For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

By the time the fool has learned the game the Players have Dispersed ~ African Proverb

As is my custom, I call my mother one day a month, and that call can last 30 seconds 30 minutes or 3 hours. Yesterday’s call lasted 4 hours. We talked about family. We talked about faith, and we talked about the subject that binds us together history. My Mom loves history and sharing stories that inspire challenge you to think and empowers you to want to learn more. 

She asked me do I know anything about a young lady named Sarah Proctor. I said no, Ma’am. 

My Mom went on to share about a young woman who was born to “African descendants of the Creek Nation Creek Indians before the Civil war and which became part of the Creek Nation after the Treaty of 1866.”

The legacy of these African descendants meant that they were listed as FreedMen on the Dawes Rolls, which entitled them to land allotments under the treaty of 1866 that the United States made with the Five Civilized Tribes. “Consequently, nearly 600 black children, or Creek Freedmen minors as they were called, were granted 160 acres of land each.[dubious – discuss][5] This was a mandatory step in the process of integration of the Indian Territory with Oklahoma Territory to form what is now the State of Oklahoma. “

Now, this is where the story gets juicy:

Sarah Proctor was given 165 acres of land according to the treaty, but as a young black girl, we aren’t about to give you the BEST 165 acres around, so they give her rocky, infertile land, not suitable for farming. The property tax on her farm was 30 dollars a year, and while her family wasn’t poor, that was land that wasn’t producing money, so her daddy tried to sell her property. The courts blocked him from selling her farm because it wasn’t his to sell, and there were restrictions placed on the land-based on the treaty. To pay the property taxes, he leased the land to an oil company to prospect. Well, they found oil. Sarah Rector, at ten years old, started earning three hundred dollars a day. By the age of 12, she was earning 11,000 dollars a day, which grew to some 15,000 dollars a day. 

This American history occurred in 1902. 

As news of Sarah’s wealth spread worldwide 

As you could imagine, she started receiving requests from Facebook Friends she never met; She had new Instagram Followers. Her twitter was popping and she was a sensation on SnapChat. 

She was asked for loans, she was asked for gifts, people proposed to her although she was twelve. 

By the time Sarah was 18 years of age, she had owned over 2000 acres of land. 

As you could imagine, there were a lot of shenanigans around who should be her guardian as she grew up this young wealthy black girl. 

One of the questions I have for you from that fantastic story is, who is in your corner?

Who is assisting your life’s journey when the chips are down, and you are just surviving, or when you are living lavishly in abundance and thriving?

A Good Corner Person doesn’t try to sell your land or sell you out or throw in the towel without understanding your perspective. 

A Good Corner Person reminds you of the standards the targets of your goals and stands by you even when things are rocky, even when you are getting beat up, beat down when your depressed, lonely and you need encouragement. 

Another question for you is, do you consistently assess who is in your corner?

I have had to learn to assess who is in my corner that hard way. 

Years ago, I attracted business partners who I believed had character and integrity. I should have known better because like attracts like and my character and integrity were shaky. We were in an environment that demanded us to have the highest values, but who we were outside of that environment, we never got to see, and that’s where the corruption occurred. 

That’s where the lack of the right people in my corner cost my family hundreds of thousands of dollars because I didn’t have the foresight, training, and instincts to have the right people in my corner. 

So who is in your corner

Do you know them?

Do they know you?

Do they know your darkest secret?

Do they know when you need a reset, to regroup, to recycle a process and move on, or when you need to remember why you started to remember your purpose and dig in and commit to seeing what you are facing through to the end?

Who is in your corner?

Right now, assess the Men and Women in your corner.

Are they assets or liabilities?

Are they civilized, or are they criminals?

Are they for you or secretly betraying you?

Who is in Your Corner?

I’ve heard about Cash App, Venmo, Paypal, but I had never heard about Chipper Cash until this weekend. 

The name comes from the idea of Chipping away at a problem.

Chipper Cash is a cross border payment app that serves the wealthiest continent in the world, which we know to be Africa. 

One Founder of this App grew up in Uganda the other grew up in Ghana.

As men who saw the currency issues that many of their African brothers and sisters face, they wanted to help solve the problem of moving money safely securely and at a fee that was sustainable. 

When you have the right people in your corner, what you can accomplish builds momentum and sustains momentum. Today more than 700,000 people use their apps in over six countries. On top of that, most of their marketing has been word of mouth. 

I think an overlooked factor in their success is that they have the right person in their corner. 

Who is in your corner?

Do they wholeheartedly believe in you?

Do they inspire you?

Do they hold you accountable?

and lastly,

Do they lead you?

One of the stories shared between me, and my Mom is what leadership looks like at home. 

My Mom shared with me a story of trying her best to get my Dad to take college seriously. She enrolled him in classes each semester. She also paid for the classes, but because of my Dad’s personal beliefs and struggles, he did not attend. My Mom said Bernard, what more was I supposed to do. 

Years ago, my Dad said to me using the same story Bernard, your Mom paid for my college classes, and I did not attend.

Bernard, I’m telling you this because you don’t have a bad wife, so listen to your wife. 

I am born one day after my daddy, so I do have some of his tendencies. 

I met my wife in university, and we got married before we both graduated. At some point, I stopped attending classes so that I could make sure all the bills were paid on time consistently. My wife sat me down and said to me, Bernard. I do not want to be married to you if you don’t graduate from university. 

I graduated

Who is in Your Corner?