Are you dirt poor gstanford?
I came from a dirt poor family. I was raised in a family that would get food from churches. When my dad didn't have a job, we had loads of food from the food stamps. Literally, the fridge and cabinets completely bulging with food. But, when my dad worked low minimum wage jobs, the working poor, we had nothing. We lived in a shit hole dump. We were lucky if we made it 3 months straight without a utility being temporarily disconnected for weeks at a time.
We were so poor I went through all of high school without eye glasses. My vision so bad, I couldn't see the chalk board. The clothes I wore, they were hand me downs 2 generations.
This is the short and sweat version. I don't want pity or attention. the truth is, i am barely scratching the surface. I grew up on the absolute bottom and live it. Unless you been there, you can't ever really know.
Now I will get to why am I telling you this. When I was young, I thought my father really tried. Cause he did. But as a grew up, now that I am grown, I know the reason we struggled for all those important years, it was simply because my father wasnt putting enough effort in getting us out of the poverty we were in. When he got the absolute lowest paying jobs there were, he didn't strive to find better. He did not at all. He settled for poverty and we all lived it. I would never call it smart, I mean that is the last thing I would call it.
My father didn't strive to give us a better life. That is all there is to it.
You don't have success by accident. You have to earn it. And I know. God do I know.
I wasnt born with a silver spoon. And I have built a decent living just to have it all stripped away. I fell hard from my branch, stripped of everything. down to a shit hole trailer with the floors falling in. I am talking about a dump that gangstas in the ghetto wouldn't live in. I had nowhere else to go. Struggling for any income I could manage. But I had a wife, and she had a child. One that I would never want to grow up in that stupid dump.
I didn't settle. I found work. But most importantly, I didn't stop there. I didn't accept those peanuts, just fed on them till I was able to start putting my life back in motion.
I was driven to do better. I needed to do better. And so I did.
I worked my way well past the branch I once was proud of. It was dedication, I had to make a better life for my family, for my kids.
Anyone can be hit with hard times. And most people start out on the bottom. But, I am telling you man. If you really want better, it is up to you to make it happen. Anyone can make their life's better. But you have to really work at it. See my dad, i remember he play the lottery as much as he could. can you believe it, lottery tickets over and over.
When I grew up and moved out, he finally got a job making a whopping 2 times the minimum wage. You know what he did? Casinos. He spend all his money, trying to hit it big. And the saddest part, when he did when 10 and 20 thousand, he would stay up there until he blew every dime and then some.
Eventually he pawned things and piled up mountains of debt.
But that was his plan to hit the big time. That was his plan. Oh how great it would be, if he just hit the jackpot!!
It would be so funny, if it wasnt so freaking sad to me.
That is a great dream but that's not the answer.
You want a better life, you make it happen. And it isn't easy. It takes work and most importantly........intelligence.
You are gonna sit here and tell me that people on food stamps are the smart ones? Well, I grew up around them. I grew up on them. And I can tell you first hand, smart isn't a trait needed to be dirt poor.
If you want to get out of poverty, now that takes a lot of work and smarts. It is not the other way around.
I came from a dirt poor family. I was raised in a family that would get food from churches. When my dad didn't have a job, we had loads of food from the food stamps. Literally, the fridge and cabinets completely bulging with food. But, when my dad worked low minimum wage jobs, the working poor, we had nothing. We lived in a shit hole dump. We were lucky if we made it 3 months straight without a utility being temporarily disconnected for weeks at a time.
We were so poor I went through all of high school without eye glasses. My vision so bad, I couldn't see the chalk board. The clothes I wore, they were hand me downs 2 generations.
This is the short and sweat version. I don't want pity or attention. the truth is, i am barely scratching the surface. I grew up on the absolute bottom and live it. Unless you been there, you can't ever really know.
Now I will get to why am I telling you this. When I was young, I thought my father really tried. Cause he did. But as a grew up, now that I am grown, I know the reason we struggled for all those important years, it was simply because my father wasnt putting enough effort in getting us out of the poverty we were in. When he got the absolute lowest paying jobs there were, he didn't strive to find better. He did not at all. He settled for poverty and we all lived it. I would never call it smart, I mean that is the last thing I would call it.
My father didn't strive to give us a better life. That is all there is to it.
You don't have success by accident. You have to earn it. And I know. God do I know.
I wasnt born with a silver spoon. And I have built a decent living just to have it all stripped away. I fell hard from my branch, stripped of everything. down to a shit hole trailer with the floors falling in. I am talking about a dump that gangstas in the ghetto wouldn't live in. I had nowhere else to go. Struggling for any income I could manage. But I had a wife, and she had a child. One that I would never want to grow up in that stupid dump.
I didn't settle. I found work. But most importantly, I didn't stop there. I didn't accept those peanuts, just fed on them till I was able to start putting my life back in motion.
I was driven to do better. I needed to do better. And so I did.
I worked my way well past the branch I once was proud of. It was dedication, I had to make a better life for my family, for my kids.
Anyone can be hit with hard times. And most people start out on the bottom. But, I am telling you man. If you really want better, it is up to you to make it happen. Anyone can make their life's better. But you have to really work at it. See my dad, i remember he play the lottery as much as he could. can you believe it, lottery tickets over and over.
When I grew up and moved out, he finally got a job making a whopping 2 times the minimum wage. You know what he did? Casinos. He spend all his money, trying to hit it big. And the saddest part, when he did when 10 and 20 thousand, he would stay up there until he blew every dime and then some.
Eventually he pawned things and piled up mountains of debt.
But that was his plan to hit the big time. That was his plan. Oh how great it would be, if he just hit the jackpot!!
It would be so funny, if it wasnt so freaking sad to me.
That is a great dream but that's not the answer.
You want a better life, you make it happen. And it isn't easy. It takes work and most importantly........intelligence.
You are gonna sit here and tell me that people on food stamps are the smart ones? Well, I grew up around them. I grew up on them. And I can tell you first hand, smart isn't a trait needed to be dirt poor.
If you want to get out of poverty, now that takes a lot of work and smarts. It is not the other way around.