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Great Expectations

Aside | Posted on by billjohnson2014

And I’m so evolved I’m so involved

I’m showing growth, I’m so in charge

I’m C.E.O and yea going god

I’m so indebted, I should have been deaded

Selling blow in the park, this I know in my heart

Now I’m so enlighten I might glow in the dark

Shawn Corey Carter  known more by his stage Jay-Z included those lines in a song entitled “Kingdom Come” for the album Kingdom Come. The album was the ninth studio album for Jay-Z and considered a commercial success selling 680,000 copies in the first week. It was unexpected because Jay-Z advised that his 2003 album “The Black Album” would be his last.

The album but, the song specifically records the change that Jay-Z had seen in him. In reflecting Jay-Z advises that now he is accountable to himself and others. He advises that he has evolved and he is excited about his growth from a drug dealer to CEO. Jay-Z is a thinking man now that uses his life lessons to properly dictate his path. He feels humble and thankful that God saved him because he surely would have perished without him.

I was having the kind of conversation that I love with a colleague as it touched on several subjects all of which were diverse yet equally interesting. The topic of dating arose and I responded to how men and woman look at dating differently. I advised that “women marry/date men hoping they will change and men marry/date women hoping they will remain the same”. My colleague advised that she agreed with the point but, made the assertion that women prefer not to use the term “change”. My colleague advised that women used the term “evolve” because change comes with negative coronations.

My colleague finished her retort advising that she did not know why change had developed a negative connation. This made me think and I began to center on several points and examples. I remembered looking at this study that diagrammed the feelings on change within an office. The change could be big or small. It characterized people as resistant, openly resistant, excited/willing and passive. The passive people made up the largest chuck. To quote Marshawn Lynch these people were going along with the change “so they wouldn’t be fired”. The smallest percentage were the “excited/willing made up largely of the “let’s save the world by going green types”. The openly resistant were the most likely to quit but, also cause the largest commotion attempting to get people to see their view point. The resistant would be resistant long enough before they too would join the passive or excited/willing category. If there is/was a change at your job I want you to try to put people in these categories.

One of the reasons people hate change is it goes against the status quo. People have an expectation that has been set from television, there upbringing or in dating from the first date. If anything happens that contradicts or altogether does not meet that expectation it is considered a disaster. Frank Lucas (former drug dealer) advises in short that consistently meeting expectation is how he keeps his cliental happy and thriving. What happens when the expectations are unwarranted? Have you ever seen the woman that has been dating “the guy” react when her friend gets proposed too? Maybe you were the person in your family that everyone expected to have “this” job or drive “that” car. Have you ever done something just to meet an expectation? Why?

The difference between expectations and change are people largely hate change whereas people largely tolerate expectations. I heard an old married woman tell a female newlywed to “never start something that she did not want to finish”. The old woman said in the beginning she started serving her husband his dinner every night and washing all the dishes. The old women advised the young woman “I haven’t had a night off in 40 years”. The tricky things with expectations are some are legitimate. So when you make the statement “I will lower my expectations” so I want be disappointed it appears that you want try your best. Or it appears that you’re not holding the person, item, entity to a standard they/it should live up to.

I think the only time people are willing to accept change is when they are at the complete bottom and there is nowhere else to go. At that point there expectation, there’s that word…there expectation is wherever we go from her has to be up. If someone in heaven mentions change there is uproar. If someone in hell mentions change I guarantee you everyone will have their shoes on before the pronunciation of the “e” in change is complete. On January 20, 2009 Barack H. Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. I doubt seriously if the first African American President would have been elected if he had attempted to follow Bill Clinton. Change is sometimes slow, tedious and frustrating but, we can’t always control change just how we respond to it.

It’s been to hard living, but I’m afraid to die

‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there, beyond the sky

It’s been a long, a long time coming

But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

–          Sam Cooke

ABC..1,2,3 I’m not letting money control me

Posted on by billjohnson2014

Shaq is rich; the white man that signs his check is wealthy. Here you go Shaq, go buy yourself a bouncing car. Bling-Bling….I ain’t talking bout Oprah; I’m talking about Bill Gates.. OK! If Bill Gates woke up tomorrow with Oprah’s money he would jump out of a window. I’m not talking about rich, I’m talking about wealthy. – Chris Rock

People pray for poor people, but they listen to rich people. I want to be rich. – John Thompson II

Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars. – Warren Buffet

Pregnant people get strange tastes. I was pregnant with poverty. Pregnant with dirt and pregnant with smells that turn people away, pregnant with cold and pregnant with shoes that were never bought for me, pregnant with five other people in my bed and No Daddy in the next room, and pregnant with hunger. Paste don’t taste too bad when you’re hungry. These words uttered by a welfare child who saw his mom raise 6 children as a maid. – Dick Gregory

When I was in high school the big thing was to go to college graduate and get a desk job with benefits. Imagine my surprise when I get out of school the oil field workers, construction, energy company workers are making twice as much as me. It was just that, a surprise. I was not envious. I didn’t regret going to school nor was I going to apply to work in these professions.

I recently was faced with a possible opportunity to interview with one of those jobs and it made me revisit how I look at wealth and financial flexibility. I was the kid that would work and save my money for months just to purchase an item I really wanted. It was never about the money. My younger sister would spend money she received that same day. My older sister would spend half, loan out some and save the rest.  I could go without candy; chips and other “nick knacks” because I was focused on what I wanted. I have never been focused or driven by money. I have always looked at money as a tool to acquire goods or services etc.

I think most people would say they would like to live comfortably and that’s fair. I’ve never measured success in dollars and cents. I always felt like if I was happy with me, put God first and I received my families respect and admiration I would be successful. I felt like if I was trying to be the best person I could be I would be successful. As far as wealth I admit I never really gave it much thought until the last few years. Hill Harper is his book The Wealth Cure advises that money is not wealth. “Money plus wellness equals wealth”. In a sense wealth is tied to your health and financial flexibility. If you stay in your financial lane unburdened by unnecessary debt you will remain flexible.

Kevin Hart who, at this present time is about as big as it comes in Hollywood did the Laugh at My Pain tour in 2012. I stay in my financial lane people! Let me explain what I mean when I say this. Here’s what happens you start to make money you meet other people that make money. When you meet other people that make money you want to hang out with these people. Naturally you want to spend money like how they spend money but, you realize that you don’t make the same kind of money that they make. Hart ends the set advising he doesn’t hang around athletes because “they don’t respect money”.

At its core money is just printed green paper that only has the assigned value that has been placed on it. How do you look at money? Do you feel pressure to keep up with the “Jones’s”? That Lexus are condo with the view may be way more significant to you than just “a car” and a “house”. Do you look at money emotionally? Man I had a bad day but, some new shoes will make me feel better. I don’t feel like even leaving the house “I don’t get paid until next week”. We have given money and its pursuit to much value and control over our lives. Money has its place and that is a fact. We need money to acquire goods and services. It is also the compensation we receive for labor and ingenuity. I still can’t comprehend how $8.00 compensates a man for an hour of his life but, I digress. I also encourage people to enjoy the fruits of their labor but, in moderation. By in large I want us to understand that money is not the path to happiness or fulfillment.

I was having a recent conversation with an associate explaining my views on money, wealth and etc. The questions of what is money to you and how do you look at money came up. I asked are you looking to attain money for greed, security, a tool or for some other reason. She posed the question “what if I want to take care of my family or set myself up for the future”. I advised that was very admirable but, at what cost. When your kids are grown and your parents long gone will they remember how well you took care of them or that you were never there. Is it not our purpose in life to help others how can you help others and enjoy life if you are centrally concerned with yourself? You have to find a balance.

The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in your mind. Weak desire brings weak results; just a small fire makes a small amount of heat. – Napoleon Hill