There's an old saying that goes something like this: "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." The point is simple: teaching something to someone is better than giving something to them. I believe this to be especially true when it comes to our kids. But the subtler point of the "fish story" is incorrect: the person who really benefits is NOT the person learning how to fish. It is actually the person who owns the land that the pond is on, who rents that land out to people teaching each other how to fish. In other words, it's the OWNER of the business who builds wealth and actually possesses power, nothing less.

Teaching your children the value of owning things is very important. Many African Americans are trained to be laborers and we are also trained to believe that our financial status is determined by the size of our salaries. We are the ultimate consumers, but don't tend to emphasize the value of production and investment. By allowing others to control the things we need the most, many of us voluntarily submit ourselves to the pain of financial slavery. This is not just true for those of us who are the least educated, but also true for many black doctors, lawyers and professors in America. What we then find is that a lack of ownership of the entities which affect our existence leaves us vulnerable to the desires of those who control the land on which we stand. When you own nothing, you have nothing.


Rather than learning how to work hard for our money for 50 years, why not teach your children how to get to a point where their money can work for them? Teach them to build institutions, start businesses or at the very least, own their own home. Let them learn how to buy stocks and bonds. At the end of the day, they will find that they can earn money more easily than they could by breaking their backs every day for several decades in a row.

A good example of the value of letting your money work for you (I used this with my daughter, who is a very good basketball player), is NBA star Lebron James. Lebron earns roughly $28 million dollars per year by running, jumping and sweating on the basketball court every night. That's a pretty good living for a talented player. But eventually, Lebron will get old. His jumps will be weaker, his running will be less swift and sweating too much might make him have a heart attack. In other words, the value of his human capital will start to diminish. If Lebron has not put his money into assets that will start working for him, he will find himself doing what many other professional athletes have to do: continue playing into old age in order to pay the bills.

Now, on the other hand, consider Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Bill Gates could be paralyzed from the neck down and have brain damage and still earn more money IN A WEEK than Lebron James earns in an entire year. In fact, he easily earns between $60 and $100 million dollars every week from the money he has working for him in his investment portfolio. In fact, Gates could buy Oprah Winfrey's entire net worth every six months from the interest earned on his investments. The point is that Lebron James is certainly a great man, but he doesn't have as much power as we think. The person who truly has power is the person who signs Lebron's paycheck (Chris Rock makes this point clearly in one of his routines -- he was joking, but not really).

The point here is that there is tremendous power in allowing your money to work for you and also owning the assets around you. Your children should be taught to put their money into value-appreciating assets that will earn additional income, and not just jewelry, clothes, sneakers and silly stuff. Don't get me wrong -- silly stuff can be fun. But your life's mission should not be dedicated to the pursuit of silly stuff, for your financial freedom is the key to your social, spiritual and intellectual freedom. You can't stand up against injustice as an African American if you are always afraid of not being able to pay the bills. Teach your children to be free.


Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.