Organic Networking III

Knowing Who You Are

My Trinidadian grandfather was a butcher.  He herded cattle, fed them, cared for them, then slaughtered them and sold their meat market to support his 11 kids, including my father.  These children would go on to become professors, an attorney educated in London, manager at an airport, a business man, wives to some of the most successful men in the country (back when that sort of thing was fashionable). I guess now it makes sense- I received so many lessons on capitalism from my father, a doctorate in history from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1969.  He taught me the fine art form of seeing the dollar signs in the most prosaic of interactions. I remember Daddy telling me about his Dad, "a real giant", who would take him out to the fields in the early morning hours before primary school to work with him. Now, I begin to understand where this capitalist, me, arose from.

I came from a master motivator who came from a capitalist who was really a leader of men and a capital creator. My "capitalist" instinct was primed by African systems of finance - the same ones that created the Malian emperor Mansa Musa.  See, my blood lines not only reach back to Pharaoh Ramesses III (defended Egypt in three consecutive wars during his 30 year reign; considered to be the last great monarch of the New Kingdom to wield any substantial authority over Egypt) but after that to the Akan and Yoruba tribes that were descendant, in part, from the tribes of the Malian empire.  That black Trinidadian butcher was a genius financier working under the guise of a butcher! 

Now, my mother's networking, always seems related to systems and working within the guidelines.  Daddy's though - ummm, no. As I like to say, if you want to see me do something, tell me it cannot be done. I got that attitude from him. Reminds of something Jay-Z said - "difficult takes a day, impossible a little longer" - these are African wisdoms and African systems of finance at work.  

A couple years back, a really strange occurence happened where a doppelganger from London, another brother named Patrick A. Howell, got a hold of me from London. In part the note read:

I’m not sure if you ever ascertained whether your Grandfather, John Howell, could be the younger brother of Leonard P Howell – if so, he was born in Red Hills/May Crawle (Clarendon) on 12th April 1900, and if it is the same man, there is literally no trace of him into adulthood, which could indeed tie in with the fact that he left Jamaica for Trinidad, maybe for employment purposes as jobs were scarce at that time in Jamaica. Leonard’s sons have no idea what happened to John, since their father, whilst on his primary mission, rarely spoke with them about his birth family.

?

We have been researching the great man, the right honourable Leonard Percival Howell, the founder of the Rastafarian movement, for almost a year now in order to link as many blood Howells as possible from around the world!

At first I was dubious - I looked up this Leonard Percival Howell and found a brother darker than the ace of spades next to another brother standing next to the Marcus Garvey, fabled leader of Black Nationalism and Pan Africanism Movements. I had to sit quiet with that for a moment.  Because if you sit still and let your soul tell you what it will, it will tell you the truths that set you free.  After spending time with that photo as well as another of my grandparents from Trinidad - I knew it to be true. And if you ever heard my father lecture at Stanford University or Consumnes River College when I was a little boy, you would know it too.  His lectures on American History, Caribbean History, World History and American Political Science would often leave students in his class spell bound and applauding. I witnessed.  Daddy wanted me to witness.  Because he, his spirit, wanted my spirit to know - we come from greatness and when we listen to the spirit, we have zero limits.  Or as ancestor. Marcus Garvey so eloquently put it:

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law.

So, here are the jewels of wisdom from the "Organic Networking III" chronicles of Patrick A. Howell, author, financier and entrepreneur:

Location, Location, Location.

In time, I've learned that location can sometimes close a deal just as strongly as presentation and the quality of your deal. 

My favorite spots are Havana's Restaurant at the Lab in Orange County, the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, Whispers Hookah Restaurant in Dubai, the Continental Club on Festival Island in Dubai, the lobby of the Desalegn Hotel in Ethiopia (where I met the wealthiest man in Ethiopia's son) and any seat on Virgin Atlantic, Air Canada and Emirates Airlines. Or, just anywhere overseas or on domestic trips - Trinidad and Tobago's Hilton Hotel, the Pacific Club in Newport Beach, Panama City's Trump Hotel, the Yale Club in New York City or the Eden Hotel in Miami.

Listen, it costs close to nothing to park your car at any of the aforenoted locations or the surrounding neighborhoods and walk into the establishment for a prearranged appointment that you set. It costs just a little bit more to order a coffee or water. You get all the credit for taste, class and style. And a little bit more to order coffee, tea or water for your guest. You can essentially leverage $20 bucks (maybe s little more) to close thousands in deals.

Okay, so a flight ticket on any of the aforenoted airlines is WAY more than $0 to $20 smackaroos.  But once you have passage or are en route, do not discount that EVERYONE is feeling their best and their highest frequency self.  Use the moment to network, connect and enjoy the experience with another soul (including one you came on the flight with) - the memories will last you a lifetime. Also, working at literally higher frequencies is working at higher frequencies - flying the friendly skies and the opportunity to work on projects, read up on core competencies and improve business outlooks, is a clever look. My favorite business opuses, as you will learn, are Napolean Hill's "Think and Grow Rich", Steve Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and Earl Grave's "How to Succeed in Business without Being White" and "Think and Grow Rich - A Black Choice" by Dr. Dennis Kimbro. Also, Donald Trump's "Art of the Deal" is a classic on the vagaries of putting a deal together - it is arguable that book created his presidency as Barack Obama's Dreams of My Father created his.

Share the Wealth

Share the credit. Share equity. Share monies. Share the action. The quickest way to destroy the spirit of any success is claim all the credit for yourself.  Aside from traces of egotism, narcissism and simply not being true, who wants to enjoy success by themselves?

Tide and find a way even if it is outside the church to give back - give money to the poor, buy a meal for the homeless and the hungry, give your time to someone trying to find their way.

I always thought it was weird how my mom said she never helped others because she wanted to help them. She said, "I give because it makes ME feel better. I give because whatever you put in the universe will always come back to you - guaranteed. And even if it didn't, I just like the way it makes me feel."

Timeless truth of all the ancients, mystics and ancestors is spiritual wealth and abundance far exceed any sort of material wealth. Material wealth grows from Spiritual wealth.

Take the Meeting Anyway

There have been any number of meetings that I have went to even after they were not confirmed or might have been rescheduled. Stay on your timeline and your schedule - if you realize that you are off schedule, keep yourself accontable.

I know that sounds zany. But I do not seek to conform to norms that bring me down.  I go with my passion, even if the reality is significantly dimmer. I go with my light from within. 

I've done this with CEOs, heads of state, investment bankers and old business partners.

Now, it doesn't always work out this way - but for me, it has the majority of the time, particularly with other principals (particularly the next one) in play.

Gracious in Rejection

Some of my best outcomes - the ones that got me my first publishing contract, my largest sales tickets - all came after the most resolute rejection you could imagine.  Rather than give the seeming obligatory curse from the bottom of my soul (I hate failure), I turned the gigga-wattage ALL the way Up.  I didn't let someone else's "no" diminish my light, my inner fire. I let it fuel the fire for my success and shine even brighter.

There are two or more souls in any given interaction - an exchange of energy, visions and principals or values. When someone injects that "no" like a poison? Let your fire kindle and eventually run all over that "no" like wildfire. All free souls have access to this source which is the source of all power, yes and flow. And this Spirit Force is LIMITLESS.

"Thank you" and Spirit of Gratitude

This is technology.  Like the song by Sting, one of my all times favorite a, "we are spirits in a material world". And when you are operating at your highest level it is as a spirit. Gratitude is like an ocean of unending abundance. It renews, refreshes and revitalizes. It can take any prosaic interaction from "toxic" to "clean". It is, when authentic, a way to tap into unlimited positive energy. Gratitude connects people to positive energy of the ancients, ancestors and spirits.

Read Napolean Hills Think and Grow Rich, Then Read Napolean Hills Think and Grow Rich, Then Listen to Napolean Hills Think and Grow Rich, Then Read Napolean Hills Think and Grow Rich Again and Again and Again

If everyone read this book 10 times before they were 18 years old? Harvard, Howard University, Stanford, University of Southern California (USC) would be out of the MBA business. More than gangster rap, more than the Godfather (yes, parts I and II), more than Wall Street, more than the toxic business environment by governed by immoral leaders, Think and Grow Rich is the businessman's bible. Okay, okay, okay... 3 or 4 times is a bit much. Try it once!

And if you do not believe me - what about the 500 millionaires interviewed by Napolean Hill for his magnus opus? What about the following men (a partial list)?

Andrew Carnegie came to America as a Scottish immigrant, he went from being a steel worker raised from poverty to revolutionizing the steel industry and being worth €475 million at his prime.

Henry Ford an uneducated mechanic raised on a farm with only a high school education who went on to invent the horseless buggy and completely revolutionized transportation with a net worth of $200 Billion Dollars.

Thomas Edison with only a few months of schooling went on to become one of the greatest inventors who ever lived.

Alexander Graham Bell

Theodore Roosevelt

Knowing Who You Are

All deals originate from somewhere. Deal making is a creative endeavor no different than writing a literary masterpiece, painting acrylics on canvas or tickling a masterpiece on the piano. It is about creative faculty with people, money, ambitions, winning, losing and everything else that creates intrigue and manifests reality from the world of dreams and visions. Being comfortable with your strengths and weaknesses, failures and successes helps you to originate and complete deals from the one place you can control the entire world - yourself.