My Interview with Maya Angelou

From firing financial advisors to advice for women & couples

Back in 2001, I spoke to Maya Angelou for my Finances of Famous Women series.

I can still recall that slow, deep, voice during our one-hour phone call.

From her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she brought that philosophical perspective to many topics we discussed. For many of you, they are words of wisdom that still hold true 13 years later.

Raised by her grandmother in a small village in Arkansas, Maya went on to become one our nation's greatest poets and spiritual voices. Her autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," made her the longest-running African American author on the New York Times Best-seller List for paperback nonfiction.

Be Prudent Early On

Although Maya struggled financially when young, she learned some lessons that helped her as she grew older and, ultimately, more affluent.

The first: prudence.

As a young girl, Maya watched her grandmother operate the only black-owned store in town. From flour to butter, “Mama would sell just about anything. Then she’d have me fix a sign indicating what things could be exchanged for. So we exchanged all those powdered milks and things for canned mackerel, for peanut patties, for flour and things.“

Maya said the experience showed her that, “if you really wanted to, you could have what you wanted. But if you could be wise and prudent, you would have more of it later on.”

That advice would be key just a few years later, when, at the age of 17 Maya found herself unmarried and with her first child.

She left home with the two-month old baby and got a room at a rooming house, which provided cooking privileges. “The landlady looked after my baby. So I worked it out and had two jobs. I began then to be careful about money and to dress my baby well.”

She added: “I knew I had to depend upon myself. That's allowed me to do a million things -- to travel all over the world and take my son. And not to count on anybody but my own daring do.”

Manage Investments & Advisors

As Maya began earning more money, she started turning to real estate and, later financial advisors. Her builder husband taught her the value of buying-up homes, which she continued to do throughout much of her career, including in Harlem at the time of our conversation.

But when she began turning to financial advisors, she found they often clashed.

She told me the story of a friend who had introduced her to a financial advisor. “He spoke to me as if I were a high school drop out or something,” she said.

She turned to him and, in her calm, low voice, said, "Don't do that. It is true I don't know what you know about markets and interest, but what I do I do so well that I pay you to do what you do."

Then she found a different advisor.

At times, she said, she gave instructions to her advisors that included her socially responsible investing priorities – like excluding companies involved in sexism or racism. If her advisors didn’t follow them, they had to go. “I have no compunction about sacking them in a moment,” she pointed out.

“Some years ago ,” she told me, “I put money into BET, quite a lot. My advisors down here were showing me that BET was not growing at the rate of other investments. I said, "Keep it there." I think it was a couple of years ago it split and went through the roof. I was able to take that and serve a number of charities I support.

Women, Couples & Money

When it comes to women, Maya was clear about two things: valuing her time in the home and valuing herself in the workplace. Both can lead to more financial success and self-confidence.

She said that a married couple, “if they claim any maturity, should sit down” and define what a woman’s time is worth. “We know some of it cannot be quantified,” she told me, “the love and security and kissed bruises. But if this person went to an office or a business, what would she make?”

Her view was that, “if the husband's money cannot pay that, something equitable should be paid into an account for that woman, which is hers and hers alone” – even to buy that Donna Karan original, she explained.

In the workplace, she felt that a lack of confidence could actually impact a woman’s ability to be financially successful.

“A woman must see herself as valuable -- no less than the CEO of the firm and no more than the babysitter who she pays -- but equally, a full human being.”

Just the sheer ability to communicate with confidence – from colleagues right on up to a CEO – can actually lead others to want to work with you, putting you in demand.

What does that look like?

As she put it: “There's a way you walk when you go into a room. It's not braggadocio, but there's some confidence. And if you have some confidence, it is likely that an employer will look to you with more felicity, more warmth, more respect. And people feel, then, I can be safe here. This person is really going to look after my affairs.”

Now that’s advice you can take…??

Jennifer Openshaw, a nationally known financial leader, is author of The Millionaire Zone(Hyperion) and founder of Women’s Financial Network, now a division of Siebert Financial. She now serves as president of Finect, a social communications platform for the financial industry.

Photo by: mayaangelou.com