Remarkable Reading #26: THE POWER OF BROKE by Daymond John and HAND TO MOUTH: Living in Bootstrap America by Linda Tirado

The aim of this section Remarkable Reading is pay a tribute to the books that taught, share trends & insights into where our world in the 21st century is heading in a technology enabled world, and ask the right questions.

Bolded and italics quotes and references do not belong to myself  and belong directly to the author.  The focus is to share valuable insights and teachings from the book to win business for the authors.

Two trends we will be touching on are:

1. Modern day stresses caused by poverty
2. Rejection and moving forward

Linda Tirado’s book is a scathing and hard-hitting book about actual realities linked to poverty facing America today.  It paints a less than rosy picture about poverty in the 21st century, maintains absolute honesty, and yet still remains to be optimistic, and sarcastically funny.

As job uncertainties continue to increase around the world, HAND TO MOUTH - Living in Bootstrap America is a burst of intense insights into the world of poverty.  Linda’s writing style is sharp-witted and extremely fast-paced without deviating from the subject matter.

Here are some key take-out’s I found interesting:

Introduction: xv - “It makes more sense to get food that you know will be palatable and cheap and that keeps well.  Junk food is a pleasure that we are allowed to have; why would we give that up? We have very few of them.”

Xvi - “Nobody gives enough thought to depression.  You have to understand that we know that we will never not feel tired. We will never feel hopeful.  We will never get a vacation. Ever.”

Xviii - “it is not worth it to me to live a bleak life devoid of small pleasures so that one day I can make a single large purchase. I will never have large pleasures to hold on to.  There’s a certain pull to live what bits of life you can while there's money in your pocket, because no matter how responsible you are you will be broke in three days anyway.  When you never have enough money it ceases to have meaning.”

Xx - “In fact, the Urban institute found that half of Americans will experience poverty at some point before they’re sixty five. “

Page 7  - “This is my bottom line point about work and poverty: it’s far more demoralizing to work and be poor than to be unemployed and poor.  I have never minded going without when I wasn’t working.  It sucks not be able to find a job, but you expect to be tired and pissed off and never be able to leave your house when you’re flat broke”

Page 34 - “Being healthy and being poor are generally mutually exclusive conditions”

Daymond John’s  THE POWER OF BROKE - How Empty Pockets, Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage I’ve mentioned earlier is a brilliant book, again outlining the power of poverty and being broke.  Whether it aspires one to produce better work when they are poor, or worse, is a topic I’ll be touching on later.  However, one of the area’s I found fascinating is rejection, and to keep moving forward.  In today’s uncertain job market, any one of us could be out of a job, and the rise of automation & machines have hinted accordingly.  How can we all ensure that we continue to strive forward is where THE POWER OF BROKE - How Empty Pockets, Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage continues to leave a lingering impact on hindsight and reflection.

A few further key take-outs are:

Page 2- “Whatever  it is - keep at it - absolutely keep at it. Because, hey, you never know,. When you’ve got nothing to lose, you've got everything to gain”

Page 6 - “But what happens to that kind of relationship in the long run?  What happens when all that money goes away and there's nothing left but to be yourself?  What happens when you buy her a present every time you see her, and then all of a sudden you lose your job?  Then what?  Don't be surprised if you find your relationship was only as strong as the money you put into it.  When the jewellery runs out, no more fancy dinners, and the getaway vacations end...what’s left?  You’ve been riding a superficial high, a false seduction - and it’s bound to catch you to you”

Page 9 - “My point here is that there's great value in being true to yourself and that it helps to have your back against the wall when you’re starting out.  It helps to be up against it.  It helps to have to scrape, just, dream your way to the top.  It helps to have a passion for your pursuit, especially when passion is the only resource you can afford.  It helps you to realize your dream because it forces you to keep that dream real.  

Page 31 - “What it comes down to, I think is mind-set - the poverty of the mind.  Are you a HAVE or a HAVE-NOT type of person? Are you a WANT or a WANT-NOT? Its how you approach your situation, and what you do to make the best of your situation, that makes all the difference”

Page 111 - “Before becoming one of the most beloved figures on television and a pop cultural icon, Oprah Winfrey was fired from her job as a broadcast journalist because she was “unfit for television”. Sometimes the folks in the know don’t really know - your success is in your hands, but in the whims of others”

Page 251 - “Understand that you will be rewarded for solving other people’s problems or filling holes in the marketplace, just as you will be rewarded for helping others reach their desired objectives.  In other words, if you can figure out how to do s, mething better, faster, easier and more efficiently, than anybody else, and if you can make body else’s life a little smoother in the bargain, you're way ahead of the game”

You can follow Daymond John on Twitter here, visit his website here and purchase a copy of The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage here.

You can follow Linda Tirado on Twitter here, purchase a copy of HAND TO MOUTH: Living in Bootstrap America here, LIKE her page on Facebook here.

Thank You,

Prashant aka Praz