Excerpted from Do You Want Profits or Paychecks? by Kevin L. Smith. Copyright © 1996. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
The further financial advancement of African Americans will come when more of our day to day conversations and God given abilities are focused on financial possibilities vs. impossibilities, on production vs. consumption, and on profits vs. paychecks. What if all African Americans understood the concepts, instruments, and mechanics, of real and personal property ownership, of capital investment, of appreciation, depreciation, and compound returns? What if we had a common fundamental knowledge of research and development, manufacturing, marketing, advertising, public relations, broker age, distribution, and transportation? What if we knew the characteristics of the stock markets as well as many know the characters of their favorite television programs? What if we all had a working knowledge of financial institutions rather than the "take it for granted" attitude we patronize them with most of our lives? What if the principles of estate planning and preservation, and the concepts of generation to generation investment and inheritance were "culturally" instilled in African American families? If the "applications" of these various principles were the concerns that African American children heard their parents discussing in daily casual breakfast and dinner conversations, from the perspective of "can do" rather that "can not do", what might the possibilities be for African Americans?