A must-read book for the Black and Brown communities! Financial Literacy & Ownership, from conception this book was meant to facilitate delivery of a singular, but a broad message. My message is that of Financial Literacy and Ownership; ownership of assets, real property, commodities, businesses, and intellectual property. I wish to convey to the Black community an urgency regarding this message to say that Financial Literacy and Ownership are surely lacking in the Black community and this fact is, has been, and shall continue to stymie the growth and the evolution of the Black community until we infuse a paradigm shift in our communal thinking. Accept that as Black Americans we do not live in a world of our own making, but we can now more than ever, be the designers of our own true Legacy. We may not have made the world we live in, but we are certainly of the world we live in.Being of a world which we did not construct limits us as a people. It confines us to the limitations, borders, and restrictions set for us, not by us. Why would a determined people limit themselves? I believe they would not. White society, the dominant society has never limited itself as a whole. Think about the glass ceilings Blacks have had to burst through throughout history. Blacks have been bursting through the constraint of such barriers and limitations for centuries now. In the last sixty years in America others who have come before you have laid much broken glass at the feet of Black America. Yet, who placed the barriers; who at first constrained us in the boxes with the glass ceilings? Certainly it was not us. We live in a world not of our own making.I want so very much for my Black community, but not that which can be given, nor granted. No, what I want mostly for my Black community must be taken, it must be acquired through express and diligent intent. It can only be birthed through aggressive and intelligent design; whereas, you must commit your life-time to craft it, to engineer your acquisition and construction of it. You must want it with the utmost zeal, and once acquired you must value it as your most prized possession. What I want most for my Black community is true Legacy.
About the Author: Dameon V. Russell, is the Co-Founder of The Russell Group and the Black Business Council of America, (The BBCA), he is a 25 year veteran of Real Estate, Finance, and Business Development. He has been a noted sales and productivity Trainer and Coach; he is a Branch Owner in Real Estate, Mortgage, and Insurance, and specializes in Commercial Finance. Dameon is the Project Lead for The Russell Group Project, a Small Business Development Center. He believes a lack of Financial Literacy across many Small Business sectors has led to a measurable deficiency in general business acumen and higher fail rates for Black owned Small Business ventures. The Russell Group Project is a Small Business Owner collective self-tasked with increasing the success rate of Small Business through Financial Literacy education, business training, value-added free workshops, and easy access to Commercial Finance. Additionally, Members benefit from education and training on successful marketing strategies, the application of technology in their business, social media techniques, and Business Continuation strategies to ensure the survivability of their business. Dameon Russell and The Russell Group Project are based in the greater Sacramento, California area. The BBCA is focused on the education of Black business owners; this book, Financial Literacy & Ownership is intended to enlighten, empower, and awaken the Black community. Mr. Russell spent time years ago mentoring & tutoring urban students in Oakland, CA public schools. He witnessed first-hand, and worked with many students who had deficient reading and writing skills, as well as an almost total lack of Financial Literacy. High school seniors who were just mere months away from entry into adult society unable even to write a check properly, to say nothing of actually balancing a check book or managing finances. These children, had a horribly miss-guided understanding of Ownership and no desire nor urgency to change that. Mr. Russell began every lecture, and conversation with these youth by explaining to them the value of Ownership by at first trying to define Ownership. Explaining, we don't own the homes we live in, the cars we drive, the manufacturing plants making those cars, the theaters we see movies in, nor the film companies making those movies. They simply didn't get it, nor value it. It was then Mr. Russell realized that Financial Literacy was lacking in the students, because it was lacking in the home.