance so that they can live their best lives.

Next Post
job

Stepping Out on Faith

Stay Connected

  • 5.6k Fans
  • 10.1k Followers
  • 4.7k Followers
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
make money with photography

Make Money with Photography Using These Tips

February 4, 2021
stimulus

Why You Might Not Get A Stimulus Payment

January 29, 2021

Go Green: 5 Products That You Should Avoid Using

February 6, 2021
Sports Equipment

Saving On Sports Equipment For Your Kids

February 5, 2021
Federal Student Loan Debt Relief

Why Some People Should Wait Before Applying for Student Loan Forgiveness

October 18, 2022
AirBnb Experiences

Why Airbnb Experiences Are The Best Side Hustle

July 10, 2021
mask insert

Wearing A Mask? This Can Help You Breathe Easier

February 21, 2021
Scams

What’s The Deal With All The Scammers Lately?

February 18, 2021

Recent News

Federal Student Loan Debt Relief

Why Some People Should Wait Before Applying for Student Loan Forgiveness

October 18, 2022
AirBnb Experiences

Why Airbnb Experiences Are The Best Side Hustle

July 10, 2021
mask insert

Wearing A Mask? This Can Help You Breathe Easier

February 21, 2021
Scams

What’s The Deal With All The Scammers Lately?

February 18, 2021

Helping you live your best financial life through personal finance news and education

Follow Us Everywhere

Browse by Category

  • About Me
  • Auto
  • Credit
  • Credit Cards
  • Finance 101
  • Food
  • Get Out of Debt Course
  • Health
  • Investing
  • Learn Something
  • Lifestyle
  • Make Money
  • News
  • Off The Reservation
  • Partner Posts
  • Politics
  • Rants
  • Reader Advice
  • Recipes
  • Reduce Debt
  • Rental Property
  • Save Money
  • Scams
  • Special Offers
  • Spend Money
  • Sponsored Posts
  • Video Pick
  • Weekly Roundup
  • Work

Recent News

Federal Student Loan Debt Relief

Why Some People Should Wait Before Applying for Student Loan Forgiveness

October 18, 2022
AirBnb Experiences

Why Airbnb Experiences Are The Best Side Hustle

July 10, 2021
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2021 Say Yes Services LLC. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • About Me
  • Courses
  • Contact
    • Ads
  • Press & Media
  • Free eBook
  • Free Facebook Group
  • Disclosures
    • Privacy

© 2021 Say Yes Services LLC. All rights reserved.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT