I grew up in Southern Ohio in a county with one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. Incidentally, also close to another county where the number of drug trafficking arrests were also high (no pun intended). Families who lived on welfare were abundant.

I remember houses that still didn’t have inside toilets and days when families would gather to get government subsidized foods like cheese. Five pound blocks of cheese were handed out from the back of 18 wheeler trucks to long lines of people who drove a long way. Sometimes this subsidized food was the only protein in a family’s diet.

The summer of my sophomore year in college I worked as a mentor for the Job Training Partnership Act-Youth Training Program. The government funded program served to provide jobs for kids 14-21 from low income families and to provide job training. As mentors, we taught resume writing, job search, professionalism, interviewing skills, self image, self esteem, and general life skills. The kids were placed at job sites all around the county and did jobs ranging from working as a court assistant to painting bridges.

The main thing I learned from this summer was that I could make a difference in these kids’ lives just by showing them that they could break the welfare cycle in their families. You see, many of them thought that their mission in life was to collect welfare checks. That was all they knew. Their parents had been living this cycle for generations so they were waiting to turn 18 and earn their place in the welfare ranks. I was so saddened and moved by this fact that I worked harder to connect with them and show them that I was not so different.

Although my family wasn’t on welfare, we certainly weren’t wealthy and I was putting my self through school at Ohio University. I had some help from my parents, a few scholarships but I worked two, sometimes three jobs to make it all work. I wanted these kids to know that they had to strive for something better and that they had the power to change. How is this related to Poverty you ask? Were they starving? Some of them were, Yes. But the bigger picture is that they weren’t contributing everything they could back to the society. They were settling…and they didn’t even know it! What if each one of these kids had a mentor that helped them be their personal best? What could THEY do to solve poverty? The five of us mentors did what we could over the summer to lead by example and to influence our teams to step up to their lives. We had a lot of fun with them and tried to be leaders. They made us better too and taught us a lot about leadership as well.

This summer job changed me forever and had a tremendous effect on my views of welfare and handouts. To this day, I don’t donate money to causes that have no built in efforts to improve the process and I never give money to people on the streets. This isn’t because I’m unsympathetic, it’s because I believe in systems to make things better and process improvement and making a bigger difference than just 50 cents in someone’s hand. I certainly don’t mean to suggest that I have the answers. I haven’t studied the welfare system in detail. I am an armchair opinionator at best, but I do know that there is no incentive to change anything. What if we used all that money to motivate people to end poverty?

Six Figure Moms, what are you doing to teach your kids about world poverty? As important, what are you teaching them about poverty in the US? Where I live in sunny San Diego, it’s easy to think that every body lives a happy, prosperous life but that just isn’t the case. In the spirit of giving in December, our Six Figure Moms Club event will focus on Microfinance. Look for more details coming soon on our events page.
Hope you can join us. Today, take some time to visit other blogs. As of the time of this post, there are over 11,000 bloggers participating in Blog Action Day writing about Poverty. I’m excited to read what they’ve written and I hope you are too.

In his bestselling book, The Dip, Seth Godin, Internet Marketing Extraordinaire writes about leadership and perseverance.  Seth tells us that great leaders are the ones who can push through the hard times to get to the finish line.  Specifically, The Dip indicates that most of us can achieve a moderate level of success.  Next, things level off again and then we experience a little dip in performance because it gets much harder to get to the next level.  Maybe we get bored, maybe the highs of accomplishment wear off.  It sometimes feels easier to regroup and change direction than to continue pushing boulders uphill.  I like Seth’s concepts.  They fit nicely with the “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” mantra.  The Dip is especially relevant for working women and entrepreneurs because there are so many tests along the way that it’s normal to have days where you want to give up on pursuing what’s most important to you.  You have to be committed and you have to keep reminding yourself that The Dip and other bad days are all part of the learning process to get to the next level.  Easy stuff is boring anyway!

Andy Wibbels also has a nice explanation of The Dip if you’re interested in more.

So, I bet you’re wondering what in the world could rap music have to do with life lessons for executive women?  Keep reading.  I was perusing Tony Robbins’ newsletter when I noticed a link to an appearance on MTV.  I thought, “Tony Robbins is going to take a shot at being a rapper now?  Come on!”.  Anyway, I was just curious enough to watch so I clicked through.  Seems that Hurricane Chris in his 51/50 Ratchet CD has some serious clarity about personal leadership.  The video from Hip Hop Owner’s Manual describes a rap music term, RATCHET. The definition of Ratchet is living your life’s dream and being yourself without regard for what anyone else thinks.  In Rapper speak, “Doing YOU”.  Ratchet comes with a few guiding principles:

1. Raise Your Game – Don’t settle.  Live your life’s dream.  Hold a higher standard and be really clear on your goals.
2. Act Like You Know – Have no fear.  Don’t hesitate.  Take action in moments of clarity when you know your authentic self is driving.
3. Defy and Act – Defy your own fears and limitations.  Be your best self.

Watch the video and see for yourself. Who knew we executive women could learn so much from the rap community!  Watching this video and learning about Hip Hop Owner’s Manual also led me to a very interesting New York Times article about the future of TV and mobile devices.  Where we’re headed is pretty amazing!

So, Life lessons from the Hip Hop Owner’s Manual?  You betcha!