This
is something I have ruminating in my mind for many many years. The
extreme and destructive nature of the promoted and celebrated MONO
MILLIONAIRE. What is the impact of and proliferation of Mono-Millionaires
in US, Europe and UK on the aspirations, expectation settings and
realities of todays youth? What is a Mono-Millionaire?
Who
makes up this elite yet destructive demographic? Mainly Paid Sports
+ Entertainment professionals. Even drug dealers have to create
a large and usually multi-location sales, marketing and distribution
network. But why is it destructive?
I have
never come across a 18 27 millionaire banker, lawyer, accountant,
doctor or any other from the professional services arena. wealth
creation is much more of a slow steady build up where 95% of folk
never attain it. From a business-creation perspective it is very
much impossible to become a multi-millionaire normally without employing
and educating many many people. At the same time attaining a degree
of financial intelligence.
When businesses are created, the by-product of that journey are
seasoned and well trained employees or executives. Not only does
this have a wider benefit for the community at large by raising
the knowledge base and standard of living for the individual employees
but also resets aspirations for the tens-of-thousands that follow.
Our
youth in the Westernsphere have become polluted with the idea that
to become rich the most fun and obvious
paths are Sports, Drugs and Entertainment (SDE). Where this isnt
far from the truth in the eyes of too many young people, there are
many, many others routes which are far less extreme than the 1:10,000
ratio of becoming a millionaire in SDE field.
Amongst
my travels I have come across multi-millionaire founders in engineering
services, design, marketing, retail, fashion, pornography, Internet
and many many others. unfortunately non of them founded by black
folk.
We
need to promote and celebrate other forms of success outside of
SDE, not only amongst ourselves but in the media also. And reject
the notion that all success is created equal.
I believe
the proliferation of the mono-millionaires will slowly erode the
aspirations of our young leaders of tomorrow. There is a certain
responsibility, hardship and confidence earned from slowly building
a large and stable fortune. I think we have seen what
happens when money is paid too quickly to those who havent
the financial intelligence to nurture it.
Sports
Cars and pouring Champagne on bitches. ultimately leading to bankruptcy.
How
many young people aspire to be Jay Z / P Diddy /Rio Ferdinand when
they should be aspiring to become Robert L Johnson (the founder
of cable network Black Entertainment Television who was the
first black-controlled company on the New York Stock Exchange which
was ultimately bought by Viacom (owners of MTV) for $3 billion )
And the first African American billionaire.
Jason
Chukwuma Njoku
The
blacklist.com
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