From Knowledge to Value: How I Raised My Intellectual Capital

“The issue is no longer where you sit on the bus or whether you can drive it, it’s whether you can develop the capital to own the bus company.” ~ William H. Gray III

When I was at Alabama A&M University, I was approached by a classmate after class. She asked me if I was interested in making some extra money. As a college student, that was always an option that was on the table. She invited me to come to a business meeting that was being held at a local hotel’s conference room. I had now idea what I was getting into but I went to this meeting. I can’t remember if it was that night or if it was another occasion, but I will not forget hearing from a man named, Dave Savula. He told a story about him getting paid a check every single day the mail was delivered. He told us that he had a “happy mailbox.” It was then that I was introduced to the concept of “compound interest.” Savula’s phrase and this concept are some things that I adamantly chased for years. After having very little success in business ventures, I felt like I was a failure. I spent hundreds upon thousands of dollars over a period of about a decade. I thought I was going to build a successful business and make a lot of money. I got arrogant in my ignorance and did not realize that in the process of attempting to build a business, I was alienating family and friends. I thought they were going to be my business partners and customers. I had heard the stories of others and thought I was going to be able to replicate the same. I didn’t know it at the time, but my issue was not the company or the company’s compensation plan. The problem was my confidence in my own ability.

However, I lost all interest in building a business through the vehicle of network marketing. For the next decade or so, I focused on building my career. I wanted to make sure that I had steady income with benefits because I was married with a child and later a second child was added to the family. I wanted to play it safe because I had already experienced the instability of trying to make money through a business. You have to understand that even though network marketing was only one avenue of doing business, my unsuccessful attempts made me afraid to do any business. I didn’t want to “waste” my money or time again. After years of punching a clock and hearing things like the following made me angry but gave me motivation to better myself outside the realm of my career. I would hear the following: “Right now, you have a seat on the bus. Your seat may change. If you don’t like your seat, you can get off the bus.” With that and the motivation of my wife and others, I went to seminary. While in seminary, I was introduced to new possibilities of what I could do. I have been encouraged by many who hold doctoral degrees to pursue my academic endeavors. Many people don’t know that I had to privilege of being an adjunct professor for undergraduate students for (2) semesters. This opportunity helped to reawaken then potential I know that I possess. It reminded me that I was not stuck in a dead end career and that I did not have to go through the ignorance and mental anguish that had become “the norm” just so I had a “safe stable job” with steady income. This also opened me up to learning about other subjects like; investing and multiple streams of income. These subjects took me full circle back to that meeting at that hotel in Huntsville, Alabama.

God has used life to help me to understand that I have been blessed with the mind and the talent that I don’t have to settle with having a seat on the bus. I have experienced the beauty of having the freedom of being able to take control of my career. In the past (2) years, God has opened the door for me to take matters into my own hands. I went from just having a seat on the bus of my career to driving the bus. Because I have seen what I can do through the abundance of God, I will not stop until I own the bus company of my career. The moral story of my career story and the words of William H. Gray III, is to never allow a human being to put you into the box they think you should go into. Continue to learn to see what God has for you. That “capital” in the quote may not necessarily be a lot of money. I know because I have not experienced that, yet. But I do believe it involves intellectual capital. Once we achieve that intellectual capital, we can do anything we put our minds to and we will take control of our situations. So, get out of your comfort zone and learn something new. Be so diverse with what you know that people cannot figure you out. This will help you avoid being stuck on the bus in a seat that you hate.