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“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a life time” – Author Unknown Who among us has not heard the saying, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a life time”. The average individual reads this quote, reflects on the need for self-sufficiency that it implies, and then accepts it as truth. But there is a problem when it comes to this concept and Black America. Currently, we comprise on average, a much higher number of people on the welfare rolls of the country than the majority culture. Many of us are ‘being fed a fish’, you could say. Most programs such as 'welfare to work' and others of its kind are designed to help individuals off welfare and ‘teach a man to fish’, if you will. These programs and so many like them in our public school systems are designed to create employee’s rather than employers. In keeping with the metaphor, the goal of these programs, is to teach ‘fishing’ skills so that individuals can become fishermen in other individual’s ponds, and get paid for their fishing skills by the owners of the fish processing plant who employs them. The problem of the ‘fishing’ concept when it comes to Black America is that so often we don’t own the pond we fish in, we don’t own the fish processing plant that pays us, and so often we don’t even own the fishing poles and boats we use to catch the fish. That being said, I changed the quote to better illuminate what we as Black Americans need in this capitalistic society: “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a life time. If you show a man how to own the fish pond, the fish processing plant, and the businesses that sell fishing poles and boats, you show a man how to control his destiny.” When we look at the high unemployment rate in our communities and the high percentage of individuals on the welfare rolls in our communities, it can be directly linked to the lack of business ownership by us and for us in our communities.
Because we so often don’t own the businesses that employ us or that we buy from, we so often don’t develop the wealth we need, or have our needs met as a people in an urban community.
When someone else owns the pond we fish on, how easy is it for them to tell us ‘get off my lake’? When someone else owns the fish processing plant that pays us for the fish we catch, how easy is it for them to say, ‘we have enough fishermen today, we won’t need you to fish for us anymore’. Simply, ‘teaching a man to fish’, is not enough for the Black men and women in America who desire to create thriving urban communities, where wealth is passed on from generation to generation and their needs are being met. It is time to stop fishing for other individuals, and own our own lakes, and fish processing plants. It is time to stop thinking about being employees and start thinking about being employers. When this occurs on a mass scale, we then will begin to control the destiny of our communities and have our needs as a people met in an appropriate way.
This is one hundred...Dead on point.
Words of wisdom, Bro Lee. Thanks for your keen insight as usual.
Oh I love this post when you talk about teaching people to fish for a lifetime. I am going to use your explanation with the students I mentor.
Thanks Lee,
This is a very eye opening post. Learning what it takes to control our destiny is the key to having the abundant life that the Bible speaks about. We must make sure we pass this concept on to our children, and their children's children.
God Bless!
Excellent Point Lee, we use to do these things, we use to think like that. Greenwood, Tulsa, Ok was a prime example of that.
Thank you for the comments we all need to hear, and for the reminder that furthering the efforts of black people by supporting their businesses, i.e. purchasing services and/or products, is the way to overcome and thrive. Fish of any kind is an exellent source of nourishment for the body, mind and spirit.
This is one hundred...Dead on point.g
Very interesting article. It reminds me of watching Minister Farrakhan on the TV show, 'Positively Black' once upon a time when he talked about the Black Muslims owning their own land, gardens, supermarkets, gas stations etc. Not that I'm advocating religion. I'm simply making an observation of a similar mindset.
What is the actual connection between social marketing and self promotion? Latest research have revealed that the leading three search engines amount to only about 22 percent of the total business traffic.
Simple mathematics tells us that about seventy eight percent of retail business is routed via other means. This is the larger portion of the pie that internet business folks should be paying their attention to. This report also brings up the importance of social marketing in marketing to a customer base. It is fine to talk about search engine optimization, however it is actually more advisable to look at the other venues.
Social Networking
One of the viable and profitable alternatives available to internet entrepreneurs is social networking. A recent analysis of online picture sharing has brought up some helpful facts. This evaluation shows that a lot of photo sharing is carried out on the internet’s social networking sites. How does it help your business? This kind of fact has got nothing to do with your business. It is stated just to drive home the point that these networks have enormous power to drive traffic. Social marketing depends upon maximum usage of these networking sites.
There are some products and services that go extremely well with these sites. In the event that your product or service falls in that category, it will be fantastic for you. However, if it does not, you can still device some means to take advantage of these sites; for example, any type of business can make use of the video opportunities presented by You Tube. Just create a short promotional clip. Make it sizzle. It should also be humorous and somewhat trendy. The potential of such a clip is tremendous. It will be like a "shot in the arm" for your social marketing effort.
Press Releases
Another platform for self promotion is regular press releases by you. Lots of highly regarded sites help you with press releases. Your responsibility is to make your releases informative and current. They should end up being a great source for news about your endeavors. You may post a few local success stories, or your personal achievements. Sales pitches should be avoided in these press releases. Your sales pitch belongs on your website. The Goal is to get people to visit your site. When they do that, there is sufficient space to hook them with your sales pitch. That is social marketing at its best!
Article Writing
There are several successful E-magazines on the net. Look out for the ones within your area of interest. Write some interesting articles. Submit them to these e-zines and article directories. If the readers like them, they will visit your site for more.
If you connect all these ideas and follow them to a T, very soon your social marketing efforts will bear fruit, and you will enjoy a booming internet business. The cumulative result of many strategies combined together always brings in more benefits. So start now. Get noticed, and drive traffic to your site.
