Conclusion

My first memory is of being denied milk in a homeless shelter. Later in life, I failed the second grade. After that, my mother left me with my alcoholic father. In high school, I made some of the worst decisions of my life—decisions that led to a felony arrest. The statistics don’t lie. I should be in prison with my brother. Or dead like so many of my friends. Or living a life of violence in a gang.

Based on all the studies about someone who has gone through what I have and is also an African-American man only a few generations out of slavery, I shouldn’t be a millionaire. I shouldn’t be in a happy, committed marriage. I shouldn’t own the businesses I own. I shouldn’t drive the cars I drive or earn the money I make. But I do. By the grace of God and my dedication to my work, I beat those numbers; I beat those statistics. I chose not to participate in what society expected of me. I became a first-generation millionaire because I refused to let someone else’s opinion about me become my reality.

The abusive father wasn’t my fault. The shelter wasn’t my fault. The unstable mother wasn’t my fault. Those were all out of my control. But what I did have control over was the fact that I smoked weed and drank alcohol as a child. I had control over where and with whom I was spending my time in middle school and in high school too. And I had control over the choices that led to my arrest.

The fact is, I participated in my downfall. I was the one who got me into the hole, so in the end, I had to be the one to get me out. I couldn’t just climb out though. Climbing out would only bring me to the edge of the hole. No, I had to slingshot myself out. I needed to pour on 10 times the effort—or 100 times the effort, or 1,000—whatever it took—to get me out and as far away from that hole as possible.

When you pull back a slingshot, you are creating friction and adversity. You need to put all of your energy into pulling the object backward. It doesn’t want to go where you are pulling it—away from gravity, away from its natural comfort zone—and it will fight you every step of the way. But if you pull it back to just before the slingshot breaks, think of how far it can go. There is no friction, nothing holding it back, as it sails toward its new goal.

I had to slingshot myself out. And I did. I went from being a teenage felon to a millionaire in less than a decade. Only a decade has passed since I made my first million dollars, and now I speak all over the world, I oversee a global distribution team that is worth over $100 million a year in production, and I have reached almost every goal I have set out to achieve. In another 10 years, I will be conquering goals I don’t even have yet.

How was all this possible? How did I manage to slingshot myself so far and so fast? Simple. I participated in my own rescue. Just as I did, you must also accept the fact that it is all up to you. There will be people who complement your success, but you have to be the one who puts in more energy, time, and effort than anyone else. Only you can stop yourself. Only you can make it happen.

Becoming a first-generation millionaire is not a personal best for me. I didn’t make my first million and then just stop. Success like this was never a goal for me. It was never a destination. Success—becoming a millionaire, owning my own businesses, speaking on the world stage—will always be a direction. My father was a trash-man. My grandfather spent his life on the run after killing a white man who was attempting to kill him. My ancestors were slaves. I’m only a few generations outside of slavery, but here I am, a multimillionaire, teaching others around the world how to do what I’ve done. And my daughters, Psalms and Hannah, and my son, Honor, will be more successful than I am. I know it.

Becoming a first-generation millionaire is not a trophy I put on my shelf. It is part of the journey to where I am still headed. I have no idea where I will end up, but I know I am very far from where I started. I want this exact journey for you too. Don’t rest once you reach your first goal. Use that success as a stop on the way to something even greater.

Understand that becoming the first millionaire in your family is not a destination. It’s a direction. You cannot stand still, no matter what. You are either progressing or regressing. There is no in-between. If you stand still while the world moves around you, you will only move backward. Keep coming back to the lessons in this book to set new goals and reach them. You have unlimited potential. Once it is unleashed, there are no limits to what you can do.