If you could go back in time before cellular phones hit the market, would you invest a couple hundred dollars knowing in a 5-10 year span everybody and their grandmom would have one? What about before Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Apple started? How about right before there was the internet?

All mentioned became multibillion, if not trillion-dollar operations. If you were privy before they came out, would you have invested back then? I dare say there's not one sane person who wouldn't! In reality, there are those who passed these opportunities. Ethnically speaking, Black people collectively are probably the only group that can be both the most impoverished while at the same time, possess the strongest buying power in the history of wo/mankind!

Over the years, I've learned one of the greatest obstacles of our people is the perception of "lack of funds". Even though we comprise of 99% consumer and less than 1% producer of goods and services globally, we somehow haven't expressed enough trust in each other to invest in each other.

We have thousands of black organizations and churches, why that hasn't translated into independent wealth is frankly pathetic! Where are our endowments, foundations and organizations? Where's our individual wealth? Why do we continue looking to others — that have no interest in us other than as consumer's — to create mediums for us? And more importantly, what is it everyone else is doing that enables them to take care of their families and community, we aren't?

Let's take a step back… A colleague of mine reminded me of the Jetsons' cartoon. You recall what George Jetson walked his dog Astro on? A moving sidewalk, right? Where do you see these today? At airports! Remember they used to cook their food in this radioactive box? We call them microwaves! How about the giant flatscreen TVs we saw on the wall? And lastly, remember how they used phones? You could see a video image of the person you were talking to on the same flatscreen!

These devices were introduced to the world back in 1962! Today, almost 50 years later, most don't realize, aside from flying cars and apartments residing in the stratosphere, we are living like the Jetsons!  

BREAKING THE CHAIN
Let's take a historical look at our organizations. The majority, if not all black organizations around the world are not financially independent. Take for instance, one of the country's oldest organizations, the NAACP, who just celebrated their centennial. They don't even OWN the building their headquarters resides in Baltimore, Maryland! When we look at practically all our local and national organizations and churches, I'd say 99.9% of them rely on either government funding and/or donations from its following/congregation.

This is not to belittle these organizations; this is to point out there's something we're not doing right and the more ignorant and persistent we remain on our current course, our youth will believe the only way to build wealth is either through sports, prostitution (sex tapes, so-called "Reality shows") and drugs—wait, that's what they think NOW!

Even more startling is the fact that although Black people are the greatest consumer's of the world, the majority of us live paycheck-to-paycheck. And while most have validity in directing the primary cause to racism, a lot should be directed at ignorance.

We are losing ourselves, our culture, and our future primarily because we don't know how to turn two nickels into a $1.25! It is well past time we do something different, re-route our thought process, suit up and get in the game of prosperity.

Ask yourselves, where are our foundations, trust funds and endowments?! When a relative dies, we can only look forward to the color TV they left behind, their car and a little (if any) bit of insurance money. And while most will accept this plight blaming the color barrier, nothing gets done because racism ain't going nowhere anytime soon, so we remain financially destitute. But it doesn't have to be that way, there are a few opportunities that come along that see no color. 

Seeing what's on the horizon, I realize for generations, our people have been on the receiving — or rather, consumer-end, of business and profit making. Black people have never capitalized on "trends", or business opportunities that have made billions for those privy who take advantage of trends and timing (again, why don't we have large inheritances, endowments, trust-funds or foundations set up?).

Historically capitalizing on trends is foreign to us. Most recent, we missed out on the Internet (Yahoo, Google, Microsoft), cellular and Social networking (Facebook, MySpace, Skype) booms, and from this, there are many living LARGE simply because they got in before it exploded! To our dismay, many of us never even thought of it, hence the reason we feel our only option is or work 9-5 'til we die.

We must all realize we have historically missed out, mainly because we weren't allowed to know. This can no longer be an excuse because there's now an opportunity in front of us!

If someone told you you could be in a position to match or surpass your current level of income in 3-6 months and in an even better position to help other families become financially stable over the next couple of years, would you want to know how? Better yet, if you could increase your income to whatever level you desire, would it be worth the discussion?

Even better, imagine spear-heading or participating in the building of a Black-owned and financed school, hospital, multi-media production lab, etc? Imagine having the ability to purchase land by the block to end gentrification! And further, imagine creating jobs for our youth, giving them an alternative option other than working for non-Black-owned corporations. This business opportunity I'd like to speak to you about has a potential to deliver that!

THE NEXT WEALTH TREND
In the November 9-15, 2009 edition of Sports Business Journal a piece about what's coming in the immediate future in the field of InternetTV, increased bandwidth tech and a projected customer usage in the next couple of years was printed. This is something to see for it shows we are truly in front of a big wave that's coming!

Sports Business Journal Nov. 9-15.09

Those that are knowledgeable about trends know consumer's have an insatiable appetite to buy, regardless the price and their budget! Remember how crazy people went when the first iPhone hit the market, priced at nearly $600? No other cellphone on the market cost that much. Apple made record sales its first weeks.

Today, Apple made (and continues to make) a killing! Check how they were one of the few companies who's stock didn't sink DURING THE RECENT ECONOMIC RECESSION! People didn't care about the fate of the world's economy, as long as it doesn't severely affect them, all they wanted wanted was the latest gadget!

I used to think, how could all these movies continue to rake in millions and we're in one of the worst recessions since the 1930s. Think about the profit-making hysteria Blue-Ray DVD players made, Blue-Tooth, the iPod, touch screen cellphones, cellphone applications, the list goes on… and there are those who made a very hefty profit off the hype. Today these products sell for a fraction of what they were when first introduced, and trust, by then, those who realized these trends, made their money well before that!

This is the reality of the world we live in, for anyone that has the right kind of product and releases it at the right time, they can make a killing, the profit figures don't lie!

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is the next trend in line projected to produce more than the cellular, internet and cable industries put together — $5 Trillion in the next 3-5 years! What this means is this field will be the richest trend to date in a small window of time and somebody will get a piece of this action! I decided I will be one of them!

In the coming months, we will witness a massive expansion of what's been termed, "Anyway Services" [cellular, broadband, VoIP, and WiFi]. These are things the masses use anyway. Ask yourselves, how many people do you know who does NOT have a cellphone? Does NOT use the internet, have cable or satellite TV?. These are "Anyway Services" where someone is getting paid residually. Why aren't we?

The next device set to hit the market early 2010 via the use of VoIP, is the VideoPhone! That's right, like what you saw on the Jetsons; a phone where you can see the person you're talking to! It's like Skype or GoogleChat, but you don't have to be logged onto the internet, plus the device is wireless! You may think right now it's a luxury-type device, but think, as little over 10 years ago, people were just starting to buy cellphones! Think of how many people thought that was unnecessary! Today, these same people can't even go through their day without it!

We will begin to see VideoPhones first half of 2010 and by Christmas, you will see them everywhere and while most will be sold by the usual suspects, I mean, carrier's (Verizon, Sprint, Vonage, etc — companies who spread the wealth amongst themselves never allowing employees or everyday folk to get a piece), I've come across a company that allows people like you and me in the game!

If you'd like to know more, you can email me to set up a time to speak to you at this address: mbwebe@daghettotymz.com.

*If you want to hear a presentation now, download and listen to one of our recent one's HERE.

I hope you consider joining me at least in hearing about this opportunity. After reading this, we can no longer stand behind the shadow of ignorance on the topic of means to build wealth; nor can we say we never heard of trends. We owe it to ourselves, our children and our people!

We can no longer sit on the sideline waiting for our 40Acres and a Mule! It's out there for us to take, the question lies in whether you wanna break the chain, or continue to be cellar dwellers of the economic pole.

Give thanks for taking the time to read this.

Bless...

--
M'Bwebe Ishangi
mbwebe@daghettotymz.com

*Click here for additional links to help with your research