Destiny and The Power of One - A Message for Minority Youth Leaders

?History is full of individuals whose legacy demonstrates destiny and the power of one. It’s truly amazing what one person can do when they use their imagination to follow their purpose, dreams, and vision.

?One of the most common and interesting traits about individuals who’ve made such a huge impact on the world is that they either stepped away from a place of wealth, privilege and comfort, or they were born in poverty and rose up from humble, small, and obscure beginnings.

?Moses, the great prophet of the nation of Israel, was raised with wealth, the best education, and all the privileges of the son of the mighty Egyptian Pharaoh. Yet, his mark on the world was not made from that place of power and privilege, but rather from a position of poverty. His is a great story of one who stepped down from a position of wealth to step up with the poor, his own people, the slaves of Egypt, to set them free from slavery and the oppression of Pharaoh.

?Mahatma Ghandi was the son of a senior government official and raised in a merchant middle-class community. He attended law school and earned a law degree in London. Yet, despite his education, he chose to live among the poor, fight for civil rights, expand the rights of women, and end discrimination against his people. He was arrested for his efforts and sent to prison. He renounced all worldly goods and wealth, organized the peasant farmers, and single handedly brought down the powerful British empire, winning his country’s independence from their oppressive rule without firing a shot or conducting any violence whatsoever.

?Oprah Winfrey, probably one of the most well-known women in the world, continues to achieve at the top of her industry as a TV icon as well as a successful businesswoman, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder of a leadership institute for young girls in Africa. Her influence in a variety of circles spans the globe:

According to Forbes Magazine, Oprah was the richest African American of the 20th century and the world’s only black billionaire for three years running.?Life?Magazine hailed her as the most influential woman of her generation. In 2005, Business Week named her the greatest black philanthropist in American history.

?Oprah Winfrey is one person touching thousands upon tens of thousands of lives. Yet, she did not begin at the top. She was born in poverty, lived in obscurity, suffered and overcame childhood sexual abuse to eventually make her mark in the world as a leader among leaders.

?Mother Teresa was probably the most respected and loved woman in the world. Her life was dedicated to living among and serving the “poorest of the poor.” She founded the Missionaries of Charity. In 2012 her organization consisted of over 4,500 sisters serving in 133 countries providing care for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis. Mother Teresa followed what she once described as a “call within the call” she received while she was traveling on a train. In her first years of leadership, she had no money and often had to beg for resources. She endured these and many more years of trials to be recognized around the world as a force for good to those suffering the pain and agony of disease. Thus, once again, we see how destiny and the power of one can impact the many from a position of poverty.

?Cesar Estrada Chavez the Latino hero credited with moving a whole nation as he led the first successful farm workers union in U.S. history.

?Cesar was also born in poverty on a small farm near Yuma, Arizona. At the age of ten, Cesar began working with his parents as a farm worker during the great depression. Cesar left school after the eighth grade to help support his family.

?However, he never forgot where he had come from and his real dream to create an organization to help farm workers whose scars of suffering, he shared. In 1962, he resigned as CSO national director. He moved his wife and eight young children to Delano, California where he founded the United Farm Workers Union (UFW).

?These are but a few examples of this peculiar connection between destiny, poverty, and the power of one individual following their purpose and dreams, and using their vision, and imagination to serve the poor. There’s something special about it. There’s something powerful about individuals who embrace the poor that seems to produce a quality of greatness in them that the rich don’t possess.

?Why do you need to know this?

Because although as a minority we’ve been marginalized from the mainstreams of society, never think that it means we’ve been marginalized from true power and the ability to achieve great things.

?Being a minority is not being inferior in any way as a person. As a matter of fact, the poor and oppressed have been given their own “privileged” positioned to receive what are called “the true riches” of life.

?In other words:

• Minorities hear the community cry in a way the wealthy don’t.
• They feel the community needs in a way the privileged can’t.
• They see the solution from a perspective in which the rich are blinded.

?The Need for More and Better Leadership

This capacity, this gift of empathy we possess for the hurting, is not to be taken lightly. We should never underestimate what powerful things can happen when just one person sees a problem and has the heart and spirit to get up and do something about it.

?What we have experienced from the political leaders in the highest offices of our generation of turmoil, natural disasters, wars, and financial collapse, is failure and favoritism for the privileged few and not the needy majority. That’s not leadership but rather abandonment of the principles that made America great.

?So now it’s your turn:

• The unexpected
• The unknown
• The unnoticed
• The underprivileged
• The underdogs

?We understand and have lived with the challenges of the poor and oppressed. And now as new leaders we have an opportunity to restore the principles of equality, liberty and justice for all, and by these principles to restore the health of the nation.

?In poverty:

• We lost childhood friends that never had a chance to discover, develop, and dream themselves into a bigger and better lifestyle.
• Many migrant families come here seeking a better life but never seem to escape the struggles and stumbling blocks of assimilation, discrimination, and marginalization.

?The pathway out of poverty

• As new leaders we can continue the process of reaching out and recruiting other young leaders who will reach out and continue to reproduce other leaders.
• The pathway is a slow process, but an effective one if we don’t quit.

?Community Leaders Give Back and Put Back

By developing more leaders, we replace the lives of all those we’ve lost to the evil jaws of poverty and violence and to restore hope for families in desperate need of solutions.

?Our Message to the Forces of Discrimination:

No matter the discrimination we face, we will continue to farm our communities, plowing the minds, cultivating the hearts, planting new seeds, watering them, growing them, and harvesting a new crop of young men and women leaders’ season after season.

?My Story: Destiny and the Power of One

Finally, destiny and the power of one can be a little difficult to understand and explain, but it’s amazing how it works in our lives. It ties people’s lives together in unknown and mysterious ways.

?Indulge me for one more story about this…my story...Below is an article from a Los Angeles newspaper in 1956…

? POLICE RACE TRAIN, SAVE TOT ON TRACKS

"Two policemen who paused for a few minutes on their way to a shooting call were credited today with saving the life of 2-year-old Richard Ramos. Officers Fernando Najera and Robert Vernon were roaring along Marmion Way on their way to the reported shooting when they saw the youngster strolling along the Santa Fe tracks that parallel the street. Bearing down on the boy was a freight train. Vernon outraced the train and when he slammed on the brakes, Najera piled out, scrambled down the embankment, and knocked the child clear of the train as it passed. The youngster had become frozen in terror when he heard the train’s whistle. The officers turned the wailing youngster over to neighbors who took him to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Antonio Ramos of 4579 N. Figueroa Street."

The irony of my story is the fact that my salvation that day was tied to the tragedy of someone else getting shot. The newspaper story above said, “Officers Fernando Najera and Robert Vernon were roaring along . . . on their way to a reported shooting when they saw the youngster strolling along the Santa Fe tracks . . .”

?Obviously, I don’t know anything about who was shot that day, or if someone was killed (I pray not), but if that shooting had not taken place when and where it did, those two officers would not have been “roaring along” and quite possibly would not have out raced the train and gotten to me on time.

?My life was saved that day by this incredible string of events. My story helps me understand that I should never take my life for granted nor should I take lightly the opportunity to go out of my way to help others. In stopping to help another, I just never know whose life I might save or change and the greatness that might be unlocked in their life to the benefit of others.

?But the story doesn’t end there…fast forward ten years…

A friend of mine had received a new BB gun for his birthday. For no reason at all, we decided to try it out by shooting and breaking the windows of some newly built apartments in our neighborhood. We were hiding behind a wall as we took turns shooting at the windows—when, suddenly to our shocking surprise—a cop jumped over the wall!

?“What do you think you guys are doing!!” he yelled. We both stood there frozen and red-faced.

?“What’s your name?” he asked me. “Richard”, I said trembling.

?“Richard what?” “Richard Ramos”, I said. The expression suddenly changed on his angry face. “You’re Richard Ramos?” “What’s your mother’s name”, he asked.

?“Mary”, I said. That was all he needed to know…guess who it was? Yup. The same cop who had saved my life on the train tracks all those years ago!

?You see, that’s how the mystery of destiny and the power of one works. It’s truly amazing how one person can affect the life of another who goes on to save and effect the life of others and on and on it goes.

?Consider this:

• We are only individuals, but somehow, we are all connected with a purpose and destiny that goes beyond our individuality.
• I am me; you are you, and we are us. Unless we live in that understanding, we can miss living in our true-life purpose.

Therefore, you can’t waste time with all the distractions and negative lifestyles out there that are pulling you into their web of destruction. You’re not here for that. You weren’t born for that. You weren’t made for that. Yet, evil does exist, and it’s not on your side. It has destroyed many others, and it will destroy you too if you let it.

?Our Destiny - It Does NOT Take a Village to Raise a Child...But One Child Can Raise Up a Whole Village

That’s why you’re reading my story. Because my life was saved to show up and interfere with and interrupt the same evil that tried to destroy my life all those years ago:

• Our lives were meant to connect.
• Our lives were meant to intersect.
• Through our connection, many others will benefit.

?Like so many others before you I’ve met and connected with, it’s your time to change, grow, turn, and be free to soar to the heights of the life in which you were destined.

?When those hard times of life come remember:

• You are not on this earth by accident.
• You were born on purpose, with a purpose.
• Our life destiny was meant for each other and many others.

?Therefore, you must go on, you must continue, you must overcome because someone else out there is depending on your life to touch and improve theirs, and around and around goes the circle of life. They don’t know it yet, you don’t know them yet, but somehow your life makes the difference in theirs.

?Time to Answer the Call

Your destiny has arrived. Your call has come. The future is now. The future is you. It’s never too late!

?Never underestimate your power as an individual to have great influence on the many. All your life you’ve been taught that 1 + 1 = 2. ?However, I’m here to tell that 1 + 1 always has the potential to explode far beyond just 2!

?Maybe that’s beyond your understanding right now, but that’s the nice part about destiny and the power of one. You don’t have to understand it all for it to work its magic in you. You owe it to yourself to discover the real you, develop yourself, dream big, and walk in your destiny. So now, you’re ready…go, run, fly, and lead!

For more information about Youth on a Mission Training email me: [email protected]

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