Dr. Umar Johnson said that the black community needs more entrepreneurs not college graduates. Is he right? by Kyle Phoenix

Yes, he is but by being right about that he's not necessarily saying no to advanced education. What he's suggesting is both and a consciousness towards a more expansive community capability.

There are 3 positionalities in Capitalism: Property/Object, Consumer/Employee, Owner/Creator.

African Americans have solidly been 2, with a micro percentage moving into the third, Owner. Not owning real property, materials, resources, manufacturing or production facilities, intellectual property means that we are dependent on external sources of employment and private funding, and mentorship.

I don't want to paint a destitute portrait, Black Enterprise magazine clearly illustrates a broad Black Fortune 200 of companies throughout the spectrum of industries. Johnson's point is that comparatively speaking to several metrics our entrepreneurial efforts are not substantive enough.

One, AAs spend $1 trillion dollars plus into American businesses, yet we're a tenth of the wealth holders in America per capita by household. Whites have an average of $141k as household net worth, this being historically inflated by the generational segregation of the GI Bill post WW2 veterans. Our current household AA net worth on average is $19-25k, behind several Latino groups and Asian ethnicities. We could hold and improve that at progressive Civil Rights but the reactionary response of AAs maintains the "Pooring " Effect.

Two, the Pooring Effect is strengthened by seeking validation in objects, bling, watches, cars, purses, shoes, hair weaves, gold chains, clothing, cable TV, leasing cars, all of those doodads, liabilities, disposable, not appreciating assets. Johnson rightfully points out the effort to be White or feel better about being Black by buying objects of no value. This cements people into the cycle of only 2 positions in a capitalistic framework.

I was watching Power 105, a video of the radio show here in NYC, Pete Davidson of SNL interview and he and Charlemagne were talking about buying expensive watches and having them on. Patek Philippe, starting at $5000 to $10,000 and whether it was an investment. Davidson was talking about SNL, living in an apartment and doing well. Charlemagne has a long term contract, bigger exposure, a book out, I'm sure he's projecting more and more moves to TV. Davidson though is a comic, working gig to gig. A watch , yes might appreciate in value but its not an asset. An asset makes you money. The book behind Charlemagne, that's an intellectual property asset, his home in New Jersey is an asset. Ironically Johnson had been on the show recently. He was talking about the mentality that lacks financial education but shops to validate self. Both are ultimately Employees—-no coincidence.

Three, other cultures practice Legacy Building. Insurance policies, home transfer, 529k plans, beneficiaries to 401k plans. AAs work, work hard but through a lack of financial education pay 72.4% in taxes overall then spend, debt /credit card what's leftover to buy doodads of no value. Again, a repercussion of being an Employee/Consumer.

This leads to the absence, vacuum of Voltron like financial power to come together in micro and major ways. We have stuff, things of value, yes but we're squandering what we have.

Umar’s point about degrees is that higher education degreed children are repeating their parents financial ignorance and not building private wealth. So we stay dependent on external cultural systems that do not serve our cultural interest but we lack leverage to force change.

Entrepreneurs though tend to have a different mindset, one of growth vs a fixed employee mindset. An entrepreneur knows how to sit down and decide at tax time costs, allocate money, decide on new investments into assets that generating income, revenue, ever increasing value.

I recently won a small amount of money and a coworker, about 23, African, asked for some/what was I going to do with it. I told him there are 3 Contexts to money.

1. Make money
2. Make money make money
3. Legacy money

I'd made the money by winning the raffle but now I had to make it make money and then that money make money and then to slowly create more and more legacy items in a portfolio for my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It wasn’t just a get and spend, singular engagement—Consumer—-relationship to money.

It was like watching a light come on in him and he started actually singing the 3 steps.

To Johnson's point, its a start.

But we need better, more expansive programming into communities and schools----I agree and teach specific financial information and have for the past 15 years at all educational levels.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a good reader, all the books in the series, about 40, I have and are an excellent programmatic primer for a Beginner to Intermediate, ready for Advanced financial education. I got Cashflow 101 and 202 to play with students, but its hard in a semester or two with other core work to ascertain future financial wherewithal and the ability most importantly to create, manage, own a business.

Ownership requires less money but more education.

A degree and getting a job and shopping is easier, like suicide.

I've said before about Johnson (and maybe I'll forward it to him the text of), this context in Spiral Dynamics:

There's a brief section where it talks about race and Civil Rights leaders coming to understand that we moved from one level (3) to now level 4-legality, laws, racism, truth, justice and stopped, when White America, not entirely, but has expanded to include Level 5---capitalism, entrepreneurship, self actualization, ownership, self valuation, being a creator, the natural evolution.

I would say Whitney Young had this evolution in mind as he was negotiating behind the scenes with White business people, backed by Black Titan AG Gaston, one of the major private funders of the Civil rights movement.

Umar Johnson is polemic but he's not crazy nor wrong. 

#KylePhoenix

Do people who earn more money value their lives less than people who earn less money? by Kyle Phoenix

 

No. Ish, You simply do a ROI on Violence differently because you’ve generally undertaken some sort of lessons, private training in martial arts studied fighting so it’s more controlled, less from anger which is important. The importance being how you perceive yourself, others and the totality of your resources, business, net worth.

The whole pandemic shutdown for me sort of accentuated my capability to physically take care of myself, as I was challenged, several times by the walking dead….I mean denizens of NYC. Ironically, me, an aspiring intellectual, watching the late Kevin Samuels, he talked about Alpha men, High Value Men, who are Alphas—-and one of the things he listed as a characteristic was having been in a recent confrontation, physically. he wasn’t advocating it but he was saying it was more likely. He was also suggesting that Alphas/HVM would engage in some sort of combat training/be in the military or should look to do so to be able to be internally comfortable with confrontations and be able to defend themselves.

Mike and Martial Arts Training

In college, I worked for the campus police, Public Safety. It was the first year of mass student recruitment but we would be patrolling he two campuses and often dealing with belligerent, drunk students. They arranged for us to have self defense training. But my class schedule precluded me from making the large groups on Wednesdays and Friday, so I signed up for the Monday class. No one else signed up for the Monday class. The instructor, Mike, a Senior said though he was committed, booked/paid for three nights a week so if I showed up on Mondays, then I’d be his student, which would allow him to teach me more, faster. For an entire semester Mike taught me how to fight, at 21. I got really good because he coudl infuse even more than he did with the others as we had the whole gym to ourselves and hours to train. My personally great accomplishment, he would come at me with random attacks, was teh Charlie’s Angel flip. Remember on the old TV show when they show Kelly in the beginning flipping an opponent? I did that!!! Mike was surprised because he hadn’t taught me that but I was suppose to improvise. Then he showed me how to use a non-lethal weapon—-a kubaton.

Insanely, for years as I traveled and then came to live in NYC again my mother was thrilled and would often ask, if I had my kubaton. As an only child, combined with her own personal fears, she was always asking me about my personal safety. Then I did T’ai Chi and Qi Gong—-all slowed down martial arts moves. Finally last year I decided to formally do boxing.

Hannibal and His Warning

AT the university, as I’ve written about before my childhood friend Kevin attended there, and briefly worked for Public Safety too. A hottie gym attendant, Hannibal, who would be on duty while I wa straining with Mike—-told Kaye and I that there was sort of a gang—- group of kids from NYC who had extreme homophobia/transphobia issues. Hannibal recommended Kaye get a gun, he heard they wer planning on jumping her at some point. He said that they’d mentioned me too but he didn’t think they’d do anything to me, because I carried myself (and had done workshops where I discussed sex & sexuality—-and threatened any dipshit student mofo who wanted some to bring it. Leave me alone.) but I’d been raised by my mother and then my activist, political strategist, former Black Panther—-leaving them for the Black Liberation Army because he felt they were too soft——bank robber father. I come from interesting people. But their biggest teaching to me was about taking care of myself.

I would like to leave this at Hannibal was PHD—-Pumped Handsome and Delicious. No, no relevance but it deserves to be said as much as possible. lol

Boxing

Now the further strange part of this is my mother was actually the first one to teach me martial arts/self defense—-specifically with boxing—-that my father had taught her. her and my uncle had historical beef—-so they would pit me and his son, Chris, against one another in chess and boxing—-at like 7 years old. Gloves and everything in the living room—-have at it! Chris is what is gently known as 45 in a 55 mph lane but he wanted to please his father, so he was gung ho about it. I was more reticent until he hit me so hard, a loose tooth fell out—-then I beat the little bastard. My anger is like that—-leave me alone—-leave me alone—-then I go off.

My mother taught me to box at a young age for these sibling arena combat games she and her brother threw us into. And she continued for years. 5′2 just suddenly wailing on me. Her objective was to not only teach me to fight/defend myself but then she’d get upset, more intense if I started to cry. her point was that I had to be able to defend myself, not fall apart——even against her. I was many upset because my mother was punching me. lol In real fights, I didn’t cry—-in school scraps, etc.. Finally at 19, she’s wailing away at me and I’m like quit it—-and she’s like you have to be ready to—-and I clocked my mother.

And she was thrilled. She was a…..special woman.

Pandemic NYC-The Walking Dead

The pandemic sweeps the world and NYC becomes in many ways a paradise/Hell. A paradise in the sense that for someone like me, an introvert, the trains were nearly empty, the streets cleaner, the only real detriment was store hours being closed later. But I was able to easily travel back and forth between multiple states for educational work and then home.

The negative part was that all of the people, who I also personally felt would be the most likely to have and transmit COVID, indigents, vagrants, the homeless—-took over the city. Large buildings and hotels in midtown closed so the homeless took over their squares, their lobbies, blocks and blocks. It was getting kind of Mad Max.

Yes, there were police here but several things sort of confluenced—-the police were taxed probably with stopping the sharp uptick in domestic abuse in homes due to people sheltering too long together, the patrols were also conscious of being infected, a lot of the cops coming down with COVID; and the numbers of homeless people was estimated at 180,000 throughout the 5 boroughs—-the problem with Manhattan is that around Columbia and Midtown and then in New Jersey—-where my work/educational projects, etc. were at—-were also places of congregations of homeless shelters. Which meant that there could be as many as 3–7 shelters surrounding midtown, upper west side, etc. meaning that more homeless people congregated there, around there, traveled through there. The deeper issue was that several mental hospital/facilities were closed down right before the pandemic—-releasing over 40,000 mentally ill people-—-to be homeless. The stopgap system of mental hospitals and jails were overwhelmed—-and our current major stop gap—-Wards’ Island, a small island in the middle of the bay, was at capacity. So to infuse more folk into hospital was impossible as so many other people (with insurance) were already there with COVID. There was also rampant robberies, rioting, etc. It was a mess.

And here I am with my little wheelie bag moving through NYC and other states. lol

But it didn’t effect any of my work, in fact my work surged—-all I had to do was travel back and forth—-probably the surge was higher because I was willing to travel.

Weapon Up?

Folk, friends, family, etc. suggested I get a weapon of some sort. I’m like I have a kubaton! lol

Finally I relented, researching what I could use as a weapon that wasn’t legally a weapon so that if something happened, I wasn't in violation of the law. A rather obese coworker showed me he had like a retractable knife that he kept in his pocket while traveling to Manhattan and I pointed out—-technically, that was a concealed weapon. Even if he were in a kerfuffle—-he would be charged as well because it was a weapon. I settled on a bullwhip.

First Incident

I attach it to my backpack and/or wheelie bag and I’m on my merry way. Back and forth, multiple states for a year. Never had an issue. Until a guy tried to push through at the Path station as I was wheeling my bag through the handicap turnstile. But he came up behind me on my wallet side and the way he pushed me it felt like he was going for my wallet as I put it away, after swiping myself through.

Oh yeah, he was like 6′6 and 250 lbs. HUGE.

I pulled out my bullwhip—-somewhere some young lady who was on the platform has the video—-and I threatened—-as only an intellectual can—-”To take him back to the whip and lash days!”

I tell him to stop such a little bitch, be a man walk through the fucking turnstile, not sidle up on another man to do so—-ironically another man does exactly that—-as I refuse to move my bag or me and my bullwhip out of the way. If you’re going to commit a crime, I challenge, fucking do it, but I paid for the swipe/access, so I’m not moving.

I will also add that when you pull out a bullwhip, what was a minor argument to the 20 folk on the platform turned into theater and they al freeze as I repeatedly crack and snap it.

I demand the police come up, they do after about 5 minutes, I explain the situation and one cop takes him away as the other talks to me. I put my bullwhip back onto it’s clip on my bag.

The office, a young man, nay to 25, amused and titillated, asks why I have a bullwhip. I explain I teach sex and sexuality classes—-this week was BDSM. And get on the train. (Which was silent as everyone watches me, but tries not to watch me.)

Second Incident

I’m in Wendy’s, getting a late burger snack, about 11pm in midtown. And a young drunken guy comes in—-pushes ahead of me as I’m ordering. Now I have to curse him AND the manager/attendant out for them even thinkign they might service him just because he was White. He gets more and mor ebelligerent and I’m like—-”You want some?” (My trusty bullwhip was at my office but I was wearing a red jacket. he backs off and leaves. When I get outside he springs at me from around the corner and knocks my phablet—-it’s a phen and a tablet—-like a mini iPad out of my hand to the ground. and swings on me. I think he thought, he coudl sucker punch me but I block it—-and now I’m in Ok, it’s ON mode. He keeps tryign to hit me but I’m bobbing and weaving (insanely how my mother taugth me to fight) and finally I go in,under a blow, clock him once and then grab his sweater and spin him aroundto the ground and then throw all of my beautiful chocolate 250 lbs. onot him. I wanted to stop him, he was less than 200 lbs. without getting into a deep fisticuffs.

My phablet, though it hit the asphalt was fine, as was my bagged burger. he gets up and drunkenly runs away.

Third Incident

In CVS, coincidentally down the avenue from the Wendy’s weeks later—-the street are now really populated by vagrants etc. and this young looking lady waves me down. Asks me where she can buy some drugs? The closer she gets, the more I realize she’s small but petite, older, a White woman, maybe in her 40s—-but she’s got that hard life face with lines—and wearing a parka and open toe slippers. I don't answer and go into CVS, get my things and go to the Self Checkout.

The lady with her boyfriend—-who is like 22, she’s like a hard faced 42, come over and he says the machine he was using isn’t working—-he’ll have to use mine—-AS I’m checking out my stuff.

A born and bred New Yorker, I give him the NYC loving response which is appropriate: “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

She proceeds to grab my few items and starts throwing them to the side and I tell her that she have the machine, if she and her junkie boyfriend—-he looked really crack—-but like they both were like blonde, West Coast crackheads——which he screams that he’s never INJECTED dugs. She’s screaming at me—-from 5′2 Land and she’s sputtering and screaming and going and I say calmly to her—-”Go ahead, say it. You know you want to say it. Say it.”

“You NIGGER!” she screams at the top of her lungs.

The CVS attendants who come over and get between us—-Jamal and Jose, did not appreciate it and throw them out. When I get outside, they come at me from around the corner. Now NY law is you walk away, evade, but if they touch you——he grabs at me—-again my wonderful red windbreaker jacket on—-and I knock his hand away and literally, like a pimp—-I’m sure he'll know this then or some day—-smack him, openhanded—-like a Blackploitation film. You know where it’s not just a hand across the face but it ascends, gets some lift off and then comes down because Bitch better have my money!!!? Yeah, like that.

She comes at me, grabs me, my beautiful red red windbreaker and I backhand her away. I meant to give her the backhand—-Don't get lippy with me! slap but she was short, angle wrong, so it turns into a forearm slamming that sends her tumbling.

As I have often asked folk, I ask: “Are we done?” They get up and start scampering away—-yelling invectives once they’re at least 50 feet away.

Personal Worth

But to bring this ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the way home to the question—-when I get bac to my office, to eat my jellybeans and Pepsi, I ruminate on these three incidents that occurred in the Wasteland Manhattan had become and I realized that I have the benefit of being 6′2, 250 lbs., solidly built with a resting angry face—-my cousin Pam said I looked mad walking down the street—I’m not, I’m generally thinking, hard. Part of what I reaped the benefit of—-here in NYC then, (once when someone tried to do drugs in my apartment when they had simply asked to use the bathroom—-I caught him about to shoot up, he goes off on me in MY house—-then jumps at me—-so I beat his ass to the door, opened the door and he’s still trying to grab/hit me so now I’m slimming my door onto his body and punching him in the face——only in NY, kids)—-I see that my size and countenance has prevented or dissuaded lots of other attacks. For the most part I feel safe traveling, in my neighborhood—-I even opened an institute for a year in the hinterlands of Brooklyn—-where I’d never been—-and realized a few months in traveling to teach a 6pm to 930 pm class to adults—-this is a dangerous neighborhood.

I’m big enough, secure enough, ready to deflect or engage in a confrontation——and like my parents/Mike taught me—-hit hard, get away—-my coworkers arguing-advocating deep violence—-and me pointing out—-I’ve got a career, a media business, I have a dollar extra as my mentor Carlene Hatcher Polite said when we first met at university, I’m reasonably attractive, simple tickets as a legal record—no felonies—-I have a LOT to lose.

I’m not “unique” as a Black man but I’m on the “other side” of the danger line.

(90% of my police interactions have been positive, helpful, my calling them—-they’ve only pulled guns on me once—-I had called them on a family member and in the vestibule I was standing in, my cellphone—-black and silver in my hand, looked like a gun—-they then told me to drop it—-I realized I was in an Amadou Diallo moment, dropped it and they asked to handcuff me to confirm I was the caller—which I allowed them to—-they confirmed it and I went on about never being in contact with that family member again.)

What If I Let Anger/Fear Drive My Actions?

I have a lot to lose—-as I explained to my coworkers—-if I fall and hit my head and go all gummi bears in the head—-my intelligence which is my engine, could be deeply compromised. Or worse, I have to seriously hit /beat someone, or don’t hit to stop and evade, but angrily try to hurt someone, and accidentally kill them.. I’ve seen Dateline—-this is how it happens to the smart, handsome man, who ends up in prison for some bullshit.

Or worse——-a LAWSUIT that I have to pay off for the next 20 years of millions of dollars from my work, my company, my properties, because Crackhead Sally is now a quadriplegic, as I maliciously went in for a second hit, out of anger.

Also I’m a Role Model

I mentor lots of students, adults, but that range has extended to young men and women—-teens to early adulthood—-and I remind them and even older students—-you who are employed, healthy, in school, advancing, with good family and friends, doing the right thing—-have far more to lose then some drunk. Don’t let them goad you into excessive violence or drama. What I often see in legal projects I work on is that if the person who is in jail/the criminals were a mite smarter they could’ve milked the doorman, security, bystander, building, restaurant, handsome teacher in his dashing red windbreaker—-who engaged in protracted violence with them. They could have soaked them. But the criminal element, often form poverty, are impulse driven, into the immediacy of the moment—-which is also why they’re more prone to violence…and they have nothing to lose.

The social context of poverty, particularly for men but also for young women, identity——is Lover or Fighter—-which is why they’re faster to violence—-because their social psychological has it habitualized.

I’m lucky that my parents were……..honestly, dangerous people—-one day I’ll write about their …..other skills…. that they passed on——who wanted me to be safe, be able to take care of myself—-bluntly explaining when I was school aged—-that I was an only child, do whatever I had to to deal with bullies, attacks, threats—-they wouldn’t always be there to protect me. More than one? My father was big on turning every day, nearby objects, into weapons, and always identify a potential weapon within arms’ length (and always sit facing the door of restaurants and offices.) My mother was big on hurt someone if you have to in order to protect yourself—-don’t hesitate because they won’t—-man, woman, chicken, child, animal—-she gave me permission to not underestimate women in all of her boxing training.

(I actually had a friend/former coworker I’ve since gotten out of my life—-who explained that her anger sometimes was so explosive that she’s been known to throw glasses at people over dinner, hit them, etc.. I calmly told her: “You do that to me, I will knock the fuck out of you.” She was quiet, not the response I think she expected. And that was one of the reasons why I removed her as a friend.)

What this did, in my non-poverty, middle class upbringing, and then higher, going into environments where violence isn’t the immediate but living in a city, world that has terrorists setting up gasoline filled vans in midtown, mentally unstable people out to hurt people, drug fiends who prey upon the socially polite or even drunks or homophobic adults on a university campus—-I’m in a world, a city, where I have to pay attention by virtue of race and simple human presentation as perhaps having resources someone wants—-I am a target and I move through lots of levels of people/neighborhoods—-I have to be on alert, ready to deflect, evade, get away.

But if I have to, I’ll hurt another human being to protect myself—-however, I must do it in a measured way so as to protect my fuller, brighter, more resources life.

And Lord, Jesus and three other Gods, help the motherfucker that comes for my partner or kids. Awwwwwwwww shit……….

#KylePhoenix

#TheKylePhoenixShow

How did entrepreneurialism affect your childhood? by Kyle Phoenix

 

I’ve written before about starting a newspaper business, signing a contract-loan with my mother for $5 in start up cash, hiring and firing my first employees (the babysitter’s children)—-all at about 8 to 9 years old.

Then in Middle school I would photocopy roleplaying games (buy for $6, sell for $3—-my advantage that I had been travelling the subways of NYC for years to meet my parents so I could Yellow Pages comic stores/RPG stores and travel to hinterlands to get books)—-I would also photocopy scenes out of comics and commissioned other good artists to draw pics——all for sale during lunch. (The odd point here is I have only eaten a school lunch a few times—-either going out for launch (in the 4th, 5th grade—-you could walk a few blocks during school) or brought my own.

By high school I started a national small amateur comic book company. Contacting other kids and adults from their letters sent in to comics, printed with addresses in the back (and eventually Dragon magazine and RPG Society—-which gave me a list of thousands of members to “make friends with”. I sent out thousands of letters instead. lol) Membership was $25 a year. The biggest problem turned into we were right on the cusp of desktop publishing computers but the scratch to stay in business maybe for two more years was impossible to maintain.

In college I took over magazines and chapbooks—-eventually becoming President of the chapbook, rearranging the budget to create a larger—-better magazine and then selling it on consignment outside of the university—-something they’d never done in 5 years of existence. Most importantly not just the 48 Laws of Power/Machiavellian tactics my mother coached me in to grabbed power over the board and be voted in. but most importantly to our scheme—-I got to experiment with using Other People’s Money.

My mother, father and stepfather, Terry, the chef—-all supported my businesses, learning how to learning, mastering chess at 3 or 4 and enacting those skill sets' as I got older. They never said I couldn't’ do things, it was pressed upon me to figure out how to do them within the parameters of school and (reasonably) the law. (I mean in Middle School I was pretty much trouncing copyright laws and using AT&T’s copier for non-telecom related enterprises. lol)

So What Did I Learn?

• I learned a flexibility of self-perception. By that I mean that I can do/tackle anything. I can suss out what I want and don’t want and decide whether it’s useful, good, interesting, how it can and will work out. All of the above childhood mental work taught me how to learn and think.
• It also taught me about valuing myself and money. I’ve always been able to flip the switch of 40, 60, 100 hours of work—-because through a lot of those entrepreneurial endeavors to maintain liquidity I was working hard for an allowance or part time or even full time as a teen. I notice most people start bitching at Hour 41 and demanding triple time. I skate into Hour 100 or until it’s done. The ability to get work done, switch it on or off, whether this project/job will make me President or not, is what I notice most employees or humdrums lack.
• I know what my work is worth. At 8 to 9, buying newspapers, paying back my loan to my mother, selling them in the building, then expanding out to hiring the babysitters kids and then firing them when they misunderstood employees vs. ownership, has taught me what I and my work are worth. It’s taught me the value of learning, squeezing every drop out of work, reading anything I can, asking questions, paying attention so that I am valuable at a job, applying it to a project, using that skill set in my own business or carrying it through to to my career. I’m not competitive in the traditional sense, I’m just well armed. Yes, I bring a squadron of Navy Seals’ skills to a knife fight——I play to win—-for myself, not always the direct/apparent competition. I often tell people directly—-supervisors—-I don’t want your job. (The offset of title/position and freedom NOT to have to answer the phone, NOT to have to go to so many meetings, NOT to be beholden to a company is my entrepreneurial Super S under my shirt and tie. I ON the team, for now, but not really life-committed to it.)
• I never fear layoffs or getting fired—-sometimes I’m thoughtful about the timing—-geez, during the winter?—-but I always have a side hustle/business operating or a Plan B. I purposefully do things to not emotionally identify or feel deeply attached to places/companies that I don’t own. That’s the rule. Does it have my name/company name on the door? Then I’m a consultant who is always ready to leave and never return tomorrow. Always. I’ve been so ready and detached in the past people thought I must’ve hated them from the jump. I never hated jobs/positions. But I didn’t love them either. (As I am a utility for the company, they are a utility for Kyle, Inc.. Always.)
• I think first from an Owner’s perspective then from an Employee’s. I generally understand why decisions are made, long term strategic plans, have insights and projections and predictions. Most I keep to myself, others I use to manipulate for my advantage. I’m rarely surprised, never the helpless Employee and I always know who and what kind of firm I’m working for. I’m much clearer and detached about them than they are about me. The beauty is that they assume I’m like all the other Employees (maybe a bit brighter, work harder, smarter) but they never assume I’m like an Owner, have an Owner mentality. I’m always listening and always taking notes—-sometimes directly in every meeting and training (and definitely during casual conversations.) I walk in the way a gladiator walks into the arena—-to do battle that day and parlay for tomorrow and the next day and the next year.
• I never give a firm, anywhere, my efforts, that I don’t own or own stock in (another rule, I buy stock in most places I work at—-it’s one of my criteria for accepting a position—-partnership-ownership) 100% of Kyle. You’re never getting 100%. Now the percentage of effort I’m giving you might LOOK LIKE 100% to the firm, but that’s by intention. You will never get 100% of Kyle. At best you’re getting____________<<<<<I know how to keep some things private.
• I’m often fun, amenable, congenial, thoughtful, supportive, professional and engaging at jobs. That’s my Kyle, Inc. brand face.
• I’m always working on something else, have multiple streams of income coming in. The job is never my sole income. I’m always working on something, perfecting it and using being employed with the other sheep, as a tool, utility or ruse. always.
• Like Jay-Z advised—-I’m always holding a few inches back. I’m capable of more. I always have been but I’ve been sitting in the cut learning the business inside out, the board members/supervisors (yes, I run background checks on everyone I work with—-they run them on me, right? Quid pro quo. Owner mentality.)
• I’m fiercely loyal but don’t fuck with me. I’m not a scared Employee, I will take off my Kyle-Employee mask and let Kyle, the Owner of Kyle, Inc. fucking obliterate you. And I’ve done it and I’m completely comfortable doing it again in the future. (I fired the babysitter’s kids on Sunday and showed up to their home on Monday—-their mom was my babysitter. An Employee. As they had been…you know until they demanded 2/3s of the profits because they’d just learned division. But I fired them so they would understand further into division….EMPLOYEES. lol) And remember I’ve been sitting there learning all of your and the companies secrets. Let’s part friendly business associates and never enemies. No one wants me as an enemy.
• I learned patience and how to slowly build a business, investments, garner royalties (making money while I sleep, especially on Sundays), I also subscribe to the 4Ms—-Make Money Make Money. I learned how to delay gratification, to play for the end game, to focus on a goal in the future, not immediate gratification.
• I know my Life’s Purpose. It is not a job. Though I might be there for years.

The only regret I have is implementation of my ideas—-timing—-acting, learning how to fix and set goals—-that took my 20–30s. I did a lot of experimenting, sitting at places learning all about business. It was a trade off. But slowly but surely, I’m expanding and monetizing all aspects of my little mini-empire. BWAHAHAHHAHA

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Why do people falsely claim that rich people didnt take the money from the poor? The reason most rich people are rich, is because of the wages. If wages were high enough, these rich people wouldnt be rich, and the poor wouldnt be poor. Agree? by Kyle Phoenix

Because that’s an oversimplification of how money and business works. It’s an oversimplification to the factor of: “Mommy and Daddy go out the front door and come back with through the door with all the money for everything in the house. The door is magic.”

In a broader context we’re in a continuous self-replicating and perpetuating cycle. In that cycle one group of people creates say a company—-Acme, Inc., owned by the Acme family. The Acme family makes widgets that are used first locally in the town and then over 100+ years throughout the world to help everything from shoes to space shuttles operate.

Over those 100 years the price of a widget has barely changed from say $1 per widget. But whereas the Acme company used to make 1000 widgets a day in Anytown, USA, now, 100 years later they make 100,000,000,000 widgets a day to customers around the world. In order to do this effectively they’ve opened 100 offices/factories around the world—-some they built from scratch, others they bought out/took over/partnered with to make widgets.

Bob who lives in the Bronx, NY is poor. Acme Inc. has nothing to do with his poverty directly. Two states of being can exist without having effect upon the other but still be related by Acme is staffed by thousands of human beings and Bob is a human being.

• Acme can have some affect upon Bob based upon proximity and integration. Acme doesn’t have a plant in the Bronx. If they did and Bob were so inclined and eligible, he could apply for a job there, starting at $30k ($15 an hour) and work there for 50 years from his 18th birthday—-not a superstar but rising in pay/responsibility until he was earning $150k a year ($75 an hour)
• Indirectly, if Bob weren’t an employee, and Acme built a plant there, they would bring in a minimum of 1000 employees, paid an average of $30k a year, who would need breakfast, lunch, dinner—-so Bob could start a food cart across the street from the plant and earn approximately the same salary as if he were employee but instead do his dream job of cooking.
• Indirectly, if Bob weren’t an employee, and Acme built a plant there, they would bring in a minimum of 1000 employees, paid an average of $30k a year who would need to live nearby the factory for travelling ease and Bob’s parents home could be turned into a boarding house or even apartments and Bob could manage/own it. Again, Acme has created an opportunity that could potentially shift Bob out of poverty.

However Acme, nor the Acme family, are directly responsible for the Bobs who aren’t employees. Bob will have to actively engage Acme to profit from the fact that Acme isn’t simply a company/a name—-Acme is a conglomeration of first 1, then 10, then 100 now 100,000 people who all work on the manufacturing and distribution of the Acme widget. Those people concentrate their abilities into the business to get back out, from the shared effort, a paycheck.

The Acme family, having say put up their farm as collateral to start the business 100 years ago, no longer go to the office to work after the age of say 50, but they still draw salaries into a trust. So multiple generations of the Acme family use the fact that they own the Acme company and hundreds of billions of widgets are sold, as their “pay”—-ownership means they get the biggest share of the company and profits, however they decide, before any of the employees. The problem with Bobs is that they aren’t members of the Acme family so they get salaries, not ownership level salaries/controlling interests.

To a relative corporation Bob is on the “wrong” side of the paradigm for making/having as much money as Mr. and Mrs. Acme, pointedly, as an employee. In order to “take” or tax the rich multiple things would happen.

1. One, the rich have already put their assets into tax havens—-so if there were the threat of greater taxes—-they would ramp up those efforts.
2. Most rich people aren’t mega rich billionaires—-there are maybe a few thousand billionaires. Could a few thousand people with unlimited assets escape high taxation? Easily.
3. Now there are tens of millions of millionaires—-could all of them escape higher taxation? Probably not.

Most $1 to $999 million millionaires are not just sitting on piles of cash—-that is a poor context of thinking of money. What they’re sitting on are dozens of companies (tens of millions of employees) that they own, stocks (invested into other companies that acts as capital to keep them running—-employing millions of more people), partnerships in businesses (again employing millions of employees and helping to facilitate other business owners/entrepreneurs——ala Shark Tank), real estate (housing millions of people)—-lots of assets that are not “cash” money.

Generally, you also cannot retroactively double tax assets. So whatever tax rate/cost has occurred to build most wealth cannot be retroactively double taxed. (Remember the Boston Tea Party revolt, that’s what was one of the threats/spurs to action.) Which means that there would have to be a start date—-January 1st, 2025—- when Acme, Inc. would be subject to 50% taxation. Giving Acme Inc. 2–3 years to shutdown all Acme Inc.'s in America. (You do know that Apple, Inc. isn’t located here in America?—-hundreds of billions of dollars that consumers poured into iPhones are in banks in Europe, Ireland, Scotland, The Middle East, Asia—-where taxation is non-existent or more favorable.)

Also say you bought a house for $50,000 and have stayed in it for 50 years. It is now worth $1 million——should the government be able to swoop in to take half of that valuation to distribute, insanely to poor Bobs?

Not every millionaire is a billionaire—-so where do we draw the line between “rich we agree to” and “rich we don’t agree to”?

The Acme Family, How They Got “Rich”. They Worked for It.

What most poor people assume is that rich people——an oversimplification of relative financial positions—-are playing by the same rules.

Here’s how you become rich—-stop playing by poor people’s money rules.

The Acme family did several things alongside starting Acme, Inc..

One, they may’ve started out owning a farm. For simplicities' sake let’s say there were 4 brothers. Those 4 brothers put aside all of their personal shit and each brother took on a role—-working as farm hands' on other farms, living in a one room house with their parents, waiting until they were all over 35 to marry. They ate stew a lot, curbed their vices and everyone——4 brothers, two parents kicked in to the Acme Family Money Jar. for 10 years.

Then they opened the jar and bought a small farm. Instead of doing what their neighbors did and selling their corn or wheat or vegetables, Ma Acme and Pa Acme ran the farm raising vegetables and livestock—-pigs, chickens and cows, to first feed the family. They expanded the house to 4 rooms and the brothers kept working at another farm, 5 days a week and then 2 days a week at the family farm. They kept filling the Acme Family Money Jar—-20 years—-expanding their farm and more importantly instead of selling vegetables—-they raised and sold livestock—-for higher prices, because of less countywide competition.

It took 20 years, but by the time the brothers were in their late 30s and 40s—-they had bought a thousand acres of fertile land and thousands of livestock and could retire their parents by taking over farming duties—-and expanding the house to 5 smaller houses/plots spread out on the farm, for each of them to have for their own families.

Then they went to the bank and had an appraiser come out and appraise their whole home/business/farm set up. Let’s call it a value of $1 million dollars. They took out a loan for $1 million dollars against the farm, and spent it on the land closest to town, they built an office and small factory—-where they made widgets—-having learned in 20 years of work, what farms and businesses needed.

But they stopped playing by Poor People’s Rules, intentionally.

1. They pooled their effort towards a common goal.
2. They lowered their expenses and intentionally made sacrifices for at least 10 to 20 years.
3. They didn’t have children and educated themselves towards a bigger goal.
4. They didn’t stop their income, just lowered it slightly when they bought the farm, but they still lived below the means of 6 adults.
5. They used their resources to invest not just cash but their Human Capital into a system—-the farm/livestock that would remove their biggest expense first—-themselves—-then they looked at re-investing that money into a simple, replicable system—-farming/livestock breeding—-while still working to bring in 4 incomes, plus the farms’—-essentially quadrupling their resources without increasing their normal, routinized workload or expenses.
6. They then strategized how to use their asset—-the farm—-to one, increase in value—-the business and building individual homes on it, and then have it appraised and get a bank loan (shifting from Poor to Working/Middle Class to Rich-Wealthy) rules and systems—-borrow/get money based upon an asset and then, most importantly——
7. They created Acme, Inc. on land they owned, charging themselves rent from the company-building so part of the $1 million dollar loan from the bank—-$50k every year, they paid back to the Acme Family Money Jar as a business that was renting space/building on their owned land, near town to go into a needed business—making and selling widgets.
8. They maintained the farm and began working Acme, Inc, quitting their farmhand jobs and THEN starting families—-marriage and children—-after they had a stable asset in the farm and new Acme company. (Their plan for their children was that every single one of them go to college, in different parts of the country and specialize in engineering, computer science, architecture, real estate, business and law—-so that the family itself becomes a skill and braintrust with a network all over the country to eventually set up more Acme Inc. plants).They practiced The 4 Ms of the Rich that the Poor don’t practice—-

• Make Money Make Money.
• Collective economics.
• Stave off having children until they can be afforded.
• Educate on the dime of others (the other farms they worked for 20 years).
• Then educate your children in useful skills to increase not just their Human Capital but the overall family Human Capital value.

Most Poor people are not taught this system, a strategic system as a group or individuals, so they don’t practice compound interest creation, collective economics, personal vice control, waiting to have children, finding and hoarding education, turning money into more money.

The Brookings Institute, a think tank here in America, has narrowed down 3 cross contaminating modalities that ensure poverty:

1. Lack of wedlock. Shacking up, not getting legally married. (This is why even LGBTSGL marriages are so significant. Marriage is not simply for love, it is a contractual binding of two entities that are greater and more stable/solid than the individual.)
2. Having children without wedlock/alone. Children are another bill, responsibility on an adult and that person’s time. It is generally $10k to $25k or as much as $300k to have a child and support it to at least 18.
3. No education; dropping out of high school and now in the 21st century, no college education. Society as a whole, thanks to technology is moving intellectually faster—-we are in the Information/Knowledge Age——if you are not advancing intellectually in your skillset to expand and keep your Human Capital above Poverty levels, you will fall into Poverty. It’s yes, a form of a race, but not so much to win, as to keep up. Not educating—-reading, writing, math skills, computer skills, constantly upgrading, two to five times in your lifetime, means you’re lagging behind. Rich people understand they must keep learning and expanding their skill sets personally or through employees—-lawyers, accountants, doctors, teachers, coaches, therapists, etc.. Richer people improve themselves, continuously.

The overall problem with capitalism—-isn’t how capitalism works, it’s that people aren’t taught how and why capitalism works. What Bob, the employee or potential employee, never considered is that Acme, 50 years ago, became publicly traded so that it could expand. Doing so meant that they transformed the paradigm of the company so that others (millions of people) could buy shares of ownership of the company, to give Acme more money, an infusion, to expand internationally.

Instead of one big loan—-they opened up the company to being sold as smaller pieces, called stocks. The Acme Family though has always retained from grandparents to parents to grandchildren to great grandchildren, 60% of the company itself, and lives off of dividends, rarely selling their inherited shares.

The Bob in an alternate universe who worked for them for 50 years took advantage of the employee stock buying program and bought 10 shares, 520 shares a year, 5200 shares a decade—-which totaled to 26,000 shares after 50 years. The employee share buying program meant Bob bought all his shares at the price of $10 a piece. Bob spent $260k on those 26,000 shares BUT the value of the shares rose to being worth $1000 a piece, so Bob retires with $26 million dollars worth of shares.

The problem of poverty is twofold——information/education and opportunity. Education literally creates the possibility of furthering one’s self and family through opportunities one is now aware of.

Bob, the food stand guy, after 50 years doesn’t have $26 million, though he was there as much or longer as Bob the share buying employee. He might have expanded to a restaurant worth $2.6 million after 50 years. Which are both greater than Bob, who never applied, because in his universe, Acme Inc. only had a NY plant in Long Island and he didn’t want to/couldn’t travel that far.

In all of the ideas——Acme has always existed, always been staffed by 100,000 people and always made the Acme family rich but to our three Bob’s, their interaction with Acme has influenced their financial outcome.

Overly simplified yes, but the opportunity the poor miss out on is getting into the game on some level, that’s where society needs expansion—-teaching Bobs to engage as employees or even restaurant cart/storefront owners with Acme’s, to take advantage of the existence of larger systems—-to even generally buy stocks that increase in value over time (another form of compoundation/interest.). If you hand Bob, unemployed $30k a year, he won’t grow, as human, as much as Bob the employee/owner or Bob, the entrepreneur.

Bob is not worth $15 an hour to any of the Acme, Inc.’s of the world. And the capitalistic system is one built through meritocracy——existence is not reason enough for a living (beginning Middle Class salary) salary——unless you’re so disabled as to need special help.

Because two factors must occur for money to exist into a concrete form: someone must make and sell widgets—-a company/employee; and someone must buy widgets—-a company/consumer.

Without those two factors, constantly cycling value-widget-money—-back and forth there is no generated money to pay anyone a salary. Which means this capitalistic system, supported by billions of people is so far the best one for the most people. There are other systems but they don’t work as well for so many people. The only foreseeable change to expand capitalism is materials from space—-asteroids—-iron, gold, etc. being brought back to Earth or expanding elsewhere, to create more economies to sell widgets to. We need more raw materials to make widgets and those widgets to be useful to human beings for their to be more circulation of money to employ more Bob’s.

Shifting Bob (s) Will Eradicate Poverty

Undoing poverty means that Bob needs to be educated so that he can see/decide on opportunities (that yes, have to be reasonably available—-we can’t have discrimination/segregation of opportunities against folks named Bob) so that he too can profit as the Acme family have (now worth billions) and the employees of Acme (thousands of employees worth millions) from the sale worldwide of widgets.

As an interesting real world application, the nation of Haiti has refused corporations that want to set up plants and offices there that won’t educate the Haitian populace and employ them. You must build not just a factory but a school next to the factory to teach not just the employees but the populace as well. A company’s investment isn’t simply in a percentage of people who are educated and therefore can take advantage of the opportunity of Acme Inc. in Haiti but also the lowest rung Bob who needs elementary, middle and high school education to be able to take advantage of the entry level positions and pay of Acme.

The interesting part is that when more and more Bob’s engage the world, therefore the Acme’s of the world in the profitable, educated ways of capitalism, Acme’s will shift. Acme’s of the world take advantage of not Bob’s but the proliferation of ignorance from billions of Bob’s across the world—-who still buy widgets for their cars, homes, clothing, etc..

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